Christmas with Family

A few pictures of our visit with family over Christmas.

Pre-Christmas Happenings

Emily and Jonny flew to Indiana on the 11th, then left the next day for Kentucky to visit with friends and family. They returned to Lafayette this past Sunday and will be joined by Mark, Lori and baby Claire tonight in preparation for celebrating Christmas here in the morning.

Today, while visiting with Mom, the Martin roses arrived. They are beautiful and look quite elegant in Mama Jo's room. We will pick her up tomorrow to celebrate with the immediate family then she'll be here on Saturday when we celebrate with Deke's mom and brothers.

If I don't get back to blogging before Friday, I want to wish everyone a very blessed Christmas!

Emily and Jonny sharing a "cheesy" moment

Caroling with Carole

A few days ago, Carole invited Mom and me to her home for lunch. So yesterday, after Mom's hair appointment, we went for a delightful lunch of spicy bean soup and melt-in-your-mouth cornbread. After lunch, we roamed the house admiring all the beautiful decorations and reminiscing over all the family pictures hanging on the wall. It was a relaxing and enjoyable afternoon.

Christmas at the Home

Tonight was the Christmas party for residents and family member of assisted living where Mom is living. It was a wonderful gathering and was chocked full of activities and food. We all gathered in the main lobby where the tables were set with festive tablecloths etc. We went through the line for the traditional fare then listened to an "Old Order German Baptist" choir made up of families from the Flora and Rossville congregations. They sang Christmas carols a capella and had the richest and most beautiful harmony imaginable. Then Santa made his entrance with Mrs. Claus and an elf. They handed out presents to all the residents who oohed and ahhed their way through ribbons and bows and brightly colored paper packages. It was a fun evening and Mom was in her element.

Christmas Extravaganza

1950's Quartet backstage

Tonight was our last night for our church Christmas program. It was a huge production with rented costumes,spectacular lighting, special effects, superb acting and magnificent singing. Really good!!! The very best scene was a little 7 year old singing "Happy Birthday, Jesus." He sang incredibly, but he stole the show when at the end of his song, he stood at the manger, picked up baby Jesus and kissed him while saying, "I love you, Jesus." Every Mom in the place said in unison, "Ohhhhhhh."

But the second best act might have been the 1950's quartet made up of 4 incredible pastors! They did a marvelous job of belting out, "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day." Deke was disgusted that the quartet was required to do 4 things at once: sway, snap fingers, sing and smile! He said the director could choose only one requirement because that's all he could do at one time. But he made it through both nights and even managed to sing his part! It was great fun and a wonderful way to begin the celebration of Jesus' birth!

Thank the Lord we celebrated Thanksgiving today. I told Deke I was so sick of seeing my birthday blog pictures, something better happen soon so that I could replace the Nov 7th entry!

We had a wonderful celebration at Max and Dianne's home in Lafayette. We picked up Mama Jo around 11:00 to take her with us. The nurse was surprised to learn that Mom would be staying overnight with us (told them at least twice) and proceeded to run around trying to get Mom's meds ready. When I learned that the nurse would have to call someone to get a special permit to open the safe in another part of the building, I told her to just forget it- we would bring Mom back for the night. So we headed to Lafayette and had a delightful Thanksgiving meal with the Joneses.

After dinner, the men napped or played with computers in the basement while we women huffed and puffed getting a workout with the Wii exercise game. After a final snack of shrimp, cheese etc we packed up Mom and Grandma Mary and headed out the door. By the time we left Lafayette, the temp had dropped at least 10 degrees with a stiff wind out of the north. As we passed the mall, we saw where people were lined up outside Best Buy for Black Friday. We remarked that we didn't feel saving $100 would motivate us to stand outside all night in this blustery weather. After dropping Mom off in Rossville, we headed home to relax with full tummies and grateful hearts.

A little deviation from the typical "at the table" pose

Grandma Mary

Mama Jo

Three Brothers

Ken

Happy Birthday to Me Again

Church office staff

Well, last night was a huge surprise for me. We had invited 2 couples over for dinner, cards and movie night when 2 more couples crashed the scene carrying a lighted birthday cake singing "Happy Birthday." It was a huge surprise. Deke pulled a real coup and kept the secret from me. We had a great time eating cake and playing "Up and Down." Again, a good time was had by all.