A Sad Goodbye

We had to say goodbye to sweet Amelia kitty yesterday afternoon.  She was sixteen years old and came to live with us in June, along with her sister Frannie.  They were my knitting buddies, especially Amelia, and she is going to be sorely missed.  She had lost almost 4 lbs. since August and was just a little over 6 lbs. yesterday.  She was loving and affectionate right to the end.

You could tell that these girls had a lot of love in their home with Brad and Mandy before moving to the “retirement home” with Papa and Grandma last summer.  She is missed already.

Please keep Mandy especially in your prayers.  Amelia was her baby from when she first moved to Portland years ago for her first nursing job.

Mandy’s favorite picture of Piper and Amelia.

Amelia is on the right in this picture taken a couple of months ago.  

Amelia was ALWAYS my knitting buddy and could be found on my lap or inspecting my work.  She slept with me nightly, curled up under the covers next to me.  Last night was difficult.  Frannie has been searching for her since I came home from the veterinarians office alone.  It’s HARD losing our fur babies.  They are family.

She helped me count stitches....

And inspected my work.  She was very conscientious about her job.

She is missed already.

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort.

 2 Corinthians 1:3

Blessings,

Betsy

The Day after the day after.

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas wherever you may be. Ours was very, very quiet.  It started out on Christmas Eve when we went to our candlelight service at church. We were treated to some special music by a small group of friends.  There was a wonderful message reminding us of Christ’s birth, some singing together of familiar carols and a sweet children’s moment. After lighting our candles and singing “Silent Night” together it was time to go home.

Afterwards, we drove by a couple of houses that were on our way home that were very lit up. I think I saw more Christmas lights this year than I have ever seen before. People seemed to be in the mood to brighten up their homes.  I absolutely love looking at Christmas lights. We went out on three different occasions and just drove around to see the beautiful displays.

The pictures don’t even begin to do these homes justice.

Dennis and I have enjoyed reading scriptures together every night during the month of December and lighting the appropriate candles for advent.  This week all of the candles are lit, signifying our Saviors birth.

We had a surprise snowfall that began yesterday afternoon and continued into the night. This is the sight I woke up to in our backyard this morning. Although it is beautiful, the roads are very treacherous today as it hasn’t warmed up much. I ventured out to Michael’s and the Christian bookstore which are only a couple of miles from our house. I came right back home because the roads were so icy.

Since we’ve been home so much, I’ve been making very good progress on Alex’s sweater. I have finished the body and bound it off early this afternoon.  I’m just beginning the first sleeve. After that I just have to put the neck band on and it will be done. I think he’ll be pleased.

We were able to FaceTime with Alex both on Christmas Eve when he opened his gifts, and early Christmas morning. Mandy also FaceTimed with us and watched us open our gifts from them. It was a good day although it was very quiet. I made chicken enchiladas and we watched several Christmas movies including white Christmas. Dennis had to work the last three days of this week but then will be off for another four-day weekend. It would be very easy to get used to having him home with me all the time and I’m looking forward to his retirement in a few years.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. We’re planning another very quiet holiday for New Year’s, just staying home. I’ve been enjoying seeing the posts that some of you have written about your Christmas. Wonderful memories being made with family and friends.

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13

Blessings,

Betsy

Happy Christmas Eve

Wishing you all a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, always remembering why we celebrate.

A photo of Miss Piper from this morning while out an about, with her treat of hot chocolate.  I think it looks like an advertisement for the coffee place.  Isn’t she a darling?  I’m missing her terribly, today especially.

“For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a son is given; And the government shall be upon his shoulders And his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end.”
Isaiah 9:6-7

Merry Christmas to you all!

Blessings,

Betsy

Glorious Sunshine

We have a beautiful sunshiny day here today. It’s been raining most of the week, but you all know me, I’m not complaining, because it’s not snow. That doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate a blue sky when I see it! Ha!

I have just a few photos to share with you today.  For those of you that follow “farmgirlsam” over on my side bar, you might remember her posting a couple of days ago about something called “Christmas Crack” and she gave us the link to the recipe.  I made it yesterday, and oh my goodness it is delicious.  It is seriously one of the most simple things I have ever made. You make it with saltine crackers, butter and sugar and then melt almond bark to spread on top.  I added sprinkles to make it festive. It tastes kind of like toffee. You need to run to that post and get that link and then make this for yourself. It took no time at all and virtually no ingredients. And it is delicious. We had it as a treat at Bible study last night and no one could believe they were saltine crackers. I sent the majority of what was left to work with Dennis today so I wouldn’t eat it all. Ha!

We also enjoyed banana bread that I had made last month and had in the freezer.

And, of course it’s not Christmas without chocolate covered pretzels. I made these yesterday too and I had wanted to use dark almond bark but all they had left at the grocery store was white almond bark.  Again with the sprinkles to make them festive.   It took me less than 45 minutes to make the Christmas Crack AND the pretzels. Since I can’t stand for very long in the kitchen, this was an added blessing.

I thought I would show you two of my favorite ornaments today. I’ve shown them before on my blog, so please forgive me if this is old to you. I received this little nativity when I was FIVE years old from my Sunday school teacher.  It is had a place of honor on our Christmas tree every year since. 53 years now!  The glitter on the roof is almost worn off now.

Dennis and I got this starfish ornament on our last trip to Hawaii a few years ago. We were there the week before Christmas and we bought this in Lahaina on Maui at a craft fair underneath the old Banyan tree. The Banyan tree takes up an entire city block! It’s huge.  I thought that this ornament was beautiful and I still do.

Oops! This isn’t an ornament. This is Piper! Apparently it was Grinch day at school, so she wore a green shirt and reindeer antlers. I think she’s a doll.  She’s getting so tall! She faced-timed with me the other day and we sang Christmas songs. We sang along to several that we both knew, but there was one that I didn’t know at all, so she decided to teach me. She would say a few words and then have me say a few words. You can tell she’s in kindergarten and listens to her teacher quite a lot. She would make a great teacher.

That’s it for the day! We’re having our woodstove replaced with a gas stove today and the gentlemen are here now working on it. I just can’t haul wood anymore with my back and I’m the one that keeps the fire going while Dennis is at work, so we decided to replace it. I had wanted an actual fireplace so I could have a mantle and it would have taken up less space, but for the difference in cost, we decided to just replace the stove with a similar gas stove.  I’m looking forward to having the warmth of a fire at the touch of a button!

I’m thinking today of Debbie who is “Araignee’s Tangled Web” over on my side bar. She lost her beloved parrot that she had for 30 years from a hatchling, to cancer last night and she is devastated. This is been a hard year for her as she has had several terrible losses in her life. If any of you would say a prayer for her, as her friend I would greatly appreciate it. Debbie, if you’re reading this I hope you can feel my arms around you giving you a great big hug.

“This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. 1 John 4:9

Blessings,

Betsy

Less than a week to go...

Are you all ready? There’s less than a week to go until Christmas. I’m as ready as I’m going to be. It’s a good thing I had most everything done before December began. This morning I made a trip to Costco and the grocery store. I picked up all of the last bits for dinner.  We’re having chicken enchiladas for Christmas dinner by Dennis’s request. Nothing fancy since it’s just the two of us.

I also found a book while there for Dennis that tells all about the history of Mt. Spokane. I can safely tell you that because he never reads my blog! Ha! It looks like a very interesting book and I know he’ll like it. He likes just about anything to do with history. He also asked for a pecan pie. Have any of you ever gotten the pecan pies at Costco? They are absolutely humongous! So I bought a pie. After I brought it home I cut it into four pieces and froze three of them. I put the last part in the refrigerator. I figure those four pieces of pie should last us all winter. You just can’t beat the price at Costco though.  There weren’t even any crowds there. I wandered around the entire store just to get some exercise because it’s too icky outside to walk very much. That can be dangerous though, because I kept finding things to pick up and put in my cart. Ha!

The “12 blocks of Christmas KAL” was completed, washed and blocked, and is on its way to Seattle to be given out by the Babies of Homelessness charity.  The only part I didn’t like about this was my finishing. Since all the blocks were different colors, it was hard to find a yarn to use to join them that wouldn’t show. I finally settled on cream but you can see the seams and I don’t like that. Oh well. It will still keep a baby warm won’t it?

I wanted to show you a couple my sweet little lambs. Both the purple one and the little white one with the purple heart were given to me by blog friends for past Christmases. Aren’t they just the cutest? I have had the little teddy bear in the basket since the first year we were married.

Here’s another cute little sheep that was a gift. I absolutely adore sheep in any form. Sheep, snowmen and Angels. I love them all.

This sweet present arrived in the mail from Becky in Portland. It’s a cute little purple card case and a tatted Christmas ornament. She also sent me a beautiful essential oil bracelet. It has lava beads on it that you drop some oil on and thus have the aroma with you all the time. She also sent me a sweet sticker of Multnomah Falls that isn’t in the picture. She is “GrandmaBeckyL” over on my side bar.  Thank you Becky!

I started the blanket called “Mystical lanterns,” that I bought from the designer in the UK. It is actually very fast to crochet. I made this entire strip in less than the time of a Hallmark movie! Changing colors actually takes the most time because the pattern advises you to weave the ends in as you go.

A closer look at the medallions. I have set it aside for now though because I have another project that I just started that I want to finish first.  They are lots of fun crochet though, and a wonderful way to use up scraps of yarn.

This is my next project. I making Alex a sweater like his dad’s, just a size smaller. I only had to buy three skeins of yarn because I had some left over from Dennis’s sweater. I figure it’s OK if they match. They will never wear them together anyway, with Alex being in Japan. I had knit it quite a bit farther last night but had to rip about 3 inches because I made a mistake on the seam increase. Dennis has worn his sweater to work three times already. He loves it, which makes me very happy. Even though it never made it under the tree, that’s not important if he likes it that much.

And for a bit of a laugh, I saw this on Facebook a couple of weeks ago and thought it was fairly appropriate. This is why I give most of my things away.

And now a bit of an update for those of you that are interested. I had my second colonoscopy on Monday. It would not be a stretch to say that the weeklong prep was absolutely horrendous.  Basically I did not leave the house for that entire week. I couldn’t. They also used a different anesthesia on me this time since they had a hard time waking me up last time. With this one I cried off and on for two days afterwards. The nurse told Dennis that would probably happen. Apparently something about the anesthesia makes you very emotional. I actually woke up with tears running down my face. How strange is that? Plus my blood pressure was very low during the procedure. The doctor thinks he got everything this time though, and although one of the polyps was precancerous, he doesn’t think it will be an issue. He wants me to do all of this again in three years. I’m going to have to do a lot of thinking about that! Ha!

I have tried very hard to keep up with all of your blogs during the past week though. If I missed someone, please forgive me.

And now I’m determined to put all of this medical stuff out of my mind and enjoy Christmas. Although we don’t have any big plans it will be wonderful to have Dennis home with me for four days this weekend and New Year’s weekend.

Just in case I don’t post again before then, I want to wish you all a very merry Christmas, remembering the reason that we celebrate the season. We wouldn’t even have a Christmas at all if it weren’t for Jesus.

I am very thankful to have each of you as my friends. That has been one of the best gifts that I could have been given. 

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes”. Romans 1:16

“ Joseph went to Bethlehem with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

The angel said to them, do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find the baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”  Luke 2: 5-7, 10-12

Blessings always, Betsy

Mish Mash

Happy Tuesday everyone! It’s snowing here again today. Yesterday we had a surprise 3 inches when I woke up. And it was snowing again when I woke up this morning. However, it’s supposed to turn to rain this afternoon and that makes me happy. I have to drive to Idaho this afternoon for a meeting and I don’t look forward to doing that if the roads are bad.

I had a big finish yesterday evening. Are you ready for the ta-dah moment?  Here is my handsome Hubby modeling his new sweater for you. Please excuse his pajama pants as it was quite late when I finished the last seam. Also, it had not been blocked yet as I did that this morning.

And here it is this morning after washing and laying it out to block.  The shadows are terrible on this one because it’s so cloudy outside. But you get the idea. The color is much more true in the picture with Dennis wearing it.

He seems to be very pleased with it. I’ve made him several other sweaters, but he’s lost weight and they’re much too big for him. This is the first one that I’ve made out of 100% wool so it was a much bigger investment than the others. I told him he can’t gain his weight back! Ha! We talked to Alex last night and he was quite disappointed that it fit his dad. He has requested one a size smaller. What do you think?

The final block in the “12 blocks of Christmas KAL” wasn’t uploaded until mid afternoon yesterday. Since I wanted to finish Dennis’s sweater, I didn’t get started on it until around 9:00 last night. Obviously I didn’t get it completed. I should finish it today and then I will seam all three strips together and crochet a border around it.  This square is entitled “chevron‘s.”

We put the tree up on Saturday.  Actually Dennis put it up and I decorated it.  No lifting for me!  I have to admit, it does make the house feel much more cheerful. The star on top was the one Dennis’s mom and dad got the year he was born. I love the fact that we have had it for our tree for years and years now.

I thought you might enjoy this photo of one of my friends decorations in her yard.  They live on the Spokane River.  I thought it was really cute and imaginative.

I had my annual cardiology appointment yesterday and figured it would just be a routine thing.  It wasn’t horrible but they weren’t happy with how low my BP was and that my pacemaker had picked up 28 significant events of tachycardia since my download last month.  He actually took one of my medications away hoping that will raise my blood pressure and moved some of my others around in the day. He was talking about doing an ablation in the next couple of weeks but I talked him into waiting a while to see if the medication changes help. I’m supposed to see him in four months and we’ll see what happens. It does explain why I have felt so tired lately. My blood pressure was 60/40 in one arm and 74/58 in the other arm.  I thought I was tired because I have been sitting around so much with my back issues. I felt like I was just being lazy. I guess there’s a reason for it after all! Fun times always.

And to add to my joys, I have to have a repeat colonoscopy next Monday. So I’m prepping all this week for it. The doctor is making me do an extended prep.  There is a medicine I take that they should have had me stop taking seven days before the colonoscopy last month, and even though I reminded them I was taking it, they told me not to worry about it. I stopped it myself two days before, but now the doctor is saying it should have been for an entire week. So I get the joy of having to do this again with even more prep. I won’t go into the details, but it doesn’t sound like it’s going to be a fun five days. As of yesterday my entire diet had to change too.

December has not been a cheerful holiday season for me yet. I’m sure hoping things start looking up after next Monday. I would appreciate any prayers you feel like sending up for me. :-)

“The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in Him.” Nahum 1:7

Blessings,

Betsy

Brrrrrrrr

It’s Friday everyone! Do you all have big plans for the weekend? It was 7° F. this morning when I woke up. It’s warmed tona balmy 21°F now. I just got home from a post office run and getting gas in my car. Tonight we’re having pizza with our (lake) friends and tomorrow morning we will have breakfast out and we’re thinking about going up to the trailer to check on it. We want to make sure the covers are still on the three trailers and the high winds that we’ve had in the past few weeks haven’t blown them askew.

There is a sleeve finished on Dennis the sweater and the second sleeve has been started. Progress! He tried it on Wednesday night and it fits! That is even better news.  Amelia is inspecting my work.

I received a surprise gift in the mail on Wednesday. My friend Teresa, “Teresa Kasner” over on my side bar, who lives near Portland, Oregon, sent me this beautiful lithophane candle.  I absolutely love it Teresa. Thank you so much.

I had to take three pictures so you could see the view all around it. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again bloggy friends are some of the most thoughtful people I know.

I went to close the curtains on Wednesday night and this was the view I had of Mount Spokane. The mountain is actually north east of us but this was the reflection of the setting sun. Isn’t it gorgeous? That pinky/peach is amazing.

Not too much else exciting is happening here today.  I’m doing laundry and a bit of cleaning and then I will knit on the newest block for the KAL. It wasn’t released yesterday as scheduled, but was on the website this morning when I checked. The designer said it was supposed to be released automatically yesterday but something went wrong. No big problem for me as I had Dennis’s sweater to work on. 

Today is Alex’s 30th birthday. I don’t remember the last birthday we were actually able to celebrate with him because he’s always in Japan. Isn’t it ironic that his birthday is Pearl Harbor day? His girlfriend is arriving in Tokyo today from London for a weeklong visit. He FaceTimed with us last night as he was getting ready to leave for the airport to pick her up. It was already today there!  Gosh I miss that boy. If I could just get my back fixed I could fly there to visit him in the spring for the cherry blossoms. That is probably my biggest goal right now.

I’ll leave you with this last picture. I had a candle lit the other night and I just thought this looked so pretty from where I was sitting in my chair.  This is my view while I knit.

Nativities and snowmen. My favorite part of Christmas decorations.  I’m hoping you all have a lovely week, not too busy that you can enjoy the season.

“If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and I have all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. First Corinthians 13:2

Blessings always,

Betsy

Busy Stores

Good morning everyone! I’ve been busy the last few days running errands. I have volunteered to teach the first through third grade Sunday school class beginning in January, so I spent a couple of hours at the Christian bookstore yesterday looking over curriculum. Then I went to Michael’s and realized all of their yarn was half-price, yesterday only. Of course I had to buy a few skeins. This morning I went to the Dollar store to stock up on a bunch of school supplies. Pencils, glue sticks, crayons, construction paper, scissors, etc. It’s amazing how much you need to teach little kids!  The church would provide some of it, but it’s easier to just take my own back-and-forth and then I know what is in my classroom each week.

The Dollar Store was jampacked with people and then of course, it’s next-door to Michael’s so I had to stop in there. Because I can never pass up Michael’s. Ha! Today they have all of their fancy boxes on sale 70% off. So I picked up one or two of those. And then, Hobby Lobby is just next-door to Michael’s, so I went over there and bought some scrubby yarn so I can make some dish scrubby‘s for small gifts.  I keep a basket of dishcloths by my front door for anybody who stops in at the holidays to choose from. I would like to throw a few scrubby’s in there too.  Using my 40% off coupon it was only a little over two dollars for a skein of the scrubby cotton.  Then it was on to the grocery store to pick up a few things for tomorrow and Sunday evening. Whew!  I’m finally home!

Tomorrow night, instead of having regular Bible study, we’re all getting together to watch the new Netflix movie “The Christmas Chronicles.”  Dennis and I have already watched it and it was pretty cute. So we’re going to have finger foods tomorrow night and watch the movie together. Sunday night is the men’s tool exchange and women’s ornament/kitchen tool exchange at church. We’ve done this every year since we’ve been in Spokane, which is 25 years. It’s lots of fun and we have finger foods there too.

That was a lot of rambling wasn’t it?  On to more fun stuff.  I’ve started the first sleeve on Dennis’s sweater.  It looks more gray than brown here. The sun is shining brightly today so I don’t know why the colors are all wrong in the photos.

 I finished the 10th square for the KAL yesterday.  Only two more squares to go!  I like this basket weave pattern.

It was quite frosty outside both yesterday and today. I took this photo of a tree in the backyard to show you the  hoarfrost that covered absolutely everything including the sidewalks.

And I’ve left the best for last!  I had a wonderful package show up in the mail on Monday. It was a brown paper package tied up with string! It really was.  It came all the way from Lorraine and Gerard who live on the Isle of Lewis. Look at all of the goodies she sent me.

There is a gorgeous hank of brown yarn from one of the sheep right there on the Isle. The sweet notebook and the needle case are both made with Harris Tweed from the Isle.  The little gift tag is beautiful and has one of my favorite Bible verses on it. She also included a sweet singing angel ornament and a lavender sachet. Everything was made with Lorraine‘s own crafty hands.  Am I not the absolute luckiest woman ever? This was so unexpected. I need to think of something very special to use this yarn for. Thank you so very, very much Lorraine.

I’m almost ready to change my mind and put the Christmas tree up. I’m really missing it this year. For those of you who are interested, the test I had done last week came out negative for inflammation in my bones. Which is very good news, but obviously they still don’t know what’s causing my back to spasm so much. The neurologist called yesterday and said he wants to wait until I see the spine doctor again, which isn’t until January 2. I appreciate all of your wonderful thoughts and the prayers that you have said for me. I still would appreciate them. 

After being out and about for a couple of hours this morning, I will be down for the rest of the afternoon because of my back.  It’s quite frustrating. But, I know I have it better than a lot of people so I really don’t mean to complain about it, I just thought I would give you all an update because several people have asked.

I hope you’re all having a wonderful Monday and enjoying lots of Christmas cookies!

“But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”  Matthew 6:3-4

Blessings, Betsy

Happy Monday

I woke up this morning to a phone call. It was one of those robotic calls telling me my that Social Security  number had been “deactivated,” whatever that means. Ha ha! If people put half as much effort into doing good for others instead of trying all of these scams, wouldn’t the world be a better place? Anyway, it was kind of a rude awakening. I always hate to just let the phone ring in case it might be one of the kids needing me for something.

And that was my beginning to Monday. Then, I was out running errands this morning and I came out of one store to find that my car was completely covered with snow and big fluffy white flakes were still falling down. Was it in the forecast? No. My snowboots were at home in the closet. We’ll see how much of this snow that wasn’t supposed to happen accumulates to. Ha!

Now I’m home snuggled in nice and warm with laundry in the washer and dryer. I just printed out the Monday block for the KAL and I hope to start knitting on that this afternoon. Dennis’s sweater has been set aside all weekend. It’s to the point that I need to start working on the sleeves and they require a lot of counting to get started. I thought it would be better to work on when I was alone. Also, maybe this afternoon.

Here is the picture I just took out the back door toward the blue spruce tree. See those big fluffy flakes falling?  It’s hard to catch them in motion.

Brad, Mandy and Piper went to a chili dinner yesterday at Dennis‘s nephew Matt and his wife Kayla’s home. Kayla is the chiropractor that I saw when we were in Omaha last time. They had the entire family over for the afternoon. The only people missing are our two boys, Jamie and Alex and Jamie‘s two children, Kyleigh and Caleb. All of Dennis’s Mom’s other grandchildren and great-grandchildren were there. I don’t think that has happened in the last 30 years. Mandy sent us this picture.  That’s Mom in the back row, second from the left next to Mandy.

It sounds as if everyone had a wonderful time. Another family event that we sure wish we could have been able to attend. Mandy even FaceTimed with Alex during the party so he could talk to everyone to. I thought that was very thoughtful.

I was glad to know that I wasn’t the only one that didn’t know you could schedule posts on Blogger. I don’t know if I can do it through this app on my iPad but I have to use, but I’m going to investigate it further. Thank you all for your suggestions. I hope you’re all having a wonderful Monday and enjoying this season that is upon us. 

“The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him.” Nahum 1:7

Blessings, Betsy

Found it!

Remember this blanket that I showed you yesterday?

Oh I am so in love with his blanket. Sharon at “farmgirlsam”  blog on my sidebar told me the designers name for it. The designer is in the UK and I ended up paying for the pattern, but I think it will be worth it.  It’s only available in hardcopy form, not digitally, so I ordered last night and hopefully it will be here within a week or two.  There is a KAL for a shawl that I want to join with Kim over at Napiers Knits, after the sweater is done, but I think I’m going to start this blanket too. I can’t help it, for some reason it’s calling to me. I hope I can figure the pattern out!

I did finish the ninth block of the “12 blocks of Christmas KAL”.  Please excuse the poor lighting. Remember I told you yesterday that the predicted snow hadn’t happened? Well, less than five minutes after I published the post it started snowing. And it has snowed on and off ever since, although it’s so warm none of it is sticking to the ground today. It still makes the lighting pretty bad inside so there are lots of shadows.

I have to stop looking online, because I also found this pretty blanket and pillows to drool over.

I think the colors that she chose are perfect.  What is it with me and crochet lately? Everything I’m finding to make is crochet. Maybe it’s because I’ve been knitting so much and I’m ready for a change.

Tonight is Dennis’s company Christmas party.  I always enjoy them. The food is amazing. Prime rib, ham, roast chicken and all the trimmings you could imagine. And then we play bingo for amazing prizes, including trips to Hawaii and 60 inch TVs! I have never seen a lot of drinking at these parties.  It is really frowned upon.  You are given one free drink ticket each, which we use for soda.  

When we started going to the parties 25 years ago, there were 28 employees. This year there will be over 600 people there! We also used to win several prizes every year. We haven’t won anything for years and years now. :-) Tonight Dennis is being honored for 25 years of employment. They will do a speech about him and he will get some silver eagles for his years of service. I have to say that this has been and is a wonderful job for him and he enjoys it.  It gave him the opportunity to travel all over the world, even though he is home a lot more now and rarely has to travel.  That’s not to say he isn’t looking forward to retirement in a few years. We’re trying to find health insurance options for me since I am younger than he is. That is proving to be quite a huge hurdle and may cause him to have to work a lot longer than we would like or had planned.

Well I think that’s it for today. Thank you all for your information on posting. I had no idea that you could schedule when to publish a post. I wrote these posts each and every day in November, not knowing I could write them in advance and have them go online whenever I wanted them to. I am so technologically illiterate! I hope you’re all having a lovely weekend wherever you are. 

“ I will give thanks to the LORD because of His righteousness; I will sing the praises of the name of the LORD  most high.”  Psalm 7:17

Blessings always, 

Betsy