Yesterday was 1-11-11!

(By the way, someone on Facebook today said to "add the last two digits of your birth year to the age you turn this year." Try it....everyone gets the exact same answer. 111!)
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I know, I know....in my last post I said I would be back "tomorrow" which would have been New Year's Day.  Ok, when I have EVER been that prompt on my blog posts??

Mom's internet continued to act up and it was just too much trouble.  Plus....we stayed pretty busy there!  For a community populated by many 'over 80's', they sure stay active!  The weather stayed pretty cool, but it was sunny.

Four mornings a week there is an exercise class at 8 a.m.  Actually, they have several different types and opportunities for exercise (in or out of the pool, yoga, zumba....etc)  I am proud of Mom because she is not a morning person, but she gets herself to this exercise opportunity.  I was surprised that after 2 days, I was sore!  They spend 35 minutes and it is a great work-out.  Not cardio...but great for stretching and strengthening.

Every Wednesday a group meets near the pool for "Happy Hour" with some form of entertainment.  This day it was karioke...and the weather wasn't really WARM.

The night before I left to come home, they started their Bingo nights in the ballroom/hall.  As you can see there are a few more people that show up in the hall for Bingo than there were for exercise!  This is only 'some' of the crowd.

My Dad always told me that the street they live on in the park is the best decorated and prettiest one at Christmas time.    I arrived on Christmas Day and it WAS very pretty.  I didn't think to take this picture until the last day there (Jan 5) and much of the Christmas decor was down.  But aren't the lights on the palm trees pretty?

So....in my last post I was telling you about some of our activities before I left on Christmas Day. The kids were out of school for a couple of weeks, but I was going to be gone for the second week, so we did as much as we could with them before I left.

The first weekend, Ron took off for the camp but I took the 3 girls ICE SKATING!  Wow....I haven't been on skates in 40 years!
  It was easy while they were standing on the carpet...but then they headed for the ICE:

Yes.  I did get out on the ice: 

The sessions were 2 hours long, but we tuckered out WAY before the time was up.   After we left we headed over to visit 'Mike the Tiger' at LSU. 

Mike wasn't cooperating, so we had to make do with a statue! 

A few days later we took the girls to "Zoo-Lights".  Jake and Christie came as well. 

It was really kind of cool.  They had light displays up all over and you walked the circle around the zoo looking at the lights.  You couldn't really see animals but it was a pleasant evening and a pleasant walk.  The lights were kind of pretty! 

Afterward we all headed to McDonalds for ice cream sundaes.  Yum.

I tried to have the girls overnight a few times.  On one particular visit, Sam and Emmie decided to drag out the old dance costumes and have a dress up tea party.  You can take one look at Emmie and tell they were having fun!

In between the visits from the grandkids, I finished getting ready for Christmas.  I got the little tags made for the cinnamon ornaments Emmie made.  She wrote her entire name by herself!

I got all of my Christmas cards made and mailed.

WHEW! 

 And got the rest of the house decorated.  Here is the buffet area.

I love this ornament.  Look at Santa's hair!



The "snowman" was purchased at the Broadmoor Arts & Crafts Festival.
It is painted on a 'cypress knee'

Then came Christmas Eve and our family exchange.  What fun that was! 

Ron was extremely touched by this hand-made gift from Samantha.  It was a hand drawn 'sign' for his shop that says "Come In.  Ron's Shop"  She does love her grandpa's woodshop! 

Ashlyn collects snowglobes.  This was really more of a WATER globe, being a little silver bathtub with a duckie in the globe.  The music is "Rubber Duckie" and instead of snow, there are bubbles that float around in it!  She now has about 85 in her collection!

"Hmmmmmm?!"

The aftermath!

I always love to leave the wrapping and ribbon as we open our gifts.  I love to look around at the aftermath and think of the excitement of opening the gifts.  I like to sit in this "confetti" for just a few moments and savor it before we gather it up.  It takes so much time and effort to prepare for the moment and it is so soon gone!

I have a little frame on the wall with my grouping of Christmas photos of the grandgirls over the years.  It says:

Wouldn't life be more worth living

Wouldn't dreams be coming true

If we kept the Christmas Spirit

All the whole year through.



Grandma does love her girls!

By the way,  while I was in Arizona Ron went to Starkville, MS, to hunt with his nephew.  He killed a buck on Sunday and a buck on Monday!

               Two bucks?  Priceless!   LOL



See ya' later!