Sunday before Christmas

 An aging bouquet that has a few flowers still appearing to be fresh. On variety of flower dropped petals all over the floor and I had to dispose of them. It was a very fragrant variety and I missed that. 

 They are hand carved from wood of the olive tree. Only scraps from fallen branches or pruned parts of the very old olive trees in Israel. The candle stand is a Menorah one with seven branches as the Hanukkah has nine branches. 

 The merry go round plays many tunes and sometimes one just wants it to turn with no music at all. I have Christmas shopping yet to do in the next two days. Time is running out. I have cards to get sent also. It will all happen. Thanks for stopping by today.

Sunny Day Saturday

 

 Carved wood pieces made from olive wood. They were made in a business that sits at the edge of Bethlehem. The pieces are displayed on a shelf that is below a photo of the Sea of Galilee at Capernaum, Israel. 

We going into a warm spell with upper 50s predicted. I am amazed for the length of the warm spell but I know that weather patterns do balance out.  Christmas is coming and things seem to be falling into place. I have some moe shopping to do but I can get it done in the next few days. Thanks for stopping by today.

Friday Is......Almost Finished

 The wreath started out as a pretty plain looking circle of green. We had it over our fireplace at the old place. As time passed by, ornaments were added. More ornaments and berries were added and then some fake poinsettia for more texture and color. I have added lights in past years  but not this year.

 

 

There are a couple spots of blue in the arrangement. I am not sure why I did that but it looks good.

 

 I had a medicare check up today that took about an hour. I was warned by the receptionist that he liked to take a good amount of time to do it and he did. I ended up with some change in a med and a newer versian of the pneumonia shot. I also got prescribe two other shots from the pharmacy.  The shot that I had today did a good job of giving the whole arm some pain.  

We are a little bit more warmed up today but it is not above freezing. My neighbor across the street has workers replacing old siding with a newer kind.  The house never had a vapor barrier on it so that will help to keep them warmer this winter. 

I need to run for two meds and a few groceries this afternoon and I will need to  wear my winter coat. I hope I can beat the rush of after work people who crowd the store. Thanks for stopping by today.

Thursday's Things

 

 

 

 We spent the morning buying gifts for grand kids and their parents. It is purchased and now it has to be wrapped. I will ship it all out tomorrow. It probably will take two boxes to get them all shipped. It is a windy day today as the snow continues to melt away. We had a rain last night that melted off a lot of the snow in the yards. It actually is a sloppy mess now. 

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Middle of the Week

 

 

 We melting away all that snow for a brown Christmas. It is safe driving when the snow is all gone. We had a lot of projects going on today and tomorrow we need to do  more shopping for grand kids and their parents. We are taking it one day at a time. Thanks for stopping by today. 

Lights and Color

 

 

 

We had a warm up day. It actually was only 42 degrees F. and melting did take place. We still have lots of snow but the sidewalks and the streets are mostly dry. It takes a lot of warmer days to be rid of snow but it is winter. Some people will be sad if it isn't a white Christmas.

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Monday's Mentions

 It has warmed a bit compared to where we were. The high today was 35 degrees F.

 The rise on the horizon is a blocked view now by my neighbor's house. I like though how I can see its glow on the house down the street two rows over from our back view. The snow melted off their roofs partially during the afternoon. 

 

The last tree to be assembled glows out in front of the window for all to see outside.There are probably too many lights on it but I don't think it is a bad thing to load them down. 

 

I remember the history of most of the ornaments. Some are gifts but most were bought on special sales after Christmas. I really enjoy seeing the different ways that they are decorated as they are created. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  

Sunny Cold

 While looking outside this morning I could see the trails from four different jets from the Omaha Air Force base. It was very cold out there but I am sure that doesn't bother the pilots in their compartments. 

 

 

It to be -6 degrees F. this morning before it warmed up to 10 degrees F. It was a clear morning and while looking out it didn't looks so cold. It was very cold though and we stayed inside all day today.

 Looking down towards the new fence I can see the fence has stopped the drifting that usually takes place between the houses. The new owners have workers here putting gates in to finish off the security of their back yard. Neither side of there house was connected to the neighbors fences. 

 Our gift wreathe has come from our Mainer kids. It has the sand starfish on it and the lights on it are timed to come on in the evening. We enjoy having it on the inside of our sun room door and it stays fresh as we don't heat it out there all night.

 My wife has an appointment tomorrow morning so we will be out then. I have the last of the tree service people returning to take out the stump from the tree that they removed many weeks ago. I don't have to be here for that. The guy forgot that it hadn't been done so he will return with his workers to chop it out and fill it in with dirt. I am sure business is slow right now so they are going back to finish up work. It will be cold out there with about eight inches of snow on the ground. Also he can't bill me until he finishes the job. 

Thanks for stopping by today. 

9 Degrees F.

 We had a good length of time with it snowing. I don't know the exact depth but I blew about five inches or more of snow off my driveway this afternoon. I returned later to get the mail and it is now 9 degrees F. I don't usually used the word wicked but that was wicked cold. In this photo in the afternoon you can see the sun shining on the tips of the neighbor's trees but that is not making it feel warmer.

 This morning a mourning dove was out there on the railing. It had a bit of seed but it just sat and looked around for a long time. When I finally took its picture I couldn't get its head in the right position and it then just left after I took the one shot. 

While I was downstairs feeding the birds inside, I saw outside birds looking for stray seeds. I opened the door and threw out some waste seed from the bird cages. They came back immediately. The shot is through the window but I like what phone camera recorded. 

 

 This is the sun room tree.  I did finish putting up the last tree in the spare room this morning. I had assembled it yesterday and this morning the work of putting on the lights took place. My wife hung around after the lights were on and she helped put on the ornaments. That tree is squeezed in between the wall with window and a bed so it is more of a challenge. Tonight the public will see it lighted. 

 

We went to the church last night to see a Christmas program. We went to that particular one as the next two scheduled days for the program looked too cold or too windy. We were right. It wasn't pleasant to be out last evening but now the temps have dropped severely.  I doubt we will go to church tomorrow morning but we can watch both services on TV streaming.  That will be warmer for sure.

 

Thanks for stopping by today. 

 

Friday's a Normal Winter Day

 

 

 

We had a snowfall that got us to be white again. Another snowfall is predicted with the wind picking up tomorrow. The windchills on Sunday are bone chilling for sure. I assembled the last tree today in our spare room. It is intended for our outdoor viewing from the street. It was a different brand of fake tree and it was harder to assemble but less confusing. No lights are on it yet but maybe tomorrow when we are snowed inside. 

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Thursday's a Snow Day

 

 I think they are happy ducks or geese. They are all dressed up for Christmas for sure.  I have had them for years and really don't know where they originated from as a gift or a purchase. 

 A mourning dove in the tree looks down on the viewer. My wife has collected lost of birds for our tree. Some are ceramic and others are feathered covered forms. 

 

 Our oldest son was born 50 years ago and he was gifted this cloth elephant from one of my fellow teachers. She was Virginia Strong from Sidney, Iowa and taught fifth grade for years until she was force out because she didn't have a completed teacher's degree. I never really appreciated the stitching on this but the different decorations are fun to see. I like the red heart and the two holly leaves with berries. The pink circle is the rosy cheek color.

 I found one stray box of smaller ornaments that we had to put on the tree today. Every box is marked for which tree and this one got put to the bottom of a pile. The detailing on this one took a lot of time with all the added trees and decorated paint jobs.

 It has started to snow again today. We lost a lot of snow with the the warm winds yesterday and now we are cold again. I had to refill the feeders again and the birds are happy again. Thanks for stopping by tdoay.

 

Middle of the Week

 

 

 

 

It is a big process of lights and then ornaments but it is all worth it. I accidentally  bought some white lights that ended up to be twitter lights. I scattered the line all up and down the tree so it now has some spots of twittering here and there. It is a nice affect even though it was not planned. Buying Christmas lights can be an adventure especially if you don't read the boxes. I bought a couple of sets that look like the old fashion cheap lights and they ended up being battery powered. I liked them too but so that is three sets of lights that I didn't plan for at the time. 

 Our oldest son is 50 years old today. He was born at Grape Community Hospital in the farther most town in southwest corner of Iowa, Hamburg, Iowa. We will call him tonight to wish him well after he gets home from a band concert of one of his sons. We will try to watch the concert if all the tech works out correctly. Andy was an outstanding trumpet player and won the top soloist award at a state jazz band concert. His son now plays that trumpet. 

We had strong winds for ten hours and the temps were warm enough that it melted a lot of our snow. We are headed to the deep freeze again soon.  

Thanks for stopping by today. 

 

Tuesday's Things

 My wife finished her angel tree today with continual touch ups taking place. It is a shiny wonderful tree.

 

We did do some melting today. There is a lot of snow so it keeps it from melting so quickly. We were up 45 degrees F. and then the wind is going to pick up. We are in a severe weather warning as the wind is suppose to so very strong. They say it will wake us up in the night. I hope my neighbor deflates all of his inflatable decorations so the won't go heading down the street. 

We do have our big tree up now. We took it slow and did have the top already to go so it was put on the stem. We even put the angel on first as it would be easier to reach before all the branches are put on it.  I will have to put the lights on tomorrow. It is a fake tree but it has been such a good one for us for so many years. 

 My wife's village is all up now. She perfects it as time goes by and she does treat it like an art work. Everything is placed in a scene and things do have to make sense. All the smaller houses are in the distance as they would look smaller anyway because they are in the distance. The people are in groups that show them doing village life kind of things. I will share more photos each day as it is fun to photograph. 

 Thanks for stopping by today.