Southern Living Yankee

Merry Christmas! See? She did get the tree up in time!

Merry Christmas to each of you, dear family and friends. We love you and pray God's very best for you in 2011. Check back "next year" for more writing updates.

The two other 2010 Family Fun boxes were shipped this week. I hope I get some pictures when they're opened! I'd love to see the expression on my neices and nephews cute little faces when they open some of "the gifts!" The Family Fun box tradition began in 2001 and I am quickly forgetting what the boxes held each year. Here's what I remember: 2001--a mix of things including a tea set and a nativity set. I hadn't really gotten a grip on going with a theme. 2002--not sure--maybe it was snowmen/snowflakes? 2003--Ice cream sundaes? 2004--Some sort of party-in-a-box? 2005--no idea 2006--Bathtime and Bubbles 2007--Gold Cup Boat Race 2008--Pinatas 2009--bird watching 2010--Going Global Anybody have a clue???? Think hard! Jog my memory, please! Thanks for checking in on me! Pray for Brooke on Monday 12/6 as she has surgery for a torn ACL. Oh, and in case you're wondering, yes, I changed the look. The raindrops in Ohio have turned into snowflakes but Blogger did...

The WGSIL (World's Greatest Sister-in-law) emailed me today about how I disappoint her. Every day she visits this blog, and every day she's disappointed by it's dull and void-ed-ness. I know. Nothing. (She really needs to Click on the "Subscribe to" over there to the right---> RSS feed and then she'd be notified by e-mail about my latest posts!) But truly, nothing much has been happening in the personal life. Unless you want to hear about the continuous hacking cough left over from a cold, or how I'm trying to get used to wearing contacts but the prescriptions aren't right, or I can't (eeww, eeww, eeww!) touch them to my eyeball! And who wants to read about all that? Not me! So on the homefront, Fud is the only one who's had some interesting happenings here at Twin Lakes. He made friends with Carly, a dog two doors down. Carly's not real sure what Fud is, exactly. She knows dogs hate cats, and vice versa, but Fud's such a friendly li...

http://www.oplin.org/tree/fact%20pages/sycamore/sycamore.html This picture looks like camoflauge, doesn't it? Well, you're right, it's not. It's a picture of sycamore tree bark. When Tom had his big day out (last post), I picked up the BIGGEST leaves I'd ever seen in my life! Turns out sycamore trees have the largest leaves in North America. All these facts from a link on my library's website for kids. Who knew? Brad and Aaron happened to show up around the time I made a birthday cake so they were delighted with a "Happy Birthday to You" duet by Tom and I. And this rainbow was too big for my camera--just like God's promises are too big for our little minds to take in! WRITING UPDATE: I haven't touched the book manuscript for several weeks, but maybe this week since I have Thursday and Friday off. Pray for me! Thanks for checking in on me!

Since Tom turned 50 I'd thought he'd be content to turn up the volume on the TV and sit there watching PBS, Fox News or Gaither Concerts all day long and we could yell at each other (I mean SPEAK LOUDLY) and say "What you'd say?" all day long. But noooo. He still has to play. So yesterday we went for a bikeride--a BREEZY bikeride on the bike path from West Carrolton to Miamisburg, more or less along the Miami River. Did I mention it was breezy? We went against the wind the entire way, and in Miamisburg when we finally got a good view of the breadth of the river, there were whitecaps on it. I mean, WHITECAPS because the wind was pushing against the current! A gull was trying to fly down river, the same direction we were going--he was flapping his wings and going NOWHERE! But it was worth it. When we finally got there we came upon this charming surprise: a little historical society event at some historic log cabins in the village. Each housed a variety of craft de...