Merry Christmas!

I wish each one of you a very Merry Christmas.
May the true meaning of Christmas fill your heart
now and in the coming year.  May your New Year be
filled with peace, hope joy and love.

Thank you for your friendship via the net and for
taking time to read my blog and leave comments.
Each one of you have touched my life in so many
ways and enlarged my circle of friends.  Thank you for
sharing your wonderful talents, your family, your
struggles, joys, and heartaches and enriching my life.

Merry Christmas!

Nola

Joy in the Visit

Today while waiting with my bagged items for my
daughter to go through the checkout at Walmart, an
elderly gentleman who was also standing there,
started up a conversation.  I am always a little nervous
when something like that happens and wasn't sure
what to expect.  At first I wondered if he might need
some help.  But, no, he just wanted to visit.

He was waiting for his bride of 70 plus years to
finish her grocery shopping and said he like to stand
at the front of the store and visit with people.  He was
a spry 90 year old man with a sharp mind and
delightful sense of humor.

As we stood there conversing, I found that he had
been raised in the eastern part of the state--an area
I was very familiar with.  As our conversation
continued he told me several delightful stories of
his life.  He was quite surprised I was familiar
with Tabiona, Duschesne, Woodland and other
small towns.  Then when I told him where I
originally hailed from we found many things in
common.

He has had open heart surgery and tells me he is
a miracle as they said he died on the surgery table
but was revived.  He's also survived a stroke and
other health issues.  I think he is a miracle!

We probably only spent 10 minutes or so visiting
but as my daughter, grandson and I left him, we
left with a smile on our faces.  He thanked us for
taking time to talk with him and wished us a
Merry Christmas as we departed.

As we walked out of the store, my daughter asked
if he was someone I had worked with at the temple
when I served there as we seemed to be enjoying
our visit.  No, I said, just a stranger who brought
some Christmas joy into my life today by striking
up a conversation.

It's a Tradition!

Last evening my daughter and family invited me to their
home to join in making their traditional gingerbread
house.  It is really fun to just watch the grandchildren
and their creativity as they decorate the house,
people, trees, "fido" and all the little cutout fixtures.
In the picture below they were just getting started
decorating and sampling all the candy, etc.

My daughter keeps it pretty simple for the kids and
they can hardly wait to eat the finished house...me
too!  But, that will be for another day!

Be well and stay safe,
  Nola

A Few Little Projects!

Well, thanks to my daughter I finally got my Christmas
tree up and decorated. With all that has been going
on I had decided I just didn't have the energy to
dig it out, set it up and decorate it only to take it
down in  a couple of weeks.  This year I just
did one tree and I must admit I'm glad she convinced
me to dig it out as I love sitting in the dark with just
the tree lights on listening to Christmas music playing
in the background.

I have been able to finish a few gifts:

This little apron is for my granddaughter along with
a recipe box of simple recipes she can make with
her daddy's supervision.

Couldn't resist making this stitchery that I found here:
http://theodoracleave.blogspot.com

Finished three of these Christmas banners
http://www.sewhappy.me
as pre-Christmas gifts for my family:

And for myself, because I absolutely adore anything
with Sunbonnet Sue, this stitchery from
http://www.littlequilts.com
that was featured on the Henry Glass Jolly Holiday
Party Blog Hop.

And on a more personal note:

My grandson Ian was baptized by his father Saturday
December 3.  We weren't sure there would be power
at the Church or if things would have to be moved
to January. But, thankfully the church had power
and we were able to proceed.   It was a wonderful day
and we were grateful so many family members
could be with us.

Be well and stay safe!

Nola

We Survived!

Goodness it has been a long time since I've posted
anything.  Things have been a little crazy around here.

One week ago we were hit with devastating East
Canyon winds with gusts up to 100 mph.  We haven't
had bad winds since about 1999 so I guess we were
do for one.  We really looked like we were in a war
zone.  The winds whip down three canyons by
us and it can be quite nerve wracking.  Our town of
Kaysville, Farmington, Centerville and Bountiful
took the brunt of the storm.

Our community will never look the same.    One of
the golf courses 1/2 mile from me lost 419 trees.
The beautiful pines we had lining main street are
gone.  Pine trees really took a beating as did other
trees.  Roofs, siding, trampolines, patio awnings, etc
all gone!  My neighborhood now has a new look to
it.

I have lived through several of the east winds, but
this was the worst!  We were blessed to only lose
some branches from our large Maple tree in front.
Thank goodness I had followed my prompting a
few weeks earlier to trim back as far as we could the
limbs overhanging the roof or I'm sure we would
have had some pretty bad damage to the roof from
them.  Many trees and limbs were just snapped in two.
Our patio awning pulled loose and ripped the
aluminum, but it didn't go flying.  I was worried
about my windows and the neighbor's house.

We live in a awesome area where everyone pitches
in to help their neighbors.  My neighbors were there
with their chain saws cutting and stacking my tree
limbs before they did their own trees.

Two of my children and their families lost power.
My son and his daughter stayed with us Thursday
night.  The kids all thought it was great to have a
sleepover at Grandma's.  My daughter and family
were with me through Sunday evening.   Their
power was restored late Saturday night.  We never
lost our power which was highly unusual for us.

Sunday all our church meetings were cut short as we
were supposed to have more winds (up to 75 mph)
in the evening.  Everyone (in the 4 cities) was asked to
help cleanup the piles of debris so more damage would
not be incurred from flying objects.  We tied down
the awning as best we could.  The national
guard was also called in to help and areas were
opened for dumping.  In about 8-10 hours things
were cleaned up that would have taken the city weeks
to do.  We have an awesome community and people.
Thankfully, we did not have more wind.

When we came home Saturday morning from my
grandson's baptism, some one had come and hauled
all my limbs away.

We are so thankful no life's were  lost or anyone
injured, although a few people were swept along
with the wind. 

I have great empathy for those of you who have
also been through devasting storms, floods, fires,
earthquakes etc.  Thanks goodness for insurance.

Things are beginning to settle down and now I
hope to get some decorating down for Christmas.

Be well and safe,
Nola