Christmas 2010

Here is the family taken on December 20. Left to right: Chad (son-in-law), Amy (daughter) holding Jacob, Chelsy (daughter-in-law), me holding Ella, Jason (son) and Dale. It was the first time we had all been together since mid-August.

We had Christmas dinner and gifts at our house on Christmas Eve. The adults opened their gifts while the kids napped and then Ella opened her gifts and “helped” Jacob open his. (He was still sleeping!)

 

Chad and Amy

 

 

 

 

 

Jason and Chelsy

 

 

 

 

 

Then we had dinner and played games.

Merry Christmas to all and may God bless your upcoming year!!

Cruise

Dale and I enjoy taking cruises. It is an inexpensive vacation and we enjoy the the opportunity for rest. We don’t participate in the majority of the on board games or activities, choosing to relax together instead. We do play Skip-Bo or Dominos quite a bit, though. We leave from New Orleans (so the travel is not extensive to get there) and usually take a Monday – Friday cruise so we don’t miss church. This time we left on Monday, December 6 on the Carnival Triumph.

For the first time we got a cabin with a balcony because Carnival called with a chance to upgrade at an inexpensive price. We enjoyed the larger room and the balcony (a premium, wrap around balcony as we were at the rear corner of the ship.)

We ate dinner every night in the Paris Dining room. It was two story and located at the rear of the ship. Our main waiter, Warren, was from Guyana and our assistant waiter, Iputu, was from Indonesia.

 

There was some entertainment by the serving staff every night in the dining room. The small tables you see in the picture above are scattered around the room for the servers to use and they would stand on them to sing and dance for us.

We also enjoyed a game of miniature golf on board the ship one morning.

Our stops were Progresso and Cozumel. We walked through the town of Progresso and down by the beach but stayed in the pier area at Cozumel and browsed the shops there. Below is a fruit stand in an open air market in Progresso and a picture of the beach with our ship in the far distant.

Here is a picture of Dale and I at dinner on Tuesday night (which was dress up night.) Dress up night is still rather casual and I had on black slacks with my blouse.

Lastly, I will show you a sunrise and a sunset picture. Dale got the sunset picture on our way to Mexico and the sunrise picture on the return trip from our balcony. (I must admit I loved laying out on the balcony each afternoon. I pretended to read the first two days, but gave up the pretense and just enjoyed the view and the napping the last couple.)

Sunrise!

 

Sunset!

 

Pictures can’t do justice to the beauty of God’s handiwork!!

Thanksgiving Day

Psalm 118:24 “This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” This scripture has been sung and recited many times in my life but it is true for each and every day.

 

 

This is from a yard in my parents neighborhood.

 

 

Below are pictures from Thanksgiving lunch at my mother and father’s house. There were about 17 of us there for a meal of gumbo and ham sandwiches along with yummy desserts!!

Then my daughter and her family joined us at our house for a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner of turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes (for my dearest hubby), sweet potato casserole (for my loving daughter), green beans, gravy and homemade rolls (for my granddaughter who loves bread) along with pumpkin pie and caramel brownies for dessert.

After dinner it is our tradition to decorate the Christmas Tree. This is the first year our son has not been present so we set aside a few of his personalized ornaments for him to add when he and his lovely wife come for Christmas. (We miss you, Jason and Chelsy!!) This year it included a new addition – a grandchildren’s tree for them to decorate as they please. Quite fun!

 

As you can see, my son-in-law opted to babysit.

 

 

Mommy helped! (What doesn’t show is that the nutcracker in hand had an arm amputated and grandpa had to do surgery!)

 

 

 

She did a great job!!

 

 

 

Our day was truly blessed of God.

Church Camping Trip

Camping is fun. It is something that we started doing as a family when our children were young (4 and 6 years old.) After they were grown and gone, it is something that Dale and I continued on our own. It’s a wonderful time to spend as a family or as a couple.

Let me be clear here. I don’t go out into the woods and get water from a stream. My idea of camping is electricity, water and bathrooms close by. BUT --- I do sleep in a tent! We usually go to a state park here in Louisiana. The ones we have been to are really nice.

Twice a year families from our church get together and go camping. It is great fun and we just returned from a trip. Here are a few pictures!!

 

   

These are just a few of the 200+ pictures taken. I thought I would spare you the complete show!!

God bless you and have a wonderful Lord’s Day tomorrow.

Trip to Valparaiso, IN

Valpariso, Indiana is located at the northwest corner of Indiana, sitting at the bottom of Lake Michigan (the gray in the left picture is Lake Michigan and the red is Valpo.) It is about a 15-16 hour drive from Baton Rouge. So Dale and I decided to make the trek to go and visit our son and his wife. We left BR at noon on Thursday when I got off work and drove to Southhaven, MS (TN/MS border) where we stayed the night. We left there about 7:30 Friday morning and landed on Jason and Chelsy's doorstep about 6:00 Friday night and walked a few blocks to downtown where we ate Italian. YUM!!

After a good night's sleep, we started Saturday morning with a good breakfast.

Chelsy and Jason fed us chocolate chip pancakes, eggs and bacon. Jason even warmed the maple syrup. Then off to the apple orchard. Jason and Chelsy had been there a couple of times and said it was a quiet place and fun. The fun was right, but the quiet wasn't. There were 3 (yes - not 1, not 2, but 3) buses there and tons of cars.

Jason and Chelsy in line to get lunch. They had hot dogs (big, fat ones) and we had hamburgers (also big, fat ones.) Are you beginning to get the idea we ate well while we were gone?

Then off to pick apples. We picked Granny Smith and Braeburn apples. Store bought apples will never taste the same again.

Above is downtown Valpo. I walked the downtown area on Monday and Tuesday. It was a lovely walk. I had fun browsing shops and my favorites were a children's shop (a little pricy for me but fun anyway) and The Chocolate Cafe. Yep - you guessed it. I did shop there and left with Turtle Fudge and some truffles. We ate on the candy for the rest of the visit. Too good!!

Here I am on the rail of their house Tuesday morning.


Wednesday was spent with Chelsy working (we missed you Chelsy!!!) and us going into Chicago by train with Jason. I loaded these pictures backwards so you are seeing the last first.

Deep dish pizza. Look at how thick that crust is!! The inside of the pizza is stuffed with cheese and pepperoni. The sauce is on the top. You can really hurt yourself eating this treat.

The picture below is a reflection of us in The Bean. (Look it up if you've never heard of it!)

Here we are next to Lake Michigan as we walked from the Natural History Museum to the Bean (above) and lunch (also above.)

Here is a picture showing the trees at the train station parking lot. The train ride to Chicago took about 1 1/2 hours. There is no way that pictures can show the beauty of the changing colors. I loved the trees that were in the midst of changing and had a mixture of green and orange leaves. Too beautiful to describe.

This is the front yard (right) and back yard (below) of a house that Chelsy likes because the decorations change with every season in the front yard. The owner saw us and came out to give us a complete tour. Her picture is at the bottom.

This is Kendra in front of her house. She was so kind to show us around her house and yard. She has a talent for decorating inside and out.

We had breakfast with Jason Thursday morning at a diner, dropped him off at Valpo University and headed home.

Thank you, my sweet children, for a wonderful visit!! Your father gained 6 pounds while he was with you but enjoyed every ounce!!