Catching Up

Garland and bows on the staircase - poinsettias in the entry. It's Christmastime!

I finally got off my duff and got some stuff done, namely a week's worth of laundry and catching up on my transcription. Tonight, I remembered to upload a few pictures I've taken in the last several days.

Last Sunday after church, we decided to drive to the Lake Erie Metropark so D's parents could see one of the Great Lakes. Next summer, we plan to see them in much friendlier weather, but even in the cold it was pretty fun to see the vastness even of one of the smallest lakes. Notice M is wearing capris!! What a kook.

Monday for family home evening, we went out to dinner and then came home and finished decorating inside. LaRene was a great help in this endeavor. Here are the trees. The first one is our "real" tree in the living room. The other one is very small and sits on a dresser in the dining room. I bought the cute ornaments at Bronner's, and it is still a work in progress.

We have another beast in our yard. This time? A skunk. How is that I have lived in rural areas most of my life and have never had such animals in my yard, and here in the burbs we've had squirrels (lots, and they are very cool), woodchucks, and skunks??

I need to do some research and find out if skunks make their home in one place or make their way around the neighborhood. We've only smelled a skunk once since we moved in, so I'm hopeful that he doesn't actually LIVE here. I looked out before going to bed last night to see if it was snowing (it wasn't) but the little black and white beast was sniffing around out there.

Snow in the forecast tonight, perhaps. It is snowing west of us and north of us. It probably won't stick anyway this time. I have to say that just because I haven't seen much snow in the last 3 years doesn't mean I'm excited about it now. I had too many hard winters in Teton Valley to forget that snow can really be a pain! Beautiful, but a pain.

Finally, I dragged myself out and did some Christmas shopping. It is impossible that Christmas is 3 weeks away. I have never been this unprepared for it. Usually, we have "singing nights" where we have a different group of people over for the 4 Sundays leading up to Christmas, to sing carols and have food and enjoy each other's company - but this year I have done NOTHING to make that happen. I need to get on the ball so we can at least do 1 out of the 4! It's not that I don't want to, it's just that it has all snuck up on me! Gotta get with it.