Things I found at my house when my grandchildren went home after Christmas

1. The heart shaped rock their grandfather gave me ("I'm giving you my heart") was returned to the yard. (He found it again. and said, "You threw away my heart?".)

2. There is a swiffle bat at the top of my tallest tree. (out of camera range) Well, actually my camera is broken. Now, I'm not accusing any of them of breaking it....just saying.

There were ninja people in Mary and Joseph's place in the nativity. Now, I can really understand this, because it was bothering me, too, that the Holy Family was missing. Anyone got a baby ninja?

Grateful Thoughts on Christmas Eve

As the mother of only girls, I am learning a lot about boys. Sometimes I get worried that one of my grandsons could be headed for jail. Then I find a picture like this. Mostly, this year, I am thinking. "You never know when this could be the last time. Enjoy." And I am.

As usual, it takes more than one time to get all the faces. (and  horns)

And I am grateful for 48 Christmas Days with their grandfather....a short list of people I am thankful for, but I gotta go get the turkey in the oven. I hope the rest of  you know who you are, if not, let me know and I'll work on that.

Dear Lanell,

Every year when I open your Christmas card, I say, "Dern, this just isn't right! She still looks just like she did in nursing school and her grandkids are almost as cute as mine.

So here are my cute grandkids. (They are really smart, too.)

Here are some more.

OK, this is all of them. Now, I don't have a picture of me with them, but

here I am.

Snow on Rocks

I never thought I would do this, but after our years of drought in West Texas, our yard was nothing but dead weeds. We can only water for a few hours a week and may not be able to water at all if it continues.

So we had rocks put in a few weeks ago. Today we have a little ice/snow. It is not snowman snow. It is hard and slippery.

When it melts, and he gets his "Texas Rock" out here, I will get a photo without snow. All I can say is, "It's better than dead weeds. I kind of feel like I live in Phoenix.

The Poconos

Our condo was near Buskill, Pennsylvania and was on the lake. There are a lot of names ending with "kill" which  means water in the language of the first settlers of Pennsylvania who were Dutch.

Our front yard was frequently visited by turkeys and deer.

I loved sitting and reading on our balcony where the mornings were frequently foggy and the sunsets were spectacular.

Bushkill Falls was just down the road from us. We were there during the government shut down so we were glad to find that it is a private facility and was open.

We spent the morning there and went back in the evening to get some more photos in  the "magic hour"

Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area is part of the national parks system. Much of it was closed but we begin to see some of it on our first day to explore the area.

We took a "trolley tour" the first day and got our first view of the gap. This is IS 80, our route to everywhere.

We were happy to find several nearby state parks since the National Park was closed. Big Pocono State Park was our first stop.

The Gap from Big Pocono mountain.

We had trouble finding Lehigh Gorge State Park, but we found some interesting photos while we were lost. This barn is part of a small sawmill.

We found an enormous Christmas tree farm near the park (we are still lost). I did not realize there were so many kinds of Christmas trees. It was encompassed several miles and many farm houses.

We finally found our park. There are no entrance fees to the state parks here which makes it difficult for Texans who are used to finding a "pay here" gate house to find them.

We found Lehigh worth the search, though.

It is part of the Lehigh River which is popular for rafting and  kayaking and several other water sports. It was past the season and too cold, though so we didn't see anyone on the river.

There was a beautiful hiking trail here along the river.

Who knew the national parks had all these gates?

There were many areas we could not visit. I am kind of upset with Ted Cruz.

But we were able to go to Worthington State Forest

 We entered on a one way road with an unusual signal light.

Delaware River

This is my favorite picture.

Nescopeck State Park was the final stop of our Pocono visit.

Nescopeck Creek

Another pretty hiking trail

We did not see any wood frogs but we did find a lot of these red salamanders.

The Coleman's Visit

Judi gets a new do

We find the mermaid clothed.

Isaac is without his 2 front teeth.

Our Fashionista

We had another family piano recital.

Home school Coop dissected snakes this week. They were especially impressed with the tiny brain.

Uncle Chris took Malachi and Judi to the gun club.

 An old man’s grandchildren are his crowning glory. Proverbs 17:6