Whirlwind

Life at Christmas time is certainly like a whirlwind, spinning from one family get together to another, opening gifts, cooking, eating, and visiting.  We had a wonderful Christmas meal with Mama-our annual breakfast for supper, with homemade biscuits, sausage, tenderloin, fried and scrambled eggs, melon, and tons of desserts.  Mama’s been cooking cakes and pies for a week.  The kids (and yes the 40 somethings are still part of the kids) enjoyed opening their stockings.  Dianne and I start the week after Christmas finding quirky, useful, or silly things to fill the stockings.  We had some real winners this year.

Gram’s parties started last Saturday with all the grandkids, except Casey.  She came in on Christmas day.  For years, we have gathered all the grandchildren in the living room for a group photo in front of the Christmas tree.  Each year, they all take the same place with the same poses.  It’s really fun to look back and see them grow up.  We started this about 11 years ago.  Wish we had thought of it when they were small children, but then Sam probably wouldn’t have had his famous pose!  It’s a zoo when Gram, all her children, their spouses, and all the grands and the great grands start opening presents.  Every year, it’s what did you get.  Oh, neat!  I want one of those.   Where die you get that?  What a great family to be a part of.

On Christmas Day, we spent time at Gram’s house with the extended family-her siblings and their children who were able to come, plus all her children and grands who were able to come.  We had a houseful of people, and spent the day talking about all the family get togethers we have had over the years.

 

Yesterday, I finished the curtains I was making as part of Brandi’s Christmas present.  They looked good, just hope they fit like she wants them to.  I hate making Roman shades!  Now Leslie has started selecting fabrics for curtains in the house they just bought.  Looks like another sewing marathon.  I’d rather spend the time playing in the dirt on that hill in the back yard.  I can just see it in my mind’s eye- covered with native azaleas, native flowering trees and shrubs, and the stream bank covered with native ferns.  Looks like I’ll be spending a lot of time on plant rescues if we’re going to turn that hill into a showplace.

But today was devoted to my own yard.  Mulching leaves is probably my least favorite task in the yard, but with all the trees, it’s a have-to-do job.  We finished about half of the front yard. putting the shredded leaves right back around all the plants.  But it does look so much better than piles of leaves tossing around in the wind.  I’m spending a lot of time removing piles of grass clippings that a local yard man dumps in the yard.  I filled his usual spot with tree shreds from Carroll EMC, so he dumped them in the woods, not realizing that he was covering some of my precious native plants.  I’ve uncovered most of them, but still have a few more to go.  However, on the up side, the shreds he left make fabulous mulch after I also run them through my leaf shredder.   It’s like brown gold!  I know my plants will appreciate this during the summer.

Tonight, I’m having a lazy night-not cleaning up anything Christmasy, just gonna read a fun book and go to bed with my ice pack, my heating pad, and my Aleve,.  Getting old and decrepit is not so great, but I do appreciate that I’m still able to be as active as I am.

Life is grand when you have a plan!

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