Merry Christmas!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Ours was really nice. The weather here was warm, a little rainy and misty and foggy, but warm. Today is two days later and it's cooled down again. That's the way it is in Oklahoma. If you don't like the weather, just stick around and it will change.

One of my piano students brought me a Christmas gift - a candle and smelly-good scent for me a a Santa hat for Cookie. I put it on her and put her in this little wooden sleigh we have sitting under the Christmas tree and then started taking pictures. I really didn't think she'd stay in the sleigh but she did for all the pictures we wanted to take.

Here's how she looked. Adorable I think!!!

We have it on good authority (our Granddaughter Mistie) that Oreo Cookie is the cutest dog in the world. Of course, we agree - not that we're in the least biased. But really!! Isn't she precious??? She lost her first tooth today so I guess she'll be getting big dog teeth pretty soon. I don't know how they will look in that tiny little mouth but I guess they'll work out OK.

Our church Christmas program went really well this year and was one of our best. It involved basically our entire Sunday School - each class had a special piece of the program so that was a lot of folks. It all went good and took a minimum of rehearsal time so that was a plus as well.

Don't know what we'll do next year to come up to this one. But I say that every year and every year we have a really good program, so I'm sure next year will be the same.

Elicia and her family were here for Christmas and just left for home this afternoon, so we had a lot of fun. Learned a new game, "Settlers of Catan". I played it at friends' house after Thanksgiving and really liked it, so I bought one for me, and while the kids were here we played a couple rounds. It's a good game - strategy and dumb blind luck all involved, but is a lot of fun.

Granddaughter Lori made a gingerbread Christmas tree and trimmed it all up, and I made a batch of "My Favorite Molasses Cookies" for her 'cause she told me she'd never had homemade gingerbread cookies. How sad!!! So I just made her a batch. I think they liked them OK because they were about gone today.

Bill got me an Oogah horn for my buggy as well as some flannel lined jeans and wool socks. I'm not going to freeze this year when it gets cold. I got him a pair of aluminum ramps so he can load the buggy in the back of the pickup when we want to take it someplace, and then I got him some warm clothes, and a couple signs for the barn, so we had a very good Christmas.

Hope everyone reading this had a very happy day and enjoys a great 2009.

Till next time.

JB

Oreo Cookie - 5 months

Just thought I'd do a little blogging once. Cookie is growing, getting fuzzy, and becoming a real member of the family. We are both so glad that we got her. Even Rudy is liking her now. They play and fight and roll and just have such a time together. It's really fun to watch them.

Here's a picture of her in her winter coat. It feels good when she has to go out and go potty. Is she adorable or what??

If you want to see some Havanese dogs, you can check out the following web sites. www.havanese.com and www.elitehavanese.com Both have some real good pictures of the little guys and they are so cute.

And, now I'll try to finish this blog and actually get it posted. This month since Thanksgiving has just flown by. I think that Christmas actually sneaked up on us because of that one Sunday still in November after Thanksgiving. All at once it was December and only three weeks until the Christmas Program. But, I believe we are ready in spite of it all.

We're doing something different this year - an entire program of mini skits by each Sunday School class. Interspersed with special music, congregational singing, and a "very" entertaining conversation between two visiting "angels" disguised as homeless people. Should be good!

We had a little snow the Friday after Thanksgiving, and nothing else till yesterday when we got some sleet and freezing rain. School was cancelled today due to icy roads, but cars seem to be buzzing by now so I guess it's thawed enough to make travel possible again. We actually went to bed last night figuring to lose our electricity from ice bringing down the lines. But, the rain stopped during the night, so that ended that.

Otherwise, nothing much has been going on here. Bill spends time each morning with the horses and spreading horse by-products. And of course, he's an e-mailing fool these days and has more fun reading all the stuff his e-mail buddies send him and then sending it on, etc. etc. etc. He did get energetic last week and put the Nativity set up this year, and our lighted animated deer and some star shaped icicle lights on the highway porch, so we look rather festive this year. First time we'd put the Nativity set up for several years. He built a really neat stable for the characters out of old tin and lumber, and it's a big thing. I can stand up in it. Of course, the night after he put it up, the wind came up like gang busters and blew it over. Luckily, nothing was hooked up yet. Same thing happened the last time he put it up. But, all is well now and it's looking good!

My piano lessons will be over for the most part this week due to the holidays next week and week after. But, the kids always enjoy the break, and that's fine. My accordion student is really getting proficient on his accordion these days. I'm so glad that he enjoys coming up every month. We play a lot of different stuff and I'm always looking for some music for him that I think he'll enjoy. He's even posted one of the songs we did at a singing last year on his U-Tube site. We want to record a couple more duets to post up there as well. Kind of neat.

Our trees are all really pretty in the yard with their little coating of ice. Of course, don't want much more or they'll start breaking down.

So, hope everyone has a good Christmas with friends and family. We still miss Mom - especially now at Christmas time. She loved baking cookies, and getting ready for company.

Take care till next time,
JB