THE FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT

O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Key of David, come, and open wide our heav'nly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high, and close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Dayspring, come and cheer our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night, and death's dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

#110, vs.1,5,6 from The Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary

THINGS IN TREES

SQUIRRELS

BERRIES

SMALL NESTS
LARGE NESTS

PINE CONES
HELLO KITTY PANTIES!?!?!?!

THINGS THAT START WITH T

TRAIL

TREES

TWIGS

TRAIN TRACKS

TOWER
TEVAS

THE POND

Friday was a beautiful sunny day, so I took a little hike with my camera. I grabbed my water bottle, my phone, and my camera and headed down the road to connect up with the bike trail that is about 3 miles from here. I didn't go all the way to the actual bike trail, just our connecting spur, because I had a camera full of photos just in the first couple of miles. And I am going to share.......probably a couple of posts worth!

As we say up North, "it's making ice," although not very quickly. The small ponds like this one are frozen over, but anything any larger still has only an inch or two of ice, and many open water spots. This is the time of year that the ice fishermen get anxious, head out on the ice too soon, and fall through, too often to their death. It needs to be much thicker to support a person, even more for a snowmobile, and a lot more for a vehicle.

See, this is a very small pond, and the ice is looking good. Especially when decorated with some
left over fall leaves. And there, on the bank, I spied an eager spring flower! Go back to sleep, dandelion, you need to sleep about 6 more months!

THE SECOND THANKSGIVING

We did not consume enough food at our First Thanksgiving, so we were forced to hold a second meal. Everyone knows you are supposed to consume about 3000 calories on Thanksgiving, and our first meal left us a bit short. We only had 1853, so we held a second, larger gathering, at our small town home where we consumed the lacking calories, plus an additional large amount, bringing our total well above the required 3000. We crammed 24 people and a ton and three quarters of food into this small space. Our town home has a greatroom. Here in the back of the photo you can see the kitchen, with a counter that separates it from the dining room, with a sofa that separates it from the living room! Small, but cozy, and we love it! However, it is not the most spacious spot for large family gatherings. We didn't have everyone present as Alaska is too far away for Chris to come for one meal, and Lenny and family from North Dakota couldn't make it either. And Gail is still receiving help for her addiction, so she wasn't there either. We missed them all a lot!

But the 24 of us that did gather here had a very close time. A very, very close time! I had ten by the table, four by the counter, five in the computer/sewing/guest room on my sewing table, and four in the living room with trays, and one decided not to eat. We made it!

And silly me, I took pictures of the first two families to arrive and then things got so crazy that I neglected to snap any further pictures. Below, on the sofa, are son Lance, his wife Tya, and their two girls, Jaden sitting by her dad, and Madison in the pink shirt. Lance was the only one of our sons to get a deer this year. He is the youngest of our seven kids.

These two guys pictures below are Joe in the white and Justin in the brown and orange plaid. They are the sons of our second kid, and oldest son, Kevin, and his wife Molly. Both of these guys are on the ski hills this morning, making good use of their long weekend.

Missing from these photos is my dear mother. She was feasting in Heaven with Jesus, and I'm sure didn't miss us at all. But we missed her. We did have lefsa, even though we had to purchase it this year, as mom was the lefsa maker for the family.

As most of you know, we are Lutherans. The main part of our instruction before our Confirmation in the eighth grade consisted of memorizing Luther's Small Catechism. At our church service on Thanksgiving Eve the congregation recited The First Article of the Apostles' Creed and the meaning of those words, and I would like to include these words here. It is perfect for Thanksgiving as it lists many of our abundant blessings:

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and earth.

What does this mean?

I believe that God has made me and all creatures; that He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still preserves them. That He gives clothing and shoes, meat and drink, house and home, wife and children, fields, cattle, and all my goods; that He richly and daily provides me with all that I need to support this body and life; that He defends me against all danger, and guards and keeps me from all evil. And all this purely out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy, without any merit or worthiness in me; for all which I am duty bound to thank and praise, to serve and obey Him.

This is most certainly true!

THE FIRST THANKSGIVING

I will probably have no readers today because you are all out shopping. Not me. I am sitting here with Josh Groban. He is singing Silent Night right now, on the first legal day to play Christmas songs. In my humble opinion.
Did you have this for your Thanksgiving meal? If not, you probably did not receive your allotted number of calories or fat grams for your feast. To remedy that you must rush over to Pioneer Woman's blog and make this Caramel Pumpkin Gingersnap Cheesecake. So There. Kari made it and I can attest to the fact that it is wonderful! Rich, but wonderful. Cut yourself a very small slice. Did I mention that it is rich? Enjoy!
Katie and Clayton (Ben snuck in the picture) hosted the first Thanksgiving meal at their home. This is the buffet we enjoyed there. We filled our plates here and then sat here

Thanks Katie and Clayton! Lovely table, wonderful meal, and excellent company. We enjoyed the time spent at your home very much. And we thank your mom, our daughter, Kari, for making Pioneer Woman's Caramel Pumpkin Gingersnap Cheese Cake. And did I mention that it is very rich?

THANKSGIVING EVE

Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him all creatures here below;
Praise Him above , ye heavenly host:
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving Day, filled with family, friends, and food. Don't forget to thank God for your food and ask Him to bless all who partake of it. Pray that He will continue to bless our country and keep it safe.

Have a wonderful day! I'll post some pictures of our celebration on Friday.

THANKSGIVING DINNER

Are you cooking for Thanksgiving? If you are, what are you making? I went to the grocery stores today to pick up the last of the things I'll need. I am making a turkey, dressing, gravy, Yukon Gold mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, pecan pie, lefsa.......and daughter and three daughters in law are furnishing the veggies, salads, pies, and dinner rolls. Think we'll have enough?

I was looking in the newspaper today for sales on the things I needed. Well, the sales were on: pretzels, crackers, and tortilla chips. None of those on my dinner table for Thanksgiving! There were also sales on stove top stuffing and I make my own so don't need that. There was also a sale on ground coffee, but I grind my own beans so don't need that. And a big sale on various kinds of pop. The grandkids would probably like that, but I didn't buy any. So, I didn't get anything I bought today on sale. In fact, I seldom find the things I buy on sale, or find a coupon for it. If you don't buy boxed mixes, instant whatever, highly processed foods, you don't find much on sale or with a coupon.

Oh, the meal I'm cooking is the second Thanksgiving meal of the day. Grand daughter Katie is having her first holiday meal of her married life! So we'll be there at noon. Guess we'd best just sample at both places, though. The newspaper this morning said it was not unusual for someone to consume over 2000 calories at one sitting on Thanksgiving. 2000 calories is what a grown man needs for a whole day! And I'm guessing no one eats just that one meal that day!

TRIPS

We took an unexpected trip yesterday, a fun thing to do when the sun is shining and masking the fact the the wind was blowing up a wind chill for us. Granddaughter, Katie, pictured below on her wedding day last May, had to go to the Cities to deliver a car, and she needed a ride home. So would grandpa and grandma follow her and give her a ride home? You bet we would! Gave us two hours in the car with just Katie and we had a wonderful visit. Katie is a new bride, a college student, and a PCA, making her life full to overflowing right now. But she is handling it very well, and we are so proud of her!

When we got home I had a few things to do before I could make supper for hubby. I had talked to Gail earlier, and we made plans to visit her today. She had asked for a couple of things so I set off to find them. She wanted some sweat shirts and sweat pants, and I thought I would check a couple of thrift stores first. I found one Viking (as in Minnesota Vikings football) shirt and knew she would love that, and it looked almost new. $3.00, not too bad. But I found nothing else except stretched out of shape, stained, hugely over priced, crap, excuse the language. So I went to the club Sam has, and stuff was high and couldn't find a small anyhow, which my 85 pound daughter needs. Went across the parking lot to Sam's Mart and found Hanes on sale for $5! Yes! I got her a couple of shirts and a pair of sweat pants, and she will be thrilled.

So, now it's hit the shower, meet my siblings for an early lunch, and then head off to visit Gail. She seems to be doing well. I hope and pray she is. And thanks for your prayers!

GOTTA LOVE MINNESOTA!

Okay friends in California, Florida, Oklahoma, Arizona, Arkansas, and all other places south of us. Prepare for company.....soon! The temp when hubby walked this morning was SEVEN degrees, with wind making the "feel like" temps below zero. Winter has arrived. If it's going to be cold, then we should at least have the beauty of snow, you'd think. Guess I shouldn't complain. The long lost sun is at least shining this morning.

However, it doesn't seem right that the temperature where our son lives in Alaska, which is waaaaaaaay North of here, was 23 at 5:30 am. After all, we live in SOUTHERN Minnesota!

TA DA!

These are Christmas fabrics with almost a vintage look to them. I like this table topper, even if I did put it together wrong! I just ended up with the pinwheels and squares opposite of how it was supposed to be. But when you're working with triangles anything can happen, and most of the time, if you are consistent with your mistake, it turns out fine, just not the way the pattern looks! I will be cutting out two more today, getting ready for another sewing marathon.
And this is why I am inside at the sewing machine. I am already sick of the gloomy skies of November, and next spring is a long way away! I guess that's why we're heading to Florida right after Christmas. The cold I can take better than the depressing sunless skies.

MY WEEKEND

Before I tell you about my weekend, I should tell you that I went to WalMart and bought a cheap keyboard with a USB connection and compatible with Vista. It works! Yay! I was getting so tired of typing each word and going back and inserting the missing letters. I will eventually need a new laptop, but for now I have an external keyboard connected and it works. Good enough for now. Now I have no excuse for not writing. I am missing my thumb pad right below my keys, however, and it seems awkward to reach up to the laptop for that, but again, it's good enough for now.

I had such a good weekend! We went to Wisconsin, about three hours from here. Hubby and three of his six brothers went grouse hunting. So us four women had a chick weekend! We got there about noon on Friday, and the guys loaded up and went to the cabin for their weekend of hunting. Us gals had coffee and a glass of wine and chatted away the afternoon. We went to a neat Italian restaurant for supper, and it was very good. Then we stopped to visit my niece, the daughter of our weekend hosts. She had moved to a new home that none of us had seen, so we had a tour of that and coffee and dessert. Thanks Rhonda! When we got home we all got into our jammies and watched Pride and Prejudice and got to bed after midnight. Late for us old people!

Saturday morning one of my sisters-in-law and I went to the funeral of a high school and college friend's wife. So sad. She was 62 and died of hernia surgery.......except that they nicked the bowel during the surgery and things went bad from there on. In the afternoon we again chatted, drank coffee and had a glass of wine. Dotty fixed a lovely dinner of chicken, rice and broccoli, and then we went to the Saturday night services at her church. We again got into jammies and had a movie night; this time we watched Under the Tuscan Sun, another good chick movie. And another late bedtime!

Sunday morning we had a leisurely breakfast and then put in the third movie, Kate and Leopold. The guys returned shortly after noon, with no grouse, but with tales of having fun trying! Then it was time to pack up and head for home.

It was so much fun for me to spend this weekend with these special gals. One of them, Joann, I have known since childhood. In fact, her brother and I decided when we were about 6 years old that we would get married when we grew up! Then another, Karen, I have known since before hubby and I married........44 years ago! And our hostess, Dotty, and I ran around together in high school! So these gals are all so dear to me. (My other three sisters-in-law are also special, but they weren't there. Just don't think I don't love you all!) It's such fun to act like silly giggly teenagers for awhile, let down all your guards, hang out in jammies, drink coffee, and just bask in the special kind of love that sisters by marriage, and in the faith, have for each other.

Thank you so much Dotty! Love you dearly! I hope we can do something like this again soon. Anyone busy next weekend? Start thinking of more movies to rent.....Mama Mia is on the top of the list!

*************************************************
Guess what. The keyboard is doing almost exactly what the laptop keys do. I don't think that sounds healthy.........it's probably a bigger problem than I thought it was. Keep your fingers crossed that I can hold out for awhile because I cannot afford a new laptop right now!

COMPUTER PROBLEMS

Still having keyboard problems, so it's really difficult to write anything. This morning I wrote a 10 line email, and I had to go back and put in 67 letters that were missing. It just takes way too much time to do anything so I haven't attempted to blog. Guess I'll just have to take pictures and post them with no words!

CHRISTMAS TABLE RUNNER

This table runner almost looks out of focus, but it's not. The light colored portions are kind of metallic, so it's a sparkly looking green with candle sticks, black with holly berries, and gold outlined leaves and petals on the poinsettia pieces. It's quite festive looking.

CARE FOR CREAM?

I was out of coffee cream this morning, and hubby offered to run up to one of the two gas stations in our little village to pick up a small container. He found some and brought it home for me, poured a cup of coffee, stirred in some cream, and brought it to me. YUCK! It was awful! I tried to drink it, thinking maybe it tasted bad just because I had a funny stomach yesterday, but it was beyond drinking. I asked if he had checked the date. Yes he had.

I guess a date of April 11, 2008 doesn't mean much to him on November 12, 2008.

HE will be returning it.

FINISHED ANOTHER TABLE RUNNER

Finished another table runner last night. Hope to get two more done today. Think I can do it?

NON-PRODUCTIVE WEEK

It seems like I've gotten nothing accomplished this week. Oh, I did clean up the sewing/office/guest room a bit, but really did no deep cleaning. I've had four table toppers sitting here to finish up, and only got one completed. Here's a photo:

I do like this one, and plan to make more of the same pattern. I have 6 more Moda charm packs so I can't say I don't have the fabric.

We are heading out to see Gail. We are supposed to notify her on a Wednesday if we want to visit on either Saturday or Sunday during the 1-4 visiting hours. However, we didn't know this until today. We are bringing a suitcase of clothes for her, and she said she can come out long enough for us to give it to her. Hopefully I'll get a chance to give her a hug and tell her we are so glad she is there, and that we hope she will work hard to get well. For her health and for her boys. I know 90 days probably isn't long enough, but it's a good start, and she can do a lot in that time. And I'll get to tell her I love her.

FIRST SNOW

We woke up this morning to big fluffy snow flakes drifting down in the almost wind free day. What a beautiful sight! I made a trip into town and stopped at daughter Kari's home for a few minutes as the kids had the day off from school. I saw this cold looking gerbera daisy in her flower box, still brightly colored.
These two birds live up my street, and seemed to be saying "hey, what happened?"

The house across the street from us has this wonderful orange berried tree. Oh, it was beautiful with the white snow decorating it's branches.

Just a few hours later, this tree in town boasted that it was snow free.

Aren't these three trees beautiful? The house in the background is for sale, and I've always wanted to go through it because of the rounded tower like rooms on the right side. Maybe this is my chance!

The beautiful flowers below are a peace offering.......Kari's husband, Mike, is off with Kari's brother, our son Kevin, for the opening of deer hunting. Mike kindly gave her flowers to make up for leaving her with the three kids for the weekend! They sure are pretty, aren't they?

SOME MORE PICTURES FROM THE NEW CAMERA

Remember, it's a gray day.............
The bike trail

The macro setting works

Everything is pretty gray

Heading back to my truck

Out at the state park

Sumac.......macro setting works!

Just a tree with berries on it against the gray sky.

I can't wait to try pictures with sunshine! But I think I like the camera a lot after taking pictures on a cold, rainy, gray day.

SOME PICTURES FROM THE NEW CAMERA

It is a very gray day, the sky filled with clouds, and sun was taking a rest But I could wait no longer to test out my new camera. I only used two different settings, iA for intelligent auto where all the choices were made for me, and the macro setting for a couple of flowers or weeds. I also used the zoom under the iA setting. Remember it is gray out!
I love the zoom!

Again, love the zoom.

Nobody is home in the bluebird house. I guess they went south.

The park had taken down a few cedar trees, resulting in a flower shaped stump!

See the deer trail through the grasses?

I told you it was gray!

CHANGES

A week or two ago I had made some changes to my blog format that seemed to be causing problems. I've had several folks inform me that my comment section wasn't working right and they weren't able to leave a comment. Just now I returned that to it's former state, so please try again and let me know if it still isn't working. I also had been told that the follower section didn't allow them to add their name, so I have removed that section from the blog. I will try again in the future to add it and see if it works. So, hope I've fixed the problems! Let me know.

ONLY IN AMERICA!

Good morning all. This is a new day for America. Back in the '60's when I was in school, who would have imagined that America would elect a black man as their President? But here, forty some years later, we have done just that! Only in America! We have gone to our voting places, on our own free will, not under threats or with guns pointed at us, and we were able to vote for the leader of our choice. Yes, we have a choice! Only in America! Once again the world looks at us with envy because of these freedoms we citizens have. Because it's only in America that this can happen!

And now our duty is to support our new leader, whether we voted for him or not, and we are to pray for our new President and and his choice of staff. The only time we do not have to obey our President is if he asks us to do something contrary to God's Word.

Remember that it's only in America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, that we have these blessings!

May God continue to bless America!

SHE HAD HER HEARING.....................

Just wanted to let you know that Gail was sent to chemical dependency treatment in a town about an hour and a half from here. It's a 90 day program where they will focus on the alcohol issues, the eating disorder, and the anger/mental health issues. I only wish the time would have been longer, as I don't know if 90 days is enough time to deal with all of those issues. But thank goodness she wasn't released to just go home.

I haven't talked to her, but did receive a voice mail from a counselor at the center. She said that Gail was there, was cooperating, and seemed ready to start work on her issues. Oh, I pray that is true. Thank you to those of you who have been praying for her, and if you'd care to continue praying for her, please pray for a miracle.

PRAYER ON ELECTION DAY

God bless our native land!
Firm may she ever stand
Through storm and night!
When the wild tempests rave,
Ruler of wind and wave,
Do Thou our country save
By Thy great might.

For her our prayer shall rise
To God above the skies;
On Him we wait.
Thou who art ever nigh,
Guarding with watchful eye,
To Thee aloud we cry,
God save the State!

from ELH - 602

I hope you all have voted, or are on the way out the door to do so. We all have our individual preferences, but when it is all done and over, and a new president and vice president have been declared, then it is our duty to obey the government unless we are asked to do something contrary to God's Word. Pray for our new president, vice president, and all others in authority, whether they are "our" candidate or not.

God Bless America!

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE VEHICLE KIND

I sure haven't posted very often lately, have I. I am here, and I am fine, just haven't had much to say that was bloggable!

I should say that I am fine, only by the grace of God. I think I've had four or five close calls in my truck within the past three days. Two of them really shook me up.

Two nights ago I was in town, driving down the main street that is lined with the strip malls, the restaurants, fast food joints, banks and gas stations. There is only limited access to those businesses. The majority of those places can only be entered from the side streets, the frontage road or the parking lots that run on the other side of the businesses. There is a concrete median between the two and three lanes that are running in each direction. The medians have street lights and stop lights at the intersections, so they are very clearly marked, very visible. I was heading to the west, in the left lane, when I saw a small red car coming right at me in my lane. This young woman should have been heading east on the other side of the median, but she was in my lane, heading the wrong direction. I looked to the right to see if I could pull over, but there was a big SUV right next to me. Fortunately he saw the red car and quickly speeded up, allowing me room to slip in between him and the car following him. We were all safe, no one even touched, but I'm guessing that several of us had pounding hearts! The cars behind me were able to slam on their brakes and avoid hitting her, too. The driver was a young woman, probably no more than twenty years old, and when she realized what she had done she threw her hands up in front of her face. At least she must have put her foot on the brake too, because she did come to a stop, and the traffic that had all come to a screeching halt for her, waited until she turned around and headed the other direction. However, if she would have come straight at me and we would have hit, she would have gotten the worst of the deal. My big Ford 350 diesel truck would have been all over her cute little red car!

Then this morning, as I was leaving Sam's Club, and again driving where I was supposed to be, going the right direction in a lane across the empty parking lot, a car headed cross ways across the lot, heading right for my door. This time it was an older woman, probably 75 or more, looking straight ahead, fists locked on the steering wheel, and pedal to the metal! I thought she'd T-bone me, but at the last second she made a sharp turn and swerved right in front of me, then slammed on her brakes at the stop sign before again flooring it to cut in front of an oncoming car on the side street.

There were a couple of other incidents the past few days too, and I'm feeling like I should stay off the streets for awhile until things calm down. These folk have had too much Halloween candy, I guess.