Christmas 2012

 Today is December 27th, and I am finally posting about last weekend and Christmas. Joshua came out for a wonderful visit. He arrived Saturday afternoon, and headed home Christmas day. We had a blast! Lots of food. Lots of visiting. Lots of sledding. Lots of Christmas movies and lots of fun! It was a blessing getting to have my brother out here. Nice and quality filled time. It is a rare thing, and I treasure it. Joshua said he had the best time too, and didn't want to leave! We did our sledding day on Sunday; at Oak Hill Snow Play area; which is just down the road from us, off of Old Route 66. It wasn't too crowded, and the sled runs were primed! It was hilarious! Joshua and Jeff were the only ones that sledded down from the very top. Joshua crashed and burned many times! Jeff had a few crashes, but finally succeeded (as did Joshua). The videos that I put on the blog, are sideways. I filmed them upside from the phone, but they uploaded sideways on the computer. Go figure.There are three videos...so make sure you watch them! Funny stuff! I cooked our Christmas dinner, on Christmas Eve, so Joshua could enjoy the meal. My prime rib turned out AMAZING! I also made homemade mashed potatoes, biscuits, and corn and green beans. Oh man. We had left overs up through last night for dinner! Love it! For Christmas morning, I baked Williams-Sonoma classic croissants! OH MY HEAVEN! Those were to die for! I set eight out, over night, for the dough to raise; by morning they had doubled in size! In the oven for 20 minutes, and the flakiest, buttery, most wonderful croissants came out, ready to be enjoyed...along with a hot cup of coffee! Wow! We enjoyed our Christmas day...being lazy. Jeff however...injured his ring finger, on the left hand. Oh man! His poor finger! Blue and so swollen. He has been in a lot of pain since Christmas. I hope he didn't break his finger tip, or something. He can't move it at all! What did he do, you ask? Trying to fix the rain gutter (yes on Christmas), and he pounding it back in place with a massive log. Well...on his last swing of motion, he slammed his finger hard against the log and gutter, and whala! Pain and issues. Oh Law-Dog. I have a picture...but I'll post it on the next post I do. So after Joshua left, around noon on Christmas; and after Jeff had injured himself...Jeff and I brewed ourselves a couple of lattes, and took a drive around our local area...enjoying this beautiful snow, and winter wonderland. We are very blessed. Thank you Lord for another celebration of your birth, on this wonderful Christmas 2012.

Special Christmas Weekend With Mom And Dad Stafford

 Here are the pictures, from our weekend, with Mom and Dad Stafford. They arrived on Thursday, and headed home yesterday. We had a wonderful visit; even though Mr. Kent was super sick :-( In fact...we all went to the doctors together, on Friday, so he could get steroids, to help him get rid of his horrible croup! I am happy to report, Kent is back at school today. So lets go back to Thursday evening...all the way through Saturday...IT SNOWED AND SNOWED AND SNOWED. The storm that started off, giving us 4-5 inches (some of the pictures of the snow, shows the 4-5 inches; then the others, are after the storm); ended up dumping 20 1/2 inches of snow! We absolutely needed this! Another snow storm is supposed to arrive tomorrow, into Wednesday. Praise God for this snow! Dad and Mom arrived at the perfect time, before the storm went nuts...School also called a snow day on Friday! The I-40 got so bad with accidents, and slippery conditions, on Saturday, that they shut it down for a few hours. Crazy. Jeff and his Dad plowed and shoveled; while the kids, Mom and I stayed inside by the fire...listening to Christmas music, eating, visiting. On Friday, after Kent had his appointment; we had our tradition, with eating at Charley's Pub, at the historic Wetherford Hotel. We go there every year, for Christmas time, with Mom and Dad Stafford. On Saturday evening, after the freeway opened up again...we did make a trip to the Cracker Barrel. It was so cozy and just what we needed, after being holed up in the house all day. I baked goodies over the weekend, and we had our lattes (thanks to our lattes, from our Keurig Vue). Mom and Dad LOVED their lattes! Who wouldn't I ask?! Thank you Mom and Dad Stafford, for all of our Christmas gifts, and all the gifts for the kids...Thank you! We sure appreciate everything you both do for us! Love you!