It's Getting Colder...

 It's less than a week until Thanksgiving here in the US and it's finally feeling like it here in Nebraska. The nights are getting colder and our furnace even came on yesterday. My orchid doesn't seem to care as you can see in the photo below. It has quite a few new buds on it which makes me very happy. I used to kill orchids immediately on getting one, but this one has bloomed over and over again.

I made overnight cinnamon rolls Sunday night. They don't look like much here but they were SO yummy. Super easy using frozen dinner rolls. You just pour them into a bundt pan, mix cinnamon, brown sugar and nuts together and sprinkle on top, then pour melted butter over them. Put them into the oven overnight to rise, then bake in the morning for twenty minutes. While baking, I mixed up a glaze of powdered sugar, vanilla and milk. Pour a little over rolls in pan after baking, turn onto a platter and pour the rest of the glaze on top. Oh. My. Goodness. They are so, so good. 

****** Edited to add the recipe. Sorry it's dark. I have no idea why it's so dark. I. sure hope you can read it.

I finished the last pair of Christmas gift socks in Knit Pick's Felici "Sanderson" color way. They match perfectly which is always a nice way to finish socks. Now I just have to decide who gets which pair.

I have started another prayer shawl for the University of Nebraska Medical Center. This is using the Iris Stitch and using Big Twist yarn in "Cotton Candy" color way.  I have five or six more to make ASAP now that I've finished Christmas presents. I know I won't finish them before our trip and of course I'll take socks for airplane knitting. They are small and easy to carry along.

I've gotten the suitcase out of the closet and started putting things into it as I think of what needs to go. The electrical adapters went in yesterday because I forgot those once and had to buy new ones just to be able to charge my phone. I have my Barbies that will be going to "J". I've had them since I was 8 or 9 years old so they are true antiques. :-) Piper played with them but didn't want them anymore. I'm also taking wrapping paper and tape since I don't dare wrap Christmas gifts before traveling. TSA will just unwrap them all.

Alex told us a few days ago to bring our "welly's, (boots), and warm clothes because he's made reservations in the Cotswalds for a few days. That will be a lot of fun. He is in Japan right now for business and will be back in London just before we arrive. We got a video on the family chat today of "J" asking her oldest cousin Kyleigh to come with us and "bring The Piper". We cracked up at "The Piper". She loves Piper very much but has never met Kyleigh. I sure wish we could take them with us too, but Kyleigh is in her 3rd year at University in Bozeman, MT and "The Piper" will be in school too. :-) Our daughter-in-love sent us a video this morning of the car windows completely frozen over in London this morning when she was taking "J" to school. Yikes! It hasn't been that cold here yet.

We're enjoying getting ready for Thanksgiving. Dennis did a Costco run this morning. We're taking the turkey, stuffing, potatoes, gravy and cranberries to Mandy & Brad's. His family will also be there along with my sister, niece and nephew. They will all bring other side dishes and desserts and Brad is making ribs on the grill. I know we'll have a wonderful time. How are you all doing in your preparations and what are your holiday plans?

Take care my friends. I hope you all have a very blessed Thanksgiving if you're here in the US.

Blessings and love,

Betsy

 It's a beautiful day! Stunning! Gorgeous! Unbelievable for the middle of November. It's 66F and pure blue sky. No jackets needed. The only thing not fun about today was starting it with a mammogram early this morning. :-)

On Tuesday Curt, Barb, Dennis and I went to our friend Amanda's who just had surgery. Her gutters desperately needed cleaning out before the snow falls. So the two old men of the church volunteered to do the job on her HUGE old three story house. Here is a photo of my very filthy, dirty husband out on the roof. Curt was holding the rope while Dennis dangled outside. Meanwhile Barb and I visited with Amanda. I'm glad I didn't see what was going on up on the roof or I may have had a panic attack. These two guys can get themselves into pickles for sure. Last week they spent two days replacing windows at our youth minister's house. Usually they volunteer at the mission on Tuesday and Wednesday but the drop off donation spot was closed for Veteran's Day so they did the gutters instead. Yesterday he spent 10 hours t the mission grocery center giving out food. I'm married to a great guy. I really don't know what I did to deserve this saint of a man but I'm very grateful to the Lord for blessing me with him as my husband.

I finished another pair of socks into the Christmas basket. One more to go. These are Knit Picks Felici in the "Silent Film" color way. Plain vanilla pattern of course. I think it shows off the Felici stripes best.

Now on the needles are another pair of Felici in "Sanderson" named after the sisters in the Halloween movie. Another plain vanilla pair of socks. I'm boring, I know.

A blast from the past photo that I found on my phone from when our girls, Lizzie and Zoey were puppies. Aren't they just the cutest little things? They still are and we love them so much.

As I said in the beginning, I had my mammogram and the results already arrived online. All is fine for another year. I just want it known that I do NOT enjoy that test at all. Especially since I got my pacemaker. It's very, very painful where the pacemaker is squeezed. It was not pleasant before but now is another whole level of pain.

Tonight is our annual condo meeting and tomorrow Dennis and a few other guys from here are going to repair the fence around the property to try to save several thousand dollars. Our HOA fees are going up around $100 a month next year anyway simply because of insurance. We have had no claims in over 10 years, but because of all of the natural disasters around the country, our premium is going up too. So some of the guys said, we can fix the fence to save everyone some money. He likes keeping busy too. :-)

Otherwise not a lot has been happening. I'm still trying to get things done before we leave. I'm done with Christmas cards and they're ready to go into the mail after Thanksgiving. I need to wrap gifts for the people here and finish the last pair of socks for a gift. I think I'm on track for being done but who really knows?

Take care my dear friends and enjoy your day. Hopefully it's as pretty as it is here.

Blessings and love,

Betsy

Beautiful Fall Days

Happy Wednesday! It's so hard to believe that it's November 5 already. I have so much to do in the next month before our trip to London, if it even happens with the state of the world and the airports. Who knows what will be occurring in the next few weeks? I need to finish all of my Christmas preparations as well as get cards ready to go out before we leave. Meanwhile, I have doors and windows open, because it's so beautiful outside today and I can see all of the beautiful leaves turning color from my chair where I'm typing this post. 

I'm still struggling with posting on the computer. Not that the computer isn't cooperating. It's me. It's all me. The new hard drive is working well so far. But I can't get the photos to line up correctly. It's a long process to get them from my phone to the computer and then onto the blog itself. The iPad was SO easy to use to post. I have great, great respect for those of you who post daily. So far I've been working on this post for over an hour and it was just getting photos on here! Hopefully I'll get faster with more experience using the laptop.

But first, I thought I would share some of my fall decor with you. I put it out the first week in October. I don't decorate for Halloween so everything I put out is appropriate for both October and November.      

On the kitchen island is the beautiful tray that my blog friend, Pamela's son made for me for my birthday last year.  I really love this tray and it's perfect for decorating for the seasons. The black thing in the corner is a battery pack for the lights inside the birdcage.

The cabinet under the television is always fun to decorate.

Over the fireplace.

Have any of you seen these screen savers on YouTube? They have hundreds for all seasons and they make your television look like a painting, complete with a picture frame. I like to have one of these on the TV when we have company, instead just a big black screen on the wall.

I ordered this solar light for our son Alex's garden on my Amazon UK account. It makes giving gifts to our family there so easy. To mail a box is ridiculously expensive where this is just like ordering from Amazon here in the States. I ordered this and it was delivered the next day! It's a little watering can. I chose one with bunnies on it because I thought "Baby J" would like them. Alex loves to garden and he can see this  from his desk when he's working in his backyard office. His birthday is Dec. 7 so it's a little early but he'll be in Japan on his actual birthday so we just sent it a bit early so he could enjoy it now. They have a small garden as is normal when you live in the middle of London so this seemed to be the perfect size.

Dennis spent the day at the food bank today and now is at our associate minister's house helping him install a new window. He likes keeping busy and his almost 50 years of home ownership projects come in handy for helping others.  Meanwhile I spent the day vacuuming, dusting, giving Zoey a bath, and will soon be knitting on another Christmas gift. I put a roast/potatoes/carrots in the crockpot this morning so dinner will be ready whenever he gets home and is ready to eat. I'm debating making biscuits to go with it.  We're trying to cut back on carbs, but how can I pass on homemade biscuits with a roast?

I finished the hat/scarf set below for "Baby J" on Monday. Both the pieces together only took one day to complete. The color should match her school uniform and was requested by Mom and Dad.

Well, since it took so long to get this written, I better get busy and finish up so I can get a few more things done around here. I hope you all have a wonderful week and enjoy the fall. 

Blessings and hugs,

Betsy

Many of you seemed to enjoy the last video I posted. Here's another that I really like from Phil Wickham called "Homesick for Heaven". I hope it blesses your heart like it does mine. I can't wait to dance with David too. :-)