Christmas 2009

   We had a great Christmas. Fuzzy had to work, so we got up and ate breakfast and opened our presents to each other. After he left for work my son came over for several hours. I made him breakfast and we opened presents and watched "Christmas Story"... he is home for two weeks before he gets deployed to AZ for a month for more of his intelligence training for the Air Force. He will be home in Feb. then sent to Idaho for another month in March. Here is a pic of him frolicking with our black lab Drizzy. I got a new camera for Christmas and haven't quite figured out all of the features, so the pic is a little dark..

We order a lot of books from the Hamilton Book Seller flyer, they are really good prices but at times they are not quite how they are described. This is a winner that I bought for myself for Christmas. The title intriqued me. It is an art book with paintings of women doing needlework...It is a fairly recent edition 2006 and the original price was $35, I paid $8...neat book..I may use some of the paintings as images in my crazy quilting. Many are from well known artists like Renoir, Van Gogh, Munch. Even two paintings from Frederick Frieseke, who is an impressionist artist from Owosso who went to study with Monet.

 

   Today Fuzzy and I are going to do a little shopping and we are having our Christmas "meal" today. We got some lobster tails and will have surf and turf. It is my first time making lobster tail at home, so I hope it turns out well!  Later we will go over to our friends and play some games.

Christmas Eve

The Polar Express

  One of the great things about living in Owosso is our Steam Railroading Museum. Our most famous engine is the Pere Marquette 1225. It is best known for being the model for the Polar Express movie, based on the book. The actual sounds of the engine were used in the movie soundtrack. Some wise thinkers here in Owosso came up with a Christmas tradition and give train rides throughout the holidays. The train ride includes actors dressed as characters from the movie, entertainment, hot chocolate and a visit to the North Pole.  The train runs about a block from our house and we enjoy listening to the unique sound of the whistle and the sight of the excited passengers waving out their windows.      http://www.mstrp.com/

Tech School Graduation

My son Thomas (middle) recently completed Air Force Tech School. He was in training to be an intelligence specialist. He returns home from Texas this week after being gone since April.  He will continue training at Selfridge base here in Michigan and start his regular Air National Guard schedule this summer.We are very proud of him!

Another Weekend in Indiana

   I'm late in posting this but we spent a nice weekend in Indiana over Thanksgiving weekend. We took our time and stopped in Shipshewana on our way. For those that don't know, Shipshewana started as an Amish Community. There are lots of Amish still there, and it is facinating to ride the back roads and see their way of life. Plowing fields with horse and plow, all the laundry on the line, travel by horse and buggy.  We stopped at a local store we liked and took a picture of the buggies in the parking lot.

The town is a big tourist attraction and they cater to the public with lots of quaint shops and homemade cooking. They also have several quilt shops and fabric stores, so it is a must stop for me. Yoders and Lollies are my favorites. Yoders is a kind of "mall" building with a large clothing craft store, a hardware, and a grocery. In the mall area they often display handcrafted rockers and furniture and Amish quilts for raffle. This weekend they were having a gingerbread house contest. My husband took pics of some of our favorites.

 We didn't spend a long time in Shipshewana, but traveled on to Mishawaka where my Dad and step-mother live. We decided to get a hotel room this time in order to have a get together with some of my cousins and their families. . If you are ever in Mishawaka, the Varsity Inn is great, reasonable prices and the rooms are 1 bedroom suites.The hotel is decorated in a football motif due to its proximity to Notre Dame. Here is my dad posing with a friend in the hotel lobby. He turns 85 in Mid December and still bowls twice a week!