It is so Hot outside...yes I said Hot. Claudia (my cube neighbor) said it is "turn your air on in your car" kinda hot. That being how hot it is...just had to rub it in your face kinda hot.
Maybe close to 65 out there for December 30.

So back to work and feels good to get back in the groove of things. I was in my pajamas for two days straight. Thank God Mr. Allain (R's friend from NC and no relation) showed up and gave me a reason to get dressed and out of the house. We had a nice little visit but he didn't realize that his town in NC is four hours away from SC and he was tired after spending the day with us. He is a good friend to R. and it was nice to have someone visit. He told us about the new store and how much more space for fishing tackle. If you want to check it out, here is the website:
http://www.castawayfishingsupply.com/

The picture to the far left is J.

I think R. got the fishing bug after talking to J. but then again he always loved fishing.

Christmas is for Children

I love to see children react to Christmas things around them. The awe in which they stare at the Christmas lights. The little eyes so wide with excitement at seeing Santa at the mall or live donkey's at the live Nativity.
I love how even the older ones who seem they might know Santa personally, keep the spirit alive by pretending to know Santa came. I love Christmas because of the children and seeing how these memories will be with them a lifetime.

D-MD said the picture from Mt. Tom was in October of 1978!

My memory of Mt. Tom is the way they made poor teenager D take the lift all the way to the top and he hadn't even taken a lesson yet. By the end of the day, that kid was doing jumps! I also have a great picture of Dad pointing to the back of my jeans that show all the "wax" from the alpine slide where I slid off. The lasting physically memory I have of Mt. Tom is the way my freckles got removed from my right arm and have slowly filled back in again. Oh one more memory from 1997. I took my little person friend from AT&T to Mt. Tom. Doreen had to have them shut the lift off every time so she could get lifted on to the seat. She had them laughing by the end of the day, that she got to show them that size didn't matter. She skied better than anyone on that mountain. I just got a Christmas card from her and to think that she could have babies and go through all the labor and delivery and only be 4feet 2inches tall still amazes me. You have to watch that show, "Little People, Big World" so see that little people are just like everyone else.
I will miss skiing and snowshoeing and hope that Loon gets lots of snow for everyone to visit the condo this year.

Christmas 1990

The Christmas picture I just posted to the blog is of MPOM with Molly and TJ when they were probably 3 & 4 yrs old. I love the way TJ has a little cowboy outfit on. If his EOD unit could see him now!
I also love how MPOM had a Christmas sweatshirt on! These are the type of things that I remember about Christmas' past. I also loved having Christmas at Mom's house. It always felt so warm and comfy and like Christmas is suppose to feel.
I will miss that this year!

So I received a subscription to a magazine called "Reminisce" from my mother-in-law. It has stories from people about the past and this month is all about Christmas. It has picture of ladies in the 70's with the teased hair and short skirts dancing with their husbands in basement for New Year's Eve. It reminded me of Mom's redheaded hairpiece she wore with the Go-Go boots to make her look like one Hot Mama. When I went home this year for her 75th birthday, everyone got to say to her one of the memories. I think it was John who told her he rememberd the white Go-Go boots she wore and then Moe chimed in about the hairpiece and teasing her hair in buffount.
Just brings back memories of their home parties and how Mom went all out with matching dishes for each entree. R still laughs at the "relish tray". He never knew there was such a thing.

Why? I often wonder why certain people have such good luck and others are always facing the worst luck you wouldn't wish on your enemies. Take my best friend Judy...why does she have to go through so much? She lost Tony when he was 40 by trying to revive him after massive heart attack. How many 40 year old widows are there? Not only to have the lasting mental image of him during this, but to have to plan a funeral and deal with not having your husband there to help raise your daughter?
Then she gets a double whammy with the ovarian cancer. To think that she didn't have enough emotional crap with losing Tony but now she has to worry about herself passing away if cancer spreads. She calls to tell me, "want to hear the latest" and I admit I want to shout "NO!" What else could go wrong?
She went to gastroentrologist and finds out that during Gastric bypass, they did not make the opening to her stomach big enough. She still had the solid food from the day before in her stomach during the endoscopy (?spell) That is why she kept vomiting and that is why her first round of chemo pills did not work and the tumor is still the same size in her ovary. She had to make a decision to either keep going with chemo or have radical hysterectomy. She walked in ready to tell the doctor to go with hysterectomy and he told her he would rather her try the chemo again. Now that they figured out why, maybe the chemo pills will help.
I know she has had enough pain in her life. When will God give her some good luck and grant that girl a happy life? I see/hear her pain and from a distance I want to reach out and hug her and tell her everything will be okay...but how do I know?
Please pray for my friend Judy. She needs all the prayers she can get.

R and I were at a meat market the other day and all of a sudden I was craving Gorton. Yes there probably should be some kind of accent a goo (how do you spell that little thingy you put above a guy name Claude name?)
So I called Mom to get her Gorton recipe. She gave it over the phone from memorization of course, but said she would check her recipe and just to make sure. She called back today and said she couldn't find her recipe but that I should make it to taste. I long for some Gorton so will be making some next weekend from how Mom told me. For those of you interested in knowing what Gorton is, it is a French spread kind of like pate (again where is that accent a goo thingy).
Take your 1 pound of ground pork butt and put it in a skillet with salt, pepper and finely chopped onions. Add water so the meat is covered. Do not cover pan. Leave on low and slow for 1 hour. Keep adding water if needed so meat is always covered. You can skim off fat if you like. The meat should resemble hamburg with a gray color. Remove from heat and add 1/8 tsp of ground clove and 1/2 tsp of allspice. This is where Mom wasn't sure of measurements so said add to taste.
If anyone has Mom's recipe, let me know. Until then, I will try my best to keep the French in me fed.
Au Revoir

So they always say bad things happen in three's. I would have to say I have reached my limit when it come to bad things right about now. First R gets laid off, then his truck gets vandalized, then my car wouldn't start. Someone tried to get in to his truck by putting a screwdriver in his lock and wasn't successful but made his handle come away from frame. He said to me, "go see if the camper is okay". So I get in my car, chug-chug-chug then nothing. Electric works but has rained out and I know Pat always sprayed my wires with dryer and it would start. Tried that..chug, chug, chug...nothing. Went to Wal-Mart to look for distributor cap. R's boss is walking towards us and seemed to be very unpleasant moment. They asked if we were Christmas shopping, I said, "No my car died and looking for distributor cap". I wanted them to know we weren't in mood for Christmas. R said he should have told them, "I can't afford Christmas shopping this year because you laid me OFF!!!!" Always think of things to say after the person walks away. So the new distributor cap didn't work and neither did my car. It finally started the next day when it was sunny out and has worked all week long.
This morning it was mild out so I walked out with just a festive snowman sweater on. It is now pouring buckets out and my mind is whether or not my car will start. At least I have a ride home. Thank the Lord I am not stuck in Bok' needing a ride to NB.
So R called police to report the vandalism and female sherrif with pink handcuffs ("yes they work", she said) jokes to R, "You hope those are the three bad things that have happened". UH? What? SHUT UP!

Sausage Day

We pulled out the meat grinder and tubs to get ready to make our Christmas sausages for this year. R had bought two Boston Butts yesterday and we mixed in lean hamburg this year also. We mix up a batch of Bratwurst and were getting ready to stuff the casings. Both of our backs started to hurt so we took a break. R is snoring on the couch right now listening to Burl Ives sing "Holly Jolly Christmas". Brier is snoring behind me on his bed too.
Getting ready to go out on a Christmas hayride with The Endres Family, who will be heading back to Germany in a two weeks. We wanted to show them a little Christmas spirit before they leave. Mini Miracles Farm has hayrides, live Nativity, lights and Christmas Carols while we are there. Looks cold enough to wear my snowman sweater from Moe.

Dicken's Christmas

We went to R's supervisor house last night to give them a invite to Christmas Hayride on Saturday. We thought they would be going to the Dickens Christmas downtown. They were told from their friends that it was postponed until Friday. We showed them online where it wasn't and they ran around getting ready. We followed them there and had a nice time walking around, listening to the music by children's orchestra, carols sung by people dressed in Dickens era clothing, Nutcracker Ballet in storefront window, Hand Bell choir was in shoe store and we sung along, Santa lending his lap to kids who wanted to tell him what they wanted, carriage rides and final tree lighting ceremony. It was a nice chilly night that got us all in the spirit.

Southern Drawl Accent needed

Joke from your crazy southern country friend Dena, not just kiddin.



Did you know that the 3 wisemen were firemen?

They came from a far.