Time Flies

I have absolutely no idea where the time is going these days. I turn around and another week has just flown by. We’ve had a busy week. Monday, Dennis worked all day and I did laundry and cleaned the condo. Tuesday, I crocheted sleeping mats for the open door Mission with some ladies from our old apartment like I do every week. Wednesday morning, I had Bible study with my ladies group at church. This is the group that has hundreds of thousands of women all studying the same thing, all over the world each week. Wednesday night, Dennis and I went to a Home Free concert with my sister, niece, and nephew-in-law. It was their Christmas tour and they were wonderful. Some of you might remember that we went to their Christmas concert last year in Kearney, Nebraska and we both came home with Covid. Home Free is the only acappella country band in the world. The Christmas tour features mainly Christmas songs but they sing a few of their other hits too. The ages of concert attendees ranged from five or six year olds, clear up to people in their 90s! These five young men are very talented.

If you watch YouTube at all you can search Home Free and most of their videos are on there. If you like tight harmonies, I think you’ll like these young men as much as we all do.

I don’t have any photos, but last night Dennis and I went to a dinner party with three other couples at our friends house. They sent out invitations and asked everyone to dress up nicely. We had a wonderful dinner and then played a trivia game that asked questions about Christmas movies. That was a lot of fun! Each couple was sent home with a beautiful candle holder that Curt had made for us.

Today, I was invited to go to a tea with the Jane Austen book club of Omaha celebrating Jane’s 248th birthday! It was wonderful. Here we are waiting for the event to begin. Most of these are ladies that I have known for 40 or more years! I mention Curt and Barb on here quite often. Curt is Dennis’s cousin. Barb is the second from the right in this photo. Jaleena is next to her. Dennis went to high school with Jaleena and I’ve known her since before we were married. Next to her is Sheryl. I met her at church well over 45 years ago. Then it’s yours truly and next to me is Carol. I’ve known her as long as I have most of the other ladies. The young girl on the far right was just introduced to me today, and she seemed lovely. These ladies have all been part of the Jane Austen book club for several years. They have invited Mandy and I to join them. Next year the book being read is Mansfield Park. Mandy is an avid Jane Austen fan, but I admit, I have never read any of her books. I guess that is about to change! I have been to her home in Bath though. When Mandy and I went to the UK after she graduated from nursing school, that was one of the places that we visited.

The food was outstanding, and the tables decorated beautifully.






This was my plate. Before you think I was an absolute glutton, this was technically lunch for everyone, the plates were saucer size, and I didn’t go back for seconds! Most people went back 2 to 3 times. You can see the bookmark they gave us on the right, as well as a little poem, written by one of the members to salute Jane on her birthday.

Sheryl won the door prize, which was a Crosstitch about Jane Austen done by a member of the book club.

On Thursday we didn’t have any plans and it was an absolutely gorgeous day with temperatures in the low 60s! We decided it was a good day to take a drive, so we went to Fremont, Nebraska to our favorite furniture store and we bought a new reclining sofa. Dennis is excited because the middle seat flips down and it has cupholders and an electrical charging station where I can plug in my laptop and we can charge our phones. It will also give us more seating when we have visitors here. We plan to sell our La-Z-Boy recliners on Facebook marketplace. Thursday night we had Bible study over Zoom with our group in Spokane. As I said, it was a busy, busy week.

I can finally show you the stockings that I made this past spring for Alex, T. and Baby J. I took the photos before I added their names to the top in the red space. They aren’t perfect, but for my first attempt at color work, I don’t think they turned out too bad. They are now hanging on the mantle in their home in London and they look beautiful there. I even bought extra yarn, so I can make matching stockings for any more little ones that may happen to come along!

Tonight we watched “It’s a Wonderful Life” and I made three dishcloths. They are all this color and looked exactly the same.

This is a prayer shawl that I’m making for the hospital. I should have used bigger needles, but I have too much done on it to rip it all out and start over, so I’ve just decided it’s going to take me awhile to finish it! It is so soft and fluffy though and I’m enjoying working on it.

Can you see my cute little snowman, progress keeper, and my Christmas project bag? I adore the camping trailers all over the bag.

We have had commitments every single day for the entire week. Tomorrow we have church in the morning and I’m going to a holiday craft fair with Mandy, Piper and one of Mandy‘s friends tomorrow afternoon. This is why I wanted to have all of my gift buying, wrapping and cards done by December 1, so I could enjoy all of these fun things without being stressed. I hope you are all doing well in the holiday season too. I think this was our busiest week of the month and beginning next week it should just be our regular activities, although even those keep us hopping! Take care, and I hope you have a wonderful Sunday, filled with blessings, and remembering why we celebrate the season. It’s Jesus! We wouldn’t have Christmas without Him.

Blessings and love,

Betsy