Day of pleasure and rest 3 days till Christmas

 This was so much fun to sit and bead on this. 

Some day a family heirloom.

click to enlarge

 These are the two beaded tops we got for Dove the other night 12.99 for one the other for a penny.

 For the Christmas table I thought to make these little boxes of sweets.

 I wanted to see if I liked using the while daily plates on the Dinner table. Now the dishes are undone and set aside till Christmas

 I have loved this Roses fabric and so simply used it for the table over the table pad. The napkins were made on my surger. I am so proud of myself. I sat and figured that machine out and was able to do cover stitch and make the napkins out of this sweet dot. These two fabrics have sat beside each other on my shelf for 6 months. Now look at it. It is the perfect table to have for this vibrant year. The edge of the fish bowl was beaded with crystal drops. Inside the bowl is cut acrylic beads that reflect.

 We took off mid day and took the family out to What a Burger, Steve's favorite.

Then we were off to a far away 5 star resort called the Marriott, to see the giant ginger bread house. This thing was 20 foot long and over 300 pounds of ginger bread let alone all of the beautiful candy.

 It is modeled after the movie 'Willy and the Chocolate factory.

That is a chocolate waterfall in the center below.

 The log cabin looking house had saltine crackers for a roof.

 This is all candy

 We walked the grounds and had some fun adventures.

Oh the flowers were so beautiful!

 Something is going on with Dash. He visited a friend and came home in a strange way. Rather distant. Pray for him. Steve and he had a movie time (war stuff) and Dove and I watched a comedy set for teens.

We all had some time, now the kids are with each other playing on the WII (a game station on the TV)

 This place had gardens that so refreshed my soul.

 There is a little cotton tail rabbit in the image center

any image will enlarge if you click on it.

 There were a few of these trees made out of geraniums. Oh it was so colorful there. Dove is so pretty in her new top. She looked so grown up. She is using one of my necklaces. It was neat to see her so confident.

Then we were off to the next resort. The Phoenician, This is the area of the great ball rooms where some 15 years ago Steve was given an award by the company that we worked for 25 years before we were laid off 6 (?) years ago. 

 They also had a huge ginger bread house but somehow we did not get the image of it.

Look here at image of ginger house

 Except for the lunch and a bit of fuel cost it was all free

Oh my this has just been such a healing time for my little family. 

We were all so worn around out by the beginning of the holiday break that everyone was a bit irritable. Now it is nice. Everyone has the shoulders down so to speak and we are just enjoying each other.

Now for the best news of all

My Doctor called with the lab results while I was out and wanted me to call him right back.

I did so and the nurse spoke with me. It is regarding the infusions and the levels of the IGg imune functions. 

When we began 6 months ago one of the numbers was 24, three months ago 

up to 700's. 

This Saturday BEFORE infusion the test results  

1000  !

This is real good news. I am holding counts during three month intervals. I'll find out more about what this will mean to us on the 30th. This last infusion we are speaking about having to have a port surgically inserted into my collar bone area. My veins are not letting the catheter enter. Saturday left my hand in a black mess of bruise. Now to get this good news! We are anticipating what is in store with more hope and less overwhelm. I know to many this is not a big deal to have CVIG and to get the Inter venous Gamma treatments. For us it has been hard. The Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is the culprit that is making the vein shut off every iv start.

Nothing we can control, not some mind over matter thing. It is a literal physical response.

Oh if this could just mean and end to it, or even fewer and farther between infusions, that would be so cool! Oh if it might mean no port inserted. A port is a left in vein device that the IV just goes right into.

rejoice with me 

my God 

is so 

AWESOME!

Holiday free fun

Doing a search for local free activities is a wonderful way to have fun without the stress or excuse of no funding. I say excuse for it is far too easy to just give into to 'not being able to afford' entertainment.  We had a nice time.


first off we packed up all the jackets and the hats. Snacks, drinks and the camera. We stopped and got some 'C' batteries and with some old battery operated lights on the dash's we were set.
Our neighborhood has one of the very best lighted streets complete with a back yard set up in a nativity/911 theme. It is a quite walk there, but fun around the rest of the caldesac (sp). Lots of lights.

We did stop and get the kids a $1 McD. We had drinks from home.

Oh we had so much fun. Kids were a bit over the top for the back seat :)

We next went to a local mall where Mrs Clause read a story and the ceiling was 'snowing foam'. Well it was then obvious that our two are no longer little. Oh mercy on those two. They were so humored at how the little kids were too cute. We soon left there after using the facilities. I accidentally fell down a couple of steps onto my knees. Goodness I am a klutz.

We drove far south and found a wonderful opportunity. At 9 p.m. was the last of the free rides on a 'horse and buggy'!  Dove and I found a tshirt on a clearence rack and got a second for a penny. It was a $7 night, plus two tops for dove for $12. She needs clothing so it was a wonderful mom/daughter time while the boys held the line.

It was our turn on the buggy, we got off at 8:53 p.m. second to the last group. It was so cool. Some how there was a $5 bill in my billfold. I have no idea where it came from. So cool we had a tip to give. We all walled around and really enjoyed each other. It was really fun.

We then drove for ever to try to find a light show without ever finding it. We all had so many laughs.

We have a list for tomorrow...
ginger bread houses
light shows
carolers

Look into your local area events and search for free opportunities. Have some fun.

The Dog fish

Stories of our lives enrich the minds of our children. 

One such story was the dog fish. I lived on the coast as a child (Pacific). One memory that is as fresh as the moment it occurred was when a girl of 8 or 9 , I caught a dog fish of the pier at Puget Sound. Got a real good view of that this as I reeled up those many feet from the waters surface up to that dock. Seams to me a crowd came round too. We tossed it back. If your not gonna eat it use care and let the hook out my dad taught me. These creatures are very rare in the ocean. Now there are dog faced puffer fish, that is not what I am speaking of however.

Dash asked what the strangest thing I ever caught out of the ocean was. Well this was it. There is only the one image so far on line of it. This is true not a false image. I really did see one of these amazing fish on the end of my line.

It was on a visit to my 'dad' in Washington state. That whole trip was strange for it was the first time that I had gone to a visitation and did not really know him well. My sister and I rode up on a greyhound bus to visit him. She sat in the back with some strangers and I alone in the center or front. It was a long journey from Utah to Washington. A very scary thing for a kid. She was his biological daughter, my elder siblings tell me of my Inuit paternal. My children there are so many stories untold to you.

God had a way though of making a memorable marvel of nature for me.

 

This is not a picture of the one I caught.

It looked just like this. 

 This is my sister 2 years my elder and I as kids.

 Dash and I have a same mind that wild things best left wild. For food it is good to know how to gain but never for a sport. Life is too precious. I have not fished now a many a year.

I told him of a time when fishing in an upper lake in Woods Canyon Arizona. As I cast line (hook and worm) a German Brown Trout

JUMPED up out of the water 

in plain view of all the fishers standing round the small lake. It Jumped onto my hook. To the applause of all. That was one of the coolest moments of my young adult life. Steve and I were center lake in a rental boat.

Steve always would marvel when he saw me clean a fish. It was second nature to me. Suppose that's why to this day meat prep is no big deal to me. It is a part of sustaining life.

The water ways here are non to supportive of clean life that I might want to partake of. Had some fresh caught cat fish given to me once. The last fish I ever gutted. They would not die. Some thing in me did though for that fight those fish gave for life stopped me from ever fishing again.

Wonderful family fun Building Ginger Bread Houses

 At Walgreen's I found these kits for $10 each and decided a good gathering could come out of this special treat. Oh we had a wonderful time together doing them. It is nice to take a short cut. The work if I were to make the bread would of been just too much. This was worth every penny.
They were set up most of the day. We had too many things going today. Daddy man gave Dash a HUGE Christmas gift.

Daddy Man cleaned Dash's room!

 Once we all got together and watched a sweet Charlie Brown show we went in to play. Dash and Dad and Dove and I on hers. We had  a good time. Creative and talkative.

 Dash's front door

 Dash's side house (card board to prop it up until all is dry and set)

 Dash's back door

 Dove's front door

Dove's side house

Dove's back door

Christmas Eve Morning with coffee and hot cocoa

Yes we are Crazy...

:)

It is a fun crazy though.

cheese sticks or yogurt first