Life is about to get real ... Holidays... Wedding Planning ...shopping Oh My

 So Thanksgiving came and went without me taking any pictures. Pamela and Kaleb came up but they had to drop the kids off at their mom's house so we didn't get to celebrate with the boys. But our friends John and Kelli came over to celebrate with us. Of course Kelli waited until she got home to mention that they got away before I took pictures.  She does that same thing at book club too.  What I do have a picture of is the placemats I finished 3 days after Thanksgiving.  LOL!  Better late than never. Very simple but I had Donna quilt them with pumpkins. Simple but cute. Next year I'll get to use.

Maybe I should have titled this blog, "Life is getting very real".  LOL  The wedding is less than 30 days away. It seemed so far away when the engagement happened and before I knew it,,,, here we are. Vendors wanting final counts and of course money. Always money. Plus additional questionnaires now that we have all our vendors lined up. Oh what fun we're having.  I keep worrying there's something we'll forget but hopefully our coordinator will keep us in line.  That could be a big job with this group.

I'm trying to get back into creating birthday postcards that used to mail in clear envelopes but now I have to put a real envelope. I guess at least I have less chance of someone taking it instead of getting to the recipient intended via the mail. I haven't been real consistent. I get one made and not the next. I managed to get our friend John one made.

 

Kelli asked us to join them for dinner to help him celebrate. We ended up at Mas Fajita's in Caldwell. Good times with friends.

Tuesday (12/3) Kelli needed to go to Cameron to get their tax statements and asked if I wanted to come along and I said sure. I needed to our tax statements too. That was a wasted stop. 

The county had a glitch in the process and the statements weren't ready so off we went empty handed but 3 more stops to go including a light lunch at ZX Made in Texas where we might have had a glass of wine too.  We shared a turkey sandwich and a charcutier box. 

That picture of the sandwich was my half. It was so full of meat that I couldn't finish but half of it. Took the rest home and ate the rest the next day for lunch. The charcutier box was full too. Plenty for us to share.

Saturday (12/7) morning the kids took the boys to breakfast with Santa. The boys had lots of fun. They got to tell Santa everything they wanted for Christmas.

Then they all met us at Men's Warehouse to get fitted for their suits along with Gpa and Kaleb his tux. It was so cute. The Braxton and Killian were really good and cooperated the clerk when she was measuring them. This next picture made me think of the movie called 'Big'. You know where Tom Hanks becomes a man and at the end when he returns to being a boy his suit was too big. These little guys were so cute.

  Everyone got fitted without any fuss.

Sunday (12/8) David started pulling the Christmas decorations out of the attic. Thank goodness at this house it's a tad easier than climbing the rickety ladder that goes into most attics. Our builder built us a stairway. So much easier.

As I decorated the tree I went down memory lane of sorts.

In 1997 while working at Mustang Engineering David got an ornament. I want to say it was also their 10 year anniversary but I could be wrong.  And the next ornament our good neighbors the Walsweer's started buying us ornaments. And our realtor and long time friend Barbara Borchers bought the street ornament listing the street name of each house we've lived in at the time. Except I just realized the first street is wrong. LOL Our first house was on Machala. How funny. I think she lived on Shady Grove though.

David spent a lot of time in St Croix and one year I went to visit him and bought ths sugar cane mill ornament. There were a lot of them around the island. And there is the ornament my friend/co-worker Samara @Cyfair ISD gave me while working with her. I miss my peeps.  Most of the people have actually moved on or retired. Just a few of them left.

 

Every year I'd buy or make an ornament with Pamela's picture. This is one of my favorites. She was about 4 maybe. And of course David and my's first tree ornament.

Okay I'll stop reminiscing. I got all the ornaments on the tree and David always puts the Angel up and gets the timer set for the lights to come on and go off. This year he had some help. LOL  Sadie thought he needed some love and attention. Sadie was making sure he hooked it up correctly.

Ta Da... the tree is done. Click on the highlighted word to see the tree lite up.

The grand-dog went for grooming and the groomer did her photo shoot for Bri's Christmas grooming. Bri is so good for Missy at Top Paw Pet Spa. in College Station.

Wednesday (12/11) David drove into Houston for the monthly 

Bell Gang Luncheon. Tommy brought out the ole camera and had the waiter snap a picture of the guys. It's a great shot of all the guys. Thanks Tommy for sharing!

Our book club had our Christmas celebration. Debra was our hostess and she went all out and we were fed well. We had roasted duck, Alantic trout, acorn squash, artichokes, dressing, potato soup, roasted garlic, rolls, wine, egg nog and various other beverage choices. 

What a night of fun! Of course I didn't get a group picture. Kelli waited to remind after we all got home. LOL 

We ate, laughed and played a dreidel game making bets with candy. And Debra fed us on real china. We're special. Of course after we all handled the M&M's no one chose to eat them.  OOPS

  

There was also lots of desserts. I snapped a picture of one of the girls plates where she tried several of the desserts available.

Snowball cookies, bread pudding, pineapple rum cake and I can't remember what else she had on her plate.

I made everyone a bookmark/reading list for 2025 with a fabric backing of their favorite colors and I made a Mug Rug in their favorite colors. I made a friendship star block on the rug. I thought it was appropriate. Here's a couple examples.  

 And Here is a couple of the Mug Rugs with the Friendship Star on it. They can use it for their coffee cup, wine glass, snack, juice glass whatever. Here's a couple of them.

Two of the girls put theirs to use right away. 

I mean really!  This is crazy. Thank goodness the trucks inside for the boys Christmas were still intact and no damage but that's kinda sad to get a package tore up like this.

Saturday (12/14) we went for Pamela's final wedding dress fitting. It looked beautiful and so did she. 34 more days and she'll be wearing it down the aisle.

Thursday (12/19) We met up with the Jackson's our friends from Austin in Georgetown at a new restaurant to try. It's called Wildfire and it was good!. We'd never been there before but they had a good size menu to pick from and everything I saw come out looked really good. After lunch we walked around the square and shopped/browsed the different shops. One day we'll go back in the evening when the Christmas lights are lite up. I've been told it's beautiful. The square was packed with shoppers.

Loved these t-towels. LOL

We hit most of the shops and we were back where we started. Time to head back home. Until we meet again.

Made progress on the wedding stuff. I think Pamela finished the seating chart and layout and questionnaires. Yay! Do I dare say we're in okay shape. We'll see when we meet up with the venue and the day of Coordinator in a few days.

I've bored you long enough for this post. I'll try again in a couple days. Tomorrow, Monday 12/29 I get the pleasure of having a 2 day nuclear stress test. Yippee. 

Until the next post...o   “Only your real friends will tell you when your face is dirty.” — Sicilian Proverb

What a week - Maybe I should say month.

 One of Pamela's nursing friends, Rebecca threw her a shower on Sunday 10/27. I had planned on going but didn't think about David and I not being home from our trip. So I missed her shower, dang it but it looks like she had a nice one.  Thank you Rebecca for showering Pamela with more love.
Had quite a turn out of the Baylor Scott & White nurses. 

The camellia bush David planted outside my sewing room window facing north is filled with tiny blooms. It's never had this many blooms before.   They're so pretty and tiny.

Bri went to grooming and she got dressed up for Halloween afterwards.     She looks a little put out. LOL What do you think? She seems to be a good sport about it.  And then here comes Raggedy Ann.....  This is my great niece in Missouri.  Whitney is adorable.
Then so are her parents.  

The quilting bee I belong to did a Block Swap recently called the wonky star. We each made 2 blocks. One block use a white background and the other our color of choice. The below is a photo contact sheet showing the blocks and I put the creators name on them. The stars are definitely wonky and it makes for a scrappy looking quilt.  When I got home with my stars I immediately put them together. And here's the end result with sashing and borders. Now to get fabric for the backing and get it quilted. 

     

on Wednesday (11/6) Pamela and I drove to Cypress to meet my God-daughter and Pamela's God-mother for lunch and I can't forget Eloise, Michelle's daughter. Michelle and Eloise were in from Indiana for a short visit and the girls worked out a date for lunch. It was great seeing them and visiting. Gigi and I don't see each other so often either even with her in Cypress.  Life.

Thursday (11/7) I rode into Bryan with David for a doctor visit. This man and his blood pressure. They haven't found the right combination yet to get it lower but it is better than it used to be.  After his doctor visit we ran about 3-4 other errands and had lunch. Then we picked Bri the grand pup up to bring her home with us because Pamela and Kaleb were going to take a quick trip to East Texas to check out the wineries and sites.

Kaleb went to get a hair cut and came home with a mullet and I thought "Oh No Billy Ray Cyrus" but nope. This guy can carry off the look. Long or short he looks good.    

Before leaving town they went to get their

marriage license.  It's official they're really gonna get married and it's less the 70 days away.  It seemed like it took so long to get to this point and now it's going fast. 

So the kids decided to go to East Texas instead of Fredericksburg for a couple days to visit some wineries and sight-see but then this happened.  Yep she managed to sprang her ankle. Kinda put a damper on the trip.  Oops 

This visit Bri and Bruno became buddies. We found out back in September that Bruno has a thyroid issue and since starting him on medication he's gotten more playful and definitely more energy. Bri was playing with one of the stuffed animals and Bruno started tugging on it. Click Here to see the video.  He actually pulled her around with it.  They were so funny. 

Once Pamela and Kaleb got home they had dinner with his sister Sarah and her wife Ashley and gave them their quilt from all of us. They loved it. So glad they loved it.

Thursday (11/14) it was time for book club. It was a first.  We had a full house plus a guest.  Jamie brought her sister in Law Tammy.  Hopefully we didn't scare her too bad.  We met at the Pony Express in Hearne for dinner, discussion and fun!  Our book was 2034: A Novel of the Next World War by Elliot Ackerman and Admiral James Stavridis USN. This book didn't create the same lively conversation as 1984 but it was okay. The book is considered a cautionary tale of what we could be facing in the future unless we start getting smarter.  It's not a war of technology but a war without and the lack of imagination. Meaning we can't ignore the signs like we did for example Pearl Harbor. 

On Friday (11/15) the kids headed to New Braunfels for Kaleb's sisters wedding.  They all cleaned up nice.

  

Sarah and her Dad Kevin doing the Daddy-Daughter Dance.

Monday (11/25) The boys turned 5. Wow! The last 2 years have flown by.  We drove into Bryan to have Pizza @ Mr. G's Pizza with Kaleb, Pamela, the twins and their Grandparents Kevin (Pop) and Tori (Honey).  Pizza was good and so was the company. Killian is the red head and Braxton is the blond. The twins are growing fast.

Saturday (11/30) David got up and left to go to the races. Well he must have said something that made Bruno think he was going to. Bruno went and got the leashes out and drug them towards the back door and he ran so fast to put one at my feet. Poor Baby was very disappointed when his furless Dad did not take him. 

 

Too funny.

Well that's it for now.

Until next blog ..“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.” – Oscar Wilde