My how they changed

The Christmas flowers that Shanna and hubby sent really changed. Just in time for Christmas day! They are so pretty.
Sadly, today the red flowers decided to fade. I kept the white ones, they are still blooming and very pretty. Thanks again Shanna and Justin!

More Christmas photos

Several more of the Vance family. Carol Jr., Tim, Cipriano with Shelby. Adam with his accomplishment (he got the toy for a gift-you had to get the golf ball on the Tee and make it stay, we all tried and failed, he did it! ) And you can see, Trouble thinks he did too. Jennifer showing off her cutie, Shelby.

Christmas Memories

What a wonderful Christmas we had. 2 great days. Christmas eve we had Jessica(new mom) her hubby come by on their way to the hospital to see the baby. She is off of the respirator and is now eating. What a blessing. They got to hold her finally.
In the evening, our son Tim, his wife Joan and one of the daughters, Sarah came by to have our traditional feast together. We had tamales, charro beans, queso and all the trimmings. It was so very good. We opened presents and had a great visit. Funny, they live across town from us and yet we seldom see them. All work and have little spare time. The eldest daughter went skiing in Colorado with her boyfriend and his family. We missed her too.
Christmas day we got up early, opened presents and had chorizo and eggs. Great grandbaby (Shelby) came by with her parents. She was wearing a reindeer head piece and looked so precious. We opened presents with them. They stayed until our eldest, her parents came. We all ate, tamales again. Jennifer and baby had to leave and go to Shelby's other grandparents.
We opened presents with them and had a very nice time. Adam had a game called "Crap or Fact and we had fun playing that. They left to go to see their new grandbaby and visit with Jessica. Then came back for supper. This time sandwiches. Amaziningly great time. I wish I could describe it better. Pictures are not in order but you can see what a crowd we had.
Sorry, the blogger won't let me add more pictures right now. I shall try later.

A Thank you to Shanna and "boys"

When we got home this after noon we had a wonderful surprise. A box from Shanna and Justin.
A very pretty flower arrangement for Christmas. I tried to describe it but found it impossible so, next best thing, I took pictures so everyone will enjoy. The flowers are still not in bloom but will be just in time for the holiday. THANK YOU SO MUCH~

The picture taker was me, and I will never win prizes. But hopefully everyone can see how pretty they are.

Baby, baby, baby

We went to see our granddaughter and the baby tonite. Unfortunatly she is in a restricted area and we couldn't see her up close and personal. She is still having breathing problems associated with being premature. The Dr. said should be over in just another day or two. He said once it is cleared she will be able to go home. Hopefully before Christmas. Jessica will be able to go home tomorrow. She is fine tho. Of course anxious to be able to hold her baby. She took my camera in to take pics of the baby.

Fishing

They stocked the little creek here in town with a little over 900 rainbow trout. They aren't native in Texas, so the Dept. of Wildlife stocks them all over Texas for the pleasure of fishing for them. And we do get a great deal of pleasure from them, both fishing for 'em and eating them. You can catch 5 per person per day. You can see by the pictures how small the creek is, but it was very pleasant today and we did catch our limit.

BIG BEST NEWS

UPDATE: The official name is: Annalise Faith. She is on respirator for a 1-2 day period, but all else is fine

We have an new great granddaughter!!!! She is about a month early, but she and her mom are fine. She will have to stay for another day or two so they can check her out. We haven't been to see her yet, but we will tomorrow for sure. Her grandmother, says she is beautiful. I shall take her word for it. They named her Annalise. No middle name as yest. Pictures tomorrow.

She was expected the 27th of January, and didn't want to miss Christmas so she showed up the 21st about 4:30 this afternoon. She weighed 5# 10 oz. Nice size but still tiny.

Nearly done.

We have been very busy getting ready for Christmas. Hubby has been out in the yard cleaning dead plants and chasing leaves. He goes out about every other day raking leaves. And our yard is full of trees! We have a few with leaves still. That's not counting the sycamore tree next door.
He can't stand seeing them all over. Today he cleaned the fence line, the canana's and the trees that grow on the fence line every year. He hates to think someone would think he was lazy.
I have been making beef jerky. Lots of it. The kids and grandkids would probably hate me if I didn't make it. It's been a tradition for years that it would be part of the Christmas giving. This year, not counting me or the very small ones, I will have 14 bags full. I have also made 2 pans of fudge. Tomorrow I will make one more batch of jerky and start the cookie making.
I ordered the hot tamales for Christmas eve. We will have the tamales, beans, queso, vegie platter, fruit, chip/dips and of course all the candy and cookies.
because our family has grown so much we have 2 different families each day. Sunday will be our 3rd son, Tim, and his family as well as Adam, Sarah and Cipriano. Christmas day Carol, Becky and grandson will be here. The granddaughtes will drop in during the day, each will go to their husbands family for the most of the day. It seems strange. I remember so well when we had EVERYONE HERE. Now we will miss far too many.

Birthday wishes

Today on my granddaughters blog,(miracle33106) she did a wonderful tribute to her Mom. It's her birthday today. She has been with our family the longest and we are so blessed to have her. She is what every mother in law would wish for. A friend you can count on. There have been so many times that she has shown and given love. She is the one who steps in and does things for you that mean something. She has a great sense of humor, a deep religeous faith, and wonderful parenting skills.
She has had deep hurts but has risen above them. God blesses her.
I wish I could express as well as Jennifer my feelings for Becky.
So Happy Birthday my love. YOUR SO LOVED AND APPRECIATED.

Oh Christmas Tree

It finally got done. After I fought the lites it was easy. All the memories!!
The angel on top of the tree was on our 1st tree fifty years ago. It's a dime store purchase, made of cardboard and some angel hair. Its been on every tree but one. That was the year hubby was in Korea. The kids didn't think it was right to use it if daddy wasn't there.
I tried to use something else last year but the kids threw a fit. It will remain on the tree!
We have quite a few very old (more than 40 years) that we have retired, but still use a few. We have a smaller tree so something had to give. I have a few on that the kids made in grade school. Most of them are also put away to preserve them.

Dish is here!

We were surprised last night by a phone call from the installation crew for the dish. We were supposed to have it installed Sat. but they had an opening today 1-6 PM, could they come out? Of course they could. They were here about 12:30 and it was up and running by 1:30. What a surprise!!! Finally someone was early........So far so good. Beautiful reception. Now all we have to do is learn the channel lineup. LOL
I thought the set came with the new DVR but it doesn't. No big deal for us, and if we ordered it it would be and extra $6. And to tell you the truth, we haven't had it before and got along fine with out it so we certainly don't need it now.

Dish is coming

We got our equiptment for our dish (Direct TV) this afternoon and we will have it installed between 1 and 6 Saturday. So tomorrow we will go shopping for more goodies. Friday hubby goes to pick up his free turkey from his last job before retiring. This is the 1st time he had gotten a card from them. He was so pleased. It was his pet peeve that because he didn't recieve monthly pensions from them, they said he wouldn't get one. He took a rollover IRA instead. I keep telling him that a 5 dollar turkey wasn't worth whinning about.......lol
We got the lights on the house yesterday. I still have to put up the tree, but will do that one day this week. Next year, promise, I will have a pre-lite tree. I HATE putting the lights on ours. In fact, that is why ours goes up late. Our 2nd son's birthday is the 11th and we never put the tree up before his birthday, so we're just keeping tradition........lol

dish update

I posted my tale about our cable woes this morning.
This afternoon I called the dish company about our order. Mmmmmm surprise. Our equiptment will arrive tomorrow. THEN they hit us with a surprise. All was as stated, except we should get a warrenty, for $ 67 + for 2 years (payable now) or be faced with a charge of $70 for each call to our house if they should have to come out. I told them just to cancel the order. I was handed over to a supervisor who talked me back into getting the dish any way. 45 min. LOL I decided that based on the performance of the people across the streets dishes that we would probably not have a serious problem. Fingers crossed!!! Hubby wasn't too happy about it. Actually neither was I but we would lose our 'free' shipping and have to pay to return the equiptment. I did without the warrenty. More later.

Taking the big step

This last week we have had quite a bit of problems with our cable (tv). I called of course. Then I had to wait 31 minutes to actually talk to some one. Of course it couldn't be fixed at the support center. They promised to send someone out-----the next day. They did, late afternoon. Of course the problem had cleared by then, they couldn't see any problem. Ok, being a person of no technical ability, I had to accept their answer. Sunday, the same problem popped up, we could barely see the program. I called again, 26 min. holding. Same answer, we will send someone out, tomorrow. Late Monday another technician came out. His little machine told him we didn't have a problem, I assured him that we DID. He went out and changed something and lo and behold we have very nice reception.
By this time we were thoroughly disgusted and I called Direct Tv to have the dish installed. I know we will have some interuption of service during storms, but it has to be better than what we have had lately. And, best of all, we will save about $40. per month. So, some time this week we will have to learn a whole new system but I think we can handle it.
The only problem this week is that we will have to hang around waiting for the installation. Hopefully, they will call as promised and set a day and time.
I will keep you informed of the progress