New Year's Eve...

I started home Saturday the 29th from Billings. The highway was reasonable considering that it is winter! I stopped in Sheridan and had lunch with Ed and Cathy. Cathy is so cute; she asked me if I wanted a little chocolate torte for dessert. I didn't want to hurt her feelings so I said okay. She brought me the biggest piece of chocolate cake that I have ever seen! Ed laughed when I saw it and Cathy had a twinkle in her eye; a good joke on Aunt Jo! LOL

Then I went on to Casper and visited with M&M Family and stayed the night with Aunt Goldie. What a wonderful visit I have had with all of my family this vacation.

Sunday morning I headed for home and had good roads until I hit Muddy Gap. I experienced one of our famous "horizontal snowstorms." The wind was blowing from the southwest at about 45-50 mph. The last 40 miles into Rawlins was the longest in history!

When I got to Rawlins, the Interstate was closed and the motels were filling up with truckers and other travelers so I called my good friend Loretta and she was kind enough to give me a hot meal and a warm bed to sleep in. We had a good visit catching up and had lots of laughs. That snow storm had a silver lining as I am usually in too big of a hurry to get home when I go through to give her a call!

I headed for home this morning around 9:00 a.m. and arrived around 10:30 a.m. I had plenty of time to unload my car, put things away and do my laundry with plenty of time to take a nap!

Happy New Year everyone.... 2008 will be a great year!

Christmas in Montana...

This is the best Christmas Gift;it was like a present from Heaven. I gave this Grandma Mouse to my mother 15 years ago and Ellie wrapped it and gave it to me. It brought tears to my eyes to have a part of my mother here with us!



Ed and Cathy



Dick and Carol, Scott's folks....good people!



The Montana Crew!



BaH Humbug... "Now where did my one and only present go?"



Terry & Michelle....A very cute couple.



Megan



My beautiful Sis, Ms. Creek

This time tomorrow....

This time tomorrow, I will have a new post with pictures! Ms. Creek and I have been having fun and good visits and keeping Chuck in line. My big project for tomorrow is hauling all of my goodies out to my car and getting my blog updated. Chuck told me that he will have a new post tomorrow also!

Memories of Christmas Past....

This is a picture of a snowman that Pennie, Lenora and I built at Caribou in the Big Horn Mountains in the late 50's. I can remember going down the mountain into the town of Buffalo and seeing the lights on the huge trees on the court house lawn and hearing music from the speakers on the street. I can also remember my father and mother singing the song "Silver Bells" loud and clear as if it were yesterday. Here are the words to the song Silver Bells:

City Sidewalks, busy sidewalks
Dressed in Holiday style,
In the air there's a feeling of Christmas,
Children laughing, people passing
meeting smile after smile
and on every street corner you'll hear

Silver bells, silver bells
It's Christmas time in the city
Ring-a-ling, hear them ring
Soon it will be Christmas day.

Strings of street lights
Even Stop lights
Blink a bright red and green
As the shoppers rush home
with their treasures

Hear the snow crunch
See the kids bunch
This is Santa's big scene
and on every street corner
you hear:

Silver bells, Silver bells
It's Christmas time in the city
Ring-a-ling, hear them ring
Soon it will be Christmas day.

As you can see, I am still in the Christmas Spirit and looking forward to spending it with my youngest Sis and her family in Billings. Christmas is only a week away!

Sleigh bells ring, are you listening...

Sleigh bells ring, are you listening,
In the lane, snow is glistening
A beautiful sight,
We're happy tonight.
Walking in a winter wonderland.

Gone away is the bluebird,
Here to stay is a new bird
He sings a love song,
As we go along,
Walking in a winter wonderland.

In the meadow we can build a snowman,
Then pretend that he is Parson Brown

He'll say: Are you married?
We'll say: No man,
But you can do the job
When you're in town.

Later on, we'll conspire,
As we dream by the fire
To face unafraid,
The plans that we've made,
Walking in a winter wonderland.

In the meadow we can build a snowman,
And pretend that he's a circus clown
We'll have lots of fun with mister snowman,
Until the alligators knock him down.

When it snows, ain't it thrilling,
Though your nose gets a chilling
We'll frolic and play, the Eskimo way,
Walking in a winter wonderland.

There is nothing like a lighthearted song to get me out of the bad mood caused by a bad dream. I love this song!

Burning Bridges...

I woke up this morning at 4:30 and I had been crying in my sleep. I hadn't done that for two years, since Leo killed himself. I got up and started the coffee and clicked onto Ms. Creek's blog. Her recent post about having regrets struck a chord with me.

I don't know if it is because I am alone or because it's the season to be jolly and I am not at this moment but I also have regrets.

I regret making my daughter upset Saturday and not having the right words to calm her and make things right. I regret not having made the right choices in my life that have caused her pain. I regret that I was taught that I was never going to be good enough and believing it, caused me to make many stupid decisions and mistakes.

The choices of the past are gone and I can't make everything right but I can choose to make good decisions now, decisions that are healthy for me.

With that in mind, I am burning the bridges that take me back to the road of dispair, bad choices and regrets and am moving forward on my life path of health and happiness.

The Greatest Gift of All...

I am fully emmersed in the Christmas Spirit this year and have been hustling about trying to get everything done. Sometimes I have a hard time thinking of creative but usefull gifts for everyone. As I was pondering I was thinking of the greatest gift that was ever given to me and below is a picture of that gift:




My children.

I could not have asked for a better gift and they have been such a Joy to me. I am so very proud of both of them and how they have grown up to be beautiful, responsible adults.

Chirstmas Tree...

I stole this from Lynetta's blog. I wonder if we are all the same tree like we are the same crayon color?

You Are a Traditional Christmas Tree

For a good Christmas, you don't have to re-invent the wheel. You already have traditions, foods, and special things you bring out every year.

What Christmas Tree Are You?