Rain Rain Go Away.....come back again some other day!!

Oh what a rainy morning so far. I took these around 10:15am and it's seems to just get worse. The wind is howling and blowing really hard. I have recyclable boxes in my front ditch from ny neighbors house. I think you can see it from one of my photos here. I have a pond in the back rear corner of our yard. Just huge puddles all over the place. Even my neighbor has a pond growing in her front yard. Our sump pumps will be pumping hard today to keep the water from flooding our basements. Just thought you would enjoy seeing what kind of weather we are getting today. At least our grass will turn a nice green afterwards.

Snow Photos

These are photos of all the snow we have up here now. There are some of Louie and Jake and around our house. Enjoy browsing thru them. These were taken on January 18, 2009.

Happy New Years to All

Donna, Ed and Terry wishing you all a Happy New Year for 2009!!

My friend, Donna and my hubby, Ed.....looks like she is happy and not sure what he thinks??

Well Ed and I brought in the New Year with friend's of ours.....Donna & Terry Thertell. We had enough food to feed a football team and more. I'm sorry there were no photos taken of me. I was lucky to even get a couple taken. So hope all my friends have a Happy One!!

Snoopy Louie and the ugly in UGG Boots!

Well this was taken early christmas morning. Louie decided he was going to be Snoop Pug and see if these packages needed inspection first prior to opening. He sure was sniffing hard, but decided nothing harmful were in these pretty packages except maybe and hopefully for some edible treats.

Well I got some really nice gifts from family and the hubby & dogs. And I thought I would share one prized possession of mine. They are the "Ugly" in UGG boots!! They are so comfortable and really like a pair of slippers to walk around in BUT they sure are "UGLY!" No style at all, but then I have "No" style either. So why not...why not walk in around them and look like a "toy" soldier marching around the house with my "UGGS!"

Hope you all had a nice Christmas, now let's look toward the "New Year!" til then..............

Some photos to share..Louie and the awful Snow!

Louie could care less about being Santa Pug and also about the weather!

Louie is just too bored with this all. Just pugleeze get me out of this clown outfit!

These photos were taken this morning after it started. It doesn't really look to bad from the photos but believe me it was no "picnic" out there. We are mainly having high winds that is blowing and drifting all this snow around. But later in the afternoon, it really got cranked up and right now it is really bad out there. We are having some white-out conditions along with the drifting too. I'm glad I don't have to drive in this even though the hubby decided to go into town and have a quick lunch. We only live a couple miles east of town but still it was bad. We have a lot of flat areas and it just drifts really bad.

I have some more photos as I took going into town and it was much worse then than these photos. So enjoy.

My Visit With My American Friend, Margie

This is my friend, Margie. She is from Winchester, Virginia and lives in Canada (Bowmanville, Ontario) Here she is coming out with some goodies to munch on during our visit.

This is Margie's christmas tree which has a little village at the base of it. I thought it was so pretty.

Margie in her kitchen getting the christmas snacks ready to eat.

Well on Tuesday, it was such a nice day, so I thought I would pay my friend a visit. Of course, I did call her up the day before to check to see if it was okay with her. We hadn't visited in quite some time. I got to take the new car out and it drove like a "dream."

Well since it had been some time that I had been at Margie's house...since we previously met at the local Timmy Horton's. So anyhow...once I drove onto her street..I just new I should have had the number to her house. My eyes quickly saw this house with an empty driveway..so I assumed that was hers. Well lo and behold, I got out of the car and things just didn't look quite right..even the color of the trim... I walked up to the door and stood there...just stared with my gift to her in my hand....and realized there was no porch and it was blue trim....a far cry from the orange/salmon colored trim her place is. So I knew it wasn't further down the road...so I looked back up toward the way I travelled...finally I spotted this car...which I knew was her hubby's...and yep...she was back 3 houses down. Boy, what a fool I felt like. I guess my "age" is creeping up on me. So I got to her place...and we had a really nice visit. She is travelling down to Charlotte, North Carolina where her daughter lives and will celebrate christmas there with her and also her son will be there too. He lives in New Hampshire. But it's really nice to have someone from the States to talk with..so I am glad I have a friend like Margie. :o)

Memories of Christmas Past

This is a photo of Donna and me. I'm over by the christmas tree. We both loved the dolls we got for Christmas that year. I think my mom said this was taken in 1957.

We are a bit older in this photo. It was another christmas of ours. I'm on the left, then Donna and Brenda...and Wendy smack in the middle. This was taken in 1969.

Well the photos might be small but these are part of the past when I was a child. We are all dressed here in "red" for christmas. Left to right: Me, Brenda, Wendy and Donna. Take out your magnifying glass and enjoy them. I'm guessing that I was 9 or 10 here...so 1962. Wendy was born in 1961...so must be 1962.

Well let's see how good my memory is. I remember as far back when most of our trees were "tabletop". Why is that? Well my mom said they had a big tall tree up and she heard a crash come from the livingroom and well, she found 2 tiny girls beneath the tree branches with broken ornaments lying on the floor. She puts the blame on Donna for bringing the tree down. Since most of the ornaments were broken from the lower branches...she had the tree cut down to fit our card table. So from that year one...we had tabletop Christmas trees. But once we were old enough...then the Big Trees came back.

I also remember going to my Grandmother Odell's place on christmas eve...we would get together with my Dad's side of the family at her place. In later years, they would take turns. But when we got home... we would place our cookies and milk out on the table for Santa Claus. Mom told us he worked so hard thru the year that he needed his cookies and milk to help him make his rounds delivering toys around the world. Then we would get all dressed in our jammies and were tucked into bed...and then my mom would put on Christmas music for us to fall asleep to. Oh, I loved listening to the Christmas music, especially listening to Bing Crosby.

Then when morning came...and this would be like this year after year...we would wake up and run out to the tree and start looking for our names on the gifts. But we couldn't open them until our Dad came up from the barn. My dad was a farmer...so he had quite a few cows to milk. So we waited for some time til he was finished. But we got to open our gifts before we had breakfast. There was one christmas that was really good...we didn't get many things, but we enjoyed every gift we got. But there was this one year that I really enjoyed so much....I tell my mom about it...it was the year I got a silver flying saucer...(a sled) and a cash register box with money in it...toy money. Boy I think that was one of my favorite christmas's. Then we had years where my dad actually made us things for our dolls...he made each of us dollhouses for our Barbie dolls. Yes, we had good christmases. On Christmas Day...we would travel to our Grandmother and Grandfather Westcott's place and have our meal. (my mother's parents)

But I knew I would goof here....in between all this...we would prepare for christmas a few weeks prior by making homemade cookies and making decorations. Well my mom made the cookies and she made the decorations which we would put up thru the house. They made the house look so pretty. As for the cookies...yummy!...she made cut-out pressed cookies and we would put different colored icing on them and some sprinkles on them. She also made her datenut pinwheel cookies too. I can't think of the name of these cookies...but she would use a funny contraption and the dough would squirt out of the tip of it. But all her christmas cookies were delicious.

As we got older...we had our christmas meals at home and there was one year we had my Grandma Westcott up to the house on Christmas Eve. We fixed her a christmas stocking and surprised her with it. That was such a nice christmas with my grandmother to celebrate it with us. I miss my Grandma very much...also my Grandpa and my Grandmother Odell too. I wish I had met my Grandpa Odell but he passed away before I was born.

But I did and do have a lovely family and it is filled with so many memories......and this is one of them that I wanted to share with you all.

Some Christmas Things

Well this is my "tiny" 2 ft. fake tree that I use for Christmas now. Ever since I got my little pug, Louie...I need to have a small one or otherwise he would be attacking a bigger tree. So we opted for a "tiny" one.

I love this area...it's my coffee table and I have a new little tree I bought at a "primitive" store just up the road from where i live. I even bought the tiny ornaments for it. I enjoy christmas so much, I love to put out my decorations.

Getting Ready for the Holidays

Brian is getting ready to "unveil" the Christmas Tree at his Dad's place. Brian, Katie and his Dad went to Sipple Farms in Bainbridge NY ...which is also a Maple Syrup Farm too. They go every year at this time to hunt for their perfect Christmas Tree and then chop it down. They look for 2 trees...one for Dad and one for themselves.

Brian getting much closer to unveiling it. Clip Clip he goes with the scissors. They bind it up for them because it is easier to travel with.

Voila....there is the tree prior to the lights and decorations. His dad always finds the perfect tree each year. This year it is short and full. Plus easier to decorate.

Now the fun begins...and looks like they have some lights and decorations on. I wonder what he is laughing about.

Still busy with the decorations...boxes full of pretty ornaments. Maybe I should get them to come up to my place and help me with my tiny "fake" tree. (But actually mine is already decorated, it just needs to be brought up from downstairs) Well it looks like they had alot of fun.

Now it's time for them to go home and put their tree up to decorate! :o)

Look What Is To Be Expected Soon....if not already

Well we know winter will be upon us soon. Probably sooner for others. But this is a pic of my mom hiding behind some bushes with snow all over the place. This is not this seasons snow yet, this was from a past season. They get pretty good snow down there.

And this is what happens when people don't drive properly in winter conditions. This is my dad standing by this car that came around the bend and slid off the bank toward my parents house. Their house is just a few feet to the right of this car.

This is some winter scenes from my parents house. The top photo is looking north of their property (toward the main farm) and the bottom photo is looking toward the south of the house.

It is very beautiful down where my parents live in the winter. But it also can get very nasty during storms they get..especially those nor'easters!