Blizzard and Work

This morning I am sitting calmly with my cup of coffee and Good Morning America and the storm rages outside. I am calculating how long I should really wait before I try to get to work. The forecasters have promised that it's a 'whiteout' and no travel is recommended. (travel? I'm going to work, I don't really consider that travel. Travel is when you go on vacation and go somewhere that you've been planning for months. You know, like Phoenix or Hawaii.) So shall I wait til noon? Should I leave early to give myself plenty of time?? After all, you know, they can't survive at work without me!! Ok, so I am sounding compulsive again but I just have to tell you that I didn't get up early and head to the wellness center, or insist on walking outside anyway. But ask me how that feels!!

Family moves

Jan and Loren came from St. Louis for Thanksgiving. It was fun to have them. Jan even joined us for our book discussion group. As for the two being brothers, well, I guess there's a resemblence there. I've always though Ron was more like his mom and Loren like his dad. Don't the guys look like the happy excited pair??I think it must just be the reaction to seeing me with my camera yet again. But it's fun to have the two of them together for these pictures if nothing else.

Christmas Pageant

So we got to enjoy the grandsons christmas program tonight. I haven't laughed so hard since, well, the last time I was with them. As you can see,the boys enjoyed being on stage! They weren't naughty, just funny. I thought Phin might lose his pants at one point, though I might not have noticed that if he hadn't felt the need to put his arm up his shirt. (thank goodness there was no dress to pull over his head) Funny though, I'm sure they were singing songs about Christmas and the baby Jesus but I don't remember a single song. I was way to busy getting the pictures and enjoying the antics. That first picture of Phin there is just so you can see that he actually did stand still for a minute!

Book discussion

Last summer the girls got together at a Lincoln coffee house and talked about a book we'd deliberately decided to read. We read Lorna Landvik's Welcome to the Great Mysterious. At our family gathering this year, we got a coffee and a table at the Koffie Hoek in Orange City and sat down together to talk about Kathryn Stockett's best selling book, The Help. The book was such a fabulous story it wasn't too hard to have a whole discussion about racism, prejudices, the south in the 60's and today, even though two of us didn't have time to read it. Of course, just being able to get away from the house together was a big part of the fun. Now we need to come up with another book for the next time we get together, which probably won't be til next summer. phooey. Anyone else have some suggestions for us?

grandchildren

This is our youngest grandson. Simeon Eugene. I have to tell you what an amazing little boy he is. Already he loves his grandpa (as you can see) Grandpa will be even cooler as the other grandsons have discovered as he's the one with the tools, the pick-up, and endless patience with little boys. After all, what could be more fun for a boy than pulling the string of the clay pigeon thrower, or hauling wood in a lawn mower!
This boy is already showing signs that he will not be a follower-he has no early teeth like Isaiah, he will suck his thumb unlike his brothers. And his name is powerful. It means "The Lord has heard" and Luke tells us that Simeon was "righteous and devout and looking for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him..." Wow! I love watching them grow.

An Amazing Race

This was year two of a treasure hunt through Orange City. It was closer to an "Amazing Race" than the year before, but there was no snow on the ground either. Last year the girls whipped the boys big time, but, I will report here that the boys won this year! They had a slight advantage, Ivan(our international student from NWC) was with them and he has been living in OC for the last 4 years so some of the more obscure places he was able to pick up on. And a slight problem was that I had taken a picture of the OC Dutch wooden shoe that was in windmill park a couple of weeks ago to use for this game, and when I put the clues out the shoe was gone. Ooops. So When they played I got phone calls from both of them because they couldn't find the shoe. Go figure. The boys were bummed because I didn't have real prizes for them either. Sorry, no million dollar winning. But it was funny. I had to finally call them and say, "come back. come back. Thanksgiving dinner is ready." And the boys came back first and they actually had the winning end.

Blitz, Offensive, Assault...Onslaught

Ok, so tonight we get the beginning of the Thanksgiving, well, I don't want to call it an onslaught because I'm really looking forward to this, but for lack of a better word.....onslaught it is. Fortunately I had enough time to get supper into the crock pot before I left and when I get home I expect to see 3 grandsons and their parents. And Melissa. And Buster. Hopefully Ron. The plan is this: supper. Meeting at the OC library. Get the family Amazing Race game set up. Make a Pumpkin Cheesecake. I should be able to get all that in right???!