NOVEMBER GOES OUT THE WAY IT CAME IN-- WET

This last day of November 2015 is a soggy rainy but mild day with temps in the mid 50's .

WET

These guys are glad Thanksgiving is over for another year !!!!

 G-daughter was here at 7am but all three of us went back to sleep and snoozed as the rain pounded the metal roof heavily.
Hubbie and I waited for the rain to slack a little before heading out to do the morning feeding chores while g-daughter still snoozed.
The animals were in no hurry to get out in the rainy morning.
G-daughter continued to sleep through our breakfast and after I got laundry started for the day.
Finally about 10 am she work for her day to begin.
I did laundry and changed out bed covers and furniture covers to begin the Christmas decorating around here. I got 5 loads of laundry done and some of the Christmas rugs down in between g-daughter's naps and feedings.
I also did a little cyber Monday Christmas shopping !
The tree is now in the living room ready for the ornaments.

After d-in-love picked g-daughter up hubbie and I did chores early since under the dark cloud cover it gets dark earlier.
I emptied 2 inches of rain from the gauge before I came inside.  Our area is under a flood watch now with more rain predicted for tonight, tomorrow and Wednesday, whew !!!!

What a way for November to leave as it has been a very rainy month from beginning to end with 300% more rain than normal.

As I look back over this month it has been a month of ups and downs for the family.  D-in-love went back to work full time at the beginning of the month and I have been keeping sweet little g-daughter three days a week. She is a very good baby and it is going well.
D-in-love was involved in a traffic accident but thankfully neither her nor g-son who was with her were injured. She is waiting now for the person who was charged with the 5 car pile up on I-26 to fix her car.
#2 son has had a bad 2 weeks as he was diagnosed with a herniated disc in his neck and has been out of work for the past 2 weeks. He is slowly getting better with meds thankfully and will see the spine doctor Wednesday.
We had a nice extended family Thanksgiving earlier in the month and a wonderful immediate family Thanksgiving day with all the family here for dinner.
I have had a fairly slow market month as expected but Thanksgiving orders were good this year.
Daughter found her wedding dress on a shopping trip we took to Spartanburg,SC and she is busy as ever with coaching basketball teams at the high school.
All in all it has been another very blessed month for all of us and we rely on the grace of God more and more as life gets more hectic in this holiday season. I'll leave this month with this little quote I saw that is how I feel at the end of some months !!

As we began the Advent season last night in a touching church service my prayer is that all the glory of this season go to our Heavenly Father and His magnificent gift , the Savior of mankind.
God Bless and Good Night.

"HOPE" THE BEGINNING OF ADVENT

Started this Sunday morning not the typical way !!!

 Hubbie got up first to let Dolly and Bernie out for their morning run and came right back into the bedroom saying one of Aa's cows was out down on the road. He took the tractor and got a roll of hay while I watched to make sure she didn't decide to get in the road.
With the hay in the pasture and all the other cattle eating  we thought she would walk up and go through the gate,right !!!  The cow had other ideas and crossed the road to explore #1 son's yard. Luckily there was very little traffic and hubbie was able to stop the couple cars that came along until I could get her back across the road and through the gate.Whew !!!  All together again !!

She had broke several of the wire holders off the post so hubbie replaced all the broken ones.

And of course as usual we got rained on. Cattle never get out on nice warm pretty days !!!
We had breakfast and then did chores and got ready for church.
These two were very good this morning !!!

After church lunch was a huge turkey pot pie !!!  It was very good.  #1 son's family and daughter and Josh joined us.
After lunch g-daughter had a nice nap on pawpaw's lap.

When they all left hubbie and I relaxed for awhile as it is a pretty messy afternoon with light rain.
We are just getting the rainfall from the 3rd winter storm, Cara, as she exits the country .We have 100% chance of rain tonight and tomorrow.

Just as Cara exits the 4th winter storm was named today as Delphi starts dropping snowfall across the mid western states.

Hubbie and I did chores a little early tonight to get up to church to our annual Hanging of the Greens service at church to kick off the holiday season.

The trees were naked and all the decorations were in the floor waiting to be lifted into positions.

Pastor lit the "Hope" candle to begin the Advent season.

 G-son was one of the three Wisemen and they had reading parts as well as the three of them sang We Three Kings. They did a great job.

I am so thankful for the number of kids around these ages that are attending out church and so involved in everything. It reminds me of the large group that was there when my three kids were there.

The congregation each had ornaments for the trees and as we sang Christmas carols we hung our ornaments. I am the second from last lady on the right side in black in the line going to the tree.

The kids got all the extra ornaments and hung each one on the trees. G-son was a willing participant !

As we concluded the service the trees and wreaths were lit and the season was officially started !!
(that's d-in-love behind the music stand with her violin)

G-daughter enjoyed her first Hanging of the Greens service in her dad's lap.

There was snacks in the fellowship hall after the service but our family all came home. It was now pouring rain and by the looks of all the ponding water on the road it had been pouring for quite a while.
#2 son came by for left overs after we got home. He is going to try to go to work again tomorrow as his herniated vertebrae gets slowly better.  He doesn't know if he will be able to do anything or not until he tries. He doesn't go to the spine doctor until Wednesday.
Hubbie and I relaxed and listened to the pouring rain the rest of the evening.
Thankful tonight for God's great gift to mankind with the birth of His only Son so that we may have the Hope that comes with a Heavenly eternity.
God Bless and Good Night

OLD TIMEY CHRISTMAS AT MARKET

7AM alarm this morning. It is still in the upper 40's to make this a strange feeling late November morning.
We did chores and got loaded and made it to market an hour earlier than usual. I got my table cloth changed and put out all the decorations before any customers stopped by. The market always provides free refreshments to our customers of cookies, crackers and cheese with hot apple cider.
The isles stayed pretty full of customers all morning. I had a lady come early for 5 caramel cakes so I was nervous that I would sell out of those but I did have some halves left. I sold pretty steady all morning. Hubbie left to meet #2 son at Walmart to show his truck that he has advertised to a couple and then head to Sam's Club. The folks who looked at the truck said they will be back next week with the money to buy it.
This is my outfit today, I couldn't get in a really festive mood so this apron and long usual Christmas skirt had to do.Plus with the above normal temperature today most of my holiday clothes are heavier so I opted for this to stay cool.

I stayed busy enough that I didn't have time for any more pictures today around market.
Daughter came in around noon and helped me the rest of the day. We had a really good selling day and are very thankful for the business.
We left and headed over to a couple little shops to look for some Christmas gifts. We each filled one slot on our list.
We didn't have too much time because we had to be at her house at 4:00 for her to host an Arbonne  skin care party. One of Josh's cousins is giving the party. We got there in plenty of time to get the food set up and things ready for the party.

Josh's mom and daughter's neighbor, Lila joined us for the party. Lila and I got a facial and  all of us got a foot soak which felt really good to my tired feet.
I ordered some of the anti-aging products so I will hopefully look at least 10 years younger in a few weeks !!!!!!!!
After I left daughters I stopped by Aldi and Ingles  for baking supplies and groceries on the way home.
I made it home around 7:30 tonight and hubbie helped me unload and get things put away.
I spent the evening catching up my blog and doing some online shopping.
Today was the toys for tots tractor run in town. There was a great turn out on this  beautiful day.

I have an idea that we better enjoy this brief period of warm weather because it looks like the winter is going to be a cool one.

I am behind at least two of the kids again this year on my Christmas tree trimming .
#2 son and Tiffany put up a huge ten foot tree tonight and it looks sooooo good with his high ceilings.

And daughter and Josh put up her tree tonight also.

I think they are both beautiful and makes me want to get mine out tonight, but I will wait until tomorrow afternoon at least.
Thankful tonight for the REASON for the SEASON !!!!
God Bless and Good Night.

AFTERNOON PLAYTIME

The thought of nothing pressing to do this morning popped into my head just as the alarm sounded this morning. I turned the alarm off and rolled over but sleep would not come back.
After chores and breakfast hubbie and #1 son went up to one of the elderly ladies in church's house to clean her gutters.
I started my baking for the day. I baked 18 caramel, 3 chocolate, 1 coconut, 2 pound and 2 blackberry wine cakes. Tomorrow is the Curb market's annual "old timey Christmas" celebration and hopefully another good selling day for me.
When hubbie got back he declared war on all the leaves in the yard and driveway ditches.
We had a late lunch of turkey day left-overs.
I cut open all my pumpkin decorations and retrieved the seeds to save for natural chicken worming agents.

I have a very confused Almond bush in the yard this year.

G-son came to spend the afternoon with us while his mom went shopping. He came in just as I was putting away all my outside Fall decorations and getting ready to get some Christmas out. He said he would like to play "hide and seek tag" outside since it is so nice and warm, 68 degrees, today.
So you know me , those Christmas decorations can wait !!!
I was slow at the tagging game but we had fun anyway because I couldn't catch him !!!

I was always easy to find because these two followed me everywhere and gave my location away to g-son.

 He had fun swinging very high and has finally learned to propel himself.

As I was just about to tire out hubbie finished his leaf blowing and came to my rescue.
There they go !!!!

And here they come............

G-son got some driving lessons in the golf cart as he drove hubbie up and down and all around our long drive way. They drove through the sun rays down at his house.

Hubbie sat up a driving course for him with buckets and it took him about 3 tries to get through it without touching any of the buckets. He had a lot of fun doing that.
After chores we came in and had supper then he played with the Lego people he brought with him until his dad finished hunting.

G-daughter in the pretty hat daughter bought for her.

There was a pretty sunset this evening.

After supper I iced all my cakes and got ready for market. We are going out there early so I can get my Christmas decorations up.
The lighting of all the lights downtown was held tonight to officially begin the Christmas season.

Thanking God tonight for the joys of grandchildren !
God Bless and Good Night.