Playing with my sunrise pictures

Yesterday I was looking through some of my pictures and came upon this one.  It is looking toward the west but is a sunrise picture.  The sun is lighting up the trees from the east. I was standing on my deck.  This is a great memory picture because now the trees are all bare.  The grass is still green however.

This is a sunrise picture standing on the deck of the bedroom from the house we stayed at in Spain.

This view is standing on my front porch looking east.

Holiday celebrations

We have had a real full schedule of Holiday lunches and parties with organizations and clubs we belong to.  Saturday is the last one for a while.  One club actually has its party in January which is nice.

Last night a local service organization we belong to had their party.  For entertainment a women (immigrant from Russia) did a dramatic presentation of the story from the Nutcracker.  She had everyone in the audience help in acting out parts, like the march of the soldiers or fighting mice. The group were all adults so she told us to pretend we were children again and have fun.  It was a success because everyone had a smile on their face.

Annual Holiday party over

I finally feel like I can breath again.  The dinner for 18 is over. I had to clean the house, decorate two trees and the alcove above the stairs and make the food.

For the meal I set up a salad bar and had everyone make their own salad.  The entree was three soups, again served buffet style.  There was a  Chicken Tortilla soup, Beef stew with carrots, peas and rutabaga, and a Corn and potato chowder.  For dessert I made a "Lava cake"   where you make individual chocolate cakes in a large muffin tin, cut out a bit in the middle and fill it with hot fudge.  It is then warmed in the microwave and served with ice cream.  All my guests wanted to bring food but I told them no thanks, so they all brought wine.   So a good time was had by all !!!  I did have a helper for four hours.  She has come for several parties and says she enjoys it.  The alternative would be to be a home milking cows.

Two Thanksgiving dinners

Today we had our second Thanksgiving Dinner (which couldn't be beat according to Arlo Guthrie).

The first one was last Sunday at the home our our son and family.  B was dressed for the occasion and requested the drum stick.  The second was today when we were invited to our friend's home.  For each, I brought my famous candied sweet potatoes, a cherry pie and a pumpkin roll.  Also ice cream to put on top of any dessert .

When we were in Spain, we saw this dress that had K's name on it.  She loves red and loves to dance.

Fundraisers

This last week I attended two fundraisers for charitie.   The first was for Akron Goodwill.  A friend buys a table each year and invites me.  Various restaurants serve their specialty foods which then is your meal.  There are baskets to bid on as well as a live auction.  I was the highest bidder on a basket that included tickets for many events in Akron ( orchestra art museum, sports events, etc)  The program was a vintage style show.  Apparently when people donate vintage clothing, they are saved and used for this occasion   Hair styles and accessories matched the time period of the clothing.  Of course I always think of my daughter  (who is heavy into vintage style) when I am there.

The second was a "Dancing with the Stars" with 10 couples from the community.  It was a high energy event.
There was no auction or selling of anything at this one, just a nice dinner and the competition.  Each couple had taken 8 dancing lessons.  Some were obviously new at it, but a few were quite good.  What was cool was that they contestants were local people so I know a few of them.

Update on last weekend

G took a vacation day on Friday.  Projects that were completed included repairing a section of the roof where shingles had blown off,  cleaning under mowers (that involved scraping and using the power washer), cleaning several tillers and the garden shredder.  We then rearranged the garage so two cars and about six motorcycles fit in the area where one car would normally be. We used the Audi to pull down a pine tree that had died. We filled a 450 gallon tank with water and ran it where the downspouts drain to make sure there was no blockage (which would have explained the water coming into the basement last week)  But it worked fine.  More diagnosis needed. By Sunday night we were both complaining of aches and pains.  It is making me tired just writing about it.

Last night we went shopping for a new suit for Gerry.  We have a few formal occasions coming up and he does not have a suit that fits.  Since it has been about 25 years since he bought a suit you can imagine the sticker shock!!!  We were successful in that he now owns a beautiful dark grey suit and a wool topcoat.  Pictures will be posted when he wears it.

Post Election

There is NOTHING on my calendar for today. That means I can look at my very long "to do" list.  Gerry and I did not stay up to watch election results as we get up at 5:30 AM each day.  It works better for him to leave early to beat the rush hour traffic in Cleveland.  The hard part is making sure we get to bed early.

A couple of things about the election results made me feel hopeful:  I was happy Obama won, and Sherrod Brown kept his Senate seat.  Outside groups (including Karl Rove) spent $40,000,000 against Sherrod.  I am also hopeful to see three states passed initiatives to give equal rights to gay people in allowing gay marriage. :"Go Minnesota" where they voted down a constitutional amendment that would have said marriage was only for a man and woman.  Yesterday I received three phone calls from Obama workers. When I told the first one he had my vote, her spontaneous responses was "Praise the Lord"  which shows Christians voted for him too.  :)

There has been frost on the windshield of Gerry's car the last two mornings.  The birds are all over the feeders.  It seems that Winter is approaching.  The fields that we rent out still have soy beans in them. Last night we saw two small dear munching on them.  He will have to wait to harvest until the ground is frozen since it is so wet now.