Monday, December 31, 2012

Christmas in Des Moines (IA) 2012

This is my nephew, Brian, holding his son, Blake, opening presents.
Our son-in-law, Marty, with one of his favorite gifts from my mom.
That's Izaac, our great-nephew, in front of Brian, and Blake's mom, Nicole, on the couch.  Sam & Marty's dog, Stig, also came for the day and had a GREAT time!  
Izaac & Blake's Grandma Shirley is on the couch (at left), and our nephews, Joe and Ben are on the floor waiting to open presents.  (Joe has his back to us, and Ben is on the right.)

Friday, December 28, 2012

Rachel's accordion!

This is actually Claire (our niece) trying to learn the accordion!! 
 Rachel (our niece) giving Marty (son-in-law) a starter lesson on playing the accordion.
Rachel playing "Jingle Bells" on the accordion!  (Her brother, Will, is sitting in the chair trying to admire the tune!!)

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Christmas in Sac City

Even though it wasn't supposed to snow in our neighborhood MONDAY, this is what we drove through part of the way west on Highway 20 to Sac City.
Marty opening some of his stocking stuffer gifts--the biggest Snickers and Reese's candy I've ever seen!  (That's our niece, Rachel, in between Marty and Samantha.)
Grandma Jean W. with her new witch headband (her daughter, Ann, adjusting it).
John, Kathy (John's sister), and Marty, watching other people empty their Christmas socks.

Friday, December 21, 2012

How the cats entertained themselves during the blizzard...

One napped in a box... 
 One tried to keep warm...
 One thought she would help print pictures for the rest of my Christmas cards...
One 'helped' me fold laundry!!!

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Blizzard 12/20/2012 is worse in Des Moines!!

 My brother, Bob, snow-blowing Mema's driveway already.  They had more than a foot of wet, slushy snow, and the snow blower was having trouble clearing it.
From Mema's 'computer room' window at her house.  (That's a small boat with a cover on it in the back yard, in front of my dad's OLD Suburban!!)

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Here comes the blizzard 12/2012!!

 The snowflakes were light when they started here about 6pm.
 These two pictures (above) were taken about 7:45pm.
 The other three pictures were taken about 9:45pm.  That's the big yard light outside making things look a little yellow.  The snowflakes are bigger and wetter and the wind has started to blow, too.


 The prediction for our neighborhood is between 7 and 9 inches of snow.  If it keeps snowing at this rate (and the wind is supposed to be more fierce tomorrow), we may end up with more than 9 inches of the white stuff for Christmas!!

Monday, December 17, 2012

NICE Christmas card!!!

Okay, I admit I could be biased.  This is a card I received today from my daughter, Sam and her hubby, Marty, and their three furry children!
Stig is at the top of the picture (almost cut his face off, sorry Stig), Ron is laying in the middle and Patrick is at the bottom.  All three boys posed pretty handsomely for this card (wonder how long that took??).  

Saturday, December 15, 2012

No snow for Christmas???

 This was last weekend's snow flurries....
 A view from the patio door Saturday evening.
 Sunday morning's views from the garage.  (both above and below)
It was gone by the afternoon, and it's raining this Saturday evening again.

Friday, December 14, 2012

Views from the window...

 These corn bales were sitting in the field east of the house for a couple of months.
Then one day this little machine and a really big semi with a trailer came and retrieved them all!
(Not too much interesting going on in or around our house lately!!)

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

A view of the bird feeders...

 Even though we still have 4 cats, we do get some interesting birds at the feeders.

 Abvoe and below--this is the same bird... he's good-sized and really pretty colors.

Monday, December 10, 2012

Another Sunday at Mema's....

 Izaac in front of his great-grandma's (Mema) tree with a gift from Samantha & Marty, which he then opened.  (Izaac is our great-nephew.)
Here are Izaac's new army guys lined up for battle in the kitchen (they wouldn't stand up on the carpet!).

Friday, December 7, 2012

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Camp Stanhope Thanksgiving-Christmas party...

 This doesn't look like a lively bunch...John, Sam & Marty, Alex and Allison, with Stig in front of Sam (his mommy).
 Thanks to Allison and Samantha for their great decorating!!  THANKS!!
Have any of us been that good this year???  Tree looks okay considering the past abuse it's had from the cats (who hid while Stig was at our house).  

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