A Prairie Home Companion

Saturday afternoon we headed east to attend the Prairie Home Companion show. 

It was fun to be there, but I remember more audience participation and speciality segments when I attended a number of years ago.  Nonetheless, it was a good time and the 2.15 hours flew by!

 

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

This weekend was the coldest on record for decades!  Single digits in Prescott and into the 20's in Phoenix.  We're anticipating another (at least) 2 nights of these temperatures.  We hope not to loose too many shrubs and trees.

Ice in the fountain at 10:30 Sunday morning

We also had a nice visit with an old friend from back east.  What a shame he was here for the cold weather.

Me, Kendall, and Carl

 

 

 

Snowy Maryland

We certainly had a white Christmas with the family when we headed home for New Years!  Lois picked us up at the airport on Saturday and we made it to Phebe's where Mom and Dad met us for a lovely supper.  The snow had already begun in earnest by that time and continued off and on for the rest of the time there.  So many fun activities!

 

 Exchanging gifts

 



Delicious food

 

 Mom feeling good and cooking on Sunday

We were all on our way to church when they were cancelled one after another due to the weather.

 



Emma and Evan bird watching - note the binoculars in Evan's hand: bird watching is serious business!

Painting of nails

Babies to cuddle

Fashion snow attire to don - thanks to Lois

Sledding at Mom & Dad's

Enjoying the beautiful scenery

 



 Grandma time

 



Mexican Train

More snow activities

 

Bells to ring in the New Year

(picture snagged from Sarah's fb post)

 Napping

 



More sledding at The Farm

 

The barn on The Farm - it's so nice that it's still in the family

 

All this and back home in AZ Wednesday morning where the sun is shinning brightly.

 

Christmas Weekend

We headed north Friday afternoon for our weekend that is a start of 4 days off.  We were happy to see snow greeting us at the cabin.

 

We started a fire in the fireplace and settled in.

 

Saturday brought some cookie baking, dinner out and a drive through the wonderful Christmas lights while sipping on hot cocoa and coffee - eating said cookies!

Looking toward downtown as we left the restaurant.

 

 

Sunday we awoke to an email from Lois indicating that she would be coming into the local airport with a two hour window until her passengers were to arrive.  I had fun tracking her as she made her way across the country. 

 

 We made some fabulous treats with chocolate, peanut butter, caramel and pretzels nestled inside.
 

We couldn't go to the airport to see Lois empty handed, so I pulled together a little basket with the cookies from yesterday, the chocolate treats and some Christmas M&Ms for fun.

 

 A little sun in our eyes

 

Kendall looks right at home in the posh airplane

Checking out the mechanics of the plane

Lois brought us some treats from New Mexico

 

The time 'flew' by!  What an unexpected treat.

Back to Illinois

We had the opportunity to spend a long weekend in Illinois where I lived from 1997 to 2003.  It was SO good to connect with old friends and attend church with them once again.

 

Friday night we headed to downtown Normal to the renovated Normal Theater to watch A Christmas Vacation.

 

Saturday we ventured to Springfield to the Lincoln Museum with Doug & Jenell

Lincoln's cabin - the early years

Courting Mary Todd

We were invited to the White House to join the Lincoln's in a family portrait

The White House

As we were leaving we spied the city bus decorated for the Christmas parade

 

 

We made it back to Bloomington by 6:30 for an out of this world dinning experience with Marge & Barry.  Doug & Jenell won the dinner in an auction and we were fortunate enough to be able to get in on the evening.

A beautiful table!

...and a beautiful hostess

The meal was spectacular - every one of the four courses

After dinner we enjoyed great conversation with Connie, Marge, Rick, Tim, Sue, Barry, Doug, Jenell, Mara and Chellie & Eric

We even found a few minutes to stop in at Scottwood where I found the beautiful tiny lights that look great on my dinning room table.

Sunday after church we were taken out to dinner by a gentleman that I send Christmas cookie to every year as a thank you.  He's 95 years old and won 6 gold medals in the latest state Sr. Olympics!

TV Appearance

Today on AZ TV I did my Fruit Dip.  Yummy goodness with just four ingredients that you mix together: 8-oz of Cream Cheese, 1 jar of Marshmallow Fluff, 3 T. Orange Juice and 1/8 t. ginger.  Add a more OJ to make it as thin as you like.

 

 

Since I took a vacation day, I decided to stop at the Outlet Mall on the way home to do a little Christmas shopping and get into the season.

 

The tree is the tallest Christmas tree in Arizona

 



It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

We always look forward to the lighting of the Courthouse the first Saturday of the month when they actually read the real Christmas story from the Bible and choirs fill in with appropriate songs.  Last night we managed to find a great parking spot and then dinner without needing to wait.  For a change of pace we changed locations and watched from across the street.  It was nice to see the 'big picutre', but we missed the connectedness of being up close. 

The cabin is also decked out for Christmas.  Can you tell it is my favorite time of the year?

I was feeling nostalgic this year, so Kendall took me to the most awesome hardware store and we picked up these old fashioned lights.  Then it just screamed for tinsel too - just a touch.

A couple years ago I took some of the really pretty cards and created ornaments for the tree.  Here are Emma and Rachel.

 

And I love the fireplace and the mantel.

Thanksgiving

The weekend went so fast!  We flew to Kansas to surprise Kendall's parents, as did his sister Torrie.  They had no idea we were coming.  The nephews picked us up at the airport and we were able to walk into Kirby and Darcie's home to surprise Mom & Dad on Thanksgiving afternoon.  It was nice to take a break from school for a few days.

 

Kirby's store was beautifully decorated for the holidays

 

We attended a 'door decor' class at Kirby's store, presented by Larry, the designer

A morning relaxing with coffee