Christmas And Beyond

Christmas Morning at Elisabeth's:
The kids slept later than I thought they would, especially Hannah and Ryan.

We began things with Elisabeth reading the account of the birth of Christ from the book of Luke.

Presents!  Lots and lots of pretty presents!  The most special ones were those keepsake animals made with Tim's shirts.

Sally got some squeaker toys which she immediately began trying to rip apart to get to the squeaker inside.

Later on in the day, Liz and I went to the Christian School to make a new bulletin board for the Kindergarten class.  Abby enjoyed playing with the animals in one of the baskets.

Jesus' life from a little boy in Bethlehem (bottom left behind us) to his baptism in the Jordan River, which is off the picture to the right.

Tuesday, December 26th:
Liz and I went after-Christmas shopping.  Didn't really find much.  Lunch was good, considering it was the first "meal" I had eaten since the previous Friday.

We ate at "Which Wich?"  It was a sub place.  You take a bag with a list of ingredients, mark off the ingredients you want your sandwich made of and they fill your order.

Wednesday, December 27th:
I brought the kids back with me for church and spending the night with me at Ilene's.

Thursday, December 28th:
Ilene went to WV to help out with her sister-in-law who is near the point of death.  Her son has been taking care of her and he is exhausted!

I took the kids back to Elisabeth.  We met at the Lexington Goodwill.  Then I went back to the house and tackled the clothes in my closet.  I had been hanging on to some of my favorites, even though they are too big for me now.  So, I decided I needed to LET THEM GO!!  I don't have the room for them!  I feel very accomplished!

Working on a puzzle.

Completed!  Ryan ruined a perfect picture!

Eating at Chick-fil-A on the way to meet Elisabeth.

I stopped at the church to do the cleaning for the week.  I miss my life in the parsonage with Tim.

The "before" picture of the mess of clothes in my closet.  Totally unorganized!

The stuff I brought back from Elisabeth's that I had no room to hang in the closet.

The clothes I took out of the closet.

The empty hangers after cleaning out the closet.

The newly organized closet hung by color.  I still kept a few items that are too big for me but I couldn't part with yet!

After the clothes, I emptied some boxes of stuff.  I accomplished a LOT!

Friday, December 29:
My intentions today were to clean up the toy/puzzle/computer room by returning the table and chairs Ilene borrowed from the church for her Christmas family get-together, clean up the kitchen, send Thank You cards, go to the grocery store, make a deposit and work on the check book and order address labels, plus begin address changes.

I got the table and chairs out of the room and stacked in the dining room to take outside to the car later.  I swept, set the card table back up for our puzzles and began cleaning off the computer desk so I could write the cards.  While I was making the thank you cards ready for sending, I sent a text to Jessica to see if she was doing anything this weekend and if not would she mind me coming up since Ilene wasn't home.  When I got the all clear to go, I finished up the cards I was working on.  Then Jessica texted that snow was expected to begin falling around 7.  Well, if I was going to get there before the snow, I would have to leave ASAP!  So I began working on packing.

Elisabeth called to find out where the keys to the parsonage were because they were there to load up the bed to take to Nathanael on their way up to WV.  I was planning on taking the keys when I took the table and chairs to the fellowship hall on the way out to Jessica's.  I didn't think they would need the keys until later in the day.  So, I dropped what I was doing and ran over to the parsonage to unlock it.  We loaded up the bed and I bid them goodbye and flew back to the house to finish packing, pack up the car, go back to the church property to unload the table and chairs, get a few pieces of furniture from the parsonage to take to Jessica's and get gas and hit the road!  It was going to be later than I wanted to be driving due to my nighttime vision being so bad any more.

It began snowing before I got to Lancaster and by the time I got near Jessica's house, the roads were getting slick.  And it was very dark and I was getting a headache from the eye strain!  So, I may end up being snowed in, who knows!  But, I'm here and safe!

Chance and Thad have friends spending the night.  They made a tent!

There is some accumulation!  Hopefully there won't be much more!  BRRR!  It is cold up here!

Have a great weekend!