On December 14th, my dear friends Fred and Elizabeth had a little baby girl! Thankfully, I was scheduled to head to Pa the next day, so got to meet her on December 15th! Chloe Elizabeth is beautiful, and her "auntie" loves her! What a thrill to get to see her so quickly. I was afraid it could be several months before I met her. Instead, it was only 1 day!
After meeting Miss Chloe, we headed over to Gettysburg for a winter reprive :) We spent time on Tuesday roaming around the battlefield, and enjoyed more snow. Not as much snow as last year, however!
The next day, my friend Mark drove over and we spent a nice day in Gettysburg. We toured the Eisenhower Farm, and it was decorated with their Christmas decorations!To add to the atmosphere, they were playing the Eisenhower's Christmas Records! That was so cool! The dining room table was set with their Christmas plates, silver cups, etc. After visiting there, we spent a good deal of time touring the new Visitor's Center in Gettysburg. If you like history, you must visit this place. They have really made a lot of improvements, and it was very enjoyable. The only fly in the ointment was that the Cyclorama and Lincoln Film were down for maintainence. After we toured the Visitor's Center, we drove around a bit at sunset. Beautiful!
The next day, we headed over to Lancaster, Pa, and met Mark's mom and dad at the Shady Maple! We had a great time, and enjoyed a delicious meal together. It is always so fun to get together!
That evening, I started my Christmas shopping at one of the outlet malls in Lancaster! The next day, Mom and Dad and I went to the Choo-Choo barn, near Lancaster. I had been on my birthday, but they wanted to see it! They were as impressed as I was! It's just an awesome place to visit, if you ever get the chance! We then went to the Outhouse, where we got a few more gifts. The Outhouse has all kinds of funny stuff, but I did get Janae a Hello Kitty stuffed toy for Christmas there. That afternoon, Mark met up with us, and took me shopping at the other outlet mall, and then he dropped me off at the big Lancaster Mall while he went to pick up his new car. I love the car, by the way! It is an '06 silvery blue Impala. Absolutely gorgeous! After picking me up, we then headed to Kitchen Kettle Village, where I pretty much finished my Christmas shopping! Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of our time in Lancaster. Too busy hauling shopping bags around, I guess! But it was such a relief to get it done, and enjoyable to shop with Mark. He enjoys shopping, so was very tolerant and patient with me :) We had a great time, and I hated to say goodbye. But Indiana was calling us home for Christmas! We spent Saturday on the road, and then I had to conduct the adult choir at church the next evening. That went really well, and the Lord really helped us! We had a drama with it, that the teenagers performed. They did a great job, and it really added to the cantata! I again forgot my camera :( I hope Alzheimer's isn't setting in! Lol..
The next day, I started wrapping presents! I was able to get everything done before Christmas, even though I was in a time crunch! Our family celebrated Christmas together on Christmas eve. It is always a joy to share a special meal, listen to Dad read the Christmas story, and watch the kids open their gifts! Jared was sick with a stomach flu, so he didn't feel like opening presents. You know a kid is sick when he can't open gifts! I felt so sorry for him, but we still had a good time! Here are a few pics from Christmas eve.
On Christmas day, David's family came over, as well as my Uncle Joe, Aunt Charlotte, Cousin Steve, Mam-ma and Kenny, my great-aunt Marjorie(who arrived the night before,) and we even got my Nana from the nursing home! Diane's family came for a while in the afternoon. We had a wonderful meal, and then Steve, David and Jilayne and I played several games of Clue. Let me just say, my brother is a cheater :) Kidding, but no one should win 3 out of 4 games! And once, he figured out the answer from something Steve had done! Man! After eating again, we played some serious Rook(same 4 plus my brother-in-law, Daniel.) We had a really good time, but I stayed up way too late since I had to be at work at 7am the next day! But I survived, and we had a wonderful holiday. Here are a couple pics from Christmas day.
We were thankful that Jared felt much better and was able to open and enjoy his gifts! On the picture of the three older ladies, the one on the left is Nana, Aunt Marjorie is in the middle,and my Mam-ma is on the right. I am so fortunate to still have both of my grandmothers!
On December 30th, I headed to Indianapolis for an appointment, and to run some errands. I also was very fortunate to spend the day with Joy, my childhood friend! She and her children were here from Colorado, visiting her parents. We had a wonderful day! It is always nice to be with people that have known you since babyhood! I honestly can't remember ever not knowing Joy. We attended one another's first birthday parties :) Her children, Kadyn and Jace, are sweet and adorable! I just wish I could see them more often.
On New Years Day, I went to Bloomington with my parents, and we enjoyed shopping at Barnes and Noble, and dinner at Chili's! Here is a pic of me and Snickers!
On January 2nd, after getting off work, I met my cousin Steve and our friend Mark B. for some Mexican food. Mark had driven over from Ohio to spend the weekend. It was great to see him again, even if he does give me a hard time about blogging :) After eating, we went to Steve's house, and played games. My cousins Michael and Susanne were also there, along with their families. And my aunt and uncle of course! We had such a fun time! It is always great to be with friends/family! The next day, Steve and Mark met me at my house, and we started the long journey to see our friend Kristin! She was home(near Chicago) from Guatemala, and we desperately wanted to see her, and have a revival of the singles club! It was so great to see her and her family. We went out for some Chicago pizza, and then spent the afternoon playing Rook at her house. Of course, Mark and Kristin think they're way ahead of Steve and I, but they only won 1 more game than we did! We had lots of friendly rivalry, sarcastic comments(in fun!) and too much candy :) The only bad thing was the long drive there and back! Wow! Don't know if I can do it all in one day again of not! But it was a blast, and we probably won't get to see her maybe until next Christmas.
Well, believe it or not, I am drawing to a close on this forever blog~! School is back in session, and going well. We are trying to get ready for competition in March, so that is making things a bit busier. And it's difficult to stay on track when the weather just doesn't cooperate! I'm home today on a snow day, but last week we were home most of the week due to the wretched weather/roads. The only day we went to school last week was Monday. Southern Indiana was pretty much shut down last week. Driving into town was like going cross-country! Bump, bump...trying to choose the ruts wisely! We had about 5 inches of snow, followed by 2 inches of ice, then followed by another 7 or so inches of snow! It took forever to get the cars out of the driveway! I had time to blog last week, but wasn't in the mood. So you get it today. Here are a few pics of the snow.
So there you have it. We had snow, it was beautiful, and I'm ready for spring! Lol!
One funny thing before I put this one to bed. I sang in a trio a week ago with my sister, Diane, and sister-in-law, Jilayne. We decided to sing "How Big Is God," and Dad had a recording of it by the Blackwood Brothers. So we listened to their arrangement, and Diane said "So instead of the Blackwood Brothers, we're going to have the Sycamore Sisters." We all cracked up, and it was hard to practice for a bit! But the song went well on Sunday anyway :) So that's about caught you up on my life. Of course, I've had to leave out some stuff, due to time constraints. But I hope I've given you enough to make you happy :)
Until next time..... :)
2 comments:
Wow. That's all I can say, is "Wow". I will comment on the pictures in a few days when they finally all load on my computer.....just kidding, we do have high-speed, good thing :-)
Great pictures, and it was great to see you guys too :-) And of course, great to beat in Rook. The masters rule!
So you finally blogged, too! Mine's shorter and easier to read, but doesn't catch up. But that editor in the writers' conference, and then one of my daughters, said that I was "wordy," so I guess shorter is better.
Anyway, Welcome back to blogland.
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