Merry Christmas

December 25th Saturday - Frosty - Light covering of Snow in Pennsylvania

Lou and I along with Krista, Steve and Michelle attended church last evening before we went to our family Christmas gathering at Shawn and Maegans.

We had a wonderful church candle lite service with many aspects to our service with a skit by the children, a special presentation by our adult choir, our pastor's wife presented a special musical number. Our pastor read us the story of the Fourth Wise Man which is a favorite of mine. We celebrated communion and closed our service by singing Silent Night and we were accompanied by Bruce Smith on his guitar. We all left our church wishing each other a Merry Christmas and promising each other we would see each other on Sunday.

Our family all quickly piled in our car and made a quick trip to Shawn and Maegan's house where the rest of the family were all awaiting our arrival for our family Christmas tree. The table was laden with snacks of all size, shape and taste. By the looks of everyone's gifts I would say, everyone was very much satisfied with all of their gifts and soon it was very evident there were some very tired little girls and maybe some adults also.

Tomorrow, Lou is going to fix his famous Prime Rib and I am going to fix the items that go with it. I have been trying to fix some of the things along, so there isn't so much to do tomorrow. I am improving, but it is a very slow process.

The picture of the couple that I am showing, is a couple that we camp in the SMART group with. We met them this week for lunch and it was so good to see them. Lou and I had really missed them and found that they had also missed us and we have made plans to meet up with them in January and then more throughout the summer. Good friends are one of God's great things.

Waiting for the Christ

December 19th Sunday - Beautiful Sunny 6 degrees this AM

I have been out of the hospital one week today and this has been the most difficult week of my life.

I have told my husband and my daughters if it had not been for them I would rather have died and I can not thank Lou enough for all he has done for me. I could not have come home from the hospital if he had not been here to care for me. He had laid in bed and held me tightly so I could sleep, he has washed me, dressed me, given me my medication, fed me and most of all loved me through all of this. I won't go on about all every one has done for me, each and everyone knows the good deeds they have done and the difference it has made in my life. I had asked that no one visit me in the hospital, as I was so sick, I didn't want anyone around me and now, I don't remember my hospitalization. I know I have a wonderful flower arrangement from Lou's children, two of them brought it to me at the hospital and for a long time it was all of the Christmas decorations we had, but now we have some very special items sitting out.

On an afternoon when I was feeling a bit more like myself Lou got our some very special items that my daddy had made for our family many years ago when he and mother were just getting into ceramics and they had to share with us. As Lou unpacked them they brought tears to my eyes and many memories to mind as time goes on. The tiny ceramic Christmas tree Daddy made for my desk at the office so I could enjoy it each day while I was at work and I certainly did, while the smaller one was enjoyed by the family as it sat in our dining room at home.

The Nativity set was poured by my mother and was poured in tiny pieces and pieced together, and Krista has found what a problem child this creation this can be, after this was fired this was painted by the other grandma, Grandma Bryant, and each wise man and camel were painted to match each other. Over the years, the cows, have lost horns, sheep have lost legs, and many have been glued back in place, but once again great memories. After Michelle was born, she was given the honor of recreating the scene in the manger that her grandpa built and she has done that each year with the exception of last year, so this year Lou and I waited until she returned from college yesterday and sure enough she was ready for the task, and she remembered she didn't set it up last year but did pack it away last year. Now these are great memories.

After the last few months Lou and I have had we are certainly awaiting the Christ and a new year with healing in many ways and a year of new beginnings. Our church service today was so inspiring noting that as we await the coming of Christ, we can anticipate it in many ways and we have chosen to look for healing of our bodies, healing in our families, healing in our friends, new priories in life and a richer life with Christ. We feel that

there is a reason that the Lord has chosen to slow both of us down and we need to search that reason out and act on it. I have always professed that, now I have to act on it. Food for thought??

It's Here

December 4th - Saturday - Cold and snowy. Low 24 degrees

Lou and I were up at 5:30 am and over to Lou's house to meet Preston and Susie. Preston helped us hook up the car to our old motor home and we were off to Syracuse, NY to pick up our new motor home.

We encountered all types of weather conditions. At one point I called Camping World in Syracuse to check on their weather conditions, they reported they were just to have snow showers, so we continued on and once we reached Geneva, the snow seems to lessen and the roads were in better condition. We arrived in Syracuse at 11:00 am. We walked into Camping World and found a sign welcoming "Emerson Rice", which was a nice touch to our arrival. We were met by a representative that escorted us to the arrival area where we were given a tour of our new home, starting with the outside and ending up inside, where every detail was explained to us.

After, we had agreed everything was as we expected we were shown to the financial area, where in just a few minutes all the final details were taken care of. The men went right to the task of transferring plates, taking the hitch off of the old motor home and installing it on the new home. We had asked for a dust curtain to be installed to keep the stone damage down on our car as it is being towed, so that task was also accomplished. While the men were doing this, we were made comfortable in the waiting room.

In about an hour, the men were in touch with us to tell us they were bringing our old motor home into the garage and placing it next to the new one, so we could transfer our belongings. It wasn't long until Preston, Susie, Lou and I had an assembly line in process and the job was completed by 4:00 pm. A last minute reminder was given to Lou and we were ready to leave for home at 5:00 pm. We had not eaten since breakfast and all of us were ready for a meal, but nothing was found until we were outside of Geneva on the way home. We all agreed we couldn't remember coffee tasting so good.

We traveled home in the snow by good driving conditions. Our towed car looks like it needs a bath before it can be driven!! We arrived back to Lou's house at 9:00 pm. The pictures were took were taken quickly and we will get better ones in the daylight, but many of the family members were anxious to see them.

The next step is to get everything from our house and Lou's house into the RV and sort and put things in their proper place. It will be a chore to warm it all up and have a comfortable area to work in. Hopefully, we can accomplish this quickly and get the new RV back in the barn until we leave for the south the first of February.

Boys - Toys - Hobbies

November 29th - Monday - First Day of Deer Season - Coldest day of the month thus far.

We were up bright and early this morning, so the hunter in the family could be in the woods by day break. It didn't matter that he had spent the majority of the night coughing with little sleep and awoke coughing this AM, nope! I fixed him a hot breakfast, gave him cookies to add to his lunch that Preston was packing for him and thrust the Nitro spray into his hand with a warning to use it if he needed it and to remember he was putting extra stress on his body by going when he didn't feel well. I know ladies, you know what I am talking about, something odd happens to these men in Northern PA the Monday after Thanksgiving. I fashion it to what happens to teen-agers.....

The hat that is in the picture is one that I worked on while riding in the RV last winter. I had just finished a scarf and wanted the hat to go with it. I used double strand virgin - washable wool. This is the first hat I have knit in the round, but Susie assured me, it was a piece of cake and indeed it was until I got to the flowers. I couldn't keep the stitches on the needles while traveling, so put it away to try at a later date after we returned home. Maegan told me that Abby had learned to crochet and was getting very good at it and had made flowers for all of their family members, so I remembered my unfinished hat, so I attempted the flowers again, knowing if I couldn't work the pattern, little Abby would be glad to do them for me, well, I did figure it out and the hat is complete.

I now have a huge felted purse that I need to knit a handle for and felt that down and it will be another project complete. I need to come up with a project to do this year as we are riding along. I like to knit that way I can still help Lou watch the road and communicate with him, where some of the ladies read, I always felt that was rude, what company are you to your partner, if you are engrossed in your reading.

We spent the majority of the afternoon and evening at Lou's house on Saturday with two of his children and their spouses and two grandsons. The one son-in-law has always supplied Lou with a Hess truck each year, all of which he still has in the original boxes. This year not being an exception, he arrived with said truck and it was received with much delight. Once the batteries we added we all had to admit it was another show piece. Lou and I had seen the replica in the Macy's Parade, so knew what it was going to look like. Having his hands on it made it very special and was placed on the mantel in the family room.

Yesterday Lou and I attended church and had a special treat by having our pastor sing one of Ray Bolt's songs. He sang Feel the Nails with as much gusto as Ray himself puts into it. Lou and I had just watched the DVD of Ray's called The Concert of a Lifetime, one which I had the honor of attending. This type of music is new to Lou, but he is finding that he does enjoy some of it.

After church we hurried home to remove casseroles from the oven to take to his house, as his family was all meeting for a late Thanksgiving. Michelle came down to tell both of us goodbye as she set off on her journey back to college in Elizabethtown.

Lou also has a granddaughter by the same name that will be graduating from college with honors in mid December and we are making plans to attend that special occasion.

After a meal of all the traditional foods and some additional dishes, the dirty dishes and such were carried back to the kitchen, a variety of desserts were offered with more hot coffee and soon it was time for everyone to depart to their various homes. Lou was desperately looking for his hunting clothes, of which he could not find, so I told him I would go home and see if they were stored with Scott's clothes here and sure enough, all washed, everything together and sealed in plastic. He drove over to one of his buddies to plan strategics for todays first hunt. I thought this was a good time to clean my oven, so I spent the evening finishing that chore. I did have time to watch part of the new Hallmark movie with Sam Elliott, while I finished up knitting my mittens. Great movie.

Today I am doing the bedding and hanging it all outside again and plan on doing the rest of my shopping and will have dinner prepared for Lou and Preston when the hunters return.