Done!

Look what I invented -  a way to store lights without them turning into a tangled mess. LOL 

Yes, all the Christmas decor is finally packed up. The "crew" will put them up high in the garage tomorrow.  That means I got it done on Ash Wednesday.  Next...year I may well have a St. Patrick's or Lent tree. 

For now, I am happy to have the space back in the upstairs. I still can't find the stuff that usually sit on top of the step tonsu in the living room, top of my desk, mantle or the entry way tapestry.  CRAZY! Everyone has an idea of where they must be, but so far they haven't turned up in any of THOSE spots. LOL I may have to buy new fripperies. ::snort:: 

I just couldn't pack away all the Christmas lights.  I put lights in my nook - and it's perfect! 

I am happy to have a bit more space to set things. LOL 

DMV Appointments

We look like fugitives...but we got it done! In less than an hour we did a permanent renewal on a vehicle, changed a voter's registration, got a handicap placard, and applied for 3 Real ID's....I am sold on making online appointments. LOL

About those photos....it seems the federal government has mandated we can smile, but can't show teeth in Real IDs...Dad and Michael did fine.

We didn't get a photo they could use of me until the 4th try.

"Smile."

"No teeth. Let's try again. Now smile."

I finally suggested he quit telling me to smile. ::snort::

NSV (Non-scale victory)...I had to have them change my weight on my license....I'm 20 lbs lighter than when we moved here....and 40 lbs lighter than I was last March.

Christmas and Such

Growing up Christmas decor went up the day AFTER Thanksgiving and came down New Year's Day. Always. Without fail. In Oregon, Liberia, the Philippines. Always. 

We started our little family with much the same tradition....but then we left it up longer as kids were coming home from college and we weren't going to spend a day taking things down when we had them with us so few days....and then we began opening gifts on Jan 6th - or later...

BUT SERIOUSLY - Wednesday is the start of Lent. I realized I never posted photos of this year's decorations. I didn't get photos outside - it was too cold....and I didn't get photos of the main nativities...but I found these shots.

It seems fitting to post them now. Today, I took down the tree and began to take down Christmas decor. I realized  I like the bright and cheery lights...and much of my Christmas stuff reminds me of mom. I was simply not ready to pack it away....that, and I was busy prepping for a retreat until the end of January...and haven't had time to breathe since I arrived back home. LOL

New to our tree is Gram's tree topper. 

 I opened mom's old trunk and filled it with fun bits and pieces. I plan to leave a bit of this throughout winter. 

This is above the trunk....

Nativity from Japan, Globe from Mom and Joy ornament
given to me by a friend during one of Mike's deployments

I found the Mary which goes with this countdown  AFTER Christmas. I have it all packed nicely away awaiting LENT....so it really is time to switch Christmas for Lent.  It's time to add the extra sections to the countdown and switch Mary for Jesus and the cross....

I usually leave the snowmen until AFTER Christmas. I put them out then so I have  definite, cheery winter decor...this year I put them out with Christmas....it was DARK in November and December and I needed all the cheer I could generate. LOL 

 

This was one of Mom's sets...it's made by the same German company that makes the wonderful dinosaurs we enjoy.  It's a kids' nativity, but has lots of tiny details.  I also had the Fisher Price set down for the kids. I had the Willow Tree and the first set we bought out too. 

  

Krista and Stacia made these

You know I love the chalk paint....I may need to leave this out. 

In memory of our RV Christmas'

Window in the nook 

My Gram's nativity sat on my desk these past months...

I bought stockings so we'd have one for everyone hung by the fire....I love the new Native pallet nativity. I bought it at Colony Christmas. 

I used to wrap our Christmas books and the kids would pick one to unwrap and read each day. These books were mostly lonely this year...but I kept some of our favorite during the great "downsize for Japan" episode.

 We opened the Jesus Stocking today...and read the wonderful words of affirmation. We all jotted down times we saw another acting like Jesus. My personal favorite was, "Michael put up with De'Etta's bad attitude." ::snort::  Alright - y'all! Chill! I wrote it.

We've decided to put a box or something out during Lent and continue to watch for Jesus-like actions, jot a note down and put them in the......stay tuned to see WHAT we put them in. LOL

Note the new female military nutcracker in honor of Krista commissioning as a Reserve Chaplain. 

I've begun to pack away Christmas....slowly.  The tree is down. The ornaments are packed away.

Michael suggested I put Granny Annie's rocker in the corner, where the tree was, instead of a recliner. I'm not sure we'll love it - but I do enjoy having the ottoman out of the way!

I decided to replace the Nutcrackers on the China hutch with snowmen. I added a red bucket of "snowballs" and took away the Christmas ornaments. Pine cones, plaid and snowmen are still appropriate up here....more appropriate than tulips and pastel. ::wink::  I started to take down the "Joy" but Stacia insisted joy is a year-round theme around here! She's right.

I removed the poinsettias and left the pine, lights, and pine cones in the trunk. I replaced the Christmas doo-dads with an antique book Mom Mary gave Stacia, and some antique books from Grams and Grandma T.  I left the snowmen. 

Michael informs me the pine swags over the entry mirror and the wreath on the door are both wintry - and not honest-to-goodness-Christmas....so I'm happy to leave them a bit longer. 

The LED lights in the antique canning jars from Mom Mary (Mom G) will stay in my kitchen until it no longer gets dark before bedtime.  I've tried various things in these jars and I like the lights the best. Granny Annie and Mom G had these on the back porch as long as I knew them. It makes me smile to have them in my kitchen.

It wasn't ALL about Christmas decorations today....I prepped for Bible study, I got a nice long work out in, I fixed Dad's telephone contacts, I fixed Dad's voicemail box again, we played a couple of games with Dad, I spent 90 minutes on phone calls with medicare supplemental insurance brokers, I managed to get Healthnet to agree to send out the info Mutual of Omaha wants in order to insure Dad rather than what "they always send,"  and I started a new batch of kombucha....Thanks to Robert and Sandy for keeping me in scobies. I'm determined to get more than 3 batches before I kill my scoby this time.

Tomorrow....I'll have to deal with all the other boxes waiting to be loaded with Christmas decorations....and the six appointments I made for Michael, myself, and Dad at the DMZ  DMV ...but I'm satisfied with the day. 

Sunday Fun

Our Sunday began with worship and then lunch at Panda Express with us and Brittany M.  Brittany dropped us off at Michael's (the craft store), while Michael and the guys ran to Lowes.

We'd barely gotten started when they were back to pick us up. Josiah and Jamin's church has recently changed service times so they haven't been making it out for lunch any longer. They DID come out for the afternoon and we watched a Spurs game, enjoyed games,  and YouTube videos of grizzly's chasing people. The big draw was determining if they were real or fake videos.  I choose to believe they are all fake. LOL

Nolan, Josiah, Michael 

Arielle and Benny stopped over for a visit this afternoon. Benny immediately asked for "Tea with Baachan," so we set about making that happen. I dried some giant grapes this summer and no one has wanted to eat the raisins. I discovered Benny likes "gummy grapes."

Benny and the gummy grapes

 The guys brought Cody for a visit. 

Jamin, Benny, Cody

Krista rested downstairs - she was fighting a headache. Stacia made chocolate/peanut butter treats with the mold she picked up at Michael's. The photo was fuzzy but they are in the shape of pizza slices, hamburgers and fries. LOL 

Dad, Stacia, Krista, and I watched an episode of the new series they enjoy. It's time to call it a night.

Bowling with Gather Women

Sixteen bowlers and twenty participants at today's Gather Women Bowling extravaganza.  It was fun to have Krista here this year. Stacia attended as well.

Such a good sport - "Do something bowling like." 

I was on the perfect team - we were all there for the people. Thus, we were all winners. I deliberately visited instead of taking oodles of photos....I didn't grab a photo of Nancy or Britney J. 

Stacia, Jessie, Jacque

Stacia, Jessie (?), Jennifer

Brittany M, Sandy, Allie, Krista

Personally, I broke 50. 😉I did not break my personal best of 70.  LOL  Jennifer did not bowl on our lane - she broke at least 100. Bonnie came!  She hadn't bowled in "years."  It was fun to have her with us.

Bonnie amazes me!

A photo to remember Elise. Who could forget Elise? 

I stopped at 3 Bears on the way home....Stacia and Krista went to the Pioneer Home ( a local Senior Citizen's Home). The youth were visiting and delivering flowers.

We were invited out for games - but shoot - it would have taken dynamite to get this family out again once the boys got home from work and the rest of us got home from "things." We spent the evening watching season 1 of McGyver so I can try to understand season 4. LOL

*Gather Women Ministry is a ministry of our local church, Matanuska Assembly of God (MAG not to be confused with MAT).

A Great Winter Day

Friday!  It feels like both a short and a long week. Short as in Monday was a holiday, Wednesday was a snow day....long as in we STILL had to get "all the things" done in a week. LOL 

There is a family who have moved to Alaska to help BreZaak with Alive Alaska. I will only be watching the sweeties one Friday night a month and so that was an extra 6 hours back into this day. I wasn't sure what we'd do, but was looking forward to spending a Friday night with the family...pizza and games? 

But FIRST - Alex and Michael prepared to leave for their Guy Study. I believe they are working through, "Your God is Too Safe."  I SAW this as I stepped out to say goodbye. Honest. 

Once it registered what I was seeing, I grabbed the camera and recreated it.  What do you see "wrong" with this photo? 

Yes, shorts in winter is a bit odd - but very Alaskan. Shoveling snow OFF DAD'S WINDSHIELD with a SNOW SHOVEL may be a quick snow removal trick, but is not father ordained. ::snort:: 

I was late to workout, but determined to get one in. I dragged dad down to the basement. He is not 100% enthused about the workout routine - but does stay on 2 - 4 minutes. I heard him telling the others he is riding the bike about 20 minutes a day. ::wink::

Cory has Friday and Saturday off this week - at the SAME TIME AS ARIELLE'S time off. This time is precious and I knew they planned to go to the river or something today. Therefore, it was a huge surprise when the door opened and we heard, "Baachan, I'm here."  Yay! They chose our house to play....

While they suited up and went out into the winter,  Stacia dragged me into a yoga routine - much as I drag Dad to the bike. 

Via Arielle's instagram - she SAID to take it

We finished yoga and I looked out the window...the camera with the big lens just happened to be in my hand...not a bit creepy. We stayed inside and gave them time alone to play.  It was snowing. Magical - and a bit cold. 

Benny, Cory, Arielle and Kimber

"A little help here, guys?" 

Did they notice my face plant? 

Check out that determined look on his face!

Kimber seems to love EVERYTHING about the snow! 

Cory found shelter from the snow

We maintained our inside stance until Arielle told us they WANTED to play with US,  if they wanted to be at the river they would have gone to the river. Ok, then...game on! We came out into the winter...how much snow is there? 

From the basement window

The frame of my greenhouse - sigh. 

The top of our tiki torch

Check out the well under the chair

Krista made it home from work

Michael and Alex came home. Michael and Cory did a bit of upkeep on Josiah's snow machines. 

BENNY - don't miss Benny helping

 Male bonding - priceless

Michael, Benny, Cory

 My snow shoes came out! 

Arielle - Via Krista's camera

 G Dog spends many happy minutes checking out the paper. He HAD been looking at houses and asking about various fees. The calculator came out and I got a bit worried. "Dad, are you planning on buying a house?"

No, evidently, today he is looking for "equipment" and "cars."  We do love our time with Dad. He chose NOT to go outside. He said he knew we'd all be back in when we got cold.

Cory on the snow machine - I'm thrilled they are packing down the snow. It is much easier to walk in when it's been packed down. 

Krista and Benny peek in at the uncles.

Benny and I pose for a photo

Benny wants to ride. He assumes we aren't going anywhere because he needs to work on the snow machine. 

Hmmm...it works for Papa.  

Krista fixed the snow shoes and enjoyed them. 

Via Krista's camera

Sister Shot

Krista, Arielle, Stacia - via Krista

 Arielle found a leaf. ARIELLE.FOUND.A.LEAF!!! See - hope of other seasons...it will not always be winter. Not in Narnia and not in Alaska.

Via Krista's camera

It was about this time Benny grew tired of waiting for a ride on the snow machine. Cory and Michael were having trouble with it in the deep snow and so were packing down a trail for easier riding before any of us took a turn. 

"Baachan, I got brrrr!"

It so happened I was brrr too - so we went inside.  Stacia was brr and happy to supervise the warming up process. 

Via Arielle 

Benny asked for hot chocolate. He knows the drill. Tea and hot chocolate. He informed me the frother from the 100 yen store is, "Not a toy!" 

He's great with the frother

It DOES work to put a nice froth on tea, coffee, OR Hot Chocolate.  I looked the frother up on Amazon and they are seriously more than 100 yen. LOL 

Tea time with Baachan. 

The rest of the tribe began to come inside.  Michael and Alex brought pizza home. We popped it into the ovens.  We happened to have an extra one from Walmart and invited CoRielle to stay for dinner; which they did.  

Via Arielle 

Arielle nailed this - even if it's just ritz and hot chocolate, or Papa Murphy's pizza - sitting around the table is a blessing we have learned not to take for granted. I can't begin to know if we'll always live close, but I recognize the blessing in this season. 

After CoRielle went home, Nolan and Alex headed for bed. They have to be at work at 0500. The rest of us watched Family Feud Funnies on YouTube. ::snort::

This was a day lived wide awake and fully present. It's so easy NOT to engage. I think we all feel this day was lived right.