Christmas past

Brownies blog reminded me of Christmas's past. Aunt Gertrude and her family lived in Minot, ND and was the only sibling of my mom's that didn't live in Redwood Falls when I was a young girl. There was Aunt Beth and Uncle Guy, Aunt Evelyn and Uncle Harvey, Uncle Gillette and Elaine. And their families and, of course, my mom and dad and brother. I know the adults exchanged names for Christmas but I don't remember what us kids did. I do know that one of my most memorable gifts were books from my Aunt Beth. Like Brownie said she had a knack for getting just the right thing for each of her nephews and nieces and I always looked forward to my gift from her. She didn't have any children of her own but when she married Uncle Guy he had two daughters. If I remember right we all would get together at whose ever turn it was to have Christmas on Christmas Eve after the Children's Christmas program. And it always seemed to be snowing when we would get out of church.

Back to the books . . . . when I was given this gift my great Aunt Amanda said "You don't need to open it because it's just books" I'm sure she thought it would be easier for mom and dad to get the gifts home but I said " I know - I can feel that they are books but I want to see what they are" And so I found Little Women, Little Men, Eight Cousins and 2 others that I can't remember the titles. I was so delighted and spent many hours reading. I think this was probably one of the few times that Great Aunt Amanda and Great Uncle Ewalt were with us at Christmas.

More to come .....

Pies

I spent Thanksgiving day with my daughter -in-law's family which is quite large and not all of them were there. There was a constant undercurrent of noise but nothing really loud. My DIL's mom lives on a small lake which had frozen over much to the delight of almost everyone there. And most everyone went ice skating. Not me - I haven't been skating since I was in high school and and not about to start up again now. They tell me the ice was like glass - very smooth and they saw a turtle and a fish swimming underneath the ice which all thought was very cool. The small children who have not learned the art of skating were pushed around on chairs.

We had the usual Thanksgiving dinner and then the desserts were put out on the table . 16 pies of every discription: Apple, pumpkin, ki lime, cherry, chocolate, dutch apple, Lemon.

Lowell was not a game player so there a lots of card games I'm now beginning to learn (and enjoy). Whist was the game of the day - great fun.

All those pies made me think of the first time I made a coconut cream pie. It was the second summer we were married. I made the pie crust and mixed up the coconut cream from a pudding mix. Poured it into the crust - hmmm something wasn't right. Oh ya, the crust needs to be baked first. So I scraped the pudding mix out, baked the crust and poured the mix back into the baked crust. The crust was a bit tough but it tasted good anyway.

a little of this and a little of that

It occurred to me last week that this is the first time in my life that I am living alone. (you can't count the times when Lowell was on the road)

I had lunch/supper with two different groups of women in the last two week. Now it's great to have women friends but you know what - I discovered that I miss the company of men :)

I bought myself a another dog - I know- you think I'm crazy since I already have one. But I thought Ollie needed a friend. So Sophie, a mini dachshund, is now a member of my household. It has taken Ollie almost 2 weeks to finally realize this "thing" is here for the duration. It's fun to watch them chase each other.

And my new wood heater is up and running - David made a platform for it and Sharon and I cemented zbrick to it. Yesterday we got the heater up on the platform - connected the stove pipes and it works!!!! It has a glass front so I can watch the flames. I put a glider rocker and footstool by it so now it's really a comfy place. It will be even nicer when winter weather sets in.

My new kitchen cupboards are beautiful - white with blue countertop. In a couple of weeks my new kitchen windows will be installed.

I'm watching "Secondhand Lions" with Michael Caine and Robert Duvall. If you haven't seen it you should - it's great!!

Another chapter

A chapter of my life came to a close this morning. For most of our married life Lowell and I had horses. Actually they were more Lowell's than mine although I enjoyed them, too. Some were riding horses and some were work horses but a lot were "just horses" Would you believe that at one time we had 9 horses - how we accumulated that many I have no idea. Dick and Dan are Belgium horses, half brothers, that we raised and the last of all those horses. I knew that I could not (nor want to) take care of them, So this morning a man from ND - someone my daughter knows - came to get them. He has a farm, lots of kids and other horses. They seemed excited about getting work horses to add to their "family". So even though I was sad to see them go, I am relieved that I won't have to spend money on hay and take care of them when it's blizzardy out or very cold. Lowell would be happy they are going to a good home and will be very well taken care of. So after 40 years of living on this place there is no livestock except a couple of dogs and several cats. . . . . .and so another chapter begins.

He loved me!

It's been almost 2 months since Lowell went to Heaven - I really miss him. It seems like he should be walking in the back door at any time. The hardest days are Sundays - they seem so long. In church I can almost see him sitting in the pew and when I sit down from playing the organ I can almost feel him next to me. About 7:00 pm 2 Sundays ago I hopped on the golf cart and went up to Sharon's - I couldn't stand being by myself any longer that day. She invited me to watch a movie with them and it really helped - I'm so lucky/glad that she and David live so close to me.
In lots of ways I'm luckier than some women - I was used to Lowell being gone for a week or two when he was driving the truck and I paid the bills and took care of the insurance, ect. so that part of my life hasn't changed. But a couple of weeks ago it really hit me that he wasn't going to be coming home anymore. . . . . . . . . And so the next stage of my life begins.

Psalms 121:7 & 8 says:
The Lord will keep you from all harm
He will watch over your life
The Lord will watch over your comings and goings
both now and forever more.

And so I'm claiming that promise and look forward to whatever the Lord has planned for me.

I loved him!

If it sounds right, it's not

That's what some of the music in Stephen Sondheim's opera "Into the Woods" sounds like to me. Many changes of time signatures and sometimes 6#'s or 7b's along with groups of notes that sound wrong make it difficult for me to learn. But there are lots of pretty songs, too. "Into the Woods" is the opera the Northern Lights Opera Company is performing this Friday, Saturday nights and Sunday afternoon. Then again on July 31, Aug. 1 and 2nd. It's a combination of children's fairy tales with a twist. I'm the rehearsal accompanist but we add a small orchestra for the performances. My favorite is the duet between Cinderella's prince and Rapunzel's prince called "Agony". It's quite funny. Besides adding much to the performances the orchestra covers up my mistakes :) This week we've practice from 6:00 - 10:30 each evening - I'm getting tired. Anyway if you can come you will enjoy!! "Be Careful What You Wish For"