Happy New Year

Newest Project

This puzzle was a birthday gift. My table in the basement is now clear and I have gotten it started. It will take a while as it is fairly tough. When finished, I will mod-podge it and add it to my nativity collection. Look for it on one of my walls next Christmas!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone!!!! We will be staying in Jefferson and happy we had gotten together on last Saturday, before the predicted storms. The kids are adapting their plans to fit the weather. So everyone should remain safe and have a good time. That's the best Christmas ever!

Report for Marg

I got out to LTC to try on yesterday about 4pm. Mom was napping in her chair and had to be convinced to try things on. "I don't need anything. I don't like to try on stuff!" (She is always crabby when she first awakens.) And was sure she didn't have time before supper @ 5. I have the robe sleeves turned under and have the pj's cut off and pinned to sew. The cookies were in her room and I figured they were from you. ??? I think I'll try to add a piece from what I cut off the pants to put in the V of the neckline. She hates bare necks and it still should slip over her head ok. The robe should really work well. It is nice soft material. (12-24) The cookies weren't from Marg. Who was the generous person that is not getting credit for a nice gift? (12/29- The cookies are from Stacey and family. Thank you, Stacey!)

Family Fun

Saturday evening our family got together to celebrate Christmas. Mara got reaquainted with everyone. Hil got a good chance to hold her as Abbey arrived later after the wrestling tourney. It didn't take long for Calvin to connect with Tristin for a ping pong partner. (Calvin likes to win!) Food, presents and a good time!

Pizza Hut

Teresa Dave, Calvin, Reid and Erin stopped at the Pizza Hut before the swim meet. Calvin and Reid look "so grow up" after their stop for pizza. Not good conditions for pictures, but enjoyed seeing part of the meet. (Left at break after Jeff had swam 3 times) That is him in the picture finishing his leg of a relay..

King Herod

________________ Sunday evening was the St. Joseph's children's Christmas program. As has been the program for generations, the 5th graders put on the Christmas Pageant. Here you can see Calvin as King Herod. Since there wasn't any school Wednesday, Faith Formation was cancelled also. The only practice was just before the program. The kids did very well. A soup supper followed at the Parish Center. Some of my nativities decorated the tables. This table was set up late, as we had more crowd than anticipated. (But Skallas were part of the decorating committee and did the set-up/take-down and transport of the nativities, so never missed not having a centerpiece.)

Busy Saturday

Jeff and Calvin were overnight guests. David and Teresa had gone to USD to move some of Hil's belongings back to Iowa. Abbey stayed at one of her friends. Jeff left early Sat. to get to Boone to catch the bus to Hoover for his swim meet. Calvin and I headed to Odgen for his 10:00 basketball game. ( They lost, but the other team played better. Calvin did fine and keep going.) Then, as weather was still holding, we went over to the high school for the wrestling meet. After three team matches, we headed home. (Jefferson had a layoff before their final match.) Calvin spent time with some of his favorite things, watching football and games/puzzles. I did beat him in ping pong, but he has really improved and I won't be able to do that much longer. Calvin had been picked up before we got home from mass, so we went out to eat without his company. Everyone was back home before the mist started hitting the roads.

Ruth, Heading West,

Ruth made it to Iowa only one day off her schedule. She stayed overnight after seeing Mom. Teresa was over for a visit. When Teresa left to pick up Calvin at Basketball practice she went with her as 5th/6th graders are her favorite level of BB. (She needed an Iowa basketball fix.) She headed out before 9. Sunshine this morning! She call a little while ago to report I-80 is clear and "The snowdrifts are actually kind of pretty! (Except, tell Dan, where those snowmobiles have packed it down in the median.)" She said she thinks it has been about 30 years since she had been to Iowa in December and it may be another 30 before she braves it in winter again! (Called to report she got to Michael's tonight! After eleven hours of driving)

Blizzard

Our whole state is under a blizzard warning. The snow is letting up, but the winds are picking up. Pop blew 1/2 the drive and went out to check the town. Home with a cup of coffee and a report of 'It's as bad as I've ever seen!" Said: visibility toward the country is very poor. It had drifted around the outlet of our furnace and it had shut down, until we cleaned it out. Never happened with our old furnace, but it probably had warmer output that melted the snow. Or maybe just the way the wind was from and lots of snow. Nice and warm now.

St. Nicholas Day

Saturday Abbey was kept busy cheering for our Ram wrestlers. Some of them did very well. Jeff had a personal best on his free style Sat., so he was satisfied with his meet too. Hope everyone celebrated today. It is a great day for presents! But tomorrow is my birthday, so that over shadows today for presents. We are now receiving snow. The ground is slowly turning white! Dan's deer hunt was successful.

Basketball, Cookie Parade and Wrestling

Calvin's basketball game was early enough I saw part of it before the cookie parade started. We had a good turn out and cookies were pretty well picked over by 10:15. Jeff has a swim meet in Boone but told Teresa she didn't need to go for his one event. Abbey is cheering at the wrestling meet here and I plan to go in about 1/2 hour when Jefferson will wrestle again. Dan is here deer hunting. (Haven't heard from the hunters yet) Jerry at at a car auction in Kansas City, Mass tonight and I still have more nativities I want to get out......

Lunch on Saturday

Since we didn't get together with the Skallas on Thanksgiving and since Hil would be going back to school on Sunday, we got together at our house for lunch. Maybe they will learn NOT to make faces at Grandma's camera!

Thanksgiving

Courtney and Amos hosted dinner for the Sherman family and invited us. Dan was the turkey cook. Nancy and her sister shared carving honors. Everyone contributed things. The dinner and company were great. And I even got a couple chances to hold Mara!

5th/6th Grade Basketball

The next season has officially started. Calvin's team had their first game of the year at Ogden. They had been having only 5 boys at practice. One of those was sick today and they had picked up two more players that were just starting. They did pretty well for having players that didn't know plays. And they improved as the game went along.

A Week without a Blog!

There is no excuse. I have my computer back and as of today have pictures put on from my camera. I don't have any new pictures though. We have had dreary days and the trees are mostly bare. Tuesday I had to take my recovery disks over to Best buy to get my computer going again, after having a virus removed. They got back to work on it and I shopped. Christmas shopping is about 1/2 done! I have been hearing of lots of viruses and have had notices pop up that this or that has been blocked by my new virus scan. I don't have my Family Tree Maker reloaded yet. I put on pictures and card maker today. I don't put on too many things at once, because sometimes they cause something else not to work correctly. I need a computer geek. The card maker showed something didn't download, but it seems to work. If I have to uninstall and reinstall I won't be surprised. Grandma Phoebe is doing well.

Festival of Lights

Christmas is coming! The Auxiliary set up decorated trees and wreaths for the bidding in the Hospital Lobby yesterday. Various hospital departments did the decorating. They held a Pre-Christmas open house today. Bidding has started. The lists by each item are for the bids. I worked in the gift shop yesterday and it must have gotten me in the Christmas spirit. I have officially started Christmas shopping. I now have 2 1/2 presents ready to go. Well, the 1/2 is a pair of sweats for Mom, that she will get early. I need to get them tried on and washed and shortened. They are size medium, have POCKETS, (that is what she prefers and hard to fine, K-Mart had them.) and regular flat bottoms that can be shortened easily.

Eyes

Grandma Phoebe got the pressure checked in her eyes today. All is well, no change in drops. It was a nice day to get out.

Halloween

Mara was our first trick or treater. Sadie would make noise at her and she would make noise back. By the time it was Jill's turn to hold her she was starting to get tired of it all. Sadie was a zookeeper and went trick or treating for the first time. (They had always had trunk and treat at the church parking lot in CR. after their evening mass.) We lost count, but probably gave out around 200 treats. I'm sure our next door neighbor has a count though had her light out before we ran out of candy. Teresa had us all over for supper and a good time was had by all. (Mara could be a Ram Fan in this outfit after she had the warm ladybug part off.)

Halloween Flowers

It was suppertime at Long Term when I went out to visit today. Marg's flowers had arrived. Mom was in the diningroom and supper had just been served. She had her knitting along and wanted to show off how much of the baby blanket she had finished. She really wasn't mad, but didn't want to have her mouth open for the picture. I thought the flowers looked real nice!

Rams Win

Our Rams beat Charles City in Charles City 20-17 Wednesday night. On to State! They play Carroll in Carroll on Monday. We stayed overnight instead of traveling home after the game. We made a tour of the trip. Wednesday afternoon we toured the Hemken Collection in Williams. They have a big collection of rare, older cars and other items. Thursday on the way home, we stopped in Gladbrook to see the Matchstick Marvels. They have been constructed by Patrick Acton (formerly of Rippey) Both were great places to tour. See Iowa!

National Honor Society Induction

Jeffrey is now an official member of the National Honor Society. (He joins his sisters) The ceremony was this afternoon. Abbey lead the group in the pledge. There were only 17 today. Last years group numbered 25 and the year before there were more also. Girls outnumbered the boys 10-7. He should feel honored! It is a select group of students.