Dylan is a teenager

Saturday December 29 our oldest grandchild turned 13.

He is a sweet, considerate, gentle young man.
He has a quick sense of humor and can make me laugh really hard at times.
He is tall and thin like his Mom, but I can see his Papa Down in him. He kinda sits back and watches things before joining, but he will help with anything when asked. He is the first to make sure that the game is played fairly and wants to win every time.
He has the highest score in Wii Just Dance, and likes to tease me with it. My excuse is I am older and I am sticking with that.

He puts up with having his picture taken with his papa and grandma.

 And even suffers through with kisses from 2 of his Grandmas. He didn't want too, but he did, true Dylan style.

He has lighten up our lives in so many ways.
Happy Birthday Dylan -Love you

Christmas

I had a great Christmas.
It started with a brunch Christmas Eve morning at Carrie and Dave's. We have been getting together this morning every year since 84. A life time for some.

Mary and Bryan hosted Christmas Eve.
That woman can sure cook. Everything was delicious.

I snuck a present under their tree for Brian. I have no idea why I didn't make him his bunny suit earlier, but last year when we talked about it again I went out after Christmas and bought the material. Actually the gift said to Brian - From Aunt Clara, so he knew then.

He liked it! More like he loved it.

My kids were very, very good to me.
The grandkids even sat with me for a yearly "look how we have grown" picture.

Cookie Bake

Another year baking cookies.
Sharen and I spent Saturday morning with our "daughters" and our grand children baking cookies.  (We both want to leave a tradition of warm Christmas memories to our families of something we both love to do - bake cookies). I can't say granddaughters, because little grandson Matthew has turned into quite the helper. I knew that he liked to spend time in the kitchen helping his Momma and Grandma so when I saw this super hero material I knew that I had to make him an apron.
It was a huge hit.

He tried to get Roger up on the stool to help. Next year for sure.

We baked and decorated and baked some more.

 So many different cookies. YUM

 "Papa daycare" was hopping with 3 kids age 17 to 20 months old. Matthew and Kaylyn would occasionally join in the fun. Kaylyn would curl up in ball in the box and "surprise" the little ones. Notice Kendell in the back ground - That is as close as she got to the action. The same little girl who spent her first few minutes standing in the corner whining, waiting for Sharen (Grandma) to show up.

The place was chaos.  If you could of heard the noise. 3 little people that communicate by grunt, yells and  screeching. Kendell loves bells and walked around carrying our reindeer rope of bells. I wish I had a picture or better yet a video, but I was too busy baking and cleaning up. I loved it all.

I think maybe next year we will have to make it a cookie exchange. Everybody can bake the cookies at home and bring them with them. And while the grand kids (Roger, Kendell, and Kallie will be old enough to help) are decorating the cutout cookies - us adults can sit around, drink some cocktails and visit with each other. Sounds like a plan!

Gingerbread Houses

Kaylyn's teacher was looking for volunteers for helping with her second grade class to help them make gingerbread houses.
When Kaylyn called and asked me if I wanted to help I jumped all over it.
It was for first thing in the morning so I picked her up and we went to school together. She took me to her classroom and I met her teacher. She then took me to the cafeteria where the assembly of house was to take place.
There were several parents and 2 of us Grandma's there.

One girl asked Kaylyn if I was her Grandmother and Kaylyn told her Yes.

She said "I brought my Grandma too."
Kaylyn with her house.

This was so much fun to watch these kids and their imagination. One boy put a chocolate cookie on the roof. I asked him "What is that?" he told me it was his roof top. I told him it look like his house had a satellite dish for TV. I moved on and helped another little girl open all her candy canes. When I returned to the boys table 3 more boys showed me their "dishes" on their roofs. We all laughed.

When I got home I heard about the tragedy in CN and cried.
I just left a cafeteria full of innocent, laughing, little 7 yr olds, making gingerbread house in a small town just like there.

Just Asking

I have been terrible this Christmas about second guessing myself.
I have taken back a total of 6 gifts already. Maybe there is something for this last minute shopping thing. Buy it  - Wrap it - DONE!

Of course, I am making a few gifts this year. When I think I am done I see something and am convinced that so and so would love that. AND I am sure I can get it done before Christmas. So I start a new project.

Then I tell myself, Christmas is just 2 weeks away. Hummmmm...Really?

I started it anyway.
Ran to Joannes got the material and got started.

Everybody knows that you measure TWICE cut once. I get rushed and cut the damn material wrong. Need 4 inch strips and I cut it 3 inch.
Now what? Usually I would stop take a breath and come back to it later. (sometimes months later)
Hey Karen, Christmas is 2 weeks away!!
So I look in my stacks and stacks of fabrics to see if there is anything else I could use. Lo and Behold there is the same fabric...

So I ask you.
Does finding that material mean that I have too much material that I forget about it?
OR does it mean I am building a good back up system that just needs organization?
Just Asking!!
OK, You really don't have to answer this, because any quilter knows you can NEVER have too much material.

Santa Breakfast

Roger (Bryan & Mary) invited us to go have breakfast with Santa. His preschool teachers were hosting it at the hospital's cafeteria. (Roger's daycare is at the hospital.)

He was all about the eating. Clearly he gets his eating habits from his Father.

 When eating was done Santa shows up. "Come on Daddy - Santa's here!"

 He thought Santa was cool from afar.
Then he was curious about his bell bracelet.

 When it came for lap sitting he was having NO part of it. He clung to Mommy, but no tears or crying.

Santa was really gentle with the kids and ask each parent if it was OK to stand, to touch and to hold their kids. Roger took his book and candy cane and got outa there.

Let there be Light

When we first visited this house when we were looking to move I fell in love with the light fixture over the dining room table. It is the first thing I notice when I walked in the front door. I liked that it shown down just around the table and didn't light up the whole room.  It has 3 of the coolest green glass shades.

 It was starting to look dated and when we changed out all the hardware and knobs on the cabinets in the kitchen to silver I knew that it was time for the fixture to go. I still wanted one that the lights went down and maybe find one that I could still use the green glass shades. Well I have been looking for several months. They all seem to want to shine up. I knew that I would find one if I just kept looking.
The nice man at Home Depot told me to look online - They had more selections there.

Ok - Like I haven't thought of THAT myself. Duh!
Home Depot didn't have it, but Lowes did! I decided to wait to order online and see if the Lowes in Geneva (next door to Joannes) had one. woot! woot! there it was.
Looks pretty darn good too.
Mike installed it, with a bit help from me and I only had to ask once - "Do you want me to call Bill?" That got me a dirty look.

He did good, Bill!

walking

The grand kids spent the night on Saturday.
After a big breakfast of pancakes, eggs, sausage, bacon and "Candy bacon" (I found this recipe in the new Alex Cross book - Merry Christmas, Alex Cross) Kaylyn ate 3 pieces - she would of ate it all but Papa had to have some and me and the boys each took a taste. I felt the need to take a walk. I invited the crew to go with me and Sharen for a hike 'round the circle. Mike stayed back to clean the dirty dishes.
The kids ran ahead and made the turn to take the "longer" route. I am sure this was Kaylyn's idea - she was on a mission to find deer. As soon as we got back on the main trail the boys made the turn for home and the girls continued on.

Kaylyn holding up the railroad tracks. I admit I need some work on this kind of picture taking, but we had fun.

We found a clear "deer path" and Kaylyn insisted on going to see if she could find them sleeping. Sharen was a brave soul and followed. No deer.

It was a warm perfect day for a hike.