Red-Neck Santa…

I have, as I’m sure you all have figured out by now, a weird and somewhat twisted sense of humor.  As one would expect, birds of a feather tend to flock together and I have to share a photo that one of my nieces sent to me.  She figured I could do something with it.  After I got up from off the floor laughing I  wrote her back and told her it would be going up on my next post.

If there are any of you folks that are upset by hunting and those that keep mounted heads on their walls, I’ll apologize to you all now.  I’ve been raised around deer hunters all my life even though my dad or others in my immediate family were not outdoors people or hunters, I can understand those who do hunt and I’ve enjoyed many a dinner with venison on the menu.

That being said… here’s the red-neck Santa photo.  Please note that there is even a red nose on the lead reindeer…

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Nothing Much More Can Be Said…

 

May your blessings be many in this time of  joy and may peace reign in your heart and your home in the coming year.

For Christmas Decorating Call…

1-800-DianeGo… my sister-in-law, affectionately called our Christmas crazy of the family.  This is her favorite time of year and it shows.  Big time.

I took this photo as we both, fools that we are, were outside after going to the grocery for the last of what was needed to cook the feast for tomorrow.

 

Looks like the good Lord took over decorating the outside of the house, though.  So we’ll look at some of the outside with the snow before we go inside.

  These lighted Christmas boxes are covered with about an inch of snow at this time.

The mail box topped with a wreath is getting covered.

  The snow is blowing so fast and furious that it looks like a snowball fight going on in front of my camera.

When we left to go to the store you could see the lights.  Two hours later after grocery shopping and stopping for a quick bite to eat the lights are under a blanket of snow.

  Doesn’t this look like a big snow cone with colored dots on top?

Snow covered shrubs, lights and candy canes guaranteed to put you in the Christmas spirit even before it started snowing.

The frog has officially gotten more than a tongue full of snow… and both of our fingers were officially frozen now , so let’s go inside….

The tree is set up in the front foyer.  Because of the high ceilings, the Christmas tree doesn’t look huge, but the sucker is 10 feet tall and Diane and whomever helps her to decorate have to use a ladder to get the up high stuff and to put the star on top.  I didn’t help this year with the decorations but I have been a helper in past years.

This tree is a new addition this year.  It is set up in the dining room and is a real tree.  Ben decided he wanted a real tree for the wonderful memories the smell of the pine trees bring back from our childhood.  Diane would never turn down another tree to decorate.

  This tree is in my bedroom.

This tree is in the hallway as I come out of the bedroom to head into the family room.

This tree is in the family room with all the family members stockings hung by the chimney with care with hopes that Saint Nicholas soon will be there… There are stockings for Ben and Diane, Walter and me, Diane’s three children with their spouses name on the same stocking, Ben’s four children with the three married kids and their spouse’s names on a stocking together and one for his son that is not yet married. There are fourteen stockings for their grandchildren and we just found out that there will have to be at least one more stocking added for next Christmas.  There are also stockings for their four cats.  They are family members, too, you know.

Our mom and dad…

Diane’s mom and dad.  I love that she honors them and shares Christmas with the ones that brought them into the world and eventually helped to combine two families into one. A train is under the tree because we all love them and Diane’s late daddy Burt worked for years for the railroad.

 

And to top off the tree and to remind all of the reason for the season, the Christmas Angel.

Across the room and over the kitchen area is Diane’s homage to the wildlife that we all love to see.  This takes the 10 or 12 foot ladder to get these beasties  and the trees up there.

Whichever of the three bathrooms you stop into for the pit stop, you will have something to peruse.  The hall bathroom is the Christmas train bathroom.

The train wreath next to the mirror over the sink…

The master bathroom… So many in here I’ll just put in two or three more pictures without a comment.

I love this window and Diane really dressed it up with another Christmas Angel. 

And an angel by the light switches to make you smile whether you are coming or ‘going’.

The bathroom for the back two bedrooms.

And yes, there is a tree in this bathroom.

On the back of the commode… The towel shelf across from the tub….

I love this bell tree.

 On top of a storage cabinet in the bathroom.

This bathroom has a Santa and reindeer theme.  There’s more and I’ll do it in another post.  I’m tired of typing.

The preceding post truly is not a paid advertisement.  I just wanted you all to share my Christmas with me and to know why, besides the fact that I love my siblings, I love all of the ‘eye candy’ that I so enjoy looking at when I come to Ft. Worth for Christmas.

From my heart to all of you out there in the blogsphere…

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU and as Tiny Tim said, “God bless us every one.”

The Best Christmas Gift Ever

Besides, of course, Baby Jesus… 

 

In our home Christmas was always such an exciting time.  Usually a couple of weeks before Christmas out would come the decorations.  Dad would bring home a Christmas tree and all of us would help decorate not only the tree but also on the mantle and different places around the house.

Our excitement would grow with every step of the decorations and  preparations.  Mom would be in the kitchen making up her fruit cakes to be given to friends and family both near and far and the doorbell would be ringing and we would be getting deliveries from companies that dad’s company bought from and sold to… Large boxes filled with grapefruits and oranges, bushel baskets filled with the biggest apples my eyes had ever beheld.

Dad would sometimes bring home gifts that company representatives had dropped by the office… Wisconsin cheeses, Vermont maple syrup and candy samplers, and the traditional candied fruitcake that has traveled around the world at least 9 million times.

Then came Christmas eve.  All us kids would hang our stockings with care… on the back of the sofa.  Dad didn’t want nail holes in the mantle plus the risk of a fire because it was normally cold and the gas stove in the fireplace was always going.  I can remember being so excited that I could hardly go to sleep. Bennett and I usually ended up in the same bed because we tried to keep each other awake listening for Santa so we could ‘catch him in the act’. Of course we always fell asleep and missed the hooves on the roof top or the jungle of the bells on the sleigh.

At our home we always had a rule that we could come downstairs and get into our stockings, but we couldn’t wake dad before 7 a.m.  I think that rule was put in place after Ben and I woke him up about 5:30 one Christmas morning because we couldn’t open our Christmas presents until daddy was up.  He was not a happy camper that Christmas.

We would creep down the stairs being very quiet and get our stockings and look at all the boxes under the tree and look and try to figure out which ones were for us but we didn’t touch them.  Then we would sit down and go through our stockings.  There was always an apple, an orange and an assortment of  nuts.  There was ribbon candy and hard candies and the little pillow candies and a small toy or some little goody for us to play with a bit. The house would be filled with the smells of the turkey cooking in the roaster in the basement, the ham baking in the oven and pies sitting on the buffet that mom had cooked the day before.

Dad or one of the older brothers, usually Walter (Bro) because our oldest brother was in the army and sometimes didn’t get to come home for Christmas. There were always gifts of new pajamas and new clothes from mom and dad and we always had each gotten or made a gift for our sibs and for mom and dad.  Usually at our age,  me being 7 or 8 and baby Bro being 4 or 5, we would go to the Five and Dime about three blocks from the house and do our shopping there.  We would look for just the right gift and usually ended up getting a tie for daddy and a small bottle of perfume for mom.  They always acted so surprised and gave us big hugs for their  wonderful gifts.

But you want to know, if you haven’t gotten tired of reading all this by now, what was my best gift ever…

 

Yep, pardner, Santa Claus brought me my Roy Rogers Vest and Chaps and my two gun belt and holsters and of course my hat. I was so excited I couldn’t hardly stand it.

I even got to wear my gear for Christmas dinner.  Baby Bro was sitting next to me on the piano bench that we brought in when we had a lot of company.  That is my mom standing next to Bennett. She seemed always to be bringing more food to the table and she always wore an apron when she cooked.  After lunch it was out the door to visit the neighbor kids and check out our Santa special gifts.  We would play for a couple of hours then it was time to come back in for pie.  Pumpkin pie with huge spoonfuls of homemade whipped cream for me.  There were pecan pies, chess pies and usually a couple or three cakes, chocolate cake or coconut cake that one or two of the aunts brought in and we always had Ambrosia because it was a favorite of dad’s. 

And when the day was over I hung my chaps, guns, vest and hat on the foot post of my bed so they’d be right handy when I got up the next morning.

And that, my friends, was my best ever Christmas gift. I can still remember the roughout feel of my chaps and vest, smell the gunpowder from the caps in my capguns when I’d be shootin’ at the bad guys or riding my bike to round up the cattle dogs.

A cowgirl’s dream come true.

Is there one gift, or two, that stand out in your mind from childhood Christmases?  If so why don’t you share them with us? Help to get all the joy going for the season.  Take a moment from your busy Christmas preparations and rest and refresh yourself and share. 

After all it is the season for sharing…

I hope each and every one of you have a peaceful and joyous Christmas and that blessings of love and contentment abound in your homes.

Let Me Introduce You…

To some of the inhabitants of this wonderful place where I’m now living.

This is Lucky.  He is usually the first one to meet and greet you.

You can kind of see his shorter, smaller right front leg.  He came to the family with that leg.  Carol’s late husband came in carrying a little red fur ball that he found laying on the country road out close to where they lived. Someone had dumped him because of his deformity he thought. Anyway he was “Lucky” that Butch found him. 

Here is a shot of what is fast becoming the “three musketeers”.  Spud, SueSue and Chloe. Actually it’s more Spud and SueSue.  Chloe is more content to hang around the house with my Cuz and myself… us old ladies. Of course if I’m out and about she wants to be right there with me.

Here is the duo. They are probably waiting for me to throw the ball.  Spud is crazier about chasin’ a ball even more than Suess.  I never thought I’d see another dog more crazy about a ball than my baby girl.

He is just so funny about it.  He will lay the ball down and then crouch down in a ready to run mode… and glance up to make sure you know he is waiting on you to pick it up and throw it then go back to the ball stare down.

You can see him assuming the “on the ready mode” just waiting for you to pull the trigger and throw the ball.

Meet Fluffy.  He is the resident cat.  He lives outside but he is not a feral cat.  He loves to be loved on but we are having a bit of difficulty convincing SueSue and Chloe that he belongs here.   They got used to chasing the cats that wandered in on the ponderosa when we lived out south and east of Noble. We have had several introductions with me holding one or the other of the girls in my arms, petting Fluffy with one hand, then sticking it up to their nose so they could smell him, all the while telling them that Fluffy was a baby (not) and you DO NOT HURT THE BABY.  Yes I lied to my girls but they understand about BABIES and that they are not to hurt them.  It just takes a little reinforcing to remind them of  that sometimes.

Yesterday I was out on the porch and Fluffy was on the bench and I was petting him and telling the girls what a good baby boy he was and he was walking back and forth rubbing my leg.  Chloe got to sniff his butt so she is now pretty much disinterested and Fluffy and Suess sniffed noses and all was well with the world for that moment.  As long as I’m there.  And as long as Fluff doesn’t decide to jump off the railing or the bench… then the chase is on once again.  At least with SueSue… but then you all know how she loves to play chase.

I  took this off the front porch toward the setting sun.  And I’m tired so I’m closing for tonight.  The barometric changes with this front rolling in are doing a job on the fibro today.  Bro and I will go to Ft. Worth tomorrow instead of Thursday so I don’t know if I’ll get photos of the guinea hens that stay around here or of some of the cattle that graze in the pasture behind the house and on down the road but that will give me something else to work on after I get back.  I’m still working on my favorite Christmas post so I will have at least one more post before I wish you all a Merry Christmas.

I hope you have all your shopping done and I know most of you will be getting ready to start cooking the Christmas dinner unless you are as lucky as I am and people know that I’m not a good cook so I just get to taste and make sure things are good.  Hang in… I’ll be back.

WoooHoooo!!!

I'm back on-line. I actually was able to follow Bro's instructions and hook up to my Cuz's computer. And it worked! Tomorrow I'll be out with my camera if I can find which box it's in and take some photos so you can see the place and meet the critters, at least the ones that live here. Spud is a Jack Russell and he is in hog heaven. My Cuz says he thinks he has his own harem even though he and the girls all are 'fixed' they run around and check out all the trees and leaves and SueSue and he play chase some until the Spud gets too rambunctious as Jack Russell terriers tend to get and then she just ducks because he is jumpin' over her and around her. They all three like being around each other and Spud comes in and gets in bed with me and the girls and sometimes he and Suess nap on my bed. We both have decided that he's glad for short legged critters being around. Lucky is the outdoor dog. He has a short weak front leg that he can use somewhat and he is such a sweet dog. My cousin's late husband came carryin' him. He had found him and brought him home as a pup and thus the name Lucky.

It is so nice to get up in the morning and look out the window and see the cows grazing out in the pasture or just to go out and feel the sun on my face and the breeze through my hair and to know this peace inside again. And to know that my world is starting to level out and I love my Cuz all the more for opening her home to me. Her son came by the first day I was here and helped me unload my truck and told me he was glad that I was here. He was thinking it will be good for his momma to not be here by herself. I told him that I was the fortunate one to have a close enough relationship with her and was looking forward to be able to visit and get to know him and his sister and her three girls better. I'll be going to basketball games to help Granny yell for the granddaughters and Cuz and I are looking forward to taking the metal detector out to several places around the land they own that were old homesteads and her youngest granddaughter is faunching at the bit to go out hunting with Granny (my Cuz) and Helen looking for treasure. When she saw the metal detector Wednesday evening she wanted to go looking right then... I told her it was getting pretty cool and it was dark so not tonight... She said, "Granny has a big flashlight in her closet!" She sure made it difficult to not go right then but I told her we needed to wait until Saturday.

This is going to be such fun but I have to say that I already have my treasure. I have family that loves and wants me to be around and to be happy and peaceful.

I have the greatest Christmas gift that I could ever have been given.

ANNOUNCEMENT------

As of Wednesday, I'll be out of my home. I'm going to stay with my Cuz for a few days and I'll have to figure out how to do a network thing to be able to get on line when she is on line so my posts may be spotty for a while... Just look at it as me and the furbabies are off on another adventure.

I probably won't be reading and visiting as much until we get bugs worked out since neither she or I are rocket scientists when it comes to computers.

Bear with me during this change and I will be back on line as soon as I can and back to visiting and yakking with you all.

I love each and every one of my blogging friends and I will be back with you soon. I still have to do my favorite Christmas post.

Helen

It Takes Attitude…

I was going to write about my favorite Christmas but ran across this photo and it changed my mind… because it made me smile and I wanted to share this story with you all.

This is my baby brother. Mom told Walter (Bro) to take Bennett to the barber shop and get him a haircut so he would look nice for his birthday.

Walter told the barber to give Ben a mohawk.  I don’t know if Ben told Bro he wanted one or if Bro just told the barber to give him a mohawk.   But this is how Bro and Ben walked home.  Mom about stroked out.  But, dang, he was so cute that she forgave Walter.

What’s not to love with a kid with a mohawk and a BIG teddy bear? Check out the boots, too.

Then I got in on the action… our sis, Sue, had a glorious array of neck scarves that were the rage in the early Fifties.  Ben and I decided that he had a mohawk so he ought to be dressed up like an Indian and who better to help him than moi? If you click the pic you can see our sister standing behind the chair.  She was so mad at us for getting in her stuff,  but she still had a bit of a smile trying to peek out.

Now you may ask, “What’s the deal with it taking attitude?”  Bro and I were talking about it when we were looking at these as he was scanning these photos and he’s the one that said, “You know it takes attitude to wear a mohawk.”  And this was the particular photo that brought about that comment:

The boy had the stuff to pull it off.  Check out the suit coat and the jive attitude. Ben, Bro and I still love this photo and as far as we are concerned even now with you being 61 you could still pull off a mohawk.  You still have what it takes.

Love you, Baby Bro, and I’ll see you and all your family  for Christmas.