Christmas in California

.....But first, Christmas in Canada.

I have been enjoying the antique stores in our area and have been looking for an old telephone table for this little nook. Ken surprised me with this before we left for California.

Believe it or not, the phone was in the antique store as well. Makes us feel a bit "antique" ourselves.

Ken and Katie and I got into LA late on the 19th. Lisa came in the next day and we had a wonderful few days in Sunny California.

One of our missions was to pick up Katie's car.

That's one happy girl!

Dinner with good friends Tom and Kari.

Dinner at Buca di Beppo's.

And Christmas time in Southern California would not be complete without a long walk on the beach

We got to Grass Valley on the 23rd and had a wonderful Christmas weekend with family.

Christmas morning

I must say.................beautiful!!!

I know, I know. I am their mother, but I just had to say it. Inside and out. We had so much fun being together. I tried to hold it together at the airport when we said good bye, but it was no use. I was flying back to Canada, Lisa to Portland and Ken and Katie were hitting the road for the long trek home in the car. It was an odd feeling to be going separate directions. I guess thats what happens when our kids become adults. We sure do enjoy the times we have together, and so thankful for God's many blessings.

I am home now.

Still listening to Christmas music.

Still have the tree lights on.

Still celebrating.

Hope you are too!

The last box

When we moved, I was determined to open and use or display the contents of each box. With the exception of old toys and keepsakes belonging to the girls, and some camping gear, I did pretty well. I do have some things set aside to embellish the family room when we get that renovated, (another "before and after" post to follow sometime this winter), and everything else is unpacked or gotten rid of.

Except for this box..............................

......................Fragile, but not eggs. I had a perfect spot at our other house for my Precious Moments collection, but in our new house it didn't seem to fit. My thought was to find a shelf that could house all the figurines and fit on the wall in my office. I found this shelf unit in a storage room at camp and rescued it for my cause.

Not quite right........................

............ A little better.

I have always loved shelves. Here are a few more in our home.

Some special nic nacs. Our wedding cake top, My Grandma Ewert's Bible (in German), and some pictures...............

Interesting that my Mom and I picked the same colors for our weddings.

The Blue and White

The all White. Martha Stewart can get away with it, I thought that I would give it a try with my dining areas yellow walls.

This shelf is above the door in the guest bedroom. Most of the things are Lisa's.

More of Lisa's things. I don't know what I will do when she wants to claim them. I guess I will just have to redecorate!!

Thanksgiving Weekend

It was great having Katie home for Thanksgiving. It wasn't the first time she has been home since she went to school, but it was the longest and we made the best of it!

Wednesday evening Katie and I went to see "White Christmas" at the local community theatre. There is just something about getting all dressed up and watching a live production. What a fun way to start out the Christmas Season!

Thursday, (Thanksgiving), was business as usual in Canada. Ken had a dentist appointment, Katie ran out and did some errands and I went to the office for a few hours. The turkey went in the oven at around 3:30 and by 6:00 our home looked like Thanksgiving.

Katie had a couple of friends over and Pete and Holly joined us, as well.

Amy, Danielle and Katie

Pete and Holly

Friday we changed gears and got ready for our first annual Ladies Christmas Retreat.

We had about 40 ladies, which was great for our first year. It was a lot of work, but well worth it. Everyone seemed to have a great time. A wonderful speaker, lots of Christmas carols, fabulous food and a bunch of chocolate. What more could you ask for?

The Chocolate Village.

We took Katie back to school on Sunday. It is so nice that she is close enough that we can run her back and forth. Ken and I stayed in Buffalo and were tourists on Monday as we visited Niagara Falls State park on the US side. Our winter hasn't hit yet, so the weather was very pleasant. We could go right to the rivers edge above the falls.

The mist is where the water falls over. It was quite amazing.

Canada is just across the river.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I know, it is only November 20th. But while most of you are getting ready for Thanksgiving, I am getting ready for our first annual Ladies Christmas Retreat next weekend. We have about 35 ladies signed up, so I have been in the "Christmas" state of mind for some time now. The camp is almost decorated and our Chef has some wonderful things planned with food.... He is creating a Chocolate village, (I will post a picture after the weekend).

Our house is still Thanksgiving all the way......Katie comes home on Tuesday and we will take Thursday off to celebrate. We have so much to be thankful for and we do not want to sail through the day preoccupied with the weekend a head.

We love and appreciate all of you and wish you a Blessed Thanksgiving.

California

Ken and I had the opportunity to meet Lisa in Los Angeles last week. We had been planning the trip since summer and now it has come and gone. Isn't that the way it always works? We had a wonderful time. Lisa and I hit Disneyland for a couple of days while Ken saw to some business.

Lisa is probably my favorite person to do Disneyland with. I suppose it is because we like to do the same things. A perfect balance between rides and just walking around enjoying all the detail that Disney seems to perfect.

The only thing that we might disagree on is the Carousel. I Gotta get the Carousel picture. She humored me and we got it out of the way pretty much first thing.

It was November 1st and they did, in fact, have some Christmas decorations out. It was fun to reminisce and laugh and talk about so many memories. I don't know if it truly is the "Happiest place on Earth" but we sure have had some happy times there.

From LA we went to Oceanside. Lunch at the end of the pier.

We missed you Katie!!!!!

The next stop was Palomar Mountain. Ken and Katie had been back since we moved, but this was the first time for Lisa and I. It was great to see a few familiar faces and meet some new ones. We had dinner and spent the night with Steve and Marlene in Murrieta.

We ended our week in Indio near Palm Springs where we visited with good friends and Lisa golfed with Ken for the first time since she was 6. She may just be taking up the game again after all these years........

High Hopes

Thank you all for not giving up on me. I had high hopes of keeping

the blog up-dated on a regular basis, but.......well, we seemed to have jumped

from a busy summer to a busy fall. No complaints, mind you, just had to put

things on hold for a bit longer. Things will be getting back to normal now, as

we have hired our new Food Service Manager. Tom and his family arrived

Thursday and I have officially handed over the reins.

I have been cooking on and off since August, and the last month was more on than off.

I did enjoy it and it stretched me quite a bit, especially Labor Day, (250 people), and Thanksgiving, (only 75 people, but I sure didn't want to ruin Thanksgiving dinner for

these Canadians). We made it through..........I could have used my mother,

but I was able to draw from the many things I learned from her over the years

...... Thanks Mom!

We have had another beautiful fall. It was very warm up until

two weeks ago. It has turned colder now, and is time to bring out the

winter clothes.

We were able to get away in the middle of September. Had a very

nice time with Ken's Mom as we traveled to see Katie at Houghton,

and then on down to Virginia.

We came back by way of Gettysburg, Lancaster Pennsylvania and Hershey.

We didn't have much time to stop and be tourists, but the weather was perfect

and the scenery was beautiful.

The end of September brought our Young at Heart Conference.

Ken and I had the opportunity to step in and be the Program Directors

for this week. I think that we were blessed much more than our guests, as

we spent time with these Saints. Ken led music and did all the MC stuff,

I planned activities and enjoyed the fellowship.

One of the things that we did during the week was to take a trip

to the Royal Botanical Gardens.

There were 24 of us that went on the trip.

We arranged to have supper there at the Gardens which was

very nice as well. We got back to the conference centre around

7:00, served Hot Berry Sundaes and put in one of the

Gaither Homecoming DVD's. It was a great day!

Katie came home two weeks later..........

............Before

after.......

I don't buy many groceries in the summer, so I hit the grocery store before

Katie came home.

It is so nice to have her so close.

She will be home again for the US Thanksgiving weekend!

Celebrating Birthdays with Pete and Holly

at the Symposium.

Ken - October 8th, Pete - October 1st and Holly October 10th

Which one is which?

1961

1955

1965

I felt a little out of place not having an October Birthday,

but someone had to take the picture!

A new Blogger

For those of you who do not know, there is a new blogger in our midst.

The Californian eskimo has been keeping us updated on the new chapter of her life.

Who could this be, you ask?

Go to californian-eskimo.blogspot.com to see..........

As for Life in Canada...........

It hasn't slowed down much since summer.

We are looking forward to a quiet week as we get ready for

Thanksgiving next weekend.

........................More later

Well, our second summer here at

GBCC has come to an end. Although we

have a pretty busy fall, we look forward

to some quieter times.

Except for my computer crashing and out of service for

5 weeks, (I am still not caught up), and

Ruth, our wonderful Food Service Manager,

leaving us, we have had a great summer.

The thing about our summers is that

everything gets put on hold for a time. I am looking

forward to:

Having a cup of coffee for enjoyment, not because I need it to get me through the day;

Going for walks;

Blogging!

Going to regular stores instead of

Costco

Wholesale Club

Staples

Pool Supply

Etc...

Eating right;

Cooking [for just us];

Having a clean house;

Doing some yard work;

and

Corresponding with loved ones;

Katie worked on the Maintenance Crew this summer, and it was so fun to have her at home and to be able to snatch some special moments together.

The business helped me to not think about Katie going off to College, but inevitably we had to start getting ready. We were able to go to Buffalo one day to get stuff for her dorm room. We had a great day and we were successful in finding everything that she needed.

She went with a blue and green theme.

The day arrived...........

We got to the College about 1:00 in the afternoon and

got her moved in. You know the routine: Mom makes the bed and

Dad hooks up the printer......

There was a wonderful dedication service in the afternoon followed by a Bagpipe Recessional. The new students followed the Bagpiper out of the chapel and around the main part of campus. He played Amazing Grace and it was all quite moving.

The Bagpiper will lead them all in on the day of their commencement in four years.

There was a very long line of new students. Katie was toward the end.

They ended up on the steps of the chapel for a class picture.

Katie and her Roommate Genna.

Dr Suise theme: thing one and thing two

The good bye was very hard, but we know that this is a great fit for Katie. She is only 3 and a half hours a way. We already have plans to stop in and see her on our way to vacation next week.

"Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, giver of all good and perfect gifts, we thank You for these, our children, whom we now commit to the task of learning, and to growing in service to Your Kingdom. Grant that these, our children, may find in this, Your college, the love and the wisdom needed to illuminate the path to Your knowledge. Bless those who teach; enable them to walk in the light of Your everlasting Word. May your Spirit lead these students to become men and women of pure hearts, of upright purpose, of steadfast endeavor-to learn to do Your will. In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, amen."

This prayer was in the bulletin.

Katie's Graduation

Ready to go!

There was a dinner for the Graduates and their parents before the Graduation.

This young man was sitting right in front of us.

(This is the College that Katie is going to in the fall).

He was about12 years old and very wiggly.

He did sit still long enough for Ken to take the picture.

We thought that it was a very "interesting" distraction.

Mom, Bill, Lisa and Peter.

Graduating with "Honours"

Lovely Sisters!

Katie had one cousin, (second Cousin), at her Graduation!

Peter has been working with us this summer

and he and Katie have been having fun getting

to know each other.

He thinks that Katie now needs to go to his graduation next year in Montana.

Who Knows??

It was a very lovely evening and we are proud of our Katie!
We are now starting to think about packing for College...............
I am not sure if I am ready, but ready or not,

it will be here in less than 5 weeks!