I, on the other hand, make no pretense. I LOVE presents!. This year was especially fun with the gifts-occasioned-by-their-visit from the girls. Note the marvelous and thoughtful gifts displayed before my also very marvelous Christmas TV.
And it's not over yet. If the weather allows, we will meet Linda for lunch on Friday for more Christmas celebration.
I used the occasion as an excuse to wear Santa on my head again. Not too many of those opportunities per year, you know.
Barbara's unexpected surgery meant that I was in Topeka playing nurse on Christmas. As you can see, Barbara came through this surgery much less visibly wounded than the last. Here she is with the presents that found her.
Since Barbara is now talking seriously about moving closer to me -- yeah and to her grandkids -- I thought I'd get her something useful for Christmas. Here she is with two of the four roles of packing tape. A pak of 10 large packing boxes are in the garage.
She got me this quite nice blue pitcher and there is a JoAnn's gift card floating in the bottom of it. Yea!!
The ham is in the oven, and I'm going to pick up Mom in a bit to have our Christmas celebration this afternoon. It just keeps on going, going, going, Now, isn't that nice?
It is a very basic style DVR player that likes my 20 year old TV. I got it online for $36 and, best of all, I got it hooked up all by myself. Yesterday I watched 'Mama Mia' and 'Chicago,' and my first NetFlix DVD's are due to arrive today. Even I finally got tired of the daytime reruns.
When everyone left after Thanksgiving, I found 2 of these pizzas in my freezer. Turns out I like them a lot! Finding another no-cook and enjoyable dinner IS a big event! Thanks to whoever.
Toby seems to be uncomfortable with me downstairs and him napping upstairs. Yesterday he discovered the downstairs sink and napped there all afternoon. It's larger, and he actually fits better there.
This is today's big event. How can a person who lives alone accumulate so much laundry?
They are so very grown up now as evidenced by their planning ahead for the next holiday. On top of that, Bud & Mary brought me a lovely poinsettia. Together, the presents and poinsettia form my Christmas 'decor' for this year.
And every night, as well as in the morning, I am enjoying my new Christmas TV. It is a wonderful thing to have both a picture large enough to see from my bed and a remote control that works. No getting out of bed to change channels, adjust volume, or turn off the TV I love it!
With time on my hands now, I got into another jigsaw puzzle. You can tell that I'm getting serious about this puzzle stuff if you note the base of my new puzzle lamp. It was purchased especially to augment light at my kitchen table to further illuminate puzzle working. Now, time to tear this one up and get another one going.
And an even greate joy when I can have all four of them! So, I didn't have to look far to identify what I was thankful for this year.
With the exceptions of Gary, Calvin & Kim, the whole clan was here. We had a great, long visit which included the previously referenced salmon patty feast as well as the more traditional turkey & such Thanksgiving dinner.
Bud & Mary came out on Sunday for dinner. Josh had to work, and Troy was "over" the celebrations by then. So, the remaining 12 of us got to sit down for dinner at an extended table. I do love having everyone at the table for both food and conversation.
As the grand matriarch, Grandma got photographed with everyone. Here she is with her granddaughters, which was actually supposed to be the great grandkids. Looks like I picked up the wrong one! But this one is worthy of viewing also, just for the assembled bdauty!
And here she is with her youngest grandchild.
Stand by for more photos on Thanksgiving 2.
At last I have finished the current puzzle so that I can get it off of the kitchen table prior to everyone's getting here. I thought I might have to give up on it, but I finally prevailed.
We set up shop in her dining room and quilted for two full days. The view outside the sliding doors was picture-perfect fall.
I worked on, and finished piecing the table topper that I had started at a Guild workshop the previous Wednesday. It is turning out quite nicely.
Georgia and her husband, Kent, have a new cat. Cleo is a six month old Bengal. Very pretty. If you think that my cats are spoiled, you should just see all the "stuff" that Cleo has. Now there is one pampered cat!
They have moved into a retirement apartment complex and had the auction to get rid of the things they no longer need and/or have room for. It was 44 years worth of STUFF!!! Who would have thought that they could have squirrelled away all that stuff in their house and garage. Without doubt, neither one of them had ever thrown away any single thing that came into their possession during the preious 44 years. All I can say is that they were very tidy hoarders! 
Mom and Mary spent some good time together.
Mel and Mary were there, of course, and had helped get the house cleared and the sale organized. Quite a task that took several months.
Lindy and her husband, Steve, came up from Houston. For some reason, I didn't get Steve into a photo.
By the time I dropped Mom off, we were both tired. But I needed bread, milk and a few other things, so I went to Leekers on my way home.
As I got out of the car, I reached for my purse and found only empty space. I knew immediately that I had left it on the chair at the Dairy Queen. So........I called Mom to see if she was up to a bit more time in the car. 70 miles and and hour and a half later, we were home again. Having a stupid attack certainly made for a long day.
Notice the jackets? It was cool that day, and more so by now. It was 28 degrees this morning, so we got our first frost and our first hard freeze at the same time. The rain lilies are trimmed and snuggied away in the basement closet for the winter.
This afternoon I got more stuff out of the back gardens. The bags are ready for Earl to pick up for his compost pile. I should have more out by now, but it was too cold and windy earlier in the week to be outside.
It's been so dry here for the past couple of months that we don't have much in the way of fall color. However, the ivy on my front wall is looking lovely in the late day sunshine.
And isn't it ironic that when everything else is turning brown with the freeze, my baby grass is doing beautifully. By next week it will need to be mowed. Mom's grass is looking even better.
The low oxsalate diet is showing results. My serum oxsalate level has gone from 7.4 last March to 5.6 in July and is now 3.5. Of course that's still twice the normal level, but at least it's falling which should mean that my kidneys will calcify at a much slower rate. Beyond that, my hemoglobin is in the normal range, while my white count continues to be low, but not hazardously so. In general, I'm pleased. 
Remember the first Monkshood blooms I showed you several weeks ago? Well, it's still blooming and even more magnificent now. We are hours away from a possible killing frost, and it's almost November. I love that this one blooms so late.
While cleaning, I took off the summer slip cover and put on the fall/winter one. Also replaced the pillows with the dark and velvet ones. Notice also, the tasteful little arrangement of fall gourds on the coffee table. Just a bit of Martha Stewart right here in V.C.
This is the view from her shore. The water was glassy smooth the whole time I was there. Certainly not a Kansas lake!
And this is me enjoying the lake.
And it certainly seems to be a good spot to gather with friends -- day or night.
But also spent time with Carrie and Gary.
We went to Kellie's shop first thing. Isn't it swanky?
I got a haircut from the pro.
Then we went to Carrie's office.
And on to lunch at Hamburger Mary's.
Calvin was a bit scarce over the week-end, but I did see him a bit. My, how he's changed since last summer!
Livie is also quite the young lady. She was getting ready for her first high school choir concert.
And then there was this thing with her feet. Seems that socks and 'slides' are the in thing now. I'm wondering if that is just a Florida thing.
This may be my all time hardest to understand kid's cool-thing.
