A wonderful Christmas

Laurie, showing off her baby bump in front of the Christmas tree

We had a wonderful Christmas in Collingwood with all our children. We arrived there on the 24th, after a beautiful 3 1/2 hour drive. The weather was good, and the roads were clear, both for the drive there, and coming home again, which was a direct answer to a lot of prayer. Noel and Laurie did a wonderful job of the preparations.  They went out and cut
 down their own tree, and it was beautiful

They had a full table spread of finger foods for supper on the 24th, and we spent the time just enjoying each others' company. Laurie is starting to show a really cute baby bump. Her Grandmother was there to celebrate with us, and it was fun to be able to get to know more of her family. It is so wonderful to have the in-laws all get along with each other, such a blessing. Christmas day was fun. Noel had gone out and done some shopping for baby clothes, which he gave Laurie as parts of her gifts. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall to watch him as he did that shopping, as he chose the items, and looked at all the adorable clothes. He even picked up the outfit that they will use to bring the baby home. He is going to be a gentle and caring father. I am looking forward to watching him be a father, almost as much as I am looking forward to being a Grandma.



This is one of the outfits Noel picked out, so soft, and so cute.

Matt acted as the designated "elf", delivering the gifts the the anxiously waiting family, and decided to decorate himself, at the same time. Can't you see the mischief in those eyes!

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My 2 "boys", Matt and Noel, the father-to-be, looking calm and peaceful, and not too happy with mom and the camera, after a wonderful turkey dinner.

 On the 26th, Noel and Laurie flew down to Texas to spend a week with Laurie's parents, who go down there for the winter. So, we got to bring home a visitor for the week. Shelby, who is their Chocolate Labrador Retriever, They have done such a good job with this dog. She is obedient, doesn't chew things she shouldn't, and is quite good company. However she has one habit that brings out the "Eeeeuuuuuwww" factor, she loves "poopsicles". All together now ......eeeeeeeuuuuuuwwwwww!!!

And, somehow, in taking these pictures, I didn't manage to get one of our daughter, Rebecca. Shame on this Mother. (giggle) She doesn't read my blog, so she won't feel left out, I hope. And now, after writing all this, and finally figuring out, after blogging for a year, how to get pictures to go where I want them, I'm going to go take my Nine Patch Pineapple off the machine, because the quilting is finished. I'm going to clear off the dining room table, and use it as my large surface to trim the quilt, and then I'm going to get the binding onto it, and maybe even have it finished by the end of the year. Woohoo.

So disgusting

Alright, I protest! This coming back from vacation stuff and finding disgusting things really has to stop. One year, we got back from a 5 week vacation out west, to find that our fridge had died. What a smell that was to come home to at 3am after driving 12 hours. This year, after Becca's wedding, our freezer died, same result, although it didn't get to the point where the whole house reeked. And now, this morning, I went into the cereal cupboard, and found an infestation of mealy bugs. You know, the little black ones that live in flour and cereals? Yep. those guys. On further investigation, I discovered they were also in all the other food cupboards. All together now......eeeeeeeeuuuuwwwwwwwww. And, the reason I discovered them in the first place, is because I finished off a box of cereal, because I wanted to use the box as a pattern template to make this. Guess what I found when I cut open the box? Once more.........eeeeuuuuuwwww! I just ate cereal from that box! So, now, after working at it pretty much all day, I have empty, clean cupboards. Anything that was open, that had even the potential of having any of those nasties in it went into the garbage. We'll be well over our 4 bags of garbage allotment this week. And, I had planned on sewing, and relaxing today, before going back to work tomorrow. (sigh)

Post wedding surprise

Well, didn't we get a very unpleasant surprise when we went to put the leftover wedding cake into the freezer. Sometime during the last several weeks, it died, along with the, thankfully, small amount of meat inside it. I had known for awhile that something in the basement smelled musty, but, wow, opening that freezer was NASTY, and immediately identified the source of the musty. So, there are 2 very nice men coming over today to take that thing out of the house. Scott has sealed it with duct tape, and I'm praying very hard that it doesn't spring a leak between the basement and the front door when the 2 nice men carry it out. All together now, eeeeeeeuuuuuuuuuuwwwwwwwwww.