Mimi and Uncle Cortland

Mimi and Uncle Cortland came as a pair. They lived together all her life and he was rather lost after her death at 95 years old. I never really knew what had happened to him to cause him to be somewhat disabled, but remember hearing something about a fever soon after his birth.

This photo was taken in 1966 when they had moved to Roseburg, OR to be close to my parents and they look alot the same as I remember them during my childhood.

One Christmas is very clear in my memory of when they were at our house. Really they weren't part of the memory, but because of their visit my brother Kent and I were sleeping together in my room. Kent must have been about four or five and I was a couple years older. He still firmly believed in Santa and we were watching out my bedroom window at the sky in the hopes of seeing Santa and the sleigh. Suddenly, Kent whispered loudly, "there he is!!!" and became very excited. I wasn't able to see what he thought he saw, but quickly told him we needed to duck into our beds so Santa didn't see us and fly over our house instead of stopping. Santa must have stopped that night because the cookies and milk were gone in the morning and there were LOTS of presents under the tree for each of us.

Grammy

This is my paternal grandmother. She is very much a part of all my childhood memories of Christmas as she always came to our house. We were her only family because my father was an only child. She was a wonderful cook and was the preparer of both the Thanksgiving and the Christmas Feasts. Her plum pudding was legendary and her recipe was scribbled on a scratch piece of paper that my mother tried to duplicate for years before she got it right. I can still see her in my mind's eye as she walked down our street from the train station with her suitcase in her hand and her hat with the veil on her head. It wasn't a long walk from the station and my mother didn't drive until many years later. Grammy always had little treats for us in her suitcase so we loved to help her unpack. She had lots of time to play and read with us. And her hugs were warm and enveloping. I hope I can be the kind of grandmother to my grandchildren as she was to us.

Angel Ornament

Every year I treat myself to the angel ornament of the year from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Each year the design of the ornament is based on one of the angels in the Museum's collection of Neapolitan creche figures. This angel is from a design by Giuseppe Gori (ca 1770-1810). I love hanging the angels on my small artificial tree and noticing the details that set each one apart.

My tree will probably not go up until the weekend so I will not have long this year to enjoy my angels.

Over the River and thru the Woods, to Grandmother's House we go....

Well, maybe in the song that's how it happens, but for this grandmother-to-be it's more like over the rivers and up the freeway to my kids' houses I go. For Thanksgiving I drove up the freeway about 190 miles to spend the holiday at my daughter and son-in-law's home. But first there was a stop at my son and his family's home. Eric and Jannaeah both had to work the next day and chose to stay at their own home for Thanksgiving. Jannaeah made a butternut squash pie for me to take with me to Sara's...yumm. So here they are: About an hour later I arrived at Greg and Sara's home. They were expecting 7 guests in addition to me and the cooking was in full swing when I walked in the door. Everything smelled heavenly. Each guest was assigned a category of food to bring, but the specifics were left up to the cook. We had a wonderful savory apple/bacon tart appetizer from Kim; three delicious appetizers from Kristen - a shrimp one, an artichoke one and one of cream cheese with a cranberry/orange chutney, and some yummy green beans; Alexis's famous brussel sprouts, delicious rolls and a wonderful squash risotto; and I brought an apple pie. The hostess cooked the turkey, stuffing, garlic mashed potatoes and giblet gravy, a caramel toffee cheesecake and a chocolate peppermint three layer cake. Wine, beer and juices were also available. This is a bit blurry and does not show everything but it was my plate as I started to eat.

Before eating each person got a chance to say what they were thankful for this year. It's always a moving experience as some people wax poetic. After eating our fill we played a couple games that created much laughter and playful banter. What a wonderful day spent with family and friends.

I headed home the next day after being able to grab a rare photo of Greg and Sara - who do not like to pose for the camera.

Thank you, my dears, for a wonderful couple days, for the hospitality, the fun, and just being able to spend time with two of my favorite people.

Scrapping time

Yesterday I spent about six hours at a crop at a local church. We meet once a month and usually have about 20 people attend each time. It was a perfect day to be inside as it poured off and on all day. It was so grey about 2:00 we thought it was closer to 5 pm. Thought I would share my favorite layout that I did.

While Halloween is not my favorite holiday, I do love all the fall decorations that seem to peak in time for trick or treaters. So here's my tribute to the holiday. The small photo is of my little neighbor girl, Zoe, who was a black fairy - with pink hair. One of the larger photos was of a home other than mine, and other one is of my little pumpkins lining my front steps.

A Quilt for my Son

My son celebrated his 40th birthday yesterday. In honor of this momentous occasion, I made a rag quilt. I am famous in my family for starting homemade gifts and not finishing until months or years later, or not at all; so the fact that I have finished this on his birthday and will mail it to him today is also momentous. He loves to fish, so I was able to find a fish printed flannel and several other bolts of masculine looking flannel to coordinate. Here is the finished product after being washed and dried twice to get most of the bitty strings of fabric out of it.

Happy Birthday, Eric!!!

Election Day and a playday in Eugene

It's been an historic year with a woman almost getting the Democratic nomination for president, a black man winning the Democratic nomination, the oldest candidate ever running as thCocoa e Republican presidential nominee and another woman being chosen as the vice presidential nominee on the Republican ticket. Record numbers of Americans have already voted in the early voting process. And personally, I have never been so engaged in the process since JFK ran for President when I was a first time voter. So, whomever you support, get out and vote today - be part of an historic election.

On another topic, I drove to Eugene on Saturday to be part of the play time Eugene event sponsored by Cocoa Daisy.This is the second time I've been part of this fun time of crafting, laughing, sharing and learning from Ali Edwards - this time about the construction of her December Daily Album. Jill is a wonderful hostess and taught us how to make a really easy project. Shopping in the creative boutique and eating Ali's delicious raspberry cobbler filled out the rest of the 3 hour event. We take a group photo every time - in front of a neighbor's colorful tree this time.

And here's a photo of my finished project. Everyone's was different as we cut the chipboard to suit our photos. Some people left them all 4 X 6, some cut them as I did, some taped them together, and one gal was going to run a ribbon behind them all with spaces in between each panel.

So that's it for today. Hope you have a good one. And don't forget to vote.