Catching Up

Our lap top is home! It is so nice to be connected with the world on a bigger screen than my phone. I've enjoyed seeing pictures with more details than squinting and guessing what this or that may be. If the lap top has to go back one more time, they are supposed to replace it. So we will see.

Since I haven't really been on the bloggy very much I will catch you up with our holidays. By now you have heard my good news, normal heart/brand new heart, I am resigning effective January 30, and well that's about it. No, we had fun during the time off. Slept in, stayed in jammies till noon, read a bunch of books, spent time with friends, got all my projects done that I had given myself, and did I mention slept in? Oh yes, I did. I also stopped the naps to get ready to come back to work full time but really I don't know if it did that much good since I was sleeping the same amount of time.

As for New Year resolutions, I didn't really have any. I do have my year of______ done and verses that I will major upon in 2009. One thing I am going to try to do for the trees in 2009 is to get off of all these mailing lists so that I don't get 327 catalogs for the time between November and Christmas.

We went to St.Martin's for the 8:00pm Christmas Eve service. We were there 30 minutes before the service and the place was packed! An usher got us some primo seats about 5 rows from the front. There is would be obvious to everyone that we are not Episcopalians. Lot of kneeling and standing. We are also awkward when exchanging the peace of the Lord and also with you thing. To tell you the truth on the last stand up, I almost didn't make it. Anyway, they usually give all kinds of instructions for taking the Lord's Supper, but this time they didn't. I get all nervous going to the front, kneeling and trying to remember the correct form. I love liturgical worship and love to experience it from time to time.

This is my mom and dad on Christmas Day. My dad doesn't usually smile in his pictures so I am glad I caught one recent photo with him smiling. We had lunch with them and then opened envelopes. Well, we opened envelopes because we get checks now. Believe me I am not complaining. I find it funny though, they disliked the fact that my grandparents gave them checks for Christmas. My grandparents rule was, once you get married, no more Christmas gifts. Dang it, I missed those 10 buck checks beginning in 1977. Actually, I do have a neat story, yep here it comes, about Christmas money. When I was in college I wanted an Amplified Bible, a leather one. I had priced them at the Baptist Book Store, now known as Lifeway, early on in the fall. With my combined Christmas money and a few dollars I had, I went to the BBBS with the correct amount to buy a Bible. It was all the money I had in the world. Funny thing, the price of the Bible had gone up since I had priced them and I didn't have enough. The lady helping me saw my disappointment of not being able to purchase one. She said, let me go look in the store room. We had an Amplified Bible that had a couple of flaws and we are sending it back, but if the flaws don't bother you, I will let you buy it at the old price. She brought out this beautiful burgundy calf skin leather Bible. She showed me the flaws, two pages in Jeremiah were a tad faded. I bought it on the spot. It was the more expensive leather edition, better than what I was going to buy. The Christmas check from my grandparents had given me the exact amount and then I got the special deal from the Baptist Book Store and a wonderful gift from the Lord. I had my grandfather write something in the front of that Bible and I still have it. Wow, I hadn't thought of that happening in a long time.

We left my parents, came home for a little bit and then we headed out to Peggy's for Christmas with their fam, all 108 of them. OK, it is not that many but the kiddos and their cousins are being fruitful and multiplying. I was playing a board game with Jenny and Kate. Kate who is almost 3 wanted to go into Mop's Crime Lab to get something. She couldn't because her cousin Regan was asleep. Kate said, "I want to go in the crime lab but that girl is in there asleep. Jenny says, that is your cousin Regan. Didn't phase Kate when she came back in a little bit to report that girl was still asleep. We had a great time, but soon we headed back into town. We were getting a little hungry and where besides Jack in the Box could we find something to eat? Fu's Garden. It was a perfect ending to the day and it might become a Christmas tradition with us.

Being the social couple that we are, New Year's Eve was a specially eventful night... Well, it wasn't a socially eventful night, but it was a whole lot of fun. Dena bought a brand new TV and needed a little help with it. So, Roy, Dena and I went out for an early New Year dinner at Escalante's. Roy even had some of the table side guacamole we ordered. After dinner we went back to Dena's to get the TV set up. Peggy had also extended an invitation to the three of us to come out her way. They had a bounce house for the kids and several other couples, friends of Jenny and Shannon's, were coming over to celebrate. It is worth the trip for the firework show their next door neighbor puts on. It is almost as good as a professional show. But, we opted to call it an early night, so we didn't head out that way. The swivel stand was giving Dena some trouble, so Roy got that done, no problem. She was distracted by making coffee and running back into the living room to let Roy know she would help him where the instructions said, this one particular step was a 2 person job. I sat there and laughed as she went back and forth, asking Roy questions and he never answered her or missed a beat on his work. I got a special laugh out of that. I have learned when Roy is on a roll, let him be. He says the fact he had 4 brothers growing up helps him zone out on all background noise.

Here is Crocodile Denalee. She has on her Aussie hat she brought back from the land of Vegemite sandwiches. It is really cute, the top part is lace.

Here is the part where two people are supposed to lift. Roy didn't need no stinkin' second person. Of course Dena is shocked that Roy isn't following the written instructions, not even the instructions written in French, Spanish or Chinese.

Dena kept asking Roy, how did you get the stand on? How did you get it to swivel? He just looked at her, made the incredible hulk pose and growled ERRRRRRRRRRRR. So this is Dena practicing her pose and growl. Only as seen in the background Roy has everything under control. She will not need to use her athletic prowess. You can't see them in the background, but there is a set of 3 lb weights by the tree. Dena moves them out of the way with her toes. She has the strongest toes of anyone I ever knew.

Well, my amazing hubs is cleaning the kitchen and I should join in and help. I'll do more catching up later.