Monday, December 07, 2009

A Christmas weekend.

It was a weekend filled with Christmas and I still don't feel like having Christmas. Strange isn't it? I suppose that after this next week, which is supposed to get snow everyday, I will probably feel like having Christmas.


Will and I had to make a mad dash to LaCrosse on Friday evening to get his signature on our new checking account. They could not order our new checks with his name on them without his signature on file. I can understand that. Since, no matter how I try, I cannot seem to live without checks, Friday was the only day we could fit it in due to his work schedule. We arrived there at 4:59 and they close at 5:00. I was actually calling them from the elevator saying "we're here don't close". That done we stopped at Sams for some quick refills on stuff (certain things are much cheaper there) and then ran home and started working on the weekend's events.


Saturday our church had it's annual cooking baking day. We baked cookies for every house in the village of Warrens, bagged them up and had them ready to go for Sunday. We ended up with about 120 dozen. I had thrown together some soup (chili, cheesy potato ham, chicken noodle and bean). My friend Judy had made 7 dozen rolls in the morning, so we had a soup and rolls supper with cookies for dessert for anyone that wanted to come. It was a fun time with lots of laughs and smiles and good food.


Sunday was church and there were enough leftovers for people to hang around and eat some more soup and cookies. We all went home and then the kids and I and my cousin Bill (our pastor) met back at the church to deliver cookies. We got all of them delivered except for one street and Jake and I will try to take care of that today. I met our friend (with his big diesel truck) up at the Cranfest office and we hooked up the Cranfest float/people mover. Everyone piled onto it (I think about 27 of us) and we started caroling. We caroled for almost 2 1/2 hours in the cold and dark. It was fun. Some people got cold and had to go home, but many of us stuck it out. We ended up at the senior apartments for a party that they hosted and had a blast. Jake, Jessa and I stayed for a while after everyone else and talked. We got home about 8:00 pm.


It was a full weekend, but well worth it. Now everyone can just do their own family thing and not have to worry about any other church functions. Things are starting to be Christmas here at Donaldson Central and I'm hoping that the joy of the season will permiate my bones. So far it has not, but I am trusting that God will make His presence known and I will begin to feel it. He has done it every year so far. We have a little over 2 weeks to get it all together.


So.......18 gift baskets here I come. Open House on Christmas Eve here I come. Christmas shopping here I come.....delivering mail in the snow, here I come....


READY OR NOT CHRISTMAS....HERE I COME!!!!!!!

Have a great day.

dea

Wednesday, December 02, 2009

The last day of fall...

Yesterday was a beautiful day on the route with sunshine and warm temps. Today is supposed to be the official start of our colder weather. I am not thrilled, but I guess that I have nothing to complain about. We have had a wonderful November. Warmer temperatures and sunshine. It kind of made up for the terrible October with it's 5+ inches of rain and downright cold temperatures.

Now we can start getting ready for Christmas. Up until now it felt like Florida weather and I always had a hard time getting ready for the holidays there. I don't know how it would be living in Miami or some such place. Christmas in the 90's. Of course, if you are like our friends in Australia, I guess Christmas in cold weather sounds weird.

This Saturday is our second annual cookie baking day. I am planning on getting to the church about 8:00 am and starting to bake there. I will bake cookies here at home too before, for decorating there. Our plan is to make about 200 dozen cookies. We plan on giving a bag of cookies to each and every household in Warrens this year. So tonight the kids start decorating the bags. I have the cards in the bags already to print out. Saturday we will bake cookies, decorate cookies, bag cookies and deliver cookies. Then at 6:00pm on Saturday I will be serving soup for anyone that wants to come to the church for supper. Sunday is church and then after church we will finish delivering cookies. At 4:00 pm that afternoon we all meet at the church and jump onto the Cranfest float people mover and start our community Christmas caroling. We will carol all over and then we will be ending at the Hilltopper apartments where there are older people living that are going to host a small party for us. We ended there last year also and it was a great, great time.

All in all this weekend will be busy, but in a way that's good. It gets everything out of the way, so to speak, for the season and then everyone is free to do their family thing and not feel guilty about missing anything at the church.

Next week, we will start decorating here. We plan on getting the tree one day next week and then getting the decorations out. Our family will start cooking for gift baskets this year next week also. Included in the baskets this year will be homemade mixes, breads, cookies and candies. I think we are up to about 18 gift baskets now. It is a blessing for us to be able to give these to the people that we love.

Since money is tight this year for our family, as I'm sure it is for everyone, I have asked the kids to pick out one or two things that they would like to add to our Christmas time that they have always wanted to do as part of the celebration. Jessalyn picked a family meal night out at a restaurant with our family (I think she wants to recreate an Olive Garden commercial). She also would like to have a family game night for board games. Jake is still thinking about it.

Both kids have been very thoughtful in their gifts this year. They are both proving to have my "crafting bug" and enjoy working with their hands. Jessalyn has chosen a few projects that are going to be beautiful when finished and Jake has done some work at school that is marvelous. I wish you could see the drawings he brought home last month. I went and purchased frames right away. They are beautiful. He was supposed to draw one picture. He thought that was not enough to show his vision, so he drew 4 continuous pictures that can stand alone as a scene by themselves or can be stacked one on top of the other for a continuous picture. They are great and Will and I are extremely proud.

Jessalyn just brought me the sheet that she has been nominated by the teachers to be in the area quiz bowl. They suggest that in order to help her, we drag out the trivial pursuit game. Oh great. Nothing like a game of Trivial Pursuit to make me feel like an idiot. Let's just say that my answers are always Zimbabwe for anything geographical. Sometimes that answer is even right.

Have a great day!
dea