Merry Christmas to All

Some Christmas Decorations

This doesn't give an idea of how a three year old decorated the tree, but if you look towards the bottom two feet you'll notice that most of the ornaments are there.

Decided to go simple with little trees and Santa's sleigh on the shelf that Brett redid. It was originally pink and the brackets were broken. He rebuilt them, stripped and sanded the paint off and then applied the gold leaf paint and black lacquer.

The mantle. I need to figure out a different picture to put up there. I love the oil painting, but it is a bit too big.

One of my favorite ornaments...a felted giraffe figure dressed as a bomber pilot.

I just like the way this gumdrop garland sparkles with the lights.

My Version of Life in a Crystal Palace (1)

My Version of Life in a Crystal Palace (2)

Dogs-a day in the life

Tater getting a feel for Lili's mood.

Testing Lili's patience.

"come on Lili, chase me"

"Now leave me alone runt!!"

Meeting Harley

Today Caroline and I went to Auntie Cheryl's to meet Harley. Both Cheryl and I were a bit concerned with how poor Harley would react to a pretty active little one; but one the way there, I let her know a bit of his history and made it very clear how she was expected to behave around him. She is pretty wary of Sammy Bird, so I think she understood what I was trying to convey. Well, it turned out that Harley likes company. I have only had one personal experience with parrots and Tiny would have been a mouthful for Harley; there is a lot of respect for Cheryl taking this guy on. He is quite beautiful and I can understand why Cheryl was drawn to him...he just has this look in his eye that is so sweet. Although, the look could have been of longing for the blue coat I wore today. I was amazed at the behavior change in Sammy as well. I was almost tempted to hold the cantankerous fellow...like I said, almost. He is such a love. Caroline was very attentive to any instruction that Cheryl gave her and was quite respectful of the birds. She impressed me with her calmness around them. She was quite enamoured with Harley. I think his size really took her by surprise.

Anyway, the following are a couple of the test pictures I took with the camera.

Handsome Sammy

Lovely Harley

Not too clear, but thought it was cool with the way he looks like his is sitting in the village in picture.

He likes to check stuff out from an upside down vantage point.

What a pretty face he has.

Caroline in awe of the big bird.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING !!!!

Nothing major happening, hope everyone has a happy and healthy and safe day with friends and family.

Random Thoughts

Life has been a bit difficult lately. I won't use this as a forum for whining though. I went to an event today that really opened my eyes to the fact that I have a VERY blessed life. The event was the "coming home celebration" of an acquaintance's 22 year old daughter who passed away last week after tremendous life struggles and a battle with cancer. This beautiful young lady leaves behind two gorgeous daughters ages 3 and 8 in the care of their loving grandparents.
Now, I have known the young lady's mother for years, but had never met the daughter; she had been a lost soul and not in her family's life except when she needed help with the care of the babies.
Upon moving back to the area, the acquaintance quickly filled me in on her life since the last time I'd seen her (it had been 8 years); part of her turmoil was her daughter being in drug rehabilitation for 18 months and leaving the kids with her. Thoughts of that moment have come rushing back to me after the service today and I don't like them. I was judgemental and uncaring and it is sad for me to say that I couldn't wait to get done with the conversation because it was "bringing me down".
Well, when I finally met this young lady when she had finished her rehab, I was amazed at the light I saw in her. She wanted to be a better person and a good role model for her two young children. I can only imagine the strength that girl had to come back with her head held high and a big smile on her face as if to say, "I'm back and I'm here to stay". And the brief times I was able to interact with her one on one...she was funny and had me laughing while we talked about our kids (my Caroline is about her littlest's age).
This whole situation has made me reflect on death, and I'm not afraid to die by any means, what saddens me deeply is the thought of those I will leave behind and how they will handle it. I'm amazed at the grace and peace with which this young lady's family is accepting the situation. My acquaintance has such a close relationship with Jesus, that she swears He is getting her through this time; her daughter has gone "Home" to be with the Holy Father and is finally at peace.
So... I will look a bit differently a the trials that are put before me and face them head on; I might conquer them or I might fail, but I refuse to wallow.

And Along Came a Spider

Happy Birthday-Yep You!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJFEyjfoTuM

Yup, Here're More

Another beautiful and productive day at Stately Watson Manor.

Caroline wanted to do a photo shoot today. She is definitely not shy.

More examples of the day lilies. I have to say, as the addict that I am, I just dug and bagged the things and didn't even think to write down the names of the blasted things. I think I can maybe name about 8 of the now 26 varieties; that is just plain sad.

Caroline and I cleaned out the stream bed/runoff ditch today. What a nice difference it makes. I didn't really get before pictures, but if you look back at the last post, the picture of the whole yard has a glimpse of the what the ditch looked like yesterday.

Tater at 8 weeks, still at breeder; Tater at 6 months, relaxing in the chair on the deck.

No post would be complete without pictures of the dogs. As you can see the Tater Tot is getting to be quite the Tater Tuber, pretty soon he'll be a full on Spud. But til then, Lili will keep him in training and in line.