Decorating for Christmas

DSSD came over to help with decorating and blogging.

So, since DSSD came over.......I'm back!  (for now!)

We had to get new lights.  I don't know how it is in other parts of the country, but, here in Kalifornia there are only LED lights available.  I  can't even begin to tell you how I HATE LED lights!  It actually hurts to look at the tree.  The picture doesn't show it at all but they are intensely bright and annoying.  We have bought, put up, and taken down tree light three times this week.  This is crazy! Oh wait, that was an exaggeration.  We didn't put up the second set DSH bought.  He brought them home and we plugged them in and thought they were too bluish looking.  A very odd looking "white" light.  The first set were multi colored and they are very much "jewel" tones.  Just not Christmas looking.  Now we are shopping on line to find incandescent lights.

The box under the tree is a gift for my parents.  The traditional Nutcracker.  They don't read this so no secret has been let out.  I don't wrap and put presents under the tree until after Dec 15 which is DSH's birthday.

We went camping for Thanksgiving which was awesome.  Who would have thought???!!!  My youngest daughter married into a family that has camped at the same place for Thanksgiving for years.  We never saw my daughter for Thanksgiving so we had to get our own trailer and join them.  LOL
We joined them for the first time last year and had a blast.  This year my sister and her husband joined us.  It was sooooo fun.  Three Traeger smokers and one deep fat fryer were brought and used so there was plenty of cooking space.

 Here is a photo of the granddaughters in our trailer with our dogs.  The dogs made themselves at home on their sleeping bags.  They didn't sleep there all night though.  They went into our room with us.

Here is a random photo.  Our little black dog, Bailey, loves tennis balls.  We have a friend who is a tennis pro.  One Christmas a few years ago he game Bailey a huge box of old tennis balls.  This is what happens after she has played with them for awhile.  She doesn't eat them but she is hard on them.  It is time for another box full.




The big news is that my oldest daughter is pregnant with our 5th grandchild.  This is a miracle baby!  We are so excited for them.  God is good.

Merry Christmas to all of you in blog land. 

We went to a sheep auction!

 Sheep being judged.

 Buyers checking out the merchandise.

 Ram being made handsome.

Her eyes aren't really blue!  What a sweet face.

For some reason, DSH wouldn't let me make a bid.

Someday!!

I don't get it!

DSH came home today and said my blog is hard to read.  I pulled my blog up on my computer and said, "No, it's not!"  He pulled my blog up on his computer and said, "Yes, it is!"   I took a look and sure enough he is right.  My blog looks like CR*P on his computer!  The background is the wrong size, all the shapes are wrong.  The words are hard to read.  Very strange.  Why does it come up looking fine on my computer but horrible on his?  The new background and set up was done over a year ago by my oldest on her computer.  Any ideas anyone?

DSH to the rescue!

Dear Sweet Husband to the rescue with photos off of his phone.

 Filled barrels.

 One of two blueberry bushes.

Basil and thyme.

Wedding anniversary

Tomorrow is my oldest daughter's wedding anniversary.  Happy Anniversary!

Next week is my youngest daughter's anniversary but I don't have any of her pictures on my computer because she was married before I was saving them on the computer.  I will have to look for her disc of photos and see if I can have DSSD download them for me.

On another topic of discussion, the garden is doing very well.  We cut wine barrels in half, drilled drainage holes in the bottom, filled them with soil with some rock in the bottom and there you go, raised planters!  I have potatoes, cucumbers, peppers, basil, thyme, two blueberry bushes  and onions in the barrels.  I have tomatoes and zucchini and squash planted in the old garden.  The apples, apricots, boysenberries and nectarines are doing well too!  This is obviously before the plants are in.  I'll have to get my camera out and start taking pictures again.

Making herself at home

Really, Blogger, I have to do a separate post for every picture?  (or am I just lame?)

 Relaxing after a Thanksgiving feast!

The sweetest pit ever

This is Kani.  She is my cousin's pit bull.  She is kind of a rescue dog.  He got her from his neighbor who wasn't the best care taker.  This girl is such a love bug!  She came to visit at Thanksgiving.  I would post more pictures of her but I am having the most frustrating time with Blogger and photos.  Fighting the computer to post a picture takes all the fun out of blogging.