Blogging may be light to nonexistent for the next few days because all of my siblings and their entire families are arriving for Christmas. I want to wish my blog friends a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. Thanks for reading my blog, your cheerful comments, and general support.

Christmas cards and other minor irritants

I'm actually going to get my Christmas cards out in advance of the holiday this year, it seems. I love everything about Christmas cards--poring over catalogs of choices, finding just the right ones for how I'm feeling that year, receiving them from others--everything, that is, except actually sitting down and writing them out, which is kind of important if you want the recipients to know they're from you. Last year, in spite of good intentions, I didn't get them sent at all. I missed doing them before Christmas so I thought I'd wait and do a New Years greeting instead (lame I know, but better than nothing) but that didn't happen either. Oh well, at least I didn't have to buy all new cards for this year's mailing. My major snag this time was getting my boys all in one place at one time and in a reasonable state of appearance to have their picture taken for inclusion in the greetings. Finally today I put my foot down, handed them combs, changed a couple of shirts, and told them to hold still and not poke each other for five seconds. The result is below.

From the left: Dylan (7), Adam (20) and Christopher (17)



I purchased a poinsettia from our local children's choir fundraiser. It's really lovely.


I have a collection of Santa figures, ranging from the classic American Santa Claus to Father Christmas and Victorian St. Nick. This is one of the jolly old elves.

And After The Ice, The Snow

Hoo-boy. It is certainly winter here in Kansas. We had not really recovered from the intense ice storm at the beginning of the week when we were hit with 8" of snow yesterday and through the night last night. Fortunately, we have nowhere particular to go so we're using today to wrap gifts, drink cocoa, and make Christmas goodies.

Drip, drip, drip

Things are slowly getting back to normal. The sun is out and the ice is melting from the poor, twisted trees. Really, the damage has been enormous. My son's fiancee's family, who lives outside town, will not get their electricity back for 7-10 days. Merry Christmas! We're doing what we can to see that they have a warm place to be and hot water for washing, but what an immense hassle.

By the way, the photo above is not mine. I got it from a clip art website. Illustrative, I thought.

The Ice Storm Cometh

We had an ice storm overnight and the view this morning is nothing short of heartbreaking. Limbs down everywhere, electricity sporadic or out altogether, people having trouble getting around. At least they cancelled school for the day so my kids don't have to go anywhere. It's still raining, but it's just rain so maybe the ice will melt off before it does any more damage.

A View From My Christmas Tree

Astonishingly, our house is decorated for Christmas and has been since the weekend after Thanksgiving. I say astonishingly because I didn't think it would happen as quickly as it did, but we had a day that seemed right so we all pitched in and got it done, even the outdoor lights. It's nice to have just gift wrapping and goodie making to look forward to for the next couple of weeks.

My favorite china angel.

I have several glass ornaments in the shape of different types of fruit. I love this one.

Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Well, after seeing Dylan through his virus and catching it myself (of course), finishing the show, doing the Christmas Cottage at Dylan's school, and having a fairly miserable week at work trying to get well, I'm back at it. I said I'd post some cast photos of BCPE, so here they are.


These are mostly Herdman kids, Imogene, Ralph, Leroy, Claude, and Gladys. Maxine is in the background.








This is Imogene (Kara) and Gladys (Alyson), adorable girls who played their roles extremely well.











Two of our baby angels. They were precious.













Dylan REALLY got into playing Ollie Herdman. Sometimes I had to remind him it was just a role.




















Gladys (Alyson) as the Angel of the Lord.


















Staci and Pippa, mugging for the camera.
















Our wonderful director, Shannon, doing what she does so well, which is connecting with kids.






And finally, since I haven't cat blogged for awhile, here's one of our three not-so-small kittens.
Rusty, living dangerously.