Holiday Foods - Advent Day 2

For as long as I can remember, my grandmother always made a ham and a turkey for Christmas, not to mention all the side dishes she made. The best side dish for me, was sweet potatoes. I can remember my grandfather always taking the ham or turkey in and out of the oven to check or baste it. We had a table spread full of food for Christmas. Even when she moved into the mobile home, she still cooked all of this food. I don't remember anything unusual. She even made from scratch all the pies and other desserts. She has been gone now for 21 years. Heather was not even two when she died, so she missed those holiday meals. I have such fond memories of those earlier Christmases. Between her and my grandfather, they always made Christmas something to be remembered. So I have always tried to make our Christmases something that our kids and grandkids will remember as fondly as I remember past Christmases. And those certain foods, that even now my kids have to have for the holidays, have now become a tradition.

The Christmas Tree

The Christmas Tree has always been a part of our holiday season. When I was growing up, my Mom, brother and I lived with with my grandparents. And we always had a live tree and sometimes a tree would be so wide around. Poppop always seemed to be the one who decorated the tree. I can't remember much about where a tree came from or who would get it, but it was always there. I carried this tradition over to my married life. Ricky's Mom and Dad were very conservative as far as decorating for Christmas. For many years his Mom had a little green ceramic tree that she put together and put up every year. My kids, each had their turns helping Mommaw put this tree together. Now, I have that tree, and the girls still put that tree together every Christmas and it gets placed somewhere in the house. And now we also have Austin and Jordyn helping. Ricky and I started out having artificial trees, then somewhere along the line, when the kids were still young, we started going to tree farms, to look and cut down that perfect tree. It was a family affair, even with the dogs. Then the kids got older and Ricky and I started getting a live tree at lots. Then last year, Devin and Heather decided we needed to go back to a tree farm and find that perfect tree. So, as I was told last night, they are expecting to go looking for that perfect tree again this year. Since we moved into our house, we now have two big trees and smaller trees in about every room. Last night, Devin and Heather decided to decorate the downstairs tree (which is artificial). I am not sure what has come over them. It is not decorated the way I would have done it, but, I have to say, that it looks pretty awesome. I guess they are carrying on the traditions we started. The highlight for me, is going to get the live tree, and decorating it, as my special tree. It sits in front of my picture window for all to see. Blue and white lights and ornaments. It becomes the center piece for all of our Christmas decorations and lights that we have out in the front of the house. Not sure how long Ricky and I will be able to go and have a live tree, but as long as we are able I would like to have a real tree. I love the way that every year that Christmas tree always looks different, different shape, different smell. We have thought about putting an artificial tree, or no tree at all in the living room, but it just would not be the same. And just as we have these traditions with our kids (and they have come to expect every year), we are making new traditions with the grandkids. Things they will always remember about Gammy and Poppy and our decorations at Christmas time, just as our kids remember certain things about my grandfather and grandmother, and Ricky's Mom and Dad, and their ways of decorating.

33 years ago

I am looking back 33 years. On this day, I was 2 days from marrying my childhood sweetheart, both of us at the age of 17. Wow. We were young. Were we stupid? Maybe. But we were ready to be to together for the rest of our lives. And we were so in love. Possible at that young age? It was for us. Something was real, because on Friday September 3, we will have been married for 33 years. I am proud of such a great accomplishment. Has it always been easy??? NOT A CHANCE!!! But we have always tried to work things out. And I am so proud to be married to Mr Rick Blackburn, I was then and I still am today. This marriage has produced three children and two grandchildren, that we are so very proud of and love very much. Our life has been mighty blessed and I don't want to take any part of it for granted. So on this Friday, September 3, Happy anniversary Honey!!! I Love You!!!

Finding a long lost love

Since a few of my Face Book friends are getting back into blogging, I am thinking that maybe I should try it again also. I have found a long lost love in the last few months, and that is reading.....reading books that is. I had let it slip for a long time, even though I love to read. One issue is because it is hard to read when you wear tri-focals. But I have found that it is okay to read large print books. It makes reading so much easier for me. And the other issue was not finding the time. But now I seek out a few slices of time here and there throughout my day, so I can enjoy my new found love. My favorite author at this point in time, is Beverly Lewis. I love her Lancaster Pa Amish books. Not only are they on one of my interests - The Amish - but what I have read of her books so far, relate to areas I have actually been before, and I know the areas well. I also like to references to the Bible that she adds to her stories. Also learning of the Amish traditions and way of life. So interesting to me. So here I am, blogging again, after a few years. Kind of nice.......

Thing 23 - I DID IT!!!

I have done it, I finished the 23 Things. And I had alot of fun doing it. I have learned many things, some I liked and some I didn't like. Some of my favorites were: setting up my blog, flickr, the Image Generator - MEEZ. (I even put my MEEZ Image on my MySpace page). I think my favorites though are the RSS newsfeeds/ Bloglines and YouTube. I enjoy looking at my Bloglines and the newsfeeds, and I like the fact that I can add the feeds for those I like. I have not used You Tube before, so I was having fun with it, looking up videos and seeing missed interviews on TV. I will definitely continue to use You Tube. I have learned so much through these 23 things, and I am glad that I did it. I thought I was very internet literate, but I found out there were so many things I did not know. I now can say that I am more knowledgable about things of the internet. I am all for learning about new things. I am looking forward to the next learning opportunity.

Thing 22

I tried to check out Overdrive and NetLibrary, but could not get around those very well. I seemed to hit alot of dead ends. I also tried Project Gutenberg, and was successful there. I downloaded a title called "The Book of Ruth" and did listen for a few minutes. I also listened to a clip of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz". I will probably use this tool in the future.