Category Archives: Holidays

WHEN GRANDPA BOB IS AWAY HUNTING

Each year, for the past 29 years that we have been married, my husband takes up residency in his hunting cabin about 45 minutes away.  He use to stay for 6 weeks but now it is only a total of 4 weeks.  This escape from civilization begins the week prior to buck gun season.  He is a dedicated hunter.  He does come home for Thanksgiving dinner and then once a week to re-stock on food and wash his clothes.

The hunting season becomes my time to create the holiday home for our family. I make lots and lots of lists to begin with.  I am a micro manager of myself with lists.
I decorate the house, upstairs and down, as well as outside.  This year I had some assistance from 2 grandsons with stringing lights in the bushes and creating their North Pole in the woods.thanksgiving, christmas decoratinghunting season, christmas 2015, christmas lightsthanksgiving-fun-with-the-familychristmas decoartingchristmas decorating, hunting season

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FESTIVAL OF CHRISTMAS TREES

christmas trees, blennerhassett hotelThe Festival of Trees is an event held in our town to celebrate the Christmas season.  The trees and wreaths are decorated by people in the community and sponsored by different agencies.  They  are not only beautiful, but for a good cause.  They are on display for a few weeks and then there is an auction.  The proceeds go to the Easter Seals of West Virginia.

A friend and I went to see the festival of trees and then went out to lunch last week.  We are now planning on making this an annual get together.

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CHRISTMAS SHOPPING IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS

I always enjoy being a part of the Christmas shopping hustle and bustle but things seemed to have changed over the years.

I can remember going Christmas shopping with my mother and grandmother from the time I was a small girl.  We always shopped in our downtown.  There seemed to be so many stores to me.  I can still feel the chill of the cold air as we darted in and out of each store.  The snow was blowing in our face, Christmas music was playing over loud speakers on the street corners, and there were happy people every place. 
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THANKSGIVING FUN WITH THE FAMILY 2015

This year my North Carolina family was able to come to our house for a few days over Thanksgiving.   My husband came home from his deer camp for the day.  We had the traditional Thanksgiving dinner  followed by a lot of activities.

The weather was very nice so I took the opportunity to do some outside Christmas decorating on the Friday after Thanksgiving.  The boys (age 3 and 6) wanted to help me.  We needed to take down the fall decorations first so that kept them busy for a while.  The 3 year old wanted to get it done quickly, so he decided that he could do it by himself.thanksgiving, fall decorationsfall decorations, thanksgivingfall decorations, thanksgiving
 Whoops!!! They were a little heavy.
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GRANDPARENTS SHARE THANKSGIVING TRADITIONS

Thanksgiving traditions are created from memories.  

Traditions are defined as  the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation.  I was thinking of my Thanksgiving  traditions and asked a few of my friends to tell me about theirs.

When I was growing up I remember that my mother cooked and baked for days preparing foods for Thanksgiving.  I believe that I can still feel the warmth in our home and experience  the wonderful smells coming from the kitchen.  Everyone came to our house to eat including grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins and friends.  My father and the men in our family always liked to deer hunt so they were out in the morning doing that.  After dinner we drew names for our Christmas gift exchange.

When I was in high school we moved to the country and for several years the same tradition continued.  My mother decided to try  hunting and enjoyed it so she started going out herself.  Over the years as my brother, sister and I  grew up and had our own families we were not always able to be together.

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HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine’s Day.

I LOVE to make decorated sugar cookies and special treats for my grandchildren.

My kitchen has been a busy place baking cookies and making these cute  little candy treat bags. The candies and cupcakes are lined up for the task.Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's DayClick here to see directions Easy Halloween Treat Bags

I mail a Happy Valentine’s Day box to my grandsons in Colorado and North Carolina. I add some Valentine window clings and it is a fun, inexpensive treat from grandma and grandpa. The other children live nearby, so I am able to give them their boxes in person.

Decorated sugar cookies are always a sweet treat that make everyone happy.  Here is my recipe Decorated Sugar Cookies

Fix a little treat bag of cookies and deliver to a co-worker, a neighbor, the   mailman, or any special person in your life.                                     

 

CHRISTMAS 2014

Christmas 2014MERRY CHRISTMAS from our family. Sharing some fun, food and traditions from our Christmas 2014.

We had our family celebration on December 13th.

As usual, it was crazy, busy and so much fun.   We had lots of good food, talked and laughed, played some games, and opened gifts.

See some of our Christmas traditions in previous post.

 Christmas Traditions..Creating New Ones as Grandparents.

I always make cookie trays, candy bags and Chex Mix for everyone to take home.  I made double recipes of 10 different kinds of cookies and 30 dozen decorated sugar.Christmas 2014006 (2)Christmas 2014Christmas 2014

Christmas 2014My husband, Bob, helped me cook and we worked on it for 2 days.  Our Christmas 2014 menu was simple and had variety to satisfy the adults and children.

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Here are some random pictures.   

The first picture was the next morning when I was taking out trash.  I looked behind me and my 2 yr old grandson, Hudson,was saying “me help” and dragging bags of trash.  We are such a lucky family to have so many wonderful blessings.    Christmas 2014                                               049 091117106041064066081Christmas 2014Christmas 2014099112038