December 11th/ A Christmas lunch

Dad's condition is always present in my thoughts and prayers. They are starting to talk about moving him to a regular hospital room, which is great news. But, we are still very much on the watch .....

My Mom continues to encourage all of us to "keep going" with every day plans. I have to admit, I'm not as excited about Christmas as I usually am... but I am keeping with "daily plans"... and so, cookies.. shortbread to be exact... my favorite cookie of the season

I have begun to bring out the decorations.. but am thinking just the favorite ones will be brought out this year.  My feather tree is one... and I love these little tin reindeer. 

A present came in the mail the other day... from MaryEllen. She found this wonderful book at a little book fair, and thought it would be perfect for me to read to the grands.... it's about a little girl who dreams of horses and being able to own one. Her dream horse is white - like our old Silver boy - and the illustrations in the book are beautiful. I can't wait to read this to the grands......

I have been planning for a while to have the kids up for a Christmas lunch... make cookies and take a little trip to a special store and let them shop as part of their Christmas present.  I pulled out the Christmas china.... made some nice chicken salad.....

and happily waited their arrival. 

When they came, I hopped in the car and directed Kassy to our "secret" location... Stonewall kitchens. I have an outlet near me, which sells the seconds... so, if you don't mind the label being crooked on the jar... or not quite full to the top.. or too much of one thing.. this is place to go. Because the discounts are amazing. I gave Kas and Sadie a "budget" and while they shopped for goodies, I watched the grands. The girls had a great time and got all sorts of wonderful things... and both thought it was a neat idea....

Then it was back to the farm, for some play time, lunch and cookie decorating... course, you just know what one little boy looks for a Baby's house....

There were some small gifts for them to open.....

time to eat.....

and onto cookies.... some of us took this whole cookie thing, very seriously.....

A wise Mommy took this little boy's shirt off.. just in case frosting didn't get all the way on the cookie.....

and of course, you have to eat what you have accomplished....

I had the tree up, but not decorated.. so everyone pitched in and we had a fun time doing that. Abi was so cute and very good at directing us on where all the ornaments should be placed. 

Kass and Sadie know a lot of my ornaments, and we had fun talking about all the stories that went with them....

All done and looking very fine......

Time for something quiet, so I put on "Charlie Brown's Christmas"...Reagan's getting old enough to be interested in short TV stories like this (I love the seat that he chose)...

They had fun watching.. and reminded me of when my gals were little and we all watched together. This year Charlie Brown's Christmas is 50 years old......

Just enough snow to make  it white, and after movie time, the kids wanted to get out and play for a little bit....

Sliding and swinging in the snow... why not???

Abi and I did a quick check on the bees. They seem to be doing OK.... I hope we can pull them threw the winter.... spring time will tell.....













and as I had thought, the day went by in a blink, and my house looked like this. I think I'm the happiest when I have a messy-grandchildren home!!! This was a great day, and I hope I can plan many more of them....