Weekend Joy

 Our son and his 4 kiddos spent the weekend with us and it was so much fun! (It was our daughter-in-law's weekend to work, so she didn't get to come.) The older boys (10 and 8 years old) had a blast playing with our local grandson (also 10 years old).  They had a sleep over Friday night and spent Saturday morning playing mini-golf. They are the "3 Musketeers"- best friends as well as first cousins. They also spent time having "deep discussions" about their Pokemon cards and playing video games, and got to sit together in church this morning. It's wonderful that they are so close-I hope it continues that way throughout their lives. Our 14 year old granddaughter and her close friend from church came over this afternoon after lunch with our daughter. They got a kick out of fixing our 3 year old granddaughter's hair and playing with our 17 month old grandson. Everyone went home this afternoon and the house sure is quiet. 

Looks like we are in for 3 days of freezing rain and ice, so we are planning on staying home. Very cold and windy right now. I've got a pork roast thawing out and think I'll stick it in the crockpot tomorrow morning. Green chile stew sounds like a good cold weather supper. Have a good week!

Still Not a Lot Going On...

 ...but I think I like it, except that it doesn't give me much to blog about. My sweet husband is refinishing all of the cabinets in our kitchen, which is wonderful! He has done all the lower cabinets and will start on the top cabinets soon. They and the kitchen were what sold me on this house, since they are custom oak cabinets. The bathrooms have them too. The bar and island have bead board stained to match. I know a lot of people prefer white cabinets and they are in style right now, but I love the natural wood look. Eventually we will get some new counter tops and back splashes. We also plan to replace the tile with wood-look tile. All in good time, though! I'm happy that we have started the process. The house is 20 years old now, so it's time.

Just a Few Funnies

 I don't have a lot going on, mostly attacking the "black holes" in the house that have piled up with stuff. But that's not very interesting blog fodder, so I'll put a few funnies out here. Have a great week!

Well, we got home Saturday night from our trip to Las Cruces, NM, where we held a Celebration of Life for my sweet Mother-in-Law on the 29th. She passed away back in August, but we waited until after Christmas to have her memorial, thinking that everyone would be able to attend since school was out. Well, of course, we couldn't have known that Southwest Airlines would end up cancelling half of the family's flights. It was so sad that they weren't able to be there, but we ended up being able to live stream it thanks to the wonderful audio/visual tech at the church there. She was amazing and made it so easy. My husband had prepared a slide show with music and after sharing a meal together, we played that and some of us got up and shared our memories. He also had prepared albums of photos with pages to write memories in. He did a great job and it was good to be with everyone who was able to be there. 

Sunday, we went to church, ate lunch with our daughter and family and came home to crash! It's a 11-12 hour drive and I think we may be getting a little old to do it many more times. May have to start flying.  Today we grocery shopped and got new tires for the car and tomorrow, I guess I'll start taking down the tree and decorations. Always a little bittersweet, but it's good to have a new year to start fresh. Someone asked me yesterday what my plans for 2023 were and I said "To get through the year the best I can and still be alive at the end of it!" The day after a 12 hour car trip may not be the best time to ask me that!

Happy New Year!

 

The Day After and the Week After

 We had a wonderful candlelight Christmas Eve carol service and a quiet relaxed Christmas Day. Our son and his family had their own Christmas and we didn't blame them a bit. It has been a crazy, hectic year for them and they needed to stay home and just enjoy the holiday. Our daughter and her family came over to our house. They only live 40 minutes away, so we always have Christmas (and most other holidays) together.

I only got two photos, but the memories of every year stay in our hearts. We always have Mexican food at Christmas. Posole (a pork, red chile and hominy stew) a pot of pinto beans, tamales and flour tortillas,  plus all of the fixings for tacos. We lived in the Santa Fe, NM area when our kids were growing up and this was a tradition we adopted then. (We like turkey at Thanksgiving, but a month later is too soon to do it again!) There were also tons of cookies, breads and candy. I feel like I have a sugar hangover today. 

This will be a busy week for us preparing for my Mother-in-Law's memorial on the 29th. She didn't want a funeral back when she died in August, she wanted us all to get together at some point and remember the good times, so that's what we're doing. My husband has been working hard on a slide show and memory books and we are having a meal catered as there will be 50-60 of us. Getting together with her and each other the week after Christmas has become sort of a tradition for all of us kids since our own kids grew up and had families of their own. When our children were little, we all came to "Mom and Dad Chapman's" for Christmas and it was a crazy but wonderful time. So, we, our children and their families will gather in our hometown one more time for this reunion and celebration of the life of an amazing woman. 11 years ago, we did the same thing on a December 29th to celebrate the life of my Father-in-law. I could never have asked for better in-laws; they were like a second set of parents to me. They were the glue that held us all together and now I don't know that we will ever gather in New Mexico in December again. I'm sure we will continue to meet yearly, but probably closer to home and probably in the summer. We're all getting older now and it's a long, hard trip for some of us.

Anyway, hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and have a Happy New Year!

 Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas!