Ashley's Favorite Chritmas

I have asked my family once again to help me out with this blog and some up coming ones. Each family member is suppose to tell about their favorite Christmas. If everyone submits a story I should be posting one a day until Christmas. I am hoping everyone will have a different one to tell.
The first one to respond was Ashley so hers goes up first. Tomorrow I will post Tara's.

The Christmas that stands out most to me was Christmas of my Kindergarten or 1st grade year. That would have been Christmas of 1999 or 2000. That was the year Bekah and I got our Purple Barbie Bikes. All the kids woke up really early that Christmas- It must have been 5 am. We were so excited to finally have "big-kid" bikes.

I also remember the Christmas that Michael got the rolling suitcase. It may have even been the same year as the bikes, but I think it was the year after. Once again, all 4 of us "older-kids" got up really early. Michael saw the suitcase and started rolling it all around the living room singing a nonsense song like "do-do-do-do-do". We were making a lot of noise and woke up Grandpa, who told us to go back to bed. Instead of going back to bed Michael started making the cinnamon rolls. 

D.A.R Service Project

As I have mentioned in my profile I am a member of the D.A.R (Daughters of the American Revolution). I thought I would share with you our most recent service project we did.
The top photo are crocheted/knitted crowns for babies for a center called A Pregnancy Care Center who help young mothers with classes and clothes. The next two photos are the items we gathered either by making ourselves or donations we received to make bags to give to the army base in our area. We had a lot of fun and we worked on this project all summer long. The gathering of the items happened in November. We are still getting the bags put together and will hopefully get them to the base soon. The bottom photo is the group. This is only a small number but we work hard in the community and have fun doing it.
If you know you have an American Revolution soldier contact your local D.A.R group and if you don't know there is one in your area just look on line or comment below and I will give you the information.
I have a lot of fun and have made a lot of friends.

My new Blog

Thought I would update everyone on what is new.
I have started a new blog called Debbie'sreadingcorner.blogspot.com
I wasn't sure I was going to do this but I really wanted to have my books separated.
I want to have this blog for other things like family outings and my other activities and such.
I am hoping I can come up with ideas for this blog like my reading blog. I am working on things for next year that I hope everyone will like.
So stay tuned and enjoy the month of December.

Being Thankful

Since today is Thanksgiving I wanted to do something different. Yesterday I asked my family to help me with this post. I asked them to tell me what they are thankful for. I got a pretty good outcome with only giving 24 hours. I will tell you what I am thankful for at the end.

My Dad's response

I am thankful for many things, too many to enumerate, but a  few stand out.  First I am thankful for “Our Father-in-Heaven”; for his grace freely given, and for the many blessings he has bestowed on me these past 76+ years.  Second,  I am thankful for my family; that they are Safe, Happy, Healthy, and Strong. Third, I am overwhelmed by the blessing of my Wife.  She is the love of my life, the Mother of my children, Grandmother and Great Grandmother  She is always there for me even when I am undeserving of her.  She is my rock that I cling to when the stormy waters of life try to sweep me away.  She completes me in a way that only God can describe.  She and God are the things I am most thankful for.  God has richly blessed this undeserving man.

My Mom's response

Mom is thankful for the Love of God, for her extended family, her children, her grandchildren, and her great grandchildren.  She is thankful for a loving husband even though he is sometimes annoying, inattentive, lazy, and frustrating.  She knows he would move mountains for her or die trying.  She is thankful for her friends, and her church.

Ashley's response

I'm thankful for my family and friends who offer companionship and support. 

I'm thankful for the food I eat and water I drink, and am very thankful that I've never had to suffer from  lack of either.

I'm thankful for my general health and fitness. Though, like all people, I suffer form the occasional illness or injury I have never had one so damaging as to prevent me from living a normal life, nor any one so permanent.

I'm thankful for my education and for the fact that I've always had easy access to it.

I'm thankful for my job: though it isn't glamorous and requires hard work, I am thankful for a means to pay my bills and go to college without debt. 

Bekah's response

I'm thankful for my job that pays for my school. My teacher friends who have given me experience in their classroom by letting me teach. My family and friends. My wonderful, beautiful daughter and her adoptive family for raising her so well and for James who has been so supportive of me the past year in all I've done.

Tara's response

I'm thankful for the boys (their dogs) and their unlimited kisses and John and his unwavering support of me.

John's response (Tara's fiancé)

I'm thankful for Tara and the boys (their dogs)

Athena and family response (Mike's family)

We are thankful for are family and friends. A roof over are heads and food in the house. A car to drive and are health.

Aryan response

My parents and supportive friends

David's response

Kismet (our cat)

Mike's response

I am thankful for my health. A job to be able to provide for my family. My family. The country we live in which gives me the ability to do and have all the above.

My response

I am thankful for so many things. I am thankful for my Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ. I am thankful for a husband who let's me do a lot of things I enjoy doing like seeing my family, staying home and all my extra activities outside of the home. I am thankful for my children and all they have been able to accomplish. I am thankful for our country which gives the freedom to be able to do a lot of things that other countries can not do. I am thankful for my friends who stand beside me and let me be me.

Some family members didn't respond but than is okay. If you want to tell me what you are thankful for just put them in the comment area. All will be welcome.

Enjoy your Thanksgivings.

Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts

Friday we went to Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts. We got early and had breakfast at Paul's and then headed to Massachusetts.

As you tell it was cold. The wind didn't help. We had a great time anyway.

Anyone who knows me knows that I love history and love this time period.

The gentleman in this picture with us is John. 

This  is a cider mill and yes you can smell the cider. This is the first building we saw. We did take a carriage ride around the village to get a guided tour. Needless to say the carriage didn't help to keep us warm but very informative.

Tara trying to stand on stilts. Had to fast with the camera, she only lasted about 1 second.

Driving past the capital in Hanover on the way to Massachusetts.

The  tin maker. All the employees were dressed in costume.

He also demonstrated the turkey shoot. I didn't get pictures of that.

The black smith.

The potter.

The printer.

An old school house. You are looking at the teacher's desk.

A meeting house.

 A Friend's (Quaker) meeting house.

John pointing out the cheese in the house's we saw.

Tara trying on  a shoe in shoe maker's shop. Do not call them cobblers.

I have a lot more pictures but decided to not put them all on the blog. If you want to see more I will of course add another post. It was a great day even though it was cold.

We only stayed until 3 pm because we had a dinner party at John's dad's house.

Dinner was eventful. I met a good majority of John's family. They are all very friendly and easy to get along with. They are extremely Italian and have strong opinions on how meatballs are to be made. Poor John got ridicule for using dried parsley in his meatballs. I of coursed kept quiet. They wouldn't like that 75% of the time I cheat and buy my meatballs premade. When I do make meatballs I use dried parsley. Of course I wasn't going to volunteer that information. John's meatballs tasted great even though I didn't try the chicken one's; I'm not a fan of ground chicken. 

It was a full and fun day.

Trip to Connecticut

As you know from the previous blogs I went to Connecticut to visit with my oldest daughter, Tara.
I spent all day Monday on a plane. Tara and her fiancée John picked me in New York at the airport. Let me tell you the movies are correct about the airports in New York. They are extremely crowded and loud. Tara took off the week from her main job but had to work two nights at her part tie job. Tuesday we went and looked for things to make center pieces for the tables at her up coming wedding in October of 2018. We did find some wine glasses she wants to use but not having luck in the flowers. She showed me the place of the wedding but we weren't able to look inside of the building. For lunch we went to a Mexican Restaurant called Senor Ponchos. We both ordered build your own burritos and they were huge. In fact I ended up leaving a 1/4 of my burrito at their place. That night Tara had worked so John cooked dinner. John by the way is a great cook.
Wednesday we went out and bought dresses for the wedding rehearsal and I bought one for the day of the wedding. We found some great deals and had fun. We didn't do much because we were going to New Haven to see the Sound of Music. Tara took me to her favorite pizza place called Rossini's to try there plain pizza. To me it was okay but I am not a fan of tomatoes so it had too much of that taste but the cheese pizza was great. The above pictures were taken at the theater where we saw the musical Sound of Music. It was great. We had a little scare afterwards when we went to get the car. The parking garage was closed and locked. Lucky for us we saw one of the workers who let us in and told us we only had to use a ticket from the garage to get in. We left the ticket in the car. Also it was lucky for us that one of us brought a debit card because that was the only way to pay for parking. This was lesson learned.
Thursday we went to Hobby Lobby to check on flowers again no luck but she did find the grapes she wanted. Then we went to Barnes and Noble because she needed to get a book for a baby gift and we just enjoyed looking around.
Yes I did buy some books. For lunch we went to Olive Garden. She had to work that night so we made it a short day. Again John cooked dinner.
I am going to skip Friday for now and write about it tomorrow in its own blogs.
Saturday we went wedding dress shopping for her. She tried on four dresses. There was myself her future mother-in-law and sister-in-law and friend with us. The first dress she tried on we all liked but she really didn't care for it. The second dress she liked but we didn't. The third dress was the winner we all liked it. This is the one that she bought. The fourth dress she didn't like even as she was putting it on. It was too tulle. I will not post the dress because I want to make sure John doesn't see it. You will have to wait until they get married before it gets posted. We went to Savin Rock Roasting Company for dinner. One of John's cousin owns this restaurant and this might be where the rehearsal dinner will be. Not for sure though.
Sunday back on the plane coming home. I enjoyed myself and was glad to spend time with Tara. I have never been to Connecticut and it was beautiful and full of history. I can't wait to go back and do some sight seeing.

Aryan's Birthday

Aryan turned 15 on November 6th. We actually celebrated a day early.

The reason for this is because I was leaving the next day for a week. I went to visit my oldest daughter in Connecticut. We went to Wendy's for his meal, that is what he wanted. I made him a cake but he didn't want it until his birthday so we didn't get a picture. He received a bunch of books as normal but he also got a cell phone in October for his birthday. In all he was happy. One more year and he will be driving. They grow so fast.