FRIDAY VIEW

An extremely slow day at the library except for one hour.  That hour I was the only one working in the library.  Both Bob and Jerry were at lunch.  Then, of course, everyone decided to come in.

I have one last Christmas view for the season.  I was at my friend Debbie's house a couple of weeks ago.  Her husband goes all out decorating for the holidays.  Hope you enjoy them.

Wow!  I told them I felt as if I were at the North Pole!

Tomorrow is my birthday.  I will be 59 years old.  And we are supposed to have a major snow storm.   It just figures.  I was going to take it easy, but I decided that having a clean house would make me feel better than sitting around would.  So I'm going to get things done as I sip on hot chocolate and look out the window at the falling snow.  Nice.

SURPRISE

Another slow day at work.  All week has been really slow.  I thought with the kids off from school there would be a lot of activity, but there has been almost no one in the library.  I guess everyone is doing other things.  I know the PAL (Police Athletic League) is putting together a soccer team and a lot of the kids are interested in that.

I was on the desk this afternoon when Jerry called me back to the workroom.  I said, "I can't leave the desk."  He said, "Oh yes, you can.  Get in here.  We have to have a talk."  I thought, "What did I do now?"  When I walked in the room there was a cake with a lit birthday candle and everyone sang to me.  I was really surprised because I was sure they had forgotten all about my birthday.

Jerry had even stolen the paper flower off of Diane's desk to decorate the book truck that had the cake.  He has a habit of doing that.

They also gave me a card that they all signed.

 
This was so nice of them.  Especially nice of Bob who saw that Diane and Sheila were off, Jerry was just coming back from vacation, and took it on himself to plan all of this.  I work with the best people.

CHRISTMAS

Joe woke me up this morning at 6 a.m. to start the day.  We had a lot to do before we left for my sister's house at 8.  There was no one on the road at that time of the morning on Christmas Day so we made really good time and got to her place around 10 a.m.

The snow we got last night was all gone by this morning.  But at Elaine's house there was still some snow on the ground.  So I had a white Christmas.

There were lots of presents under her beautiful tree.

 
It was a long trip and we were really glad to finally be there.  Joe and I love going up to see Elaine, but neither of us love the long drive.

Cody had lots of toys to play with.  But as usual he first had to tear them apart and pull out all the stuffing.

One of the gifts Elaine got was this beautiful cup and saucer from some friends of ours.

Joe and I each got tops from Elaine.

One of the things I asked for was a new griddle for making pancakes.  This is a nice one.  I am very happy.

Joe got a copy of one of his favorite movies -- "The Artist".

  
 One of my favorite gifts is this book.  It has beautiful Victorian botanical illustrations and places to put photographs on each page.  I'm going to have fun picking out just the right pictures to put in it.

Elaine always decorates so beautifully.  Walking into her house is like walking into a Christmas wonderland.  Here are some of the pillows she had on the sofa.  I love them because they are 3-D.

  
And here are a few of her decorations.

  
Taking a break while Joe takes a nap.  His ribs were really hurting him, so he took a pain pill and laid down for a couple of hours.

  
We always have Christmas crackers with our dinner.  They bang when you pull them apart.  Inside are paper crowns (that you wear through dinner), toys and a riddle.  A bad riddle.  Mine was:  who is the most famous married woman in America?  Mrs. Sippi (Mississippi).  Groan.

  

 

We had a pork roast, green beans and roasted potatoes for dinner.  It was so good.  I even had seconds, which almost never happens.

We stuck around for a little bit after dinner.  I was so tired I fell asleep.  I woke up with a flash in my face.  Elaine had taken my picture.

 

After talking to my two brothers on the phone, we took a couple of pictures in front of the tree and then headed home.

The outside lights were beautiful, but of course didn't turn out so good in the picture.

The drive home was kinda rough and long.  Lots of people on the road and poor visibility.  But other than that we had a wonderful day.  Hope you all had a great Christmas too.