Christmas Eve 2013

Hello!

Do I look scared?

Yes, I think I look terrified.  I have the, "Christmas is here and the chaos has begun look".  Naw, just kidding, I'm used to it by now.  Hehe.

To kick off the Christmasing, our church youth group came over to sing to us.  We were delighted.   They went Christmas caroling to a few of our neighbors as well.

 
On Christmas Eve, Glenn had plans to grill out pork chops.



The weather outdoors was bitter cold, so we breaded and baked them instead.  I made homemade mac and cheese, yeast rolls, and green peas.  Food just tastes better eaten off the good china; it was my Grandma's set.

 
After dinner, the kids had some treats they were eager to make.  Troy made Christmas trees out of sugar cones, icing and candies.

  

Gladys made a gingerbread house.

  

They each did their parts all by themselves.

 
The kiddies were having a hard time waiting until Christmas morning for gifts.  I made them go up to their rooms while I got surprises ready for them.  Gladys got a Barbie house, and Troy got a huge bushel basket of Lincoln Logs.  They were both happy as could be.
 
That evening, on Christmas Eve, they each got to open one gift.  Troy got a fuzzy Grinch bathrobe.

Gladys got a robe too.  (She is modeling her tired look.)

Troy had a recipe that he came up with all by himself.  He calls it-- Cookies for Santa.  He said I could share it on my blog.  So here it is: slice a banana, top each slice with unwrapped Hershey kisses (he says it's important they are unwrapped), and add two mint marshmallows. 

Just for good measure, he included some wrapped kisses for Santa too.  Along with a note he wrote all by himself.

The 2013 Pendleton Flood

Have you ever seen Jesus wade before?  On the way home from church Sunday, I seen Him, and took this pic:

 

The high water levels inspired me to go check out Fall's park.  This is what I saw:

The blue building is the Historical Museum.  The town was worried about loosing it.

 

The police made everyone evacuate the area, including me.  I drove to the safe side of the park.

Unreal to see this much water here!

The next stop was to see how the creek near my house was holding up.  It's flooded of course, luckily I live on a hill.

Then I took a ride out to see how the quarry was. 

 

The quarry was okay.  The houses I past up along the way were not okay.  

This cream house in particular, had a man on the porch waiting to float down the creek with his house. (I am not joking.)  I offered to rescue him and his belongings, but he declined.  (Sorry about the poor picture quality.)  He did tell me that it was the worst flooding he had ever seen.

Count Your Blessings!

Eiteljorg Museum in Indy

Saturday-- it was one of those rainy weather days, so, the family and I went to the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis. 

The main attraction, for us, was the Jolly Rails display.

 

Hands down, that was our favorite display there.  I loved the details, like the glowing campfire.

Troy and Gladys were equally awestruck, even though Gladys has her eyes shut.  She is being nine years old and protesting being a kid.

The entire huge room has a woodsy feel and smells delightfully of a forest.

They even had a live geyser.   How cool is that?

The trains chugged around on several different levels.  Even overhead was track with trains and hot air balloons.

 Each area represented a famous American landmark.

 Of course, since the display is in Indy, the city was very well represented too.

Mt. Rushmore had everyone ooooooh-ing!

Carved from wood, and enhanced with mushrooms, rocks and shrubs, it was quite a sight.

 

The basement of the Eiteljorg Museum has an Old West play area for the kids.

This was right up Troy's alley, as he is very much a cowboy.

The rest of the museum promoted the message of having an open mind.

 I found the American Flag rug both disturbing and thought provoking.  The .50 caliber blanks as claws makes a powerful representation. 

 

Another Piece I found interesting was the Art O Mat.  The artist made a point to show society how a culture of vending machines and instant gratification could be used to sell art.  

Mom got Troy a Fort Apache Lincoln Log set for Christmas, and between the Indian displays and the cabins at Jolly Rails, his mind was going into overtime with ideas to play out.

This photograph is pretty.  It was displayed in the section representing tribes from Indiana.

Is it just me or do you see a resemblance too?

Melting Away!

The winter weather was here in Pendleton, Indiana just a few short days ago.

If it's going to be cold it might as well snow.  Besides, I have a thing for snowmen.  :)

I built this handsome fellow here and played a joke on Troy:

I put a snake in his pocket.  (Yes, it's fake!)

My poor snowman had a life expectancy of only about 6 short hours.   The temp that day (yesterday), was in the 50's.

 The next day, (today), this is all that remained of him:

Sophie and I went for a walk at Fall's park. 

 The pond still had some ice on it.  The very mild temps made for a pleasant afternoon out.

I don't think I've shown ya'all my torture device yet.  It's a night splint, but how anybody can actually wear one of these and sleep well is beyond me.  I try to wear mine for a few hours in the evening as I'm relaxing.  It helps stretch both the Achilles and the Plantar Fascia. 

I've been trying to eat healthy, despite my major sweet tooth.  Lunch today wasn't all that exciting, but I feel the need to counter-post the sugar loaded treats I had featured.  Ordinary enough, turkey and pepper jack cheese on wheat bread with ranch to dip it and the tomato's in.  And yes, I drink my water from a Micky Mouse glass-- respect it.  :)

I made a Beef Stew for supper.  It consists of mushrooms, carrots, onions, garlic, celery and a few spices sauteed in olive oil, then stew meat tossed in and browned.  After I took the pic below, I made gravy by pouring in thawed beef broth I had on hand.  Melted butter mixed with flour helped to thicken the gravy.

Here's what supper looked like up close and over mashed potatoes:

After supper, the kids had plans to go into town and visit the candy store.  They each had a little money from the tooth fairy that has been burning holes in their pockets.

 

Instead of going to the candy store, we wound up visiting some of the other shops in town.  The kids weren't that interested in candy anyway.  What they really wanted was....duct tape.  Yes, duct tape was the big seller this evening.  Both kids proudly bought their very own roll.  Gladys is wearing her paint splashed kind like a bracelet.  Troy chose a zebra print roll.

Here is the flower eraser Troy made and tried to sell to me for a dollar.  Plus, he said someone was all ready selling flower pencils at school, but no one was selling flower erasers.  (Gotta admire the entrepreneur side of him.)

WARNING!! The following pictures are somewhat disturbing-- proceed with caution!

K, consider yourself warned.  As part of this ongoing advent gifting that Glenn and I are doing, I agreed to make him the supper of his request.  

He requested fried potato's which I've not made in ages:

And Butter Fried Ham:

I can soo not eat either of those.  How he finds them to be the best stuff I cook, I have no idea.  It's like supper with a side of grease.  Yuck.  Oh well, to each there own.

Speaking of which, Troy is into wearing Glenn's tube socks to basketball.  He likes them that way to hold his pants on.?.  I was concerned about the other kids making fun of my little Rudolf, but they didn't.  In fact, Troy may have even started a new fashion trend.

Now, for the last of the disturbing pics; Sophie made a new friend.  She caught this little fellow the other day and brought him inside.  No one noticed at first until the poor little guy ran under a cabinet. No one knew exactly where he was and I couldn't find him. All I knew, was that a shrew was loose in the house.  A short time later, Sophie found him again and fatally carried him outside.  I had to look up the difference between a shrew and a mole since, I wasn't sure which he was.  Moles have different hands.  Shrews are not considered a rodent and are venomous.  I thought those were interesting facts.
 

 

K, back to some normal happy pics.  Here we have my first little Christmas tree and Elfie: 

  

I'm a vintage type of gal ya know. Seriously, this little tree has been My Tree, since I was a itty bitty baby.  I'm not sure what year Elfie came into my life, but these are sentimental, as we have shared several Christmases together.  

Remember to stay on the "Nice" list!  Only 5 days left till CHRISTMAS!!!!!

 

Goodnight!