He Leadeth Me

  On a recent trip to Houston, I got a group of my friends together for a Favorite Things party. Thought you'd like to see some of the favorites.   Denise's favorite was Sonic Drinks.   Aunt Terry shared some jewelry bags.   Aunt Kim's was chocolate.   Joyce's was body lotion. Caitlin's was soft peppermint. All three of these beautiful ladies are my nieces. I had two more beautiful nieces there, but I don't have photos.   Sweetie's were picture display "things" and bath oil.   I cannot remember what Larraine's favorite thing was but thought this was such a cute picture I had to include it. Donna very unselfishly shared Hostess Twinkies. The company had just announced that they were closing so these boxes were in high demand. No, she didn't give Amber away. Holly's favorite was a special salad dressing.   Linda shared Puzzle Books. Barbie's favorites were Reese's Peanut Butte...

Because both of our children had their other families in town for  Christmas Day, and because we had already had our Gibson family Christmas, David and I decided to explore a little town in Colorado that we had heard about called Salida.   We left home on Christmas Day at about noon. We fortified ourselves with lunch and lots of car snacks because we didn't know if there would be anything open on Christmas evening. We were pleasantly surprised to find a little Italian restaurante just a short distance from our motel which was open on Christmas. Does anyone know what New England Style Dining is? We couldn't figure it out.   We drove around town and saw the most delightful sight.  A hill at the very end of the Main Street, was decorated to look like a giant Christmas tree. It was hard to get a good angle to do it justice especially since all I had with me to snap a picture was my Iphone.   A local Methodist church had this unique Nativi...

My third grade teacher was a very special lady named  Mrs. Nadine Monroe. Mrs. Monroe taught me in third grade at Freeman Elementary as well as my two brothers and sister. I credit her with my desire to become a teacher and with starting my love of Children's Literature. It was Mrs. Monroe who first read me Charlotte's Web , when our class returned from the lunchroom each day. She also read us a book called The Bird's Christmas Carol by Kate Douglas Wiggin. I remember crying at the end of the book and of borrowing Mrs. Monroe's copy and trying to copy the whole book down in a Big Chief tablet. For years, I wanted my own copy of the book, but didn't know where to find one. Years ago, one of my fourth grade students found a copy in her bookshelf and told me about it (since I had told my students how much I loved the book.) The Scholastic version shown above was reissued in 1972 with a new title Carol Bird's Christmas . I now own fou...

My custom for the past few years has been to create a Christmas ABC post for our annual Christmas "letter". This year, I decided to go into the  picture archives and just randomly pull some of my favorite Christmas pictures  and memories.  I decided that since the Christmas ABC's had 26 pictures representing the 26 letters, I could not exceed that number. This post is picture intensive.  I  have learned that creating a blog is as much for the writer and for the reader.  So, if you choose to not look at all the photos, I will never know, and will certainly not be offended. If you stop here, just know that David and I wish you a  VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS & A WONDERFUL 2013. For the brave among you, read on. Our first Christmas with a grandchild.   It's hard to believe that this little guy is almost 6 and is in Kindergarten.   I bought this Santa at Tease Me Hair Salon. I love tak...