The Eve is upon us........

My garden downstairs stays green. I try not to over water them as the indoor climate is nothing like the summer weather.

I don't want to call it boring but it is not so exciting when it gets cold out there. Our skiff of snow is not a problem but the winds have been so cold.

I am sharing some Christmas photos of family. Ella was not so interested in what the stuff animal could be but she did like the stringy mane.

Our son Andy lies to rough house with his kids. This is Teddy who likes to rock and roll around.

Teddy came to visit us and do a little squirreling around. He is the middle child and is a little bashful. When he came over to us it was time to tickle him.

Our Christmas gift was a hit for AJ as he shared with us he can get on the internet and find one more way to put this together.  It already has directions for three different ways to assemble it.

Right after we had arrive to the house, AJ proceeded to place everyone's present in their own piles. Teddy is just young enough to no understand who's was who's. You can be sure that AJ set him straight about not opening his gift.

Once he found his piles he did get into unwrapping the gifts.















It was fun to spend a couple of days with the kids and grand kids. We finished off our day at a pancake place and then returned to there home for one more goodbye.

Thanks for stopping by today. It is New Years Eve and I hope everyone is well out there.

Olive Wood......

A menorah that is carved from Olive wood. It isn't a correct one and it is intended to be decorative. The real menorah has nine places for candles representing the eight days of the siege of trying to make the Jews give up their beliefs or die. They refused to assimilate.  The center candle is lighted first and then that candle lights all of the others,  each one night after another.

We were in Jerusalem and stopped by this shop that had all carved items from olive wood. This is the back view of the piece that we bought.  We didn't look too closely at the piece so it does have a lesser quality than we thought we had purchase.

It is a great piece for what it represents. There were large carvings there and we wanted a representation of what we saw at the shop.  The carvers were all in the basement of this shop working with many pieces of wood sitting around them. There were wood chips everywhere.

Olive trees live for a very long time so I don't know where they harvest their wood.  I suppose some of them die and they could cut them down.  These trees are in the Garden of Gethsemane and they are not cut down.  We were told that these are offsprings of the trees that were originally growing there. I think I remember some do live to be hundreds of years old.

While visiting the area of Nazareth where the recreated a village was,   we were given oil lamps. They were used at the time of Jesus and some potters of today quickly created these things in order to resemble the days of old. The oil is poured into the container and the string wick soaks up the oil. The wick is lighted so that it will burn on the spout. I think they look like a fire hazard.


Snowing here today lightly and it is slick driving conditions. We are in for the rest of the day. Thanks for stopping by today.

Sunday's Post...

A new sculpture that really is not and angel. It is a mother nature woman of the woods. Her skirt is carved to look like birch bark. She does have woodland wings like an angel and they too are carved to resemble birch bark also. Jim Shore is the original artist that recreates these for sale.

On the front of here birch bark skirt is this wooded scene with cabin and deer. It is a wonderful creation.

I almost forgot about this tradition of buy my wife one of these.  I went to the Hallmark Store and they had just a few things for sale. Most of them were not Christmas themed and this was exactly what I wanted. Jim Shore is the artist.

We are having a quiet day at home today. We are still weary from out Chicago trip.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Grand Kids Visit......

Our grand kids get to enjoy a young version of the manger scene. The ginger bread house is a Christmas tradition that our son has started with his kids a few years ago. I think he enjoys building them as much as his two boys. There were two houses even though you only see part of one.

We just returned from a visit to see the kids and grand kids. Ella is over seven months old now. We first saw her at three months and she changed so much since then. She is starting to move around. When placed on the floor she rolls around front to back. Yesterday she started to crawl with her arms. She flips around all over finding herself a long distances from where she had started. The gate to the downstairs will have to go up  pretty soon.

Teddy will be four next April. He is some shy at his age, but he is so full of energy.  He bounces at all times and has a wonderful smile. He enjoyed opening Christmas presents and finding a new talking books and building blocks filling station.

AJ will be seven years old in February. He inherited his height from his dad.  He is a serious Lego creator. He now has a Lego game that he can play with on the computer. He has grown up a lot and yet is still a kid.

We were encouraged by his parents to hold the little girl for a lot ot the time. She is so sweet with a great smile. A happy baby who let her grandparents enjoy her. We both had time to hold her when she really wanted to bounce.  I sat her down once on the floor and she took off rolling around and exploring everything on the floor.

We survived our trips to and from Chicago area. Our weather stayed good and today we are having rain.

Thank you for stopping by today.

A Year in the Past.......

Christmas Day......

My wife bought perfect wrapping paper for me this year. I like all the memories of all of the drawings of the past.

I wish all my blogging friends a Merry Christmas. We have chatted and shared and have been through a lot this year. I wish you all  to be well today.

Christmas Eve....

They do look better when they are placed under the tree. We actually went back today and picked up one more item for our Chicago family and finished wrapping them this afternoon. There were a lot of last minute things being sold in the stores.  I tried to be as friendly with the clerk and she was very happy because she was leaving to go home at eleven o'clock.

We are headed to the Christmas eve service soon and will be home later to wrap a few more presents for each other. Thanks for stopping by today. 

Christmas .....

My trains are on display year round now so I don't bring them up to be a part of he decorations. The metal train was my first one.  It really is not in good shape

Our cards are not mailed and we are going to an afternoon desert party with our friend. We have a few presents wrapped but I bet more will be done today. I went to the grocery store this Monday and it was a frantic place. I could not find a place to park at first.  I could not find what I wanted there but I did mail the cards at the grocery store.  Thanks for stopping by today.

In Bethlehelm.....

Random shots of the area. Thanks for stopping by today.

December 21st......

The train is busy carrying kids on loops around the track. We were to return one more time today to this mall as we were just too tired to get it all done yesterday.  Today we did well and by the time we finished the crowd was just starting to get hectic.

Santa was taking a break before they opened the door to let more kids into the area. Santa had a helper who maybe wasn't so scary as the guy with all those wiskers.

I think the guy is selling flowers to the girl. I like seeing the horse drawn wagons in the village. We have put the village up early this year so we can enjoy it more.

I haven't been out to take photos of my neighbors lights but I will probably soon.  He loved putting things up and has every space filled with trees or blown up snowmen. He has three deer that look really great. Our neighbor hood is not decorating so much compare the the street east of us. I live next to two houses that don't decorate ever.

Thanks for stopping by today. I wish everyone to be well and that the season is a fun one for everyone.

Snowmen.....

I bought a set of snowmen a few years ago with twelve of them all doing different things. I found on the net yesterday an estate was trying to sell the two sets of them as antiques.

I know they are not antiques but they still are fun to own. The market is not flooded with them anymore and I don't think I have looked for any this year. Most of the time I pick them up at after Christmas sales.

We don't get so many photos anymore in our Christmas cards but this one was full of photos. Our grand kids are growing up. The one photo of the two boys with Ella is my favorite. She is on AJ's lap in her red and white sttripped sleeper. Teddy always has an award winning smile. The one with Ella shows here in a dress that was her baptismal outfit.

The season is a busy one and we will be out and about today. It isn't a bright sunny day but it is warming up a bit.  I hope all is well with everyone. Thanks for stopping by today.