More Pre-Christmas Activities

December is always the busiest month of the year - and this year has not been an exception.

We kicked off the Christmas season with the Temple Symphony Holiday Concert. Our friends, George and Twila accompanied us. This year the first half of the program featured not only the orchestra, but also the Temple College Chorale, the San Gabriel Chorus and four soloists in a beautiful production of The Messiah. The second half was traditional Christmas music, including, at the end, an audience sing-along. Each year, as a fund-raiser, people can "vote" with their money for who, among a few well-known civic candidates, will get to direct the symphony in one number. This year the winner got lots of laughs, as he stepped on stage, dressed as the Grinch, and directed the musicians in Sleigh Ride.

Next came the City of Temple's 72nd Annual Christmas Parade, about which I've already blogged.

The next evening our book club members got together at Jean's house for a ham dinner with lots of side dishes and desserts. Jean is a lady in her 90s, and she loves to host meals at her house!!!

Our D.A.R. Holiday Tea was on Saturday, December 8, and our church Christmas party/luncheon was on Sunday, the 9th.

On Monday, December 10, our church small group went to visit our group's two "shut-in" members, taking some small gifts and singing Christmas carols with and for them. These two sweet ladies were so grateful for what was actually a great joy to all of us.

The next day, on Tuesday, I treated Rachel, my Literacy Council student, from China, whom I tutor in English once a week, to a Christmas lunch at the restaurant of her choice. She chose Mee Mee's, a Thai food restaurant. Rachel is such a sweet young lady to work with, and our lunch was both delicious and fun.

Our next holiday event was the Salado Community Choir's Christmas Concert. We know many of the people in this choir, and always try to attend. This year's was the best one yet! Among the singers are both Andy and Kay.

On Friday, the 14th, we went to a party at the home of George and Twila (who went to the Symphony with us earlier in the month). In attendance were some of our church friends and some of George and Twila's neighbors. We especially enjoyed having a number of adorable toddlers among us. Twila had two rooms set up with food - the kitchen with savory snacks and the dining room with desserts.

Next we loaded up the car for an overnight visit to see the kids - Chris, Kelsey, Clara and Robert. Our reason for the visit was to attend Clara's school Winter Concert. I really enjoyed seeing Clara's preparation for the concert. She let her mom do her hair and make-up, and got to wear a long, black dress, as prescribed by the school. Clara was glowing and beautiful when we headed to the high school, where the concert was to be performed.

Clara is now in the Philharmonic Orchestra II, and she is the concertmaster/first violin. Grandpa and I were as proud as two peacocks! 

 We drove home on Tuesday, in time for me to attend the Bell County Genealogical Society's Christmas get-together.

And tonight is Ladies' Night Out, when about 15 of us will meet at Long Horn Steak House for dinner and fellowship.

In between all of these festive events, I've been busy making Christmas cards to send out. I made them using my Cricut Maker, which is the fancy paper-cutting machine that Dan gave me for Christmas LAST year. I made five different varieties - 60 cards in all. Shown below aresamples of the five types of cards I made. Some of you may discover one of them in your mailbox soon!

And yesterday I finally started my Christmas baking! It's hard to let a Christmas sneak by without making our family's traditional French Cookies. Until recently I was puzzled about why these were known as "French Cookies," when they came from the Scottish side of my family - namely from my Great Aunt Agnes (who was a McIlwrath by birth). But last year I found the answer. Aunt Agnes' first husband, Fred Hubert, came to America from France when he was a small boy. The cookie recipe and the cookie irons belonged to his family before Aunt Agnes inherited them.

Finally all of the holiday parties are history, and we can relax and enjoy our own sparkling tree until the actual Christmas Day and Two-Days-After-Christmas festivities, yet to come. (There will be posts about them, afterward.) So until then, I wish you peac, love and stockings stuffed full of joy this year.

Signs of Christmas

We've lived in Temple for nearly seven years, now, and until last Monday night we hadn't gone to the Christmas parade. There is a pretty good excuse for having missed them ... my book club meets on the same Monday night as the parade, every year. And to avoid the parade traffic and street closures, we typically meet at a restaurant or a home for dinner for our December meeting. But this year the book club moved its meeting to Tuesday so all who wanted could attend the parade. Dan and I braved the winter weather and took in the Temple Christmas Parade. It was a great way to kick off the season.

THANKFUL

On Monday of Thanksgiving week we began our trek to Albuquerque, to share our Thanksgiving dinner with Tim in his new house.

That first day, we stopped in Abilene for lunch at Panda Express and then continued west to Lubbock where we spent the night. Sadly both of us were as sick as could be that evening - our guess was it was food poisoning, since we'd both eaten the same thing for lunch, and the sickness hit us within 45 minutes of each other. I was sure we would have to spend a second night in Lubbock, and might even have to cancel our plans and go back home. But, as is typical of food poisoning, once we made it through the night we were both feeling just fine the next morning.

About an hour west of Lubbock is Muleshoe, the town where Dan grew up and went to high school. We have often talked about stopping to see one of his old friends, Delton, whom I had also gotten to know during our college years. This time we decided to make it happen. We stopped at the insurance company that he owns and found him at his desk. We spent a really enjoyable hour catching up on things and reminiscing about old times.

We arrived in Albuquerque around 4:00 in the afternoon on Tuesday. We had made plans to meet Tim and a couple of friends, Mike and Paula, for dinner at Cheddar's. It was a great way to begin our Albuquerque visit.

I was so glad to see Tim's new home - the first house he's ever owned. He's so happy to leave apartment-living behind. His house is a townhome, with over 1500 sq. ft., on two floors. All three bedrooms and two of the baths are upstairs. The living room, kitchen, dining area and a half-bath are on the first floor. He has a great view of the mountains from his dining area and his back patio.

I enjoyed a little walk around the neighborhood one morning. I was really impressed with the walking trail that is a block or so away from his house and the native landscaping in all the yards.

Wednesday evening, as the sun was setting, an almost-full moon rose. I took this from Tim's back patio.

Then, on Thanksgiving night the November full moon rose behind some clouds. At first I was disappointed about the clouds, but in the end I was happy with the photographic effect of the clouds filtering the moonlight.

Our Thanksgiving dinner was good. The menu was pretty traditional: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, pasta salad, cranberry sauce and rolls. Of course there was pumpkin pie for dessert. I have to admit there were some challenges preparing such a large meal in Tim's kitchen, but with a little creativity, it came together and was delicious.

Friday was an eventful day. It started with breakfast at Weck's. Weck's has several locations around Albuquerque, and was our very favorite place to have breakfast when we lived there. It didn't disappoint this time, either. Dan ordered "papas" - a mountain of hash browns with a choice of ham, bacon, sausage, carnitas, carne adovada, pollo, or veggies, served with eggs on top and a choice of red or green chili, and warm tortillas on the side! Weck's is famous for its papas.

Since Tim only has a couch and a TV in his living room, we asked him if he'd like to have a nice easy-chair, as well, as a combination house-warming/Christmas gift from us. He was happy about that, so we decided to go shopping. We weren't familiar with the Southwest part of Albuquerque, where he lives, so searched on line to find some furniture stores. The first two we went to were no longer at their locations. For a third try, we headed to American Home Furniture, since we knew where it was located. We got onto Interstate 40, around 4:00 p.m., and had almost arrived at our exit when we got a FLAT TIRE! We called for Mercedes roadside assistance, and I was surprised that the technician who came actually changed the tire there on the side of that busy 5-lane road!

Of course, the spare wasn't a full-sized tire, so Dan dropped Tim and me at the furniture store and took the car to Discount Tires to have the flat checked out. We were so grateful that the puncture (made by a screw) was repairable, so we didn't have to buy a new tire.

Tim found a chair that he liked, and we made the purchase. They scheduled delivery for Christmas Eve, but said if it arrives earlier, they will give him a call and deliver it earlier.

I had made plans with my former boss and good friend, Betsy, to meet her for lunch on Saturday. Dan drove me down to Los Lunas, where she lives, and she and I ate at a wonderful little Mexican restaurant called Teofilo's. There's nothing better than catching up on life stories with good friends, especially over good food! 

When Dan came back to pick me up, Betsy suggested we both come over to her house so we could visit more. Her husband, Ty, was off work, so we got to visit with him for a while, too. Dan and Ty share a passion for motor sports, so that was the main topic of conversation.

Ty and Betsy

The week had flown by quickly. Sunday morning, as Dan and I were getting ready to go to church, and to leave for home afterward, Tim was fighting off some sort of stomach "bug." He sent us off without hugs, fearing that he might be contagious. We learned, later, that by evening he was feeling better and did make it to work the next morning.

We enjoyed visiting the Northeast congregation, where we were members when we lived there. It was great seeing so many people we know and love, after seven years apart.

Then we started home, once again heading for Lubbock for our overnight hotel stay. Driving home, on Sunday and Monday, we drove past lots of typical West Texas scenery.

Cotton fields - most were already harvested, but some weren't.

 Oil pumps.

 Fall leaves. There were lots of them as we drove east from Abilene.

Wind turbine farms - mostly around Snyder, TX.

We arrived home before dinnertime on Monday. It was so good to get home! But we are thankful and happy that we got to spend time with Tim this Thanksgiving week.

Gallagher!

Dan and I tend to be "planners." Our friends, Kay and Andy, are much more spontaneous. We need people like them in our lives to encourage a little whimsy, and that's just what happened this week.

Now that I think of it, it was Dan who first called Andy, on Friday, and asked if they'd like to go to Miller's Country Market for lunch. Miller's is a Mennonite-run deli/market out in the little farm village of Lott. (So I guess we do have a tiny bit of spontaneity in our bones!) Kay and Andy were willing and eager to join us for lunch and, in turn, asked if we would be interested in traveling to Granbury on Monday, to see the Gallagher show! OF COURSE we were interested! Who, in our age group, wouldn't jump at the opportunity to see that watermelon-smashing comedian of our younger years?

So, right after lunch on Friday, Andy and Kay came by our house. We tossed our overnight bags in the back of their SUV and headed north. Granbury is just over two hours from Temple (it's south of Fort Worth), and our route took us through some beautiful farm land, glowing with early fall colors.

We stayed in the Hilton Garden Inn, perched on Lake Granbury. Both of our rooms had lakeside views, and we ate dinner at the Mesquite Pit, also right on the lake. The weather was amazing.

View of the lake from the Mesquite Pit property.

After a long, leisurely and delicious dinner, we went a short distance to the historic town square, where the Granbury Opera House is located and where we would see Gallagher. We got there a little early, so just walked around for a few minutes.

A half-block or so from the theater, we met a fellow walking toward us, who was sporting a Gallagher-like hair style - although the hair was pure white. I nudged Dan and said, there's a Gallagher-wannabe, for sure.

Pretty soon it was time to go find our seats. The wannabe was standing outside, on the sidewalk, laughing and talking with others who were obviously looking forward to seeing the show. Andy and Kay had chosen our seats, and had picked the next-to-the-back row, in hopes of staying watermelon-free. But then we realized that the room just wasn't that big, and it MIGHT be possible for food to fly even to our row. Everyone was donning plastic trash bag ponchos. We hadn't brought any, but Andy went back to the lobby to pick some up for us. When he got back he said that "wannabe" was actually Gallagher, and that he was still outside on the sidewalk talking, signing autographs and having his picture taken. So Kay went with me, and we ran out to see him. He was very gracious, and when a nice lady offered to take our picture with him, and he was more than willing, we did!

Back inside, we spread our plastic bags as far as they'd go (they were all out of large ones, so we had the child-sized ones), and waited for the show to start. The Opera House had prepared the auditorium, having covered the carpeting and the seating.

I'm really glad we went. I'm glad to be able to say I met Gallagher, but Kay and I agreed that there was something sort of sad about the whole evening. Gallagher, himself, is 72 and has had five heart attacks, two of them while he was performing on stage! So he has definitely slowed down and toned down his show. The setting was very intimate, and it felt, to me, like someone's funny grandpa entertaining the family in the back yard. No music. No spot lights. No giant couch. No adult-sized Big Wheel. No one to introduce him. He just walked in from his sidewalk visits, stepped up on stage and began throwing fistfuls of candy to the crowd. But you could tell he still loves making people laugh, and laugh we did! (Oh, my! How does he get away with some of those politically incorrect jokes?!)

The first half of the show was mostly stand-up comedy. In the second half, he invited some kids from the audience on-stage, and demonstrated and tutored them in the art of food-smashing.

Luckily, we stayed food-free, so after the show we took a short waterfront stroll near the hotel before calling it a fun and memorable day.

Kay, walking on the hotel's waterfront boardwalk.

Our hotel on the lake.