POKEY PEAS REFUGEES CHALLENGE for December 2017

grammadee, I hate defrosting and cleaning out the freezers and finding things you have forgotten about, that said, I really need to do a huge rearranging down there. I'm sorry you had to throw out a raspberry jam. What time is dd expected tomorrow? or are you picking her up? I'm sure you are excited and doing last minute things to be ready.

msliz, I understand about homework interfering with family time during this holiday season. DS was actually behind. I don't know how. So I've been "on" him/ watching him to make sure he gets caught up. I've made him start working at the dining table instead of his room, he was obviously getting too distracted. I hope you had a wonderful dinner (wishing for some latkes myself now) and that you were able to stop at those craft stores on the way to help dd.

@elaynef, what a beautiful display. Your snow collage is fabulous too. I want to download Christmas photos from previous years to a flash drive for my digital frame and have yet to do it.

kellyr21, I would gladly take some sun. Our chickens have been in the coop since it started. We've seen neighboring chickens are out and about. I figured it makes sense that we get the weird ones. DD researched it. They like hay put down in the run. Well, most people don't have as large of a run as us. So Don goes tomorrow to buy more hay. We hope to get them out. Although today is suppose to be 36F, so they might want to take a peek outside. Enjoy your holiday decorating today!
How was the Christmas party?

scrapincin, what a wonderfully festive avatar! It goes along with all the humming I've been doing lately.

On Friday, I just made it to our local town for local errands including the post office (picked up a huge stack of cards - which included Dee's, Jac's and Kelly's which were all beautiful). Thanks so much. But having finally gotten out, realized it's just getting over that initial fear of driving in the weather. Fortunately the storm rolled through early and was finished by 5pm.

Saturday, I finally made it to town. I was late getting out of the house, as Don & I sat talking most of the morning while the kids were asleep. Since we were up until 1pm the night before they slept quite late. I hit 5 stores and the library. One was quite unexpected. Since I have to be extra careful with dd's food and I like to get the best price, I can't get everything at one store. I made my plan for a loop which included a quick library stop after the first 3 stores. Well, usually when I make the library stop, I go to the local food coop before the big box store. I had not planned on going. The next thing I know, I'm at the building. Just rote routine kicking in. I had to laugh at myself. But I found a ham, which is what the kids wanted for Christmas dinner with my mil. DD can't do most hams even though the additives say less than 2%. These were no additives.

Today we're going to make a couple of candies and play some games. So I best get off of here, since I have 2 chores I want to finish first.

Good Wednesday morning, Ladies!

We are having a couple of quiet days out here at the farm while the little man reacquaints himself with all the things he remembers doing here before. He wrote out a list which looks like a foreign language in an undiscovered alphabet. Included were playing in the basement, riding on the tractor and the quad with Grampa, going to see the cows and the donkey, feeding the birds in the back yard... He also worked with Mom to roll and cut out dough ornaments for family and friends. He must have been able to read the list, b/c he checked off all the things as he did them yesterday. Then last night he said he needed to keep the list because he was going to do the same things again today!

This morning he has been busy painting the ornaments, and playing with a set of mini punches, and now he is outside with his dad while Mom is coating the ornaments with ModPodge. When Grampa gets home from his appointments in town, they are going to go out for lunch, and later some neighbours are dropping in for tea.

Tomorrow dd & family are visiting friends from their old community, and then on Friday dd and I will finish up some of her Christmas shopping and get my turkey and other Christmas dinner essentials while the guys have a "dude day".

Hope you are all having a Wonderful Wednesday!

Happy Wednesday! Hope you all are having a nice evening. I have been busy with my dh's little treat bags getting them ready for tomorrow. Then I have a few more cards to make and then I will be done. Y'all, we haven't got our decorations up but hopefully we can get it all together by Friday. Well, we do have our "naked" tree up. LOL!

nylene- Oh I know how that computer trouble is, we all do. I hope it all right now and your dsil can get it going again. Sending you some virtual hot tea for your cold.

grammadee- You are almost all done too. I know you all will have a great time.

Waving hi to you all.

How are you doing on the shortest day of the year? And up here, the days ARE pretty short right now. Bet justjac is looking forward to the lengthening daylight so she doesn't have to go to and from work in the dark.

Glad your dh's party went well, kellyr21, even with the loud music. It is really nice of you to make cards and goody bags for his work people. I love your shaker card that arrived yesterday. I really want to learn to make them, and this one seemed like a design I might be able to manage.

I hope your computer woes have been remedied, nylene. I am thinking that at some point in the new year we will be upgrading to newer computers. The latest updates are just too hard for the older operating systems to handle, I think. I was drooling over a PC at Best Buy in November: it has no tower; just a large monitor with the built in processor. And a keyboard and mouse. All wireless, lots of memory, so I might be able to add to my electronic toys. (Some things on my wish list are a laser 12x12" printer, a minc, and either a Silhouette or Brother scan n cut) Removing the tower and all the wires from under the desk would free up some space, too. Ahhh... a girl can dream...

I love the way you do snow days, LisaDV. Playing board games and making candy sounds like a wonderful family activity. I hope you took some photos.

I have the house to myself this morning. Dh has gone to town for coffee and the "kids" have gone off on a road trip to visit friends. It was cute that dgs wanted to just stay here while they were gone, but they are meeting up with a couple of families he knows, and they convinced him that their luggage was staying behind, so he decided to join them.

While everyone was gone, I washed the kitchen floor. I hope to just relax the rest of the day. I have your cold, nylene, so you should be feeling better soon. Yesterday I went to see the doctor b/c my throat was so sore, and he put me on antibiotics. Hoping that and a day of laying low will help.

Waving hello to @elaynef, msliz, scrapincin, and anyone else who drops in. Echoing Lisa's wish that you are enjoying what ever activity you find yourself doing.

Well, I am officially on holidays. I had a half day yesterday which gave us time to finish up Christmas prep. We are on the road to my Mom's now. Dean and I opened our gifts to each other last night. I am spoiled and I love it. He got me a bracelet with two Christmas charms and a painting by a local artist.

scrapincin I am glad you got those glasses finished. I didn't give any homemade gifts this year.
kellyr21 I got your card. It's beautiful. I am trying to Savour the Season as well.
grammadee I'm so happy to hear about your fun family time.
nylene I hope you are feeling better. I'm getting over a cold, but I think I'm on the mend.
LisaDV I hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas. I keep picturing a snow covered farm house like in all the movies.
Waving to msliz and @elaynef!

Good morning on this beautiful Christmas Eve day. Here are photos of the glasses I did for my DSIL. They are hard to see but gives you and idea of how they look. There are mistakes here and there but learn from them. In case you do not get back here have a very Merry Christmas!It says Alabama on the top and the bottom and Crimson Tide on the bottom.

IMG_0309-2 by Cindy Blair, on Flickr

IMG_0308-2 by Cindy Blair, on Flickr

scrapincin, those are awesome glassware! He'll love it.

Merry Christmas! I hope everyone is having a wonderful day!

Happy Boxing day!

Have a safe drive home, justjac.

Hoping all the sick ones are better and
computer problems are fixed quickly and I
love hearing about how you are enjoying your families and the projects.

I'm learning I can't push through and not have my body let me know about it anymore. I had back pain while my family was here, but dh helped and lots of ibuprophen got me through. I was not quite as energetic with my grandsons as I usually am and I hated that, though. I took it slow with the cleaning up and am mostly through. This is the group that was with us.


Dh is cleaning the garage today!!!! it is my nemesis. He is a hoarder and I am not, so it is a sticking point sometimes for us. He won't throw much away, but maybe he will organize some of it a little. He really does go out there and pull stuff out that he uses pretty often, so I'll give him that.
I'm back to editing my trip pictures. I even scrapped a page yesterday of the pretty card our university sent us and I cleaned off my desk and got organized to start back where I stopped in November. Thought y'all might enjoy this pic of me and dgs, 16, from thanksgiving. We were hiking in Alabama and he was so sweet to stay behind with me and help me over some big rocks.

nylene, I didn't make him start his science project on Christmas. He just wanted to. He's using different salinity of water and to see how long it takes to freeze. Then I think how long it takes to unfreeze. I was wondering about cousin camp. I think you could plan nothing and they would just have fun being together. Good luck cleaning your room.

grammadee, brr! Here, me and dd are complaining about feels like -5. I'm ready to move to Texas. Or at least visit. I've been threatening my niece in Austin that we're coming for the winter. I'd already be there if it was -40. Yikes. Stay warm. Drive safe and have a great visit.

I thought I worked the kink out of my back and then all of a sudden it wasn't. So yesterday I was laid up on the couch most of the late afternoon and evening. Waste of time. I wanted to scrapbook or at least clean a bit more. I had already worked on chores. Today I want to get the tree down and the rest of the decor put away.

Off I go to start getting something done at 11am. Getting back on schedule is going to be so very hard.

I guess it's my turn to get sick now. I've had a stupid cold for the last three days. It's not going to do me in, but it's enough to rob me of my energy. I've been spending as much time as I can in bed on my computer, "window shopping" for craft supplies. I've also been getting lots of ideas for future projects and editing tons of photos.

nylene, Happy Anniversary! Did you do something special to celebrate? Take a nice photo to mark the occasion? It's not too late to go have a portrait done. 50 years is a very big deal !

grammadee, I'm glad you reached your destination safely! And yes, I make the potato pancakes pretty much the same as you, but I've never tried adding nutmeg. I'll try to remember that for next year.

LisaDV, we're due to get your cold weather this coming week. I'm not ready for it. I hope your back feels better soon! Do you have a heating pad you could use on it?

@elaynef, are you feeling better, I hope?

Waving hi to scrapincin, justjac, and kellyr21   

Keep warm and stay healthy!

nylene, I hope your dentist appointment went well. I agree with msliz, you and Steve should have a photo made for your 50th.

msliz, I hope you get over the cold quickly. I always think colds wouldn't be too bad if I had the mojo/energy to create. I've been using a heating pad which serves a two-fer: 1) to ease the back pain and 2) heat me up in this frigid weather.

scrapincin, I'm so glad you are feeling better and haven't had to use your oxygen. That's wonderful news!!

DH is going out to the post office this morning and to the local shop which actually has a decent butcher shop and where I typically buy my beef tenderloins. I bought one at Costco and was not pleased with the quality. Today's my birthday, so Don & the kids always make dinner which will be surf and turf (after I cut filets out of the tenderloin). I do feel bad that he has to go out in this weather and while on vacation.

I did get my tree down yesterday and some, but not all decor. My back was a bit better but still acting up so I did little bits here and there, taking breaks when I needed to, and then ds came and helped. He's such a good boy. Hoping today is even better. I'm going to do a bit of craft desk cleaning and then hopefully some scrapbooking.

While sitting on the couch the last couple of days, I did get all of my Christmas layouts which have been setting on the shelf in the album. I also started my yearly master planning. So all was not lost.

OK, I'm signing off. I'm hoping everyone can stay warm!!