One More Nativity Set

This is the Nativity that all the grandchildren have played with. It's seventeen years old. I don't know if Fisher Price still makes these. You push the angel at the top to make the star light up.

Stay safe!  Have a wonderful, Blessed Christmas!

The Reason

I don't post on Facebook very often, but have made a couple posts about favorite Christmas movies lately.  So if you "do" Facebook, this post will be familiar.  Lest anyone think that our Christmas Season is focused only on entertainment and funny movies, here are some pictures of our Nativity "sets". I've collected them over the years. It actually got to the point where storage was an issue and we didn't have the room to set them all out every year. So over the past few years I've shared some with Jacquie and Pam and friends. We have a couple that are not out this year. One is so large that there just isn't a convenient place to set it up, especially with a little two-year-old getting excited and four furry kids enjoying the holiday decorations. :)  There are priorities you know.

A couple are from Germany.  The Hummel one on the chest that was Mom's is my favorite.

Here are some of our other ones.

If you're out doing last minute shopping, be careful.  It's finally gotten cold here.  It's sunny today and Golfer is out on the course, seeing if his back is going to cooperate.  :)   I'm all ready to watch Cutie Girl while the rest of Jacquie's family sees "Star Wars"!   

Stay safe!

Hummity!

In the words of the XM people..."Hummity, hummity, bah!  Hummity, hummity,  bug!   (just kidding)  All is well here.

We've sort of had a heat wave and everyone is running around in tee shirts, some in shorts, and no jackets.  It is starting to cool off a little.  I hope so.  I really don't want to turn the A/C back on in the middle of December.

Golfer's back is slowly getting better.  He has missed playing golf, but has been taking care of himself and following doctor's instructions.  I'm hoping this might help:

Lazy-Boy finally delivered today.  It isn't really a Christmas gift, but I stuck a bow on it anyway for the picture.  :)

I had to have an unscheduled dentist appointment yesterday.  I had pain on the upper right side of my mouth and on my face.  Dr. Freeman took some x-rays, and did a lot of poking and tapping.  Didn't find anything wrong with any of my teeth, and no sign of infection.  He thought it was too much pressure and some realignment was needed.  So he did a little sanding and filing and said we'd give it forty-eight hours.  If it isn't getting better or it gets worse, then I have to see a dental surgeon for some kind of procedure.  I'm hoping what he did fixes it.  He said I could have bitten or chewed something too hard and it caused irritation and inflammation around the nerves in that area.  It seems a little better today, but I know it's still there.  Since I'm supposed to be careful, I guess I have to stay away from Bikini's wonderful peanut brittle for a while.

So, here we are.  Christmas is rapidly approaching.  Life is good.  Stay safe!

Hello!

I hope your Christmas preparations are coming along and everyone is happy and healthy.  This can be an emotional time of year for some. Even I have some "feels" this time of year (as Bikini would call it).  But all is well and all is good.

I've been taking care of some follow-up on some minor issues.  Things like getting a prescription refilled when the doctor's office wouldn't respond to Express Scripts or my messages.  And getting a replacement part for my clock.  And being here for the Culligan man to come to do the annual service call on the water filtration system.

The decorating is done, and the cards done and mailed.  Shopping is done, but a few things still have to be delivered and wrapped.  I have not baked anything yet and plan to do that soon.

Golfer's back has been bothering him a little, but he's been taking care of himself and is feeling better.  It's sunny and in the 50's today and he is out on the golf course.  :)

Our yard work is pretty much all caught up.  The mower went in for a tune-up and is now back in the shed and ready for Spring.

We went to see "Mockingjay 2" and enjoyed it.  It was our kind of movie environment - maybe six other people in the theater!

Bikini's family is passing around a cold or crud of some kind.  She has it now, but basically, they are all okay.

Nurse J is doing okay.  Cutie Girl had another eye appointment and will be having eye surgery in February to hopefully correct the tracking issues she has.  BeyB is just getting over an ear infection.

With the state of the world, it is sometimes hard to stay positive and not sink into a worried state of despair.  I've been thinking about everything that's been going on.  Is it possible that there's always been such violence and it's just more obvious now because the world is so connected and we are blasted with the news 24/7 on every device?  I really don't think the President's miserable speech the other night made anyone feel any better.  But that's another story and worry and nothing that I can fix.

So.  All is well.  Stay safe.

Hooray! They Fixed It!

I followed the comments and posts for the blog and I was not the only person to have trouble posting pictures recently.  Last night I got an email saying they were in the process of fixing the problem.  Yay!

So here are some pictures of our decorating work.

Dining room tree; all in red, silver, and gold

Our "antique" Coca Cola Santa.  Mom always had him out when I was a little girl.  We set him out every year.

Our original elves.  Modern day elves get into a lot of mischief sometimes from what I hear.  But ours sit nicely and behave themselves as they watch over our tree in the living room.

One of two new ornaments this year.  This one is from Key West's Hemingway House.

 

Other new ornament.  This one is from The Varsity, in Atlanta, GA, where we always stop for hot dogs!

Finished living room tree.  Bikini made the quilted tree skirt.

Stay safe!

Done!

The decorating is officially declared finished!  As soon as I finished my breakfast and reading the paper this morning, I got busy.  Great plan.  Did not go quite as I had thought.

There was a delay while I went out to the garage to look for the electrical tape.  While hanging ornaments on the bottom of the tree I found a pre-wired tree light that was not lit.  Upon inspection I discovered the wires had been chewed clear through.  Lucky for the furry kids, the lights all still worked.  Honestly, I don't know if this happened in the last two days or if it happened last year and we just didn't see it.  Either way, all is well, the furry kids are safe and no one was put into permanent time out.  I just taped the wires and light and tucked it away in the branches.

Then there was a delay while I cleaned up a broken ornament - one of the really old ones.  And on it went; eventually I got done.  Then I started putting the boxes away and started the last of the cleaning.

Sooooo, here are some pictures!. . . . . . . . .   Well, maybe not.  Seems that Google and Blogger are having some issues.  Boo!  Hiss!  I'll check later to see if they have fixed the problem.

Stay safe!

AAAARRRGGHHH! HUMBUG!

I am normally in pretty good spirits, especially this time of year.  Decorating this year has had some challenges.  First of all was decorating outside yesterday in the damp weather.  BTW - it's still dark and wet here today.

This morning after breakfast and reading the paper, I started on the tree in the dining room.  This is the one that is visible from the street.  Looks pretty.  That went well.  Then I did some cleaning.  That took a while.  Everything was done except the living room.

After lunch I had to go out to do a couple errands.  They went fine, but traffic was the pits.  I don't know what was going on at Walmart today, but there were some crazy people around the store.  And traffic backed up.  I thought to myself, "gee, I'm glad I'm not going in there".  Remember those words.

So I got home, and started on the living room tree.  Got the angel wired on the top.  I have to do that first or I can't reach her without knocking ornaments off.  Then I did the  silver garland.  Then I got to the extra string of lights that we use so we can plug in our Hallmark Star Trek ornaments.  #!%&^**!!  lights did not work.  I messed with it for about half an hour then tossed them down and gave up on them.  I gathered up my things and headed out.  Guess where??  Walmart!!  Still crazy.  People were running through stop signs and acting ugly.  I found a place to park and went in and bought two sets of lights.  I avoided the fights over carts.  Came home and tested them and they all worked.

Had to take a break to start a pot of chili for supper, then back to the tree.  Put the lights on.  Started to hang the ornaments.  Most either won't plug in, even with the adapters, or they won't work if they do plug in.  While doing some of them, the whole string of lights would go out.  So I worked like that for quite a while until I broke down in tears.  Golfer came to check on me.  After making sure I was okay, his advice was "well, they are old ornaments".  Very true!

So most of the ornaments are not plugged in but are hanging on the tree.  And when it is time in a month to un-decorate, I am getting my wire cutters and snipping all those useless things off the ornaments.  (I might tackle that before then) In the future the ornaments will still be on our tree, but will be unplugged.  I can't stand the aggravation.  As a side note, the new ornaments they are selling now all come with little batteries and do not have to be plugged in.

I was exhausted and frustrated and the tree will be finished tomorrow.

I needed to call HP Ink and get some mailers for recycling our empty ink cartridges.  We have the deal where our printer talks to their computer and they know when to send us more ink.  The last two shipments have not had the mailers.  I tried to handle the issue online and ended up "chatting" with someone named Praveen.  I'll be nice and just say she was totally useless and I disconnected our chat.  Then I called their support number and talked to Stephan and he was most helpful and sounded like he might have been in the USA, and our mailers on on the way.  If Praveen had known what kind of day it had been here, she wouldn't have asked such stupid questions.

When I get the tree finished and living room cleaned up I'll take some pictures.  Stay safe!