California was crisp and we are back to the land of frozen. We arrived home to our winter wonderland safely on Friday the 20th of January. Our ‘DisneyCaliFam’ vacation was full and good. Thank you, LORD, for your goodness to us and our extended family.
Many posts will be coming of our days in Southern California. Where the rain paused for us to enjoy some sunshine in between.
Wednesday Hodgepodge is taking the month of January off. It will resume on February 1st.
I’m going to speed up the rest of my England posts and finish them off in the month of January.
We continue to enjoy our bird sightings.
This was our first viewing of the House Finches this winter. The others have been daily visitors.
It was fun to see the red feathers thrown into the mix.
January has started very quiet around our Country Bungalow. That suits me fine. I’ve started another puzzle, much harder than the one we put together on Katie’s birthday. We enjoyed watching the Rose Parade on RFD TV. I found their coverage so much better than the major stations. The college games droned on in the background as I worked on the 1,000 piece puzzle.
Hope 2023 has started kindly in your corner.
A week ago we celebrated our daughter, Katie’s, birthday. It’s been sweet being able to celebrate her birthday at our place even though she lives over 300 miles from us. Since we typically all gather for Christmas in Colville we can add another celebration together to honor her day.
We used to have our traditional Swedish pancake breakfast on Christmas but lately it’s been happening 2 days later on Katie’s birthday. Dear managed the two pan feat with his damaged left hand and was humbled with thoughts of my dear maternal grandmother who went through most of her life with just one hand.
The photo above is of Father and daughter in a morning conversation.
The grands arrived later in the morning and helped me mix up Katie’s birthday cake, Applesauce Spice Cake. Into the oven and time for some piano interludes with Auntie Katie.
We had a taco lunch prepared by our Colville kids and then it was time for a trip home for naps before our dinner together.
During the quiet of the afternoon Katie and I started this puzzle and when everyone arrived again for dinner it was finished off with the help of Dan and Addy.
The Happy Birthday to you singing this year was epic sending us all into belly laughs!
After cake JJ and I had some fun times together while the rest of the crowd played Mexican Train.
This photo was a leftover from Boxing day night when we all had leftovers for dinner.
Here are the Birthday thoughts and prayer for our dear Katie that I posted on Facebook…
On Monday, Boxing Day, the travelers loaded up and braved our Colville kids mile long snowy driveway for some fun in the snow. It was above freezing and they wanted to get some sledding in before things got too mushy. Baba and Gramps stayed home and had a quiet recuperating day until dinner time.
Uncle Andrew and Uncle Josh used their muscle power to speed up the fun. Daddy was at work this day but he groomed the trails anticipating this fun day.
Addy wanted the snowman to be super big! Olaf the snowman is super big. Great job everyone!
When the fun was over they had a wild ride back to our Country bungalow through all the slush and ice. We enjoyed leftovers for our meal.
These are all Auntie Lolo’s photos and I love this shot of Main Street Colville that she got looking North towards Colville Mountain. The shot of the beautiful sunset is from her phone, too.
One more post coming of our time together celebrating Auntie Katie’s birthday.
BTTP (Back to the Present) It’s snowing again this morning. Our road has been cleared nicely of the snow and ice from the previous storms but the city side streets are still a mess with bumps and ruts and sheets of ice. It made for a very interesting ride to get Dear to Occupational Therapy yesterday. Our Westside kids all are home safe and sound and their snow is not an issue anymore. We had a couple of days of rain and above freezing temperatures that left us with a clear deck but today it is white again. Temps in the 20’s are predicted again for the first week of 2023 so our views will continue to be white for a while longer…
How are things in your corner?
On Christmas Day 2022 Josh and Laura were the first to arrive at our house in the afternoon having flown into Spokane Airport and renting a vehicle for the 2 hour drive to our Country Bungalow. Our Colville kids had brunch and presents at their home with Jamie’s family. After naps they drove over just beating Andrew, Katie and Willow arriving on their 6+ hour journey over the Cascades and through Central and Eastern Washington. Once all the bags and cat accessories were managed we took a family photos before we sat down to our meal.
Prime rib, creamed corn, roasted vegetables (carrots, asparagus and brussels sprouts) and Yorkshire Pudding.
After dinner we sat close to the tree and Dear read from Luke chapter two in the New Testament which chronicles the birth of Jesus Christ and the temple presentation of Jesus.
We let the young ones open up their gifts first.
This tea towel was a special gift from Josh and Laura with a handwritten (in Russian) recipe of my mom’s printed on it. So thoughtful.
This was a stocking gift year. The only presents under the tree were for Addy and JJ. Katie loved her cat socks.
After presents it was time was dessert. Jamie, Addy and JJ baked and frosted a Happy Birthday Jesus Cake. Jamie made the Chocolate nativity decoration for the cake, too.
And that was a Christmas Day wrap! These blankets were a gift from Uncle Joshie and Auntie LoLo personalized with A and J’s name in bold letters and the background of the blanket says Uncle Joshie and Auntie Lolo love you!
A day filled with the Joy of the Lord, love and good food.
Next up…Boxing day.
They all made it to Gramps and Baba’s house for Christmas. This was no small feat this year. Josh and Laura’s flight did not get cancelled and there was a rental car (all wheel drive truck) for them. Andrew and Katie (and Willow) left their house as soon as they heard the Pass was re-opened and they made it to us by dinner time. The Pass was closed most of Christmas Eve day and all night! Our Colville kids came right after afternoon naps. We are so thankful for traveling mercies and safety all around! Thank you, Lord! More to come…
Winter has come in frigid.
We venture out for a very short time and only if necessary. Our faces start feeling the freeze almost immediately.
We did venture into town today to the post office and to the grocery stores. Since we were in town we decided that Chinese Food would be a treat and something different for lunch. Back home safe and sound. We have our interior doors to the bedrooms all shut including any other room that has a door to conserve our heat to our sitting areas. We continue to throw out seed for our feathered friends.
On Wednesday at dusk we were startled by a large bird landing on our deck and taking off quickly with a fat quail in it’s claws! It was a huge hawk. We were stunned. Birds of prey need to eat, too.
We are hoping our kids from the west will arrive safe and sound on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We’ve got some wrapping and a little baking yet to do. We’ll also mop and steam the floors that have seen the worst from snow covered boots here and there.
Hope you all are ready to enjoy this joy filled time of year.
There were 9 of us at church on Tuesday night to listen to Addy’s two pieces on the piano at her recital. Many others were in the audience to listen to their kids or grands.
Addy is Miss Darcy’s youngest student at present.
Music set and she’s ready to go.
Her feet barely reach the floor. She was not distracted by the crowd.
She shyly/humbly accepted the applause.
On to the treats which Addy and JJ enjoyed.
Well done Miss Addy!
Good job in the audience, JJ!
What a treat to view this kind of critter wonderland out our window sitting on our couch and recliner on Sunday afternoon.
Earlier on this Sunday we enjoyed our Children’s Musical and Play, It All Happened in the Country, for our church service. The presentation was so well done and so much fun with the meaning of Christmas presented so well. My photos aren’t the best but they will help me remember.
We sat in the front row with our two little grands to enjoy the presentation.
It was a good day all around with God’s goodness showering down on us.
Matthew 6:25-34 (ESV) “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,
yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?
For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
This is a quiet weekend and mostly quiet week leading up to Christmas.
I’ll be linking up with Saturday Critters hosted by Eileen at Viewing Nature With Eileen.
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 