What I Think About the New Year

Christmas Morning We had a great Christmas with two of our daughters and their families last week. Our oldest daughter, Jenny, spent the holidays closer to home at a snow resort in Kentucky and The Creation Museum in Ohio and we heard they had a great time and even though the weather was cold and the roads often icy, they did not have too many problems driving. They did have some problems staying warm, though, and we heard that a couple of members of their family spent more time by the fire with the hot chocolate than they did in the snow!

I am not one for resolutions, but a program I heard on Focus on the Family reminded me that I have lost some focus in the last few months and need to get serious about my life purpose. The program was a presentation of Focus on the Family's Radio Theatre production of Leo Tolstoy's "Shoemaker Martin", a Christmas story about a shoemaker who encounters God while showing kindness to strangers. It is a beautiful story and you can listen to it on your computer here:

http://listen.family.org/daily/A000001696.cfm

I put it on my MP3 player and we listened to it again on Christmas Eve. It ends with my life verse:

Mathew 25:34-40

Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’

Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’

I am praying for grace to pass out more cold water this year.

Piano Recital

Wendy had her Christmas piano recital today. Cute new dress: Old Navy sale $4.50!

Duet

She always plays a special. She learned a new arrangement of one of the carols this week. Which one was it..O Come All Ye Faithful, I think, but I might be wrong. What ever it was, it was very nice!

Flower Girls

One of my granddaughters is going to be a flower girl this weekend. I went into my scrapbook archives to reminisce about some other flower girls in our family. Here is Miss J at her Aunt Wendy's wedding. She was five. Her brother is ring bearer and was seven. They were so cute!

I don't think anybody told her to do this, but she stopped and gave flowers to some of the guests on her way down the aisle! Here she is with the bride.

Wendy was flower girl at her sister, Jenny's wedding. She was ten. Here she is with little Mary Beth. Mary Beth recently came to see us and brought 2 little boys of her own!

Courtney and Wendy were flower girls at their Aunt Ruthie's wedding. They were four and five. Their big sister, Jenny, is standing behind them. She was thirteen and a bridesmaid.

Thankful on Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving day and a day of leisure for me. I was supposed to work, but somebody offered to work for me (thank you Connie!) so I all have to do today is fix a little tiny Cornish game hen for my sweetie. We considered driving to Lubbock for the day to be with family, but decided that since he has been sick with a cold, and slow to recover, and is working on Friday, it might be better for him to rest today so we will be thankful together today at home alone!
I finished my Rocky Mountain album yesterday. I will be forcing everyone to look at it and looking for some big compliments. Meanwhile, I have a few leftovers to show you. Here is one for those of you who thought those rocks look familiar: In 1977, it took 3 sisters to hold up that rock that M was holding up all by himself.

Basil and M made it all the way to Emerald Lake. This is one of my favorite photos from near the end of the hike. This is Hatlett's Peak for those of you who like names.

I made it to Nymph Lake and was very proud of myself and was rewarded with beautiful views. My Fugifilm 6000 and I hung around there a long time trying to capture some of God's best.

Royal Gorge at Canon City, Colorado was our first stop on the trip.

The train trip through the canyon was a new feature and was too tempting to resist. There is also a helicopter trip into the canyon and their big red helicopter buzzed us while we were on the train! We also saw fishermen, rafters and the water system built by convicts for the city while on the train.Skyline Drive is a very old and scary road in Canon City. We had been on it before but it had lost none of it's drama.

Wendy's Birthday

The boys had fun planning a surprise for Mommy's birthday. We had dinner, presents and a cake for her when she came to pick them up. Z sang "Happy Birthday" and helped blow out the candles.

The cake was not all that popular, however.

Lost Maples

Thanks to my very nice friend and partner at work, Terry, who worked a shift for me, I got 7 days off this week so we did some leaf peeping in the Texas Hill Country. Lost Maples is a State Natural Area where some bigfoot maple seeds blew in on a wind many, many years ago and gives us Texans a fall color display that rivals any found in New EnglandWe found this very nice place to stay at the Seven Bluffs Cabins and RV Park. We had some interesting neighbors.


All these critters were in our front yard where we could watch them from the porch.

We wished we had brought all of you with us to share !


It is a 20 acre Pecan Orchard on the Frio River near Leakey, Texas
One of the Seven Bluffs
We passed many little towns traveling to the park. Bandera had a museum where we found this steam tractor in their back yard. They also had a beautiful Catholic Church built by Polish Immigrants in 1876.We also liked the First Methodist Church in Utopia. We also found this "fabricmobile" in Utopia. (anybody remember bookmobiles?)Makes me think there may be a lot of quilters in the hill country.We also visited nearby Garner State Park.

Garner is also on the Frio River. There were people swimming in this river today. I asked them if the water was warm. They said, "NO!"

We aslo found another state natural area near Bandera, called Hill Country State Natural Area and had another hike by their river.

And a little bluff to climb for a lovely overview.

I am so grateful for this time in my life when we have more freedom to travel and enjoy God's beautiful world and each other. My prayer is that all of you will have a beautiful relaxing time in your lives, too, when your children are grown, happy in their own marriages, giving you lots of beautiful grandchildren and you can enjoy the fruit of your labors and the husbands of your youth.

Those river rocks are kind of slippery

Paradise RV Park: Our home while we visited Rocky Mountain National Park Dear Mom, This is where I fell in the river.

Unlike some places we have been, it was just like it's internet pictures. The Big Thompson River, with it's slippery rocks, was inches from our deck.
Our cabin was new manufactured housing.

Our living room with it's electric fireplace.

The kitchen where I learned I never want black appliances. They do not look clean, even when they are.

We were there on Basil's birthday. M made him an omlet for breakfast and I made him a microwave cake later. M was able to buy candles at Safeway without him knowing.


I was very happy to find this going on when I returned from my solitary shopping trip to Estes Park one afternoon.

They were delicious.

Colorado

Near Leadville We found this great place to spend our first night on the way home. We drove until almost dark then looked in our Frommer's guide, called this place and they had a vacancy. Mt. Princeton is one of the 14ers (Colorado has 14 mountains that are over 14,ooo ft) and their hot springs was really hot.

There was a wedding here during our visit and almost everyone else staying here was there for the wedding. Everyone knew each other and it was kind of fun to listen to their conversations. We found out more about the bride and groom than anyone should know.A lot of our information came from a group of ladies that ate breakfast at the same time as we did. I think they were the groom's aunts. We named this the bridge to nowhere.

A wild orchid growing under the bridge. Downstream from the hot springs. M said the springs in the river were too hot to be comfortable. I didn't venture into the springs in the creek, but stayed in the pool talking to some more aunts of the newlyweds. They were a very friendly and informative family.The wedding chapel

Old Fall Creek Road (back in the park) If you are thinking I have lost my mind, skipping from the trip home, back into the park, you could be right.

The boys were always looking for a place to practice their slingshot skills.

If you can see those tall sticks on each side of the road, they are to guide the snow plows.Sunset on Fall Creek RoadWe came upon this view rounding a switchback on the way home. I gasped, Basil applied the brakes, we all piled out with cameras in hand and my batteries fell out on the road. The lights are Estes Park.