Mountain Musings

Best Gifts of All -- Grandchildren!

Well...all of us here around Mountain Musings sure had a fun time over the holidays storing up enough memories and hugs and smiles to last us until we see these precious grandchildren again.

Our oldest son, Micah, and grandson Ethan visited us the week before Christmas, and we loved seeing them both again and celebrating Ethan's birthday! What a great gift it was to have them here!

This is a picture I'll treasure for sure.....Great-Granny at 89 and Ethan at 9 trying to be the first to "Spot It!" They were both pretty quick at this game! Celebrating Ethan's birthday with a Christmas ice cream cake was fun. Aunt Hannah is getting ready to light the 9 whimsical spiral candles: Ethan and Uncle Jonathan kinda like each other...a lot! Can't you tell from this picture they're a real twosome? Uncle Jonathan's and Aunt Hannah's birthday gift to Ethan was a bowling trip for the family. Aunt Hannah had a very fun time bowling with Ethan, and it was fun for this granny to watch them play: Waay too soon it was time for them to leave and time to prepare for the next grandchildren and Aunt Bet from South Carolina arriving in a few days.

Eric, Sarah, and the two boys--Andrew and Matthew, just missed seeing their cousin Ethan in person, but the visits just couldn't be coordinated this time.

Sarah has always been our Miss Christmas, so I planned a special surprise for her and decorated our bedroom where they would be staying. Here's a photo I took of the completed project:

• Merry Little Christmas Barnwood sign was from Kirklands and decorated with colored lights, Sarah's favorite
  
• Red and white quilt was a purchase from an antique shop in Georgia
• Snowman flannel pillowcases from Pottery Barn
• Oxford red stripe sheet set from Lands End
• JOY and NOEL pillows from Hobby Lobby
• Beautiful rectangular house pillow in the middle was made by my friend, Chris, and gifted to me especially for this room because she knew I was decorating it for Sarah. How very special!
  

Here's a close up of that pillow, and it was also featured on A Quilting Life blog: I also purchased a small tree from Hobby Lobby and decorated it for the dresser. Since Sarah was our enthusiastic Christmas decorator when she lived here, I knew she'd love the room being specially decorated: When Sarah arrived, she was wearing an I'll Be Home For Christmas shirt! How appropriate, and I loved it! Here's the little family around the table, unfortunately I didn't capture Aunt Bet on the other side of Great-Granny in the photo:  Everyone took turns playing with the boys. Here's Aunt Hannah pushing them both in a laundry basket!

Grampa read Scripture on Christmas Eve as we wrote our own Lessons and Carols program. Everyone took turns reading a passage and then we each picked a favorite Christmas hymn. This picture of Grampa and Andrew is just precious:

Hannah holding sweet, smiling Matthew:

Eric and Sarah holding Matthew and enjoying Christmas Day:

The family had such a good time bowling with Micah and Ethan that we decided to take Eric and Sarah. Granny Deb was the designated and delighted babysitter while the adults were bowling. Andrew was very occupied watching all the activity taking place. Fun times! Eric helped Andrew learn how to toss the ball in the basket. Go, Andrew!: I wish this little guy could wake up in my bed every morning

If he were wrapped up as a gift, I'd want my name to be on that bag! Can we keep him, Grampa??? Being far away from grandchildren and missing watching them grow up isn't fun, so we enjoy it so much when there's a chance to visit each other.

As you can see, it was a Christmas to remember! We all absolutely LOVED it, and we're still....

~~Deb

Merry Christmas From Our House to Yours

Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel,

which being interpreted is, God with us. ~ Matthew 1:23

 

We're enjoying being together with family from out of town this Christmas (what a blessing grandsons are!).

We hope that you make some sweet memories at your house as you celebrate the birth of our Lord with your family this Christmas.

Merry Christmas and a very happy and healthy New Year to all our blog readers. See you back on the blog in 2018!

~Deb

A Thanksgiving Surprise!

 

We hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving with family and friends and are heading into December counting all your many blessings! Before November gets too far gone, I wanted to write about our wonderful Thanksgiving surprise for Sarah!

First, it was a smashing success! Sarah is a lot like her Momma...it's hard to keep a secret from either of us! So we didn't know if we could pull this off; but we did, which made it sooo much fun!

Our friend and faithful blog reader, Victoria, Sarah's mother-in-law, secretly invited us to come and stay with them Wednesday night. We enjoyed the extra visiting time with her family, and we especially enjoyed listening to the young adults play music on Wednesday evening: As you can see from this photo taken from above, there were many instruments represented...piano, flute, violin, accordion, penny whistles, and guitar: And then the hymn books came out, and we were serenaded with Christmas songs, hymns, and more! What a very delightful evening! I loved it! And Sarah and Eric missed it...because she had no clue we were in town!! The next morning we helped with part of the Thanksgiving meal, and I really enjoyed working in the kitchen with everyone; Victoria was so very organized and had most of the dishes made ahead of time. Here are the five kitchen helpers, quite excitedly waiting for the guest of honor to arrive: While the girls were in the kitchen, the guys were target practicing in the backyard. Here's Jonathan taking a turn: And the plan was...when Sarah, Eric, and the two boys came over on Thanksgiving afternoon for the main meal, we'd come around the corner from the next room and surprise her. Our vehicle had been hidden on another street.

The surprise was video-taped (hilarious!!)....Sarah's shocked face made it all worthwhile! "What are you doing here!!?" Lots of hugs all around from everyone as Sarah gets used to the idea that she has company going home with her! By the way, Eric was in on the surprise and had scrubbed and cleaned and made the house ready:

This little punkin didn't know what was going on! But both boys soon warmed up to everyone:

Around the table....first the younger adults and kids' table: And in the dining room the parents of five of the young folks above and our gracious hosts and friends: As part of the fun activities when we visited Eric and Sarah, they treated us to a visit to the Aviation Wing of a local history museum. Soooo....what does an Avionics Technician (Jonathan) do on his vacation?  Go visit old airplanes, of course, and sit in the cockpit and look at wires that he deals with every day! He loved it! Tom and I in front of one of the planes on the tour:
What a precious little family!

Here we are at Atlanta's first German ChristKindl Market. It was interesting for photo ops and walking around to sample German goodies: Entering the Market to peruse the mostly food vendors: The time in Atlanta passed way too quickly. We loved helping Sarah with some errands and chores while she decorated their tree and Eric and Jonathan put up garland and lights outside.

What a wonderful treat to get to see Andrew and Matthew! As you can see, the prayers of folks all across the country have been answered with how well Andrew is doing! Praise the Lord for His mercies!

I'd say Sarah definitely has her hands full with two of the cutest little grandsons I know! What a blessing and treasure they are. I think we had one of the best Thanksgivings ever!

~ Deb