All Is Calm.....

Our family Christmas this year took place on Friday thru Sunday before Christmas.

On Wednesday we got the nicest snow; Thursday, however brought blizzard conditions which meant difficulty for our family to make the trip on Friday.  Jennifer and family left early, without much happening in KS, but by the time they reached West Des Moines the roads were in terrible condition.  It took them 8 and a half hours but they did make it all in one piece, except for their nerves.  It took Angie and Carson 3 hours to make the 2 hour trip from Des Moines.  Amanda and Scott and family decided to wait until Saturday morning as they didn't want to be travelling after dark.  Just as well.

Newly weds Kayla and Wes brought Parker on Friday night to have dinner with us.

The other kids all clamour for Parker's attention.  He is adorable and very sociable.  

The gift exchange included a very special picture of Parker's 3rd birthday for us.  He was so excited about everything he got.

Saturday was a full day.   Angie and Wes worked out at the W and Jennifer ran her 8 miles outside.  After lunch, the girls took the kids to the W for swimming for a couple of hours.  Gave me some much needed down time.

Stuffed manicotti and salad were on the menu for Saturday night--it was fun to have the girls around the kitchen to help with the preparations.

Once it was in the oven, the gift opening started!!

Bailey is a new driver and has purchased Grandpa Chuck's work car.  Teenagers aren't always easy to buy for, but we enjoyed surprising her with a car plate representing Olathe East where she attends high school.

After the gift opening we decorated gingerbread houses.  It turned out to be really a lot of fun.  The moms and one dad got involved.  There was lots of frosting and candy everywhere and the kids were very creative with their houses.

Melina and her dad Scott

Angie helping Carson, and Bailey really didn't need any help!

Jennifer helping Olivia

FINISHED!!

Melina

Carson

Bailey

Olivia

Lots of frosting and candy stuck everywhere!!  We turned out the light and I got the mess cleaned up in the morning before everyone got up.

Only Melina took her gingerbread house home.  It was too long a trip for the others, so the houses were put out for the birds.  I have actually had a woodpecker investigating and a couple of chickadees sampling the coconut.

Another Christmas over again.  This year Chuck and I spent Christmas morning in the sunroom watching the birds and having coffee in our pajamas.  It was really pretty nice.  

The new year rolls around once again and I'm falling into my mode of motivation to organize, clean closets and start healthy eating again.  

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!!  

Nutcracker "Sweet"

Olivia has joined the 'Trilogy Cultural Arts Center' this year and is immersing herself in everything dance.  Last year she was part of a small production and then tried out for, and landed, a part in the larger production of Wizard of Oz.   In order to be involved in the larger productions, she was required to be enrolled in a class, so she started with Level One ballet this year.  She quickly informed me , however, that she would be prohibited from wearing 'toe' shoes until Level 4 or 5.

We opted to go to the Friday night performance.  I got to go along with Jennifer to get her ready.

Make up is applied  perfectly.  Mascara first....

Mom has to put the fake eyelashes on!

OMG!! They make her look so old!  And they are thick and long.  But on stage, they are perfect.

More make up and on with the costume.  The hair  was styled with the traditional 'ballet' bun.  

The costume was beautiful.  And the earrings and tiara were the same  for all the girls.

Olivia was one of 5 little Snowflakes.  Here they are, all posed and ready to go.  My buttons are popping -- and I know that I'm biased, but do you notice that she is the only one with proper form.  And she's so serious.  She was serious about her performance.  She was nervous when we left to get ready, but she did everything perfect.

This was just too fun for me.  I had forgotten that there are no speaking parts in a ballet.  Just music and a few solos.  But there was no problem following the story, if you had seen the Nutcracker before.  The costumes were gorgeous and the players ranged from  little 3 or  4 year olds, to a couple of adults.  Some very, very talented young people.  Olivia will be working hard, I know, as her goal is to secure the lead in this some year.  They do the Nutcracker every Christmas, so who knows.  Anything is possible with this girl!!

I can only imagine what's in store for our little ballerina.  

House Changes

 John K has been  busy this fall continuing with our planned changes to the house.  The woodwork has now been replaced in the two guest bedrooms, the walls have been painted, new wood blinds installed, and window treatments installed.  The rooms look so nice.  I remade valances for the front bedroom.  I had made those for our previous house and finally got the modifications made so that I could use them here.

Now it's time to start re-doing.  This summer we painted all the walls a light cream, just to get a clean look.  We had always planned to do some color in the kitchen and finally decided on the colors.  The big wall is a brick red and the rest of the kitchen is painted gray with a touch of green.  Looks really nice; makes the woodwork really beautiful.  John does such nice work and it shows.  Now the kitchen is done, except for the wall unit John is going to build for me.  Hoping he can get it done before Spring.  It will be eight feet long and will have storage for stemware, linens, extra serving pieces and a wine refrigerator.  Maybe a liquor cupboard if there's room.  We're working on a plan.

Is it never going to end!!  I've been decorating for Christmas for almost 2 weeks.
I still don't have the downstairs tree up and decorated, but I'm running out of time.  I really want to get to it done because some of the kids will be sleeping downstairs while they're here for Christmas and it would nice to have Christmas there too.

Just a quick shot of the front foyer.  My friend Jean talked me into buying this piece  during one of our Spring Green  trips.  It's really versatile and it's fun to decorate for the seasons.  I thought Jean might enjoy seeing what I did with it this year.

And speaking of Christmas decorations, this little gem finally got finished.  Jean stayed here  a year ago and this was a project she helped me with.  We thought it was going to be fairly easy, but we both became extremely frustrated with it.  Jean threatened to toss hers; I don't if she did.  But I put the finishing touches on it this week and hung it from the ceiling fan in an extra bedroom.  It really is pretty......but I have no desire to make another one.

My new thing.  Vacation this fall started it.  Chuck insists on doing all the driving and it's boring for me, so I started knitting again during our trip to Maine.  We've made multiple trips to Des Moines and Kansas City and I find I can whip these out pretty fast.  Actually, I made my first pair last year.  It was a pattern I had for beginners, using worsted weight.  I washed and dried that first pair and they felted up nicely to use as foot warmers while I have my shoes off.  I took inventory of my yarns and realized I have about 20 skeins--each a different color.  Not enough to do much with, but 220 yards will make a pair of socks.  I'm on my 4th pair; don't know what I'll do with them, but for now I'm just throwing them in a basket in the sun room.  Another trip to Kansas City this week, so that means I'll get that pair done.  Go figure....it keeps me busy.

Catching Up

 Even though I haven't blogged for awhile, I have been busy.  Trying to finish some UFOs and starting new ones.  So, of course, I can't help but show and tell...

I started this Blackbird Designs last year.  But started with the Winter design on the right, stitched the center Summer design, then waited until Spring of this year to get back at it.  It turned out really good and I love the frame.  Twin Oaks Framing was my place of choice, however, this summer she lost her lease and decided to close out the business.  I don't know where I'll find people so good at what they do.  And since I can never make a choice on my own, always depended on Cheryl and Sandy to confirm what I thought, or make another suggestion.  I have been puzzled about why the BB girls decided to do only 3 seasons.

I worked on this quilt most of the summer.  The basket handles are hand appliqued.  It's a Blackbird Designs pattern and I chose their Antique Fair collection for piecing.   Whenever they come out with a collection that I truly love (which is most of them) I purchase a fat quarter pack.  This one had about 40 different prints and did the entire quilt, with additional yardage for the outside setting blocks and the ruffle.  I had seen them do a ruffle before and really wanted it on this quilt, however it took until mid-fall before I could get motivated to get it made.  I think it really makes the quilt.  If you click on the picture to enlarge you can get a better view.  I love the scrappy background blocks and I used up almost all of the fabrics, which is a good thing.

This large pillow is a new pattern from Country Stitches.  It's stitched on a large count linen (22 ct) so it goes really fast.  But it used lots of hand dyed threads as I used 3 strands for stitching.   I distressed the linen before stitching.  The dark stripe was accidental, but decided that I liked it.  It's not really obvious, but there's lots of distressing along the top and bottom edges.  Still waiting for the rusty jingle to attach to both ends.  The colors were perfect with my basket quilt.  

I love punch needle, but it takes so long.  I finished this last year, but not before Christmas so I never did get it finished for displaying.  It's mounted on a simple wooden box, painted black, corners and edges sanded, then stained with a dark Bri-Wax.  

Here's the inside.  I glued black wool felt on the bottom and on the inside of the lid, a padded foam core board covered with a couple layers of batting and some blue velveteen that matches the sky perfectly.  Lately I've been making sewing boxes.  The first I did was an idea from Blackbird.  I have so much trouble keeping sewing necessities with me all the time, so I've taken to having 3 or 4 boxes placed strategically around the house (wherever I might sit down to sew) and stocking each of them with types of needles, pencils, threads, threaders, and stitch markers.  it has helped and I'm making lots of them so that I can be 'season appropriate'.  Maybe I'll even give a few as gifts.

THANKSGIVING

Traditionally, we spend Thanksgiving in Kansas City.  We were a small group this year; Jennifer, Wes, Bailey and Olivia, and our oldest daughter, Angie and son Carson made up the group.  We were able to get to KC by 1pm so we could all have lunch at Panera.  Then back to the house to cook and drink wine.  Jennifer got some things done early as the girls had afternoon appts , but there was still plenty to do.  Angie made her unbelievable broccoli and cauliflower gratin.  Very good with lots of cream and cheese -- everyone has at least two helpings.  This warms my heart, seeing my girls side by side in the kitchen.  They are both extraordinary cooks.  I didn't cook until early am as my contribution was pie and I believe they must be made in the morning, the day of.....

Dinner was delicious, as usual.  We tried this year not to prepare too much food, but as usual there were lots of left overs.

Chuck and Wes escaped the cleanup by playing 4 square with the kids.

We all enjoyed football games after a supper of leftovers and left early in the morning to get back to Des Moines before 10am.  Angie's new furniture was being delivered and she had some things on her To Do list for her dad.

Catching Up

October

We made it to Olivia's last football game.  Jennifer  has coached the girls' cheerleading squads since Bailey was in first grade.  Bailey decided not to stay in cheerleading a year ago, but she helped her mom.  It's quite a commitment; weekly practices, learning routines, keeping everyone's attention on what they are doing.  Her teams always participated in the end of the season competitions.  Jennifer works full time as an Elementary Principal Assistant so I've always been impressed that she's able to juggle it all.  Our son-in-law, Wes travels a lot in his job, so she does the bulk of the running around with the girls.  They are great parents and I commend them both for the two wonderful daughters they have.

 This is an experiment.  The short video (if you're able to view it) is a preview of the routine the girls did at the game; she is second from the left.  Olivia is in 5th grade this year and they have been the cheerleaders for the same team for 5 years.  Amazingly, the team has lost only 2 games during the entire 5 years.  They are a very talented group of young boys and the games are fun to watch!

Olivia has decided this will be her last year to be involved in cheerleading and soccer.  She broke her arm early in the soccer season this season, so she was only able to play in the first couple of games.  The real reason though, is that she has been taking ballet lessons and is involved in a drama group and decided that is her real passion.  She's been involved in a couple of week long camps and had parts in both of the productions.  Currently she's involved in the group's annual production of The Nutcracker and will be preforming as a snow flake.

A Family Wedding

Our oldest granddaughter was married on September 2.  Kayla Johnson and Wes Sutton were married on Sunday night (Labor Day weekend) at 7pm.  She was a beautiful bride and married a guy who is absolutely the coolest ever.  We all love Wes so much.  He's a great addition to our family.  It was so warm that afternoon.  The majority of the pictures were taken at the Waverly Golf and Country Club where Kayla spent most of her high school years as part of the golf team.  They both attended Waverly High School, Wes was an outstanding wrestler and Kayla was a wrestling cheerleader.  A cuter coupler you'd be hard pressed to find.

And we were given the gift of another great grandson, Parker.  Parker is 3 years old and so full of personality.  He's just too cute!  And we all love him.

TUESDAY--SPECTACULAR!! WEDNESDAY--HOME!!

We were only an hour and a half outside of Buffalo NY when we left on Tuesday morning.  Glad to get to the park early, but disappointed that it was so commercialized.  You could drop several hundred dollars taking in all the 'attractions' but we have always enjoyed the natural state of things.  

And we weren't disappointed with what we saw.  We took lots of pictures and some video and can't wait to show them on the TV.  For us, the Falls was beyond description.  We spent 3 hours at the park on the walking paths and viewing the falls from every angle we could.

It was humbling....A mammoth area and the power of the water going over the damn was something that just has to be seen first hand.  Our pictures can't begin to show it all.

Again, there seemed to be people from all over the world.  Speaking  within their groups: German, Japanese, Indian and lots from Canada.  This view shows the opposite bank which is the Canadian side of the falls.  Originally we had planned to cross over to Canada and view both sides, but in the end we didn't.  We walked and looked for 3 hours until we had our fill.  Pretty chilly when we got there--only about 45.  Lots of people had winter coats on, but the sun was shining and all the walking kept us warm.

By 1:00 our focus turned toward the trip home and we decided to leave.  Drove until 6:30 - stopped in Ohio and got a room, then ventured 4 miles into the little town of Wauseon-about the size of Waverly.  Stopped at a steak house 'Sullivan's' and had the best meal of our trip.  Steak smothered with sautee'd mushrooms and asparagus.  A couple of good glasses of wine and we were raving to the waitress about how great the food was.  Before we left, Nick Kline,  head chef came out and talked 'Hawkeye' with us.  What a great guy -- and what a great place to eat.  If you're ever in the area check it out - just off I80/90.  

Decided whoever was awake first should wake the other one.....I was awake at 2am, but tried to go back to sleep.  No luck so at 3:45 got up and showered and Chuck got up shortly thereafter.  Left the hotel about 4:30 and it looks like we'll be home middle of the afternoon.

It's been a great trip - we had a great time - but we're really looking forward to getting home.  John will be working this week to finish up the kitchen and I'll post pictures so everyone can see what great work he does.....

WE DID IT!!

We did Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park!  And our legs are telling the story.  Did a lot of walking and climbing Saturday and Sunday.  We shopped and explored and by the end of the day, we knew we needed a day of rest.

So, this morning we decided to head for Niagara Falls.  A day of sitting in the truck sounded pretty good however -- until noon -- every time we got out for gas or eating we found it very difficult to walk.  Sitting wasn't the answer after all.  We felt better after getting out 3 or 4 times and walking around.

Took no pictures today.  We drove to Syracuse, NY and are actually ordering pizza in.  I'm looking forward to a nice hot bath and watching the news. In an effort to have a non-stressful vacation, we decided not to watch any political shows after the debate so I have no idea what's going on in the world.  I feel like I've been out of touch forever.  My political friends can feel free to email me with any updates regarding President Obama.  (I made no promises not to get info via email--we just aren't talking politics to each other!)

Caught the end of the Packer Game (damn) last night.  And we watched Drew Brees break Johnny U's record last night and shortly thereafter fell asleep.

Expecting to get to Niagara Falls early in the day tomorrow - I think we've only got about 150 miles to go.

SUNDAY....Seeing Bar Harbor

We moved to the Bar Harbor Grand Hotel today.  I always think it's interesting how these websites make things look so different than what they really are.  This hotel is actually located in the middle of the shopping area; to me it looks like it could be located on a beach.  And there's lots of other buildings around it.   But it's a very comfortable hotel and the lowest priced one we've had so far.

We spent most of the day today touring the park.  It's a pretty amazing place and has everything from forests to sea shores.  The colors are extraordinary.  Not like back home where it's all fall colors.  There's lots of evergreen trees here so the red and gold leaves on the deciduous trees are mixed in with the pine trees.

It's not easy to see here, but the roads are winding through what is mostly granite rocks moved from glaciers.  Here we walked off the road and into the woods and the entire woods are filled with huge granite boulders that have been moved by the glaciers.  Everything is granite.  It's really something to see--when you look closely you can see that the trees are actually growing on top of the boulders.  In 1947 a huge fire destroyed half of what had been mostly evergreen trees, now the deciduous trees have come up and mixed in with the evergreens.  So beautiful.  We got out and walked through the thick woods at every opportunity.  It was interesting to me to see the trees that have fallen and decayed.  White birch decays totally, but the bark actually stays in tact.  I can't get enough of it.

There's actually a sandy beach on this part of the island.  Beautiful clear water and sand.  

And then, all these huge boulders are right at water's edge.  Most actually covered during high tide.  The rocks that appear to be black are actually covered with kelp that grows from spores left by the water, I guess.  

We stopped so many places and got out and walked on the big boulders that go to the edge of the water.  Seagulls are everywhere.

We stopped at the Jordan Pond House for lunch.  It's built near Jordan pond which is the cleanest water and a public water supply for all of Seal Harbor.  Had a great lunch of soup and popovers and blueberry tea.

They seat as many outside as they do in.  Tables and chairs right on the grass, but no bugs.  It was a gorgeous day.  Talked to people from Quebec, Japan, Germany, makes you proud to live in this country; so many people want to see the United States and are impressed with what is here!!

Today will be our last day here.  Tomorrow we're leaving for Niagra Falls.  Haven't mapped it out yet, but I'm assuming it will be about a 2 day drive.  I'm ready for a couple of days in the car, resting.  Talked to John and Judy K tonight and it sounds like Waverly had 28 degrees last night and the leaves are falling fast.  Things will look different when we get home, I'm sure.

Saturday-Bar Harbor, Maine

It seemed like it took forever to drive the 4 hours from Portland.  The last half of the trip was through one little town after another at 50 miles an hour.  The scenery was absolutely beautiful.  We arrived at the hotel at noon and were able to check in right away.

Here's where we're staying.  OMG!! The Tahoe is in the parking lot with a Mercedez  on one side and a BMW (and the license plate said they were members of the 'Manatee Cove Yacht Club') on the other.  I hope I blend in with my new sweatsuit from Wal-mart.

The harbor is filled with sailboats and small yachts (one big one).  The water is beautiful and surprisingly clear.  We walked around the hotel and got everything spotted out.  Outdoor pool and hot tub.  Chuck said he would go to the hot tub with me later.  Hoping the weather lasts.  It's sunny and 70 degrees.  Rain is supposed to move in late this afternoon.

We ate lunch at an outdoor Irish pub and people watched awhile.  Then spent the next couple of hours shopping.  Lots and lots of little stores with everything you can imagine.  Tons of people everywhere.  The shopping area is about 4 blocks by 2 and up and down hill.  Reminds me of Boston.

 We have been talking for days now about our first real Maine lobster, but when we got back from our 2 hour hike around town, we had a glass of wine in our room and went to the hot tub.  Well, that did us in....we felt like jelly fish so opted instead to have some fruit and cheese, take a shower and watch TV.

Tomorrow we'll be doing the 27-mile Loop around the island (in the car).