Sunday, December 26

A white-breasted nuthatch, taken on my new camera.

Our $14.99 last minute tree, I thought it was a real beauty.

Grandma Great enjoying Lily on her first Christmas.

Gift exchanging after sledding and dinner.

Grandpa Bob with his little Olive.

Luckily the kids got away last night and landed in Philadelphia before the storm hit. I woke this morning feeling just awful. I have the worst head cold ever. I think I slept all day and went to bed at 7:30. Guess all the stress of the holiday finally caught up with me. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and enjoyed being with family and friends.

Friday, December 24

Grandma & Luke are ready to go hiking and birding.

Our little Polar Baby!

Lily in her activity-mobile. Beep-beep, coming through!!

Grandpa and Grandma Great, Lily, Asher, Luke, Olive and Lillie.

Sledding before Christmas dinner! Everyone had a great time!!

Today we had our Christmas dinner since Trish and Chad are leaving for their home in Dover on Christmas night. It seems different trying to get dinner ready at 1 instead of a "magic moment" when dinner is usually ready at 6 pm. All the while preparation was taking place I was trying to watch Luke and Lily enjoying Christmas stockings. I was a little apprehensive about getting everything to come out of the oven on time and completely cooked but I must say, dinner was pretty good with lots of variety. I did forget to bake the dinner rolls but I didn't hear anyone complain and we seemed to have plenty. Before we ate, the kids, Luke and Daniel's two oldest went sledding. Mom and Dad were able to join us from the Madison House and several friends stopped out to see us (well mainly to see Lily) along with my brother and his family. We had a great time. At 6, I headed down to church for our Christmas cantata. It was a wonderful ending to a pretty perfect day. The only thing that would have made it better is if Sara and Matt could have been here. Merry Christmas everyone, enjoy this special day!

Wednesday, December 22

Luke on his new John Deere Gator

Luke and Pop Pop taking a spin in Pop Pop's new Super Mach UTV.

First of all, Happy Birthday to Colo. Colo was the first gorilla ever to be born in captivity and is now also the oldest gorilla in a zoo at the age of 54. Yesterday I picked Trish, Chad and the kids up from the airport. We had Flyer's pizza and spent the evening playing with Luke and Lily and catching up with Trish and Chad. We decided to let Luke see his gift from us early in case we get more snow before Christmas. I think he really likes it but he definitely needs to work on his steering skills. Today, Andy got his Christmas present early as well. It's a 700 cc Super Mach with a snow plow blade mounted on the front. It looks great and seems pretty easy to drive. I'm hoping that Mr. B can use it to get back out on those snow days and start pushing snow for our neighbors. No more shoveling the driveway by hand! Yea!!

Saturday, December 18

This is Aurora and Anana wishing you a Merry Christmas and Blessings in the New Year

New Delta faucet, installed by.....moi. And not one drip under the sink.

The beginning of this week seemed pretty hectic and by Thursday I was exhausted. I think part of it was the added stress of snow removal as we are still awaiting Mr. Bichler's Christmas present, a new snow blade. I'm also feeling that I am not quite ready for the holidays and there never seems to be enough hours in a day. My new windows are in so that is now checked off my list. Thursday was the longest day of the week, Rosati here at 7:30 to finish windows so I was up at 7 shoveling snow, Mom's doctor appointment at 10:45, roads were a mess, lunch at Bob Evan's, shopping at Wall Mart with Mom, drop Mom off at the Madison House then back home just in time to change and drive down to school to catch the bus to our Licking Hts. game. Finally back home at 9:30 pm. Needless to say I slept in a little on Friday morning before I tackled putting a new faucet on our kitchen sink. It took an hour and a half to get the old faucet off and only 20 minutes to put the new one on. I was pretty proud of the job, if I must say so myself. Today I finished wrapping the Christmas gifts and went to Columbus to pick up some last minute items. I want to have everything wrapped before the grand kids get here on Tuesday. I want to spend a stress-free week with the family while they are here. (I know, it probably won't happen but it might!) Tomorrow I have to get my Christmas cards written. I sent cards to the shut-ins from our church but I haven't sent my regulars. I've attached this year's Christmas card just in case I don't get them out in time, also a picture of my new kitchen faucet.

Wednesday, December 15

A beautiful view of the Little Darby.

Still snowing.

To think I put lights on these trees! You can't even see them with all the snow!!

Sure has been cold, it is 8 degrees as I write this. Monday they came to put our windows in and I felt really sorry for the fellows that had to be out in the frigid temperatures. My windows look great and they will finish the outside trim tomorrow morning. Tuesday I worked at the zoo as usual and I stayed to do a Mexican wolf watch from 10-noon. Talk about cold!! We have 5 new Mexican wolves, 5 sisters who were being released into their new yard for the first time. Docents help to watch animal behavior when animals are being placed in a new environment or if they are being introduced to new animals. The new wolves are beautiful and seemed to settle into their new home very nicely. I will post some pictures later. We aren't supposed to take pictures while we are working. I do have pictures of the snow storm that we had on Monday. I would have posted them sooner but I was too busy shoveling our driveway. Have a nice day and stay warm.

Saturday, December 11

Wow, I hadn't realized how long it has been since I blogged. Sad to say that not much has happened in that time. Basketball games have started and we won our first two pretty easily but lost to Liberty Union on Thursday. I've been trying to get prepared for winter and those nasty storms they keep talking about. Last week was spent trying to solve some septic issues. It took 3 days but between Yoder's Septic and Yutzy Brothers plumbing, I do think the problem is solved. On Monday Rosati is coming to install my new energy efficient windows. I am going to put a bow on each one since they are my Christmas present. Today was spent getting our outside Christmas lights up. I still have a few left to put up but the majority of the work is done. I picked up our tree yesterday so that is one more thing I can check off of my list. Trying to get all my gifts wrapped, can't believe only 2 weeks until Christmas. Trish, Chad, Luke and Lily will be here on the 21 so I need to get it in gear.

I fed Lily some peas, didn't know she didn't like them. I switched to apple sauce but she apparently didn't realize it for a while. Loved her facial expressions. (video from October)