Wonderful Winter

I really thought I had updated this blog :-) WRONG! I remember trying to upload pictures and having it fail over and over again ... I lose patience rather quickly when that happens! After typing this, I found my "draft" that had never been posted. I found TWO of them that had not been posted. No clue!

I didn't change anything on this post to reflect the "new findings" so some of this will be old news. Oh, well! Here goes:



Lots of newsy stuff ...



With Bill (and his Harley) safely home, I started thinking of Thanksgiving and decided to prepare a simple dinner ... which doesn't sound like me, but we always have so much to eat and I would much rather spend time with family than be fussing in the kitchen. I figured I would start early and have everything ready to be cooked or baked ahead of time ... we invited our kids over for breakfast (not knowing who could come for dinner) and Bill took over ... MY KITCHEN! So much for preparing ahead, BUT I did get to visit with Chris, Kristen and Isabella, Bill, Julie and Erika that morning while we ate eggs, bacon, homefries and pancakes and Jeff and Amanda during our dinner of turkey, stuffing, smashed potatoes, gravy, creamed onions, carrots, broccoli, squash. The pies came from Chatham with Mom and Dad Pitcher, Christina, Jim, Heather, Amber and Wesely. All in all a delicious day filled with chatter... just the way I like it!



We pretty much had a repeat for Christmas ... Christmas Eve was spent at church with Julie and Erika, (Bill drove up late) and Christmas morning found us eating a creation of my husband's... not even sure what he calls it, but he makes homefries in a cast iron skillet, polish saugsage in another, some peppers ... scrambles some eggs... puts in all together in another skillet and bakes it. I think he has cheese in it, too ... quite delicious and all his doing! Those who couldn't eat breakfast with us, got to have dinner of roast beef, smashed potatoes, carrots, cottage cheese, creamed onions and lots of gravy....

We got to have great visits with all of our children and niece, Cindy and her husband Brandon and "the boys." I love our family!

Isabella is growing taller and taller ... walks and talks a storm. She loves her "cracker bears" and we do, too! (Teddy Grahams) Papa ate the rest of the box she left here, but not to fear ... we will get some more to replace them!

Erika is growing, too ... such a beautiful girl from the inside out! I love spending time with her. We have fun and I know how to make her laugh ... Grammy and Erika can get silly as only Grammy and Erika know how!

I have to tell you about our Church's Christmas program ... just a bit ... Bill was the Angel Gabriel ... complete with wings and halo. However, the wings just were not ... apporpriate for someone the size of Bill .... Dear friend, Anne, said, "Bill has to lose those wings .. he looks more like the tooth fairy!" She was right ... and then undertook a mission to make Bill look more like Gabriel ... a man's angel ... a man with wings that could be used for flying or for taking out adversaries in one swoop! Thank you, Anne! You are a gem!