Saturday, December 14
On Saturday afternoon Sam and the kids arrived. I was busy cooking because I didn't want to have to cook for the rest of the weekend. I was making cream of tomato soup to go with the grilled cheese sandwiches we would have for dinner that evening. I was also making sloppy joe meat for a quick Sunday lunch. And for the potluck we would be having at GBRV Sunday evening, I was making Thai Peanut Chicken Noodle Salad.
I could hardly wait to show them the guest room so Bianca could see that I had taken care of her "kids" like I had said I would when they left two weeks ago! Before I knew it they had stacked those "kids" at the head end of the bed and called me back to the room to see it. How fun is this??
Sammy immediately showed me all the new books he had brought along. That boy!! His head is filled with facts and trivia! At one point I told him he is like a walking encyclopedia. He wondered what that was! So I changed it to, "You're a walking Google search!"
I pulled out the beadwork that was still here from Destiny's younger days. Bianca found a new passion! She had trouble putting the string through the tiny beads, but she loved choosing the design of each bracelet and pulling the string out the top when I would put it up through the bottom of the bead.
Another fun thing we did was make Christmas decorations for Sam's apartment (bottom right picture above.) Dick cut many, many green and red strips out of the colored computer paper we had. My plan was to make chains. But Bianca had an even better idea - stars! So she and Sam made a star chain while I made the regular chain.
After dinner we had the best time of all - making cookies. Bianca thought unwrapping the Hershey Kisses was so much fun. She unwrapped the entire bagful - way more than we needed for the cookies. Don't even ask how many she may have eaten in the process, haha!! Sammy helped me mix the batter. They both helped to roll the dough balls in the sugar and later to press the Hershey kisses into the freshly baked cookies right out of the oven.
There was time for making one more necklace and then a bubble bath, complete with some of Bianca's "kids." I was one tired grandma when the kitchen was all cleaned up. And THEN I remembered that I still had two hems to do for the things Dick and I would be wearing on Sunday. UGH!!! So I did not have an 11 PM bedtime as I had hoped for. But I knew I would have plenty of adrenalin to go on the next day!
Sunday, December 15
On Sunday morning Dick and I went to our service at GBRV without the kids. I didn't want them to get "churched out" with all that we would be doing yet that day. I took this picture of the beautiful way they display all the donated poinsettias.
Sam and the kids went with us to Calvary's service. For some reason the kids don't choose to go to the children's ministry anymore, but would rather sit with their dad. If they have something to draw on, such as the back of the bulletin or the little post-it note pads that I keep in my purse, they are fine. After the service we got our official Christmas pictures in front of the beautiful tree in the lobby.
Then we went home for some sloppy joes and a little bit of down time. My cantata at GBRV was at 4:00, but I wanted to get there early, so Dick and I left at 3:00. The choir gathered to pray before hand, and they gave me a card with a very nice monetary gift that brought me to tears. I love these people so much. They are a truly caring community for us.
Here they are, ready to go!
The place was not as full as it was last year. It's hard to get people out for services other than Sunday mornings. I remember when I would have the musicals at Grace Community Fellowship there used to be standing room only! But the people I cared about the most were there - Anthony, Lori, and the boys and Sam and the kids. Anthony took videos of each song. I will do a separate post after this one with all the videos.
Afterward there was a potluck supper. Our family had fun together at the back table. So much good food and so many amazing desserts!!! My favorite was the strawberry pretzel crust dessert. I gotta get that recipe.
Hunter has become obsessed with the songs from the new Lion King movie. Here's a really silly video of him doing some of the singing and talking in "Hakuna Matata" with some prompting from Lori. He is just the cutest! Austin, however, did not think he did a good job, as you can hear later in the video!
Monday, December 16
There was a chance of snow in the forecast, so Sam decided to stay over for another day. It wasn't a big snow however. I laughed when I saw it the next morning - snow on the road but not the grass?? I always order it the other way around, hahaha!
We had another fun day. Bianca just couldn't get enough of making bracelets. Sammy loves my new super vibrating heating pad. He put head phones on to listen to music on his tablet and said he felt like he was in heaven, hahaha!!
They left for home in the afternoon and I've had a very quiet house all week.
The rest of the week
On Wednesday we had more snow, but it still did not amount to much. However, there were bands of heavy snow with wind from time to time that actually created white-out conditions. There was a huge pile-up of trucks and cars on Route 80 north of us.
That evening Dick installed my Christmas gift from him - a new tall kitchen sink faucet! Ours was coming loose and could no longer be tightened. I love this thing!! The sprayer is right on the faucet and retracts all by itself after I use it. And there is a dish soap dispenser right beside it! Bring on the big pots and pans!!
On Thursday I had the most fun lunch at my friend Peg's lovely home. She used to teach exercise classes, and she invited all of us who were in those classes. I had not seen some of these ladies in months!!! We had so much catching up to do that sometimes we were all talking at the same time. There were often several conversations going on simultaneously and I wanted to hear them all! Such a dilemma! The food was all so delicious and everything was beautiful. Just a wonderful, heartwarming occasion.
As always, my Christmas shopping waits until my music programs are over. So finally on Thursday afternoon and Friday I did that. With lots of texting and picture taking as I shopped, I got the job mostly done. Now the wrapping will be Dick's job. He has always been our gift wrapper. Much better at it than I am!
Well, that's all for this post. As I said, I will do another post with all the videos from the cantata.
1 comment:
How much does Dick charge for wrapping? I used to hate it so much. Now we do cash or gift cards so no more wrapping. I enjoyed each paragraph in this post, Jean! Those kids are so precious! Merry Christmas to you and yours! Looking forward to the videos!
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