It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas . . .

Decorated our apartment on Black Friday. So much better than shopping and fussing with the crowds.
You can see our new little fireplace from QVC. It is a Duraflame and it can give off heat or just look like a fire. We love it. 

This is the full view of our tree.

Our Charlie Brown Christmas tree and our Byers Choice doll collection.

This is a special ornament I ordered this year for my little Westie Solomon. This is our first
Christmas without him. He is really missed. We plan on having this ornament on our tree
forever so Sollie is always near.

Okay Santa here they are.  Go ahead and fill them up. Ha Ha

I get such a kick out of our little Wal-mart in our Christmas village.

Here's our little nativity.

And more of our Christmas Village. I love the kids making snow angels.

Here are a few ornaments I ordered on line.

We love St Simons Island in Georgia - it is a special place for us.

Thought it would be neat to make a travel ornament for a keepsake.

This was last years family ornament.

My husband dreams of having an RV one day and just traveling the country.

He wants a silver bullet. I thought this little RV ornament was so cute.

I loved this wooden Santa ornament with the cowboy hat.
We got him in Branson when we visited.

These two are very special ornaments that I received from two dear, dear blog friends.

And finally our peanuts Christmas Pageant

 

Happy Thanksgiving

Let your roots grow down into Him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with THANKFULNESS.

                                                                                                                   Colossians 2:6  

May we all overflow with THANKFULNESS today and always !

Pennsylvania Weekend

Hubby and I headed out on Friday for an adventure in PA.  Our first stop was for breakfast
at Cracker Barrel.  Nothing like Uncle Hershels breakfast hah

 

 We learned that Rachel Ray was visiting QVC so we decided to head over to QVC Studios and take the tour to see if we could see her. 

We took the 12 pm tour and we got to see Rachel along the way.  Gary was very happy.

Then we headed over to Byers Choice. I love seeing all the Christmas displays and the Dickens hallway.  Makes me feel like I am walking along in England.



I purchased this adorable Polar Bear.  I have two Byers Choice dolls a boy and girl. This little guy will go well with them.

Then we were off to Lancaster PA. 

We stayed at the Cherry Lane Motor Inn.  It was nice. We could hear the clip clop, clip clop of the

horse and buggies going past our window.

We were exhausted so we had a quick dinner at Bob Evans.

The next day was all about Outlet shopping.  We walked and walked and walked some more.







We had an early dinner at Ruby Tuesday because we had tickets for a great Gospel show at 6 pm.

Ivan Parker, Triumphant Quartet and The Hoppers.

The show was fantastic. They were all wonderful. It was held at a beautiful Baptist Church in Lancaster.  It started at 6 pm and it was going strong at 9:30.  Gary and I were exhausted and decided to leave at the intercession. I bet it went on until 11 pm.  We laughed because the audience had many seniors and they were staying to the end.  But we were wiped out.

Up early on Sunday to drive home but not before a great breakfast at Jennie's Diner. I was excited to order scrapple - brings back memories of childhood. My wonderful Uncle Bill use to make homemade scrapple for us. His was great. He use to put more cornmeal and less pig for me! hah

It was a wonderful long weekend . . . we count our blessings . . .





Anniversary Dinner in NYC

We went into NYC today to celebrate our 4th anniversary.  (Had to put it off a week because of last weeks unexpected October Snow Storm) We decided we wanted to try Otto a restaurant that Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich  (Lidia's son)  opened in 2003.

Modeled to look like an Italian train station, OTTO, meaning "eight" in Italian, is located on the corner of 8th Street and Fifth Avenue, in the historic One Fifth Avenue building, just steps away from
Washington Square Park.  OTTO has combined the elegance of an Italian enoteca with the fun bustle of a crowded Italian train station.

 

With marble-topped standing tables, the enoteca area is great for meeting new people and for grabbing drinks and antipasti with a group of friends.

We both loved the salad we chose. It was so good!  It is called the OTTO salad.

 

 

Here's hubby he ordered the Pasta Alla Norma - it had grilled eggplant. He shared with me - it was really delicious.

Here I am - I had Quattro Stagioni Pizza.  So good.  Split in 4 - mushrooms, artichokes, Italian ham, peppers. Thin crunchy crust.

We gave it a two thumbs up - and would definitely eat there again !

God speaks . . .

God speaks to us in such amazing ways.  I'm sitting here reading a catalog from Jesus Book & Gift our local Christian bookstore.   I find a print for sale and it has this amazing quote:

The grateful heart finds as much joy in a dandelion as in a rose garden.

He speaks . . . a still small voice . . . are we listening?

Blessed Neighborly Day

Neighbors . . .they are important. 

You can make life time friends. We did . . .

Jim & Shelley were our neighbors at Country Club Apartments
about 20 years ago.

I remember stopping by to have a cup of tea and chat. 
Shelley and I could chat for hours. 

Then we decided one day we would help each other exercise. We started walking around our apartment complex.  It was great to be an encouragement to each other.

 We did more chatting then walking hah

Shelley and my Aunt Rose & friend Cindy would play card games.

I'm not a big game player but Shelley invited me to play Mahjon at her Aunt's house and it was such fun. 

Jim & Shelley retired and moved to South Jersey.

We went down to visit them today.

They treated us to lunch at a Chinese Buffet and the food was delicious.

Here are a few photos of our day

Shell & Jim

Shell, me & Aunt Rose

Me, Jim & Aunt Rose

Like I said Neighbors - they are IMPORANT !