HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009!

New Years Eve 2008,

Glenn & I are spending the night at home, enjoying every minute of it. We thought about "getting a room" in Bend and going down town then after I checked out what was available and the price we decided to do something different.

Awhile ago a very nice Lady I work with gave me a Fully-Automatic Quartz-Locked Turntable circa 1980. Glenn was so excited, so we decided to get a wall mount for the TV and put the turntable underneath the TV. We also decided we would do this on New Years Eve and after we set it up we would get out all the "old" LP's and let the fun begin.

For Christmas I got Glenn and different type of Rum, all he drinks is Pyrat Run, I have been wanting him to try some Rum from Africa and I knew he wouldn't buy it instead of Pyrat so I gave it to him as a present. He says he likes it, but I know his heart is with Pyrat. The African Rum is probably more my kind of taste but that's OK :)

Some of you will understand this photo and some won't!
Can you see the brick in the background it says "prison made" 1912 O.S.P. (Oregon State Prison) now where do you think he got that?

And to think we thought about getting rid of these, wow that would of been a big mistake.

One of Glenn's favorites LP above not many around, this was a promo copy of a dance mix of the song.

Got to go, it's time for me to pick out some music.

Can you guess by the covers which ones I picked out?

Merry Christmas Glenn!

Merry Christmas Glenn!

It finally dawned on me why you seemed melancholy this morning especially on Christmas Eve. For years we would close the store on Christmas eve together, after about 3pm that's when the fun would start. The last little gift that customer was looking for, the stuff we could sell ,merchandise that hadn't sold all year but in those 3 short hours we could sell all we had. And the customers, all I can say is "funny times". Those days are gone but we still have Christmas Eve together, so you:

Better Not Pout! You Better Not Cry! Because Santa Claus it Coming To Town Tonight!

I still get the joy of being in a store on Christmas eve and I still volunteer to close, but I have to say the times Glenn and I closed will always be with me as some of the funniest times I will remember.

So if you are one of those people who are shopping after 3pm today, you can bet the Sales Person is going to help you with your purchases so make sure you remember to tell them Merry Christmas and Thank you!

Baby it's cold outside!

What a good day to be off, the snow fell most of the morning, cars are going by the house real slow and it's cold outside. I am all ready for Christmas so today was a day of what ever I wanted to do and well that was pretty much nothing. There have been great holiday movies on the TV and tonight is a Grinch night on TV Dr. Seuss is one of my favorites so I can't wait.

Kadie was going to come over for lunch but her boss brought in lunch so they didn't have to leave the building, I thought that was very nice. So I took the opportunity to take some snow photos, I don't understand why my photography has been so bad lately maybe I need to get a book like taking photos for dummy's.

Winter is a fun time of the year for my yard to take on a whole new look, even though the leaves have fallen and the flower petals are gone there is still live bushes and trees out there braving the winter weather. The other plants have gone into hiding until the spring/summer time. The trees in the yard are trying very hard to hold the snow on their branch's but there comes a time when the snow wins and then the snow falls to the ground, until the sun comes out and melts the snow.

When the sun goes down, the temperature drops quickly and that's when you can say "Baby, it's cold outside!" I know it's the perfect night to go hot tubing...

Redmond High School Holiday Choir Concert

When Monica told me she wanted to be in choir, my 1st thought was "well there is something that none of the other kids have done". Then she brought home her choir dress, again I was pleasantly pleased. The night of the concert, I walked in the door from work and saw Monica she looked just like a Christmas Angel. As we drove to the concert Monica seemed nervous and confident all at the same time.

After we arrived and took our seats I was looking over the program and 2 paragraphs caught my eye, they stated;

It seems people are divided as to whether to celebrate "Christmas" or the Holidays. " For us, we offer you and evening of uplifting, entertaining, richly beautiful music. We hope you'll have a few minutes of peace tonight, and just some stillness in the beauty of this season of love.

Whatever your preference towards Christmas or Holiday greetings, we wish you all the best for the happiest we can be in these trying times. As the British would say, " Happy Christmas!"

Then the concert began. We were able to enjoy songs sung to us like, Little Babe, A-Lynin' in a Manger, Mary, did you know?, Baby, Its Cold Outside, Ring out the Bells, Solitary Snowflake, Hodie, Christus natus est (Today Christ is Born) and many more beautiful songs.

In my opinion The High School Choir did a great job in bringing everyone together for at least that 1 hour of wonderful singing just like they said they would in the program brochure.

Christmas Decorations from the past!

I am pleased to say, our home is almost 75% decorated for the holidays. What I appreciate about this is my Family lets me decorate over a period of days so I don't get to overwhelmed with the whole thing. We also leave up our decorations until after New Years so we are able to enjoy all of them. I really don't have a "theme" throughout my house well I guess you could call it "original Christmas theme" you know what I mean; Santa's, Reindeer, Snowmen,Angels, and Nativity Scenes, you get the picture right?

The shadow box below is from the 1980's the figures inside the box are maybe 1/4" tall, so I was having a hard time keeping my hand still. (I put on my Christmas list a small tri-pod I wonder if I will get one:) The box is made out of cardboard and the indents are pressed on during the molding of the frame on the back wall is wall paper material, very cool box.

up close photo

The Nativity Scene below is painted by my Sister, she completed this set in the late 70's for our Mom for Christmas. When Mom started going to Arizona for the winters I asked her if I could display it during the holidays. I just loved the whole set I would just sit and stare at the eyes on the people she painted them so well they even have little eye lashes. I have to apologize I have done something to my camera so closeups are blurry when I have a chance I need to sit down with the manual and figure this out until then please bear with me.

You can sort of see their eyes in this photo this is one three Shepard's, look at the little lamb sleeping :)

Of course Mary, she is so pretty!


One of the three Wise Men.

This is another shadow box I got in the early 80's, it is made out of wood and the figures are about 1/2" tall. See Santa's sleigh on top of the tiled (wooden) roof. Here is the living room Christmas Scene.
And of course Santa and Mrs Clause relaxing after a hard day in their room. Why its in this house only the designer would know.



Merry Christmas to all the "blog readers"!

Christmas Tree

Here it is our Christmas Tree!

Glenn "sawing" it down.
Heading to the car.

Today we took a little road trip up to the McKenzie Pass looking for a Christmas Tree. Glenn and I feel very lucky that we live in an area where we can drive 40 minutes and be in the forest with all kinds of trees to pick from. Now you can't be the type of person who needs that "perfect Christmas tree" because that is really hard to find in the "wild". So let me present the 2008 Family Christmas Tree:

All decorated and ready to bring in good cheer!

I believe in the "ELF'S" that watch over the tree and they also let Santa know who has been naughty and who has been good. I have 4 Elf''s they have been with me ever since I can remember it seems like my Mom got them when I was around 4 years old so that would make these elf's about ...Well at least over 40.

This little guy is the ELF that watches over the lights, his job is to make sure the lights are bright and working properly.

Here he is with the lights in the house off. I don't know his name so I just call him HE so I guess you could say his name is HE. HE holds the main light as you see below and then he has 3 extra lights bulbs behind him, you can sort of see one in the photo below.

Christmas is a very magic time in our home, we have lots of Christmas decorations from when we were kids or when our kids were kids, these decorations all seem to have a story or a purpose for the Christmas time. As I decorate throughout the house I will be happy to share them with you.

Happy Holidays, Betty

Christmas List

Just like everyone else this year Glenn and I decided to put ourselves on a very tight holiday budget. So after a few discussions on this topic we finally reached an agreement that worked for us.

So I am very proud to say I am almost done with the shopping, cooking, and sewing. My goal is to have the packages that need to be mailed gone by 12/12 next Friday. I think I am going to make that deadline.

I also am very proud to say we purchased locally meaning in the town we live in. That in it's self is a great accomplishment. I was talking to a local merchant, she asked me if I was buying for myself and I explained how we were handling Christmas this year. After our conversation she asked me if she could talk about this to her customers and family. I then showed her what I wanted from her store just in case Glenn was to shop there. (Hint, the cooking store in Redmond she is already to show you if you decided to go in there).

Now I do have to say there was some items that I couldn't get locally so I shopped on the Internet for those items. That's OK!

So to make a long story short we stayed in our budget, chose locally, used homemade items, and kept the creativity alive. I think all involved will be pleased, I know I am.

Happy pre-Holidays!Photo's taken from Retro Christmas Cards 1950.

Starlight Parade

What a wonderful weekend to start the holiday season. After I had rested some and everyone as gone back to their homes I had the weekend alone with Glenn. We went to Redmond's Christmas starlight parade, what fun we had.

Thanksgiving Day!

Happy Thanksgiving! What a wonderful day we had, last week I posted the menu for our family dinner and I am pleased to say most all went well. Almost everything was a hit except for the corn bread dressing, I have always wanted to try it, I guess I won't be using that recipe again everyone preferred breaded dressing so I have made a note for next year. I spent most the week shopping and cooking for that 1 hour of eating, but boy was it worth it especially when I look at these wonderful photos. So here they are I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Lucy in her dress that Uncle Micah brought back from his trip to Vietnam and Japan.



Micah showing us his cashmere suit he had custom made in Vietnam. It is just beautiful.

Yusuke saying hi to June. We were pleased when we found out Yusuke was coming again this year, he is a fellow college student of Micah's. Since his family is in Japan he has been coming to our home for Thanksgiving he is so fun to have around.

Here we all are after dinner.

Lucy liked the rolls!

The potatoes that Dustin is dishing up were a weird color due to the nutmeg the recipe called for I was concerned nobody would eat them, they were all gone by that night, that would be 8 lbs of potatoes!

Glenn proudly carving the turkey, he was such a great help, he even let me boss him around before the dinner :)

The BONFIRE! at dusk, what fun it is to stand around the fire and talk. I was in bed a little while after this, tired I was. While I was fast asleep the kids heated up the left overs for a midnight snack.

Happy Thanksgiving from Our Family to Yours!

ps. Happy Birthday to my Sister!

Winter is here!

We had a day off together, our choices where: take a drive to broken top, go to Costco, put up Christmas lights, take a nap. So here is what we decided to do:

Our most favorite place in Central Oregon is BROKEN TOP, the average person only has a short window to be able to enjoy the area because of snow. So when we started up there we knew that it probably would be closed off but that way we could just say "see you in the summer" to the area we enjoy so much.

see you next summer!

Mt Bachelor, Bend Oregon

Below are the marks made by the early bird skiers , it was really pretty it looked like streamers coming down the mountain.

OK, so we decided to put up lights, all of our neighbors across the canal have told us how much they have enjoyedd our back yard like the garden, wild flowers, our dog Juniper Berry. So we decided to decorate our back yard this year instead of the front. It looks pretty cool we decorated the entry way into the garden, lined the Voodoo Lounge and hung some weird hanging down lights in the big juniper tree. Very nicely done I might say. Christmas Time at the Voodoo Lounge!

More holiday tidings to come!