Ruuuuuubyyyyyy

Don't take your love to town.

Heh, had to do that. (And those of you not familiar with really old country music songs won't have any idea what on earth I'm doing. LOL) Mighty quiet around here. Everyone busy with Christmas stuff?

My tree is all decorated, all my presents bought and nearly all of them wrapped (I decided it made a lot more sense to wrap them as I got them than to be killing myself to wrap them all at a time later), the ones that had to be mailed have been mailed.

I have finished four crocheted Martha ponchos I'm making for presents, have one more row left to do on another and one more to make. I am a crocheting machine in the evenings lately. LOL

I have seeds gathered and about 50 packets printed for a seed swap in the seed exchange and hope to have those all packed up and in the mail tomorrow. (Note to self: no more seed swaps two weeks before Christmas LOL)

I still have my baking to do but I'm only making some spritz cookies this year so that won't take more than a day.

Hey, I remember that song! I'm in the midst of everything. Packed and sent the rosemary mini tree that I bought and decorated to send. Worked out well, only a couple dollars of stuff from Michael's made some nice decorr on it, and $12 to mail priority, I think it was comparable to the ones you order for $25 more.
My downfall is my lastminute indecisiveness about what to get/do for everybody

All right Sally! Rosemary accomplishments.

Hey there Sweet Haaaaaaarrrrrrttttttt.......How ya doin' babe? I don't think that I even opened Dave's website yesterday. So that says a little bit about how busy I have been. Hart, you sound on the ball. Good going Sally, on getting the rosemary tree in the mail. I thought of you when I saw them a couple of weeks ago at Lowe's. I was almost tempted to purchase one but then remembered that I had a scraggly one at home. Maybe I ought to put a few bows on it. ha-ha. Would look cool, I think. Maybe not cool, but at least better.

I have had my future daughter in law come in two days this week and help me wrap gifts. That helped tremendously. I am hoping that she will come back at least one more day next week. Today and over this weekend I will try to wrap some of the ones that she didn't get to.

Oh yes, she also decorated my tree. I had the small tree up for about a week with only lights on it. It looked pretty just like that too. I have mailed off the packages that needed to be mailed and got together the ones that will be traveling to New Jersey via car with one niece to the other niece's place.

I haven't even thought of baking this year. After the holidays when things are quieter I might do some baking. That is something that I do in spells, the timing has to be just right for me to do it. I have the Cherry Wink Cookie recipe and all the ingredients and will try that after the holidays. Maybe I will make it an official Valentines Day Cookie. That is a thought. ha-ha

John and I leave the Friday after Christmas for a week in Atlantic City. We own a timeshare at Virginia Beach and have used it during that week a couple of times. This year I wanted to go some place else. We are definitely not big gamblers but am sure that we can find some things to keep us occupied. Shoot, sleeping the week away sounds pretty good about now.

I am hoping that John will take me over in to New York City one of the days. I have visited NYC only a handful of times, but love it and want to go. It should only be an hour or so drive from where we are staying. I have a niece who lives about an hour the other direction in Mt. Laurel New Jersey. I hope that we can visit her too. She just purchased a new house this year and I am anxious to see it. She also has a new son who will be one year old in February. I have only seen him a couple of times.

Along with holidays and vacation, we are also planning a wedding for January 27th. Lots of things at one time, huh? My 26 year old son is getting married. I went with bride-to-be last Friday to floral shop. I will whisper what I spent......$529.00....for flowers!!! Oh well, I knew it would be costly and this is just about a bare bones package. I didn't realize that the wedding was gonna be such a big shindig. I was thinking much, much smaller. It is tradition that groom's side do a rehearsal dinner and I was going to plan that. Ben, my son told me that his dad who I am divorced from will be paying for that, so the least I can do it pay for flowers.

A few months after the wedding, we will be welcoming my first grandchild in to the world. It sure sounds funny to be thinking of being gramma. Seems like only yesterday that I was birthin' babies myself. ha-ha. I am a nut. I am excited for Ben. His dream of getting married and having a family is the only thing that I have every heard him aspire to. He decided against college and some of the other things that I had hoped he would do before doing this. But, I have to remember that it is his life.

I am also waching my 16 year old struggle through his teen years. Poor guy is so confused. He does know that he hates school. The administration at the school and I are trying to keep on top of things where Tucker is concerned. He almost has an attitude of "I don't give a d*** about anything." It is hard to watch.

Okay Hart, is this enough of an update for you? Or, do you want my banking info? ha-ha. Had to say something such as that.

I hope that all you good people will have a wonderful weekend. Will talk latler.

Love to All-

Ruby

Sounds like you've managed to snag yourself a very nice future daughter in law. And a grandbaby too. You're on a roll, Ruby.

I have three grandkids. Gabrielle will be four on the 20th of this month and two twins who were born in March - Ethan and Kaya. That's it, I only have the one daughter and she isn't planning on having any more babies. But three is a good number.

Here's the twins last spring.

Awwwww, how sweet they both are. Look at the little lips on them. Nature has been preparing me to be a grand mother for the past year or so. When I see live babies, I just cannot take my eyes off of them. I find babies much more interesting now than I did when I was having kids. Go figure.

Do your grand children live nearby? Mine will start out living about a 30 minute drive from me. At some point Ben and Nicole will be building a house behind ours on the hillside. Ben showed me the plan of what he would like to have the other night when he was here visiting. It will be a two story, sort of like an A-Frame with the whole upstairs being a loft and a bathroom. He will be able to see the nearest little town from his view. I hate seeing them pay such outrageous rent on an apartment.

I gave Ben and Tucker the land back about 15 or so years ago when I could only own 2 acres and a house in order to qualify for reduced hospital care when I was still very ill. My dad was able to leave both boys each about $50,000.00. That will make a nice down payment for Ben's house and maybe he will come out paying a mortgage that is even less than the throw away rent he is paying now. Each boy owns a 3 1/2 acre lot with beautiful view. I am stuck down the hill and can't see a whole lot where I am. Oh well. Could be worse.

I hope that you will have a great weekend. Will talk later on.

Ruby

I would be in heaven if mine lived so close by. First they were in France for a year, then they moved right outside of Chicago. They're in North Carolina now, which is getting closer.

Wow! World travelers. But, like you said, NC is getting closer. HAve a great week Hart.

Ruby