Whatta weekend!

What a wonderful, weekend, full of the holiday spirit!  Bring on Christmas, I'm ready!!!!

 

On Saturday, Ron and I visited Old Economy Village, in Ambridge, PA...

I hated history in school, but local history is always interesting to me and the Harmonites are no exception.  Even though I've toured the village in the past, I learn something new every visit. 

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Of course, I visited Belsnickle, the German version of Santa, who informed me that I was on the 'naughty list' but assured me that  if Ron would be a character witness, he would consider moving me onto the nice list!

 

We met crafters!  I met a particularly friendly woman who was demonstrating tatting.  She whetted my appetite for yet another fiber related craft.  I have always wanted to try it, but the last time was long before You Tube.  This time there may be success!

 

Then...yesterday was In-laws on Ice! 

You may remember the last time I did this (story HERE). 

We meet at the ice rink at PPG Place ice rink

 which is always so beautiful with the tree in the center...

 

 

 

Traditionally, Ashley, my lovely daughter-in-law, brings us wonderful, fresh baked cookies and this year she spent all day Saturday getting ready for us!

 

 

 

 

And as we eat,  we sit and watch the brave try skating.  This year, Tony and Noelle gave it a go...

 

 

 

 

 

Everyone else seemed to be happy to just hang out...

 

 

Even Gavin, my grand-nephew!

 

 

 

The cookies were eaten, or should we say devoured?

 

 

Another tradition is to walk (anywhere from 9 to 29 blocks-depending on who is leading us and how lost we get) to SW Randall's Toy Store.  A 40+ year old, three story toy store...

 

 

With 20,000 or more toys in stock!

 

From the window displays...

 

 

To the beaded animals...

 

 

 

Walking in the front door always takes my breath away. 

 

 

I bought three things, gifts, so you can't see until after Christmas!

 

Every where you look...

 

Oh my!

 

This year, it seemed to be yo-yos that were popular with this gang...

 

Finally, everyone was tired and hungry and decided it was time to head home...

 

I chose to hang out with this crew...

 

 

We grabbed a bite to eat and then we headed for our cars and our homes.

 

On the way to my car, I stopped to look at the wonderful decorations...

 

 

 

 

 

And even took a shot at a selfie...

 

 

 

 

Too bad I was so shaky...

 

While Andy and Ashley stopped to get a very special ornament for their tree...

 

 

 

I headed home to my eager-to-see me hubby and my ecstatic-to-see-me dog...

 

 

And I was in bed, fast asleep by 9:30!

 

What a wonderful weekend! 

 

Now it's back to the fun part of getting ready for the holidays...

 

The anticipation!

 

 Now it's time to get my day started...



It's grocery shopping day!

 

God bless you, see you soon!

 

Love,

Jan

 

It's a wrap!

I was downstairs wrapping presents...Yes!  Wrapping presents!!!

 

 

 

For those who have known been related to me for any length of time, know how much I hate to wrap presents.  I hated it so much I would put it off until the last possible minute, "No, you can't come downstairs yet, Santa left all this work for me!"

 

Putting it off until after the stores closed on Christmas eve had it's pitfalls:  running out of tape (in the past I have been known to use masking tape, band aids, staples, electrical tape and string).

 

I have run out of name tag:  easily replaced with home made paper tags, writing on the wrapping paper with a sharpie, freezer labels, or my favorite, trusting my memory as to which package belonged to whom.  The latter resulted in MANY post opening exchanges.

 

Running out of wrapping paper was another pitfall

 (which is why I have an extensive collection now),

 

 

easily replaced by newspaper, paper bags, and of course,

recycled paper...saved from gift 1, ironed and used to wrap gift 2.

 

I found two things indispensable...those pre cut tape dispensers and a ping pong table.

 

Of course, there are a few gifts not yet wrapped,

a few not yet delivered,

 and a few on the table in my sewing room...but for the most part...

 

It's a wrap!

 

 

Now I gotta dash, got big plans for the day...

 

Go out and be a blessing to someone, I know I'm going to try!

 

God bless you,

Love, 

Jan

 

 

 

 

 

Pssst...hey you...

If you get a message like this...

 

 

Take it seriously!

 

Mr. K and I love to feed the birds. 

 Instead of watching TV, we turn our chairs around and watch the activity at the bird feeders. 

 

Of course, we have other visitors...

 

 

And that was perfectly okay, for the most part...until Saturday morning...

 

When we found this...

 

 

 

 

And this...

 

 

We weren't sure what to do, but we knew for sure
that we weren't going to go out there and act like a nut...
Those squirrels are crazy!

Finally, Mr. K went to Lowes to buy a new feeder.
Now when I go, I turn on my artsy brain.  I look for something pretty, usually copper
or oiled bronze...

As usual, when Mr. K goes, he turns on his engineering brain.
He didn't do pretty, he didn't do copper, he did practical.

I'll show you next time I'm here...
 

Okay, I'm outta here...

Lots to do to get ready for the holidays!

I'm going back to my 'woman cave' for the rest of the day...

 

See you when I come out!

God bless you,

Love,

Jan

 

EDITED TO ADD....

 

Mr. K thought I should show you pictures of the new, improved bird feeder...

So I went downstairs to take pictures of it.

 

 

Um...maybe we should have stuck with pretty?

 

Just popped in...

To wish my only FAVORITE son-in-law a very happy birthday!

 

Happy Birthday, Jamie...

 

 

Hope it's a great year, filled with love and laughter (and a little money might be nice too)...

Love ya,
Jan

Officially official

Last Christmas was officially our first Christmas as a married couple, but because Mr. K was in the hospital until 3PM on Christmas eve, we did no decorating.  The fact that I managed to buy 3 or 4 gifts in the weeks before Christmas was amazing enough.

 

Because of that, THIS CHRISTMAS is officially the (un) official first Christmas for Mr. and Mrs. K; the first Christmas in our new (to us) house and the first Christmas Mr. K. will celebrate as the

 step-father of an English Mastiff.

 

Since we're old, we take it slowly.  First out comes Mr. K's Santa:

 

 

Next, I come home with a poinsettia:

 

 

 

Then comes the pretty wreath at the front door:

 

 

 

And I ooze into decorating inside with a small tree (as of this minute still undecorated) in the entrance hall:

 

 

 

 

Next thing you know, the UPS man is bringing a big mystery box:

 

 

That Mr. K leaves for me to open, even though it's addressed to him!

 

Yes, I use that steak knife and inside I find this:

 

 

A lovely box of chocolates from the law firm Mr. K. does business with!  Yum-oh!

 

Drag my feet, I did, but we needed a tree.  Not a big one, just a tall one.  Not a real one...

the  Roomba would choke to death on the needles of a real tree...

 

Nothing complicated, something simple. 

 

Nothing too colorful, something tasteful.

 

Nothing too difficult to assemble, or too heavy to carry.

 

Finally, I found a tree that seemed to fill all those requirements...

 

And I bought it, dragged the box to my car (thank goodness there are no photos of that), put it in the back of the Kia (again, NO PHOTOS) and brought it home.

 

That's when I realized I was too old tired weak  PETITE! to carry it up the stairs from the garage, so I left it in the car and even took it on a little adventure...and it rode along with me to church on Sunday.

 

Finally I bribed allowed Tony to bring it in the house.  That's when I found out that even though it was in three pieces (ONLY THREE PIECES) it was a little more complicated than I was prepared to handle. 

 

Come to the rescue, Tony and Noelle! With a college educations, a lot of common sense and a few muscles, they managed to stand it up and fluff up the branches.  Ron, my dedicated husband and near genius, managed to figure out that the cord was not long enough to reach the outlet. 

 

Finally...the tree! 

 

 

 

I was exhausted, so was Linda...

 

 

 

Tony and Noelle, recognizing my weakness, gave me an early gift...

 

 

 

 

It's a coffee mug that says, "MOM...a title just above QUEEN!"

 

So... the tree is up, there are no ornaments on it as of yet, but they will get there, maybe...

 

If not, it's still a wonderful life!

 

 

Now I have things to do, stuff to buy, cook, toss, fluff, cut, eat, find and hang...

I gotta run...

 

Talk to you soon!

God bless you,

Jan

 

 

 

 

Celebrate that anniversary...

And we did...we had a wonderful dinner at Lidia's,

and then went to see the Christmas exhibit at

 Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens.

 

I tried, to share with you guys, and to serve as a remembrance of our first anniversary,

 to take a selfie of us...

 

First try:

 

 

That's me on the left, and of course, you recognize Ron, on the right.

 

Second try:

 

 

 

Clearly, Selfies are for the very young...

 

But we persevered...

and I present, for your viewing pleasure, anniversary attempt #3

 

 

 

 

Oh well...

 

It was raining, we were soaked (check out my hair...It did some pretty strange things), 

 we had much to celebrate!

 

Speaking of celebrating,

Let's all go out and be a blessing to someone. 

God bless all y'all,

Jan

 

To my husband...

To Ron, my husband of ONE YEAR TODAY...

To think, at one time, not all that long ago, we were two lonely people, wondering (and maybe even believing) that we would live out our remaining years alone...

But then...

 

So much has happened...

 

We've been so many places...

 

 

 

 

 

We've done so many things...

 

 

We've been through a lot

 

 

The photo above  is what you look like 5 hours after a knee replacement...

 

But...

 

 

We survived, and thrived!  It's been a wild and crazy year, full of surprises...

 

Happy Anniversary, my love!

Knock Knock

See this door?

It's the door to my sewing room and it's closed for a reason...

 

I'm working on Christmas gifts!

 

Remember, last year, everyone got table runners like this...

minus the glass of wine, of course...

 

What will it be this year?

 

I'm not telling and

 DO NOT DISTURB!

 

Tee hee, don't you just love Christmas?!?

 

Come back later...

Love,

Jan

O Christmas Tree

Just had to share this story...my 83 year old mother  (who family calls Toots)  claims she's 5 feet tall.  Truth be told, I don't think she was ever that tall. 

She's the kind of woman kids love...they stand back to back with her and then you hear them squeal, "I'm taller than you!".

Every year, I think she loses another inch of height.  She claims, that at 63, I'm just getting taller (I'm 5'1").

To be honest, I am not at all sure that she's legal to ride in a car without a booster seat.  If you ever see a Honda without a driver tooting down the road, it's probably Mom.

In a family of practical jokers, short people are easy victims, just put things high, out of reach.

A few years ago, Tony sent me this:

I think I'll just print it and post it on her fridge!

Love ya Mom!

Time out for HOCKEY!

Let's take a break from all the holiday preparations and take a few minutes for a hockey story...

I love hockey.  It's no secret that I've been a Penguins fan since waaaayyyy back when.  When?  When no one else loved them, I did!

My two favorite all time Penguins (in no particular order) are Joe Mullen and Brian Trottier. 

This past July, the mom of one of Tony's friends called him and told him she had won a tailgate party with Phil Borque and Brian Trottier and invited him to come along.

Was I jealous?  Just a touch...I told Tony that if he got Brian Trottier to call me, I'd give him $50.

He sent me this photo:

 

Oh!!!!!  Brian Trottier's '91 Stanley Cup Ring!!!

 

Ron and I were sitting in the family room, talking when my phone rang.  Caller ID said it was Tony.

 

"Mom," he said, "Hang on."

 

A man comes on the line and says, "Jan, this is Brian Trottier and you owe Tony fifty dollars."

 

What do you say to one of your all time favorite hockey players?  "Oh, I love you!"

 

He never missed a beat..."Jan, we just met, but I love you too!"

 

That's Tony, standing on the left...and yes, by then, I was green with envy...

But a few days later, on my birthday, Tony presented me with this...

Sigh...did I tell you I love hockey?

 

Okay, now back to our Christmas preparation!

 

God bless all y'all,

Jan

 

Bring on Christmas!

Every family has holiday traditions...even Ron's family.  He's had a plastic Santa forty + years.  It's been on the roof top of two of his houses and in the breezeway of his apartment.  Last year he was too sick to deal with him, but this year...

Bring him on, Ron!

 

Ladies and gentlemen, Santa is here!

 

(But please don't forget that

 Jesus is the reason for the Season!)

God bless you all!
Jan

Thanksgiving! We did it!

Ahhhh, I now have an even greater respect for my mom, who at 80-something still manages to pull off family holiday functions...she even claimed Christmas Eve again this year.  I am happy to report that I did manage to pull Thanksgiving '14 off without too much stress (hah!)...

 

I started by sitting down and  planning...

 

 

Made lists, checked them twice thrice, seventy two times...set the table

 and ordered Ron not to go near the dining room...

 

 

 

I agonized over the menu, worried about roasting a turkey for the first time and made Linda a nervous wreck!

 

 

 

 

The turkey was delicious...

 

 

The company superb...

 

 

 

I sat down my camera, gave the blessing and meant EVERY WORD of it.

 

We ate, laughed, sat back down for dessert and games...

 

I am truly blessed!

 

Thanks for stopping by,

God bless you,

Jan