Oh My!

After a failed attempt to make an appointment with my hairdresser in Snohomish, and wasting a whole day, I decided to do my hair myself. Not the cut, I have a hairdresser here, but the coloring. The gal here charges more than twice as much than what Caroline charged, and I just can't see that. So I ventured in fearlessly... well, nearly fearless. I had some visions of the last time I tried to color my hair only to find out that the light brown had been switched at KMart to jet black, and trying to fix it before going to work one day. It was at that point that I swore I would never color my own hair... but here I am again. It didn't turn out too bad. It was one of these tone-on-tone ones and I liked the first color and almost left it like that, but decided to go for the gusto! The lightening made it turn a little red, but I was thinking about going red anyway. I just have to get used to it being darker. It kind of makes me look washed out, I might have to start wearing make up again. But anyway, here it is... what do you think?

Our 2008 Christmas TreeSkip and Alexis made it down. It was pretty questionable with all the snow. He had to clear the snow off of his roof before they could come. The roof was creaking and the deck supports were bowed. Sure glad he got that done before they came.

For the last time this year, I wish all of our friends and family a very Merry Christmas!

Traditions Old and New

It occured to me when looking at Marjie and Steve's Christmas tree, that I have very few "traditional" decorations for our tree. Probably because went have gone through different "theme" trees. When Dave and I got married, he wanted a blue and silver tree. So it was that for several years until the kids all said... "we want some other colors!." So we had multi colored trees for a while. Then when we lived in Lake Stevens and my house was entirely burgandy and white, I had to have a burgandy, white and gold tree. It was really beautiful. But now I am back to the traditional multi-colored tree. So why I am talking about trees, when I don't have a picture of our tree here? Well, that will come later.

Our boss and owner of our communities sends flowers every year to his managers. I was so surprised the first year, and still think that it is such a wonderful and thoughtful tradition. It is so much fun to answer the door and have flowers waiting for you! Aside from Carla's snowman and snowwoman and Mr. & Mrs. Santa, this is the only other item that I have been able to hang on to over the years. Christy made this I think in the third grade at Machias Christian School. It has a few stains from storage on it, but I really cherish it.

Grandpa Peterson Makes Headlines

Dave's Dad has been involved with the Old-Time Fiddlers for a long time and has some very good friends. They play at nursing homes and convelescent centers around Skagit Valley. They made the cover of the this magazine a couple weeks ago and he sent it to us. I think it's pretty cool. There is even a picture in the article of Mom Peterson sitting at a table at one of the gatherings, so I know it was taken a while ago. Not a very big picture so I didn't try to scan it. The guy in the back of this picture, Morey and his wife Rita were at the hospital every day to visit Mom in her last days. They have been great friends to Dad and Mom. For those of you who don't know him, he's the one in the middle with the ever-present toothpick in his mouth.

Snow Pics update

This was after I unincumbered him from the snow, but he has a little residue left on his nose. What happened to my flowerbed? Before the snow we actually had daffodils popping through.

Think anyone will want to play in the playground? Strangely enough, the kids around here are just not getting "into" the snow. Haven't seen even one snowman! Maybe I'll just have to go and make my own.

Snow, snow, snow

No pictures because it's 12:20 am and people would be sure that I was a little wacko if they saw me outside right now with my camera. As it was, there was one guy walking by that was headed out of the community that thought so, but then again, he was up and walking at midnight too, but he wasn't carrying a broom. We've had about 6 inches of snowfall in the last few hours for a total of about a foot today. I went to bed and I was thinking about our inflatables and the ones with motors, and was worried that the weight of the snow would stop them and ruin them. So I got up and went out and rescued Mr. Snowman, the Teddy Bear, the Teeter Totter and snowglobes. Mr. Snowman was all bent over, and the globes were listing heavily to the side. Santa and the Reindeer were still teeter tottering. The carousel globe was smashed flat and the carousel couldn't move. It's not snowing right now so they should be good for the night now. I guess I can sleep peacefully now.

Snow

I get the mayor's updates and this morning he said that the Lea Hill area was the hardest hit in the city. Granted, there is only a couple inches at best, but for Auburn, so I've heard, this is notable.

Candy

One of the most fun things about having my Mom living next to me for 16 years was making chocolates for Christmas gifts. We would go through countless pounds of candy melts and home-made fondant, and tons of laughter and talking while doing it. It is just one of the precious memories I have of her. We even did them one year was she was legally blind, and that was quite an adventure! Last year was first time I made any since loosing her in 2003. I did a few pounds with my friends Foy and Debbie in Lake Stevens, and it was fun, but it didn't come any where near what Mom and I did.

So, I am back at it again. Not on the scale of what Mom and I did, and not nearly the fun, but I have enjoyed it. I bought 13 pounds of melts and have made 4 batches of fondant wth the two bags of jelly filling I bought at the candy store. I just finished the five pound bag of milk chocolate tonight and will start the dark chocolate tomorrow. Tonight it was just the "painted" ones, which obviously goes a lot slower, but are very rewarding. I think my favorites tonight are the little snowmen and Christmas trees. I painted the details on them after they were done.
When Clyle comes in and asks if I have any "mistakes" it reminds me of how Christy would come in and always look for our mistakes. We never let the kids eat any of them unless there was some flaw in them. Even after five years, I still miss Mom. But tonight seeing these little candies it makes me feel like she's not that far away.

Cards

A few of the cards that I did tonight using that beautiful paper I bought in Florida, some rub-ons an die cuts. Very simple yet I like them. No stamping on any of them.

Christmas Decorating

Not really great pictures, but I think we are finally done with our Christmas decorations. Can anyone say "carried away?" Our new additions this year are the santa-reindeer teeter totter and the carousel. Both purchased at discounts. We also added the candy canes, which was kind of a bummer. We bought the first four sets (thinking that would be enough) at Liquidation World at a terrific discount, but found out it wasn't enough, and went back the next night, only to find out that they were all gone. When we came out to the car, the battery was totally dead. We walked a mile to Schucks and bought another battery. The candy canes were originally from Kmart, so last night we headed to Kent for the nearest store. Unfortunately they were not on sale, but now we have enough to go all the way around. Our first inflatable was the giant snowman, then we came across the first snow globe at Prospectors liquidators a couple years ago. Then came the Let It Snow snow globe. Last year after Christmas sale yielded the Santa and Snowman snowglobe. We thought we were all done until one of the residents was driving passed today while I was putting up the icycle lights and told us that Lowe's had a 50% off sale so Dave got his teeter totter.

It took me two day to do the indoor tree. I thought I had a pretty well done last night, but today as I was starting to sort out what was left to go back in to storage (or St. Vincent's), I found all kinds of other stuff to go on it, and now it is loaded and looks very pretty. I will do a picture of it later. I think at any rate, we made up for all those years that we didn't decorate.