Monday, December 1
We got the earliest start on Christmas that we've had in many years. This morning we went to the post office and mailed our Christmas cards and several packages...Boy,were we ever feeling self righteous. Surely this was a sign that we'd be way ahead of the game for December!!!
When we got back to the house, I started a new batch of bread for bread bowls.
While Barbara was working at the table on packages to go in tomorrow's mail, she noticed a bunch of birds congregating in the North 40 and went outside to take their pictures.
Tonight was a rehearsal of the Lake Country Symphonic Band in Quitman. With a concert coming up in just a couple of weeks, it was time to get serious about the music.
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Tuesday, December 2
I went to Yantis this morning for prayer meeting at YFBC, When that was over, I drove down to Holiday Villages of Lake Fork to check on Our Little Lot and hook up the propane tank to Big V in preparation for a load of propane to be delivered sometime today. With winter looming, we had voted that we'd better have plenty of propane to keep Big V from freezing up on the coldest of days.
When I got back to the house, we gathered up all the packages that Barbara wrapped yesterday and took them to the post office to be mailed.
Back at the house, Barbara took over the kitchen and started a pot of homemade chicken soup and a couple of batches of cinnamon and root beer candies to be included in Christmas gifts.
Later in the day we took the first of many trips of the month to Walmart, this time to purchase gifts for the church Christmas tree, a part of the YFBC outreach program.
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Wednesday, December 3
We spent today going over our lists, checking them twice, and trying to make some order of gifts that we would be delivering during Christmas visits later in the month.
Tonight we drove out to Yantis. While I was at Praise Band rehearsal, Barbara went to the Dollar General store to check on Christmas supplies and other trinkets we couldn't live without.
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Thursday, December 4
Some days are just days, and this was one of those. We worked in the house, Barbara prepared some more Christmas cards, and I did some more bread baking.
I was supposed to have a community band rehearsal tonight, but it turned into a woodwind rehearsal due to commitments by several brass players to other ensembles, so we enjoyed a rare Thursday evening together.
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Friday, December 5
While I worked on some church business for an upcoming business meeting, Barbara had a morning session with Jameson Durig, working with him on reading and comprehension exercises.
When Jameson went home, we drove to Quitman to visit Bob and Mary Royar at East Texas Medical Center, where Mary was hospitalized for some tests.
This afternoon, we went to downtown Mineola to do some shop-looking for Christmas gifts and look at the decorations.
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Saturday, December 6
We spent a somewhat lazy Saturday morning just hanging around the house and taking it easy.
This afternoon was beautiful for riding, so we got Taz ready for a ride out to the Yantis area to deliver bread to as many of our church friends as we could find. Of course, that also meant mini-rides for some of the younger ones.
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Sunday, December 7
We attended the regular Sunday morning service at Yantis First Baptist Church this morning, and then returned this evening to participate in the quarterly business meeting.
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Monday, December 8
We went back to Yantis this morning to help with setting up scenery for the annual Living Nativity to be held later this week. Several of the men of the church. under the direction of Reid Gammill, had already prepared the scenery over the past few weeks, and now it was time to set it in place.
When lunch time rolled around, Reid and his wife invited us to join them at the community center for lunch, provided for the East Texas Council on Aging.
After lunch, we all returned to the church to do some more work on the Living Nativity scenery. After a while, Barbara and I left to go to Sulphur Springs to do some shopping and visit the Bagwell family. David was at work in Dallas, but we did have a nice time talking to Lorri, Ashley, and Amber.
I had rehearsal with the Lake Country Symphonic Band tonight. When the rehearsal was finished, I noticed all the Christmas lights down by the train station, so I went back to the house, picked up Barbara, and we went downtown for our own private showing of the lights and decorations.
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Tuesday, December 9
We were scheduled to see Leslie at Naturally Nails for haircuts at 10:00 this morning. Leslie was delayed in getting to work, so we made use of our time to clown around a bit in her stall.
After Leslie arrived, reclaimed her spot, and got us looking decent again, we did some gift deliveries to area friends and visited Autumn Wind Assisted Living Center to give them lyric sheets for Christmas songs that I would play later in the week.
We finally made it back to the house in time for a late lunch and a much-needed nap.
Later, Barbara took to the kitchen to bake mini-cakes to use throughout the Christmas season.
And I went outside to clean out flower beds in preparation for winter.
Leah had sent Barbara a beautiful little Azalea plant for her birthday. We decided that today would be a good day to transplant it in a spot in the back yard.
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Wednesday, December 10
Some days are just days, and this was one of those. We had a lazy morning and then did house work and some more gift-wrapping for our Christmas trip.
Tonight we drove back out to Yantis for Praise Band rehearsal.
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Thursday, December 11
Our former next door neighbor, Addie, asked some time back if I would present a program of trumpet music at her new residence, Autumn Winds, which is located across the North 40 from us. Today was the date that we all decided on, so this morning we drove over to Autumn Winds, set up in the dining area, and began a 40-minute program of Christmas music, with the residents and their guests singing along as I played.
When the program was over, several of us gathered in a private dining area for a special meal and time of fellowship with Addie.
After getting some much-needed rest this afternoon, I went to the Select Theater for our final rehearsal before this weekend's Christmas concert by the Lake Country Symphonic Band.
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Friday, December 12
Today was another busy day of Christmas preparations and celebrations. After mailing off another batch of Christmas gifts, we attend the annual Christmas get-together at our local Edward Jones office, where we enjoyed a number of delicious treats and visited with Leon Anderson, our Edward Jones agent.
Tonight we drove out to Yantis to assist with and photograph this year's version of our Living Nativity at First Baptist Church.
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Saturday, December 13
We spent this morning preparing for an upcoming trip to Olathe, Kansas, to see Whitney, Jim, and Jimmy Jim.
This was also a "date day" for us, as we went to the Select Theater to watch the third film in the Hunger Games series. We took time before the movie started to get a couple of photographs of us dressed up like regular people.
We returned to Yantis tonight to take more photos of the second and final presentation of the Living Nativity at FBC.
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Sunday, December 14
We attended the morning service at Yantis First Baptist Church...
After church, we rushed home to have a quick lunch and change clothes for the annual Christmas Concert by the Lake Country Symphonic Band. Once again, the Select Theater was sold out and there was standing room only for the performance.
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Monday, December 15
We drove out to Yantis to deliver another batch of gifts and bread to folks in our church family. While we were at the church, we got to watch some of the ladies (and one husband) in action as they prepared gifts for distribution to some of the local families.
After lunch with some church friends at the Yantis Community Center, we returned to Mineola to do laundry, clean house, and pack for our trip to Olathe.
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Tuesday, December 16
The day started early with Jim going to Yantis for weekly prayer meeting. After a brief stop at Our Little Lot at Holiday Villages of Lake Fork to check on Big V, he returned to the house in Mineola where we finished packing the car for a trip to Kansas.
Before leaving, we had a few errands to run, then Jim took a short nap. Then, at 1:05 pm, we hit the road once again.
We stopped in Sherman to visit a church friend who is in a nursing home there awaiting cancer treatment, and then drove across U.S. 82 to Greenville and headed north on I-35, stopping at Ardmore for the night.
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Wednesday, December 17
We had a great night's sleep at the Quality Inn in Ardmore last night. After loading the car this morning, we got this shot of Barbara standing in the doorway...
And then headed to the Denny's in the hotel complex for a complimentary breakfast before heading back up I-35 toward Hutchinson, Kansas, to spend the evening with our Kansas/Mineola friends, Gene and Michelle Young.
The trip today was cold, but uneventful. We arrived at Gene and Michelle's farm about 20 miles west of Hutchinson with time to spare to check out their new house, take a few photos from the living room window...
And then, we took a tour of the farm before riding in to Hutchinson for some shopping and shop-looking. The highlight of the short trip was a visit to Smith's Country Store, the closest thing we'd seen in many years to an old-fashioned town market. As we discovered on our trip to New England and other points east, this was a good place to pick up a few more Christmas gifts for family members.
When we left Smith's, we drove to Walmart for some serious shopping, and then returned to the house for some serious visiting, eating, and game-playing.
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Thursday, December 18
We awoke to cold, wind, and snow this morning...not the optimal conditions for a day of travel toward Olathe (where it was even worse), but since we didn't have much choice, we loaded the car (and got it defrosted)...
After a great breakfast prepared by Michelle, we said our goodbyes. Barbara took some photos of the area around the farm...
And then we struck out for Hutchinson, Salina, and then toward Olathe on I-70 East. Road conditions were a little dicey at times, but we saw some beautiful Winter Wonderland scenery along the way.
A bright spot of the trip today was a brief stop in Topeka to see Mary Brinton, with whom we taught with at West Middle School in Liberal, Kansas, until she retired. It has been several years since we last saw Mary, but we've managed to stay in touch through the years.
From Topeka to Olathe was a relatively short ride, with only one exciting moment when a tractor-trailer rig decided to cut off two lanes of traffic on I-70, but we emerged unscathed and continued to Olathe without further incident.
We knew that Whitney and Jimmy might be a little delayed in getting home from their respective schools, so we stopped at a mall near their house to get the kinks out of our legs and see if there was anything we couldn't live without.
While we were at the shopping center, Whitney called to say she and Jimmy were home, so we finished what little shopping we had to do and drove to the house. The first order of business was unloading the car, and the next was to get the cameras out and start taking pictures of Jimmy.
When Jim got home, we had the kids do an early round of opening some Christmas gifts that needed to be refrigerated. The Play-Do cookie dough was an instant hit, as were the jalapeno bread bowls and a loaf of jalapeno bread!
After opening the presents, we retired to the table to have arts and crafts time, creating Christmas decorations with puffy paints.
Jimmy then introduced us to his favorite game, "Jimmy Wins." This is a game with several variations, devised and orchestrated by Jimmy, and designed to guarantee that no matter what anyone else did, Jimmy would always win. We thought Jimmy had a great imagination and sense of humor, especially when one round of the game featured the Dead Ghost, and the next featured the Really Dead Ghost, both of which were designed to keep Jim, Whitney, Grams and Gramps from winning.
When we were all worn out from playing Jimmy Wins, we hopped into the car and drove to a nearby Texas Roadhouse for a great family meal. Before leaving the house, Barbara tried on my hat to effect a "new look."
Back at the house, we all wound down from a busy day before heading to bed for some much-needed rest.
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Friday, December 19
Whitney and Jimmy Jim both finished their school semesters yesterday, so they were at home with snow for a special "snow day." As the photos show, good times were had by all!
Jimmy was ready to spend the day outside, but we convinced him it was time to come inside and warm up the kitchen by making Play Dough cookies. Imaginations were running wild as we all created our own unique designs.
While the cookies were baking, Jimmy decided it was time to teach Gramps some new dance moves...
This evening was set aside for our Kansas Christmas celebration...good food...good company, and lots of fun!
When we finished with opening gifts and throwing away all the paper, Jimmy gave us a lesson on lighting a fire in the fireplace.
After an hour or so of sitting in front of the fire and sharing stories, we all decided it was time to call it a day and head for bed.
Saturday, December 20
Happy 70th Birthday to Gramps, who is now as old as Grams!!!
Jim and Whitney decided that a special birthday would be a trip to The Plaza in downtown Kansas City for a fondue meal at The Melting Pot. It was a new experience for us and a lot of fun to share it with them.
As we were waiting for Jim to bring the car down after our meal, a friendly passerby offered to take our family portrait.
The celebration continued as the kids took us to a huge Asian market not far from their house. It has become a tradition to go to the 888 International Market whenever we are in Olathe, and we always find something we can't live without.
Back at the house, we settled in for a few hours of relaxing and visiting...
The kids went to Jim's folks' house this evening for their family Christmas gathering. We took advantage of the time to get all of our "stuff" organized and packed so we could get an early start on the trip back to Mineola tomorrow morning.
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Sunday, December 21
There's not much to say for this day except that it was a l-o-n-g day of driving. We got away from the house well before sunup after saying our goodbyes to Whitney and Jim (Jimmy Jim was still sound asleep after his long day yesterday), and headed south. The trip took well over ten hours with minimal stops, and we were exhausted when we finally got to the house in Mineola, but we managed to get everything out of the car and redistributed inside before crashing in our favorite spots in the living room. It had been a long trip since last leaving the house, but it was certainly worth the time and effort!!!
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Monday, December 22
We hit the deck running this morning. I took over the kitchen to bake bread and make sausage balls for our upcoming trip to Cleburne and Burleson.
While I was doing that, Barbara started making "Anything is Possible" bags to hand our to homeless people during our trip. We'd talked several times about doing something like this and decided that since we usually see homeless or down-on-their-luck folks at intersections during our travels and wanted to do something to help them. Each bag contained some power bars and peanut butter crackers, a couple of bottles of water, a couple of dollar bills, and some tracts from the church. We had no idea how it would go, but felt that this was what we were supposed to do.
The rest of the day was spent taking care of business...car registration (since we'd be gone when the current registration expired), post office, Walmart (because no day is either official or complete with out a Walmart trip), pharmacy, and pay bills.
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Tuesday, December 23
Other than forays to get our hair cut and pick up a suit at the cleaners, today was spent getting things ready for the next road trip. With the trip projected to last a little over two weeks, and having limited space in the car for both necessaries and Christmas gifts, we had to do a lot of planning and careful packing.
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Wednesday, December 24
Merry Christmas Eve!!!
In addition to continuing preparations for our upcoming trip, today we worked on our part of the food for tonight's family Christmas gathering at Ladd and Angela's house.
We attended the Christmas Eve service at Harvest Acres Baptist Church (the church Mother attended) with TJ, and then went to Ladd and Angela's house for snacks and a gift exchange.
When we returned home, we found that Mike and Kelly had posted this Christmas photo of Ava and Jack...a wonderful Christmas Eve gift!
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Thursday, December 25
Merry Christmas!!!!!
After a leisurely morning, we went back to Ladd and Angela's house for the Mineola family Christmas dinner. There was more than enough food, and a great time was had by all!
The inside of the house was beautifully decorated, but we also love the view of the land surrounding the house.
With plans to get away on our trip as soon as possible tomorrow morning, we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening cleaning house, packing, and loading the car...so much to do, so little time (and so many things that really are last minute).
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Friday, December 26
We were up fairly early this morning...finished straightening the house and loading the car, and by 9:30, were off on another adventure, beginning with a drive to Cleburne, southwest of Fort Worth. In Cleburne, we went to the Hargrave Compound, where Barbara's sister, Nancy, lives with our brother-in-law, Tom.
First on the agenda, of course, was photo-taking time...
Next, we all went into town for lunch and a fun time of catching up with each other.
When lunch was over and we had said our goodbyes, we took off for Burleson, about a half hour up the road. As luck would have it, John, Carol, Randi, and Nick arrived in Cleburne at the same time, but we turned off to check in at our motel while the others drove to Leah and Ryan's house.
After checking in at the Best Western, we drove to Leah and Ryan's place and another Christmas visit began, this time with a brief birthday celebration for Jim. The new wind suit and apron were very much appreciated!!!
We had all agreed while planning this visit that we'd spend limited time in the kitchen. After visiting a bit and getting aught up on the latest news from all fronts, we piled into the car and drove across town to Golden Corral, where we enjoyed a great meal and family time.
When the meal was over, we drove to Albertson's to get some goodies for snacking and for our "Christmas Eve" meal for tomorrow night. Then, it was back to the Leah and Ryan's house for fun and games. The first thing on the agenda was making puffy paint Christmas decorations...
From puffy paint, we moved on to decorating Christmas tree cakes that Barbara had baked and frozen earlier in the season...
Followed by some of the "artists" showing off their work...
The night was capped off with a rousing game of Balderdash. Since none of us fully understood the rules, we made some modifications along the way and still remained related when the game was over.
It was getting late by the time we finished the game, so Barbara and I returned to the Best Western for some serious rest and relaxation before facing another day.
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Saturday, December 27
We began the day as we usually do when traveling, by Barbara taking a selfie in her outfit of the day...
We needed to do some serious shop-looking at Target before meeting the kids, so we drove there to get what we needed. Leah, Carol, and Randi came by the store to pick up Barbara for a ladies day out and help her find a new outfit to wear when we get to the Phoenix part of this trip. Meanwhile, I drove back to the house to watch one of the History channels with Ryan, John, and Nick until we went out for some serious shop-looking at the Army-Navy store and other "guy" places.
Later this afternoon we all met up again at the house, started snacking, and began the traditional Christmas Eve activities.
Before we opened presents, I broke out my trumpet, Barbara handed out song sheets, and we serenaded each other with familiar Christmas carols...this was the first year to do this, but we all agreed that it should be installed as part of our tradition in the future.
We all had a great time exchanging gifts, particularly when the others chose/stole/exchanged gifts that we had purchased on our New England trip in Big V.
When the gift exchange was complete and the mess was cleared away, we began the photo session, which also included Nancy and Keylin when they dropped in for a surprise visit.
When the photos were finished and everyone settled down, we adjourned to the table in the kitchen for a game of Trivial Pursuit, which we all survived quite nicely, thank you very much.
The game, after a long day full of activities, about did us in, so Barbara and I once again said our goodbyes and returned to the Best Western to begin packing for the next leg of the journey and try to get a good night's sleep.
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Sunday, December 28
We got up early this morning, packed the car, and headed to Cleburne to join Ryan and Leah for the 8:15 service at Nolan Road Baptist Church. While we were doing our packing, John, Carol, Randi, and Nick were loading their vehicle for the return trip to San Antonio. We were all going to be burning up some miles today!
We enjoyed a wonderful church service with the kids and then struck out for the next leg of the journey, from Cleburne to Weatherford and then across I-20 to Roscoe and up to Lubbock.
About an hour out of Abilene, where we usually stop to refuel at Walmart, Barbara called her sister Carol to ask why she hadn't let us know when she got to Shreveport on her Christmas trip. Carol said she hadn't called because she was still on the road...turned out that she was about as far west of Abilene as we were east, so we made arrangements to all refuel at Abilene and have lunch at Dairy Queen.
Carol was driving with her granddaughter Ashley and Ashley's two children. We never did get a picture of Carol, but did get this photo of Ashley and the kids while we were in the DQ...
After lunch, we struck out again, with an uneventful trip to Lubbock, where we checked in at the Best Western, unloaded what had to be unloaded, and got settled in.
Barbara called Jaycie and made arrangements for us to come to see her at her house. When we got there, we were greeted by Jaycie, Cathey, and Cathey's mom and step-father, Susan and Bill. We all shared in a gift exchange...
And later, Jaycie and Cat went with us to Jason's Deli for a nice meal and a lot of talking, getting caught up on each other's lives.
It was well after dark when we finished eating, so we took Jaycie and Cat back to their house and returned to the Best Western, where we called it a day.
While we were checking mail and messages in the room, we found this photo of Ava and Jack that Mike and Kelly sent from their visit in Gilbert, Arizona...
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Monday, December 29
Today was mostly about Jaycie, Grams and Gramps. We picked J-Bird up at the house and she gave us the grand tour of Texas Tech, where she plans to attend next year. After looking at all the new buildings, we stopped for a campus photo session...at the exact location where Jaycie ran a red light and got stopped by a campus policeman one day when Jaycie and her friends were checking out Tech. In Jaycie's word, I have no clue how I missed it. So...we decided she should get personally acquainted with that light!
Once the campus photos were done, we drove across town to Wendy's (one of Jaycie's favorite places to eat) for lunch, and then to South Plains Mall where Jaycie and Barbara did their "girl bit," while I wandered the mall and did some serious people-watching.
After the mall experience, we returned to the house for some more visiting. Jaycie had planned to go out with us this evening for supper at Pei Wei, but she was going to have a house full of family, so she opted to stay home instead. Before we left the house (we had already made arrangements to meet Jaycie and Cat tomorrow morning for breakfast, so we didn't have to say our goodbyes yet), Cat took these photos of J-Bird, Grams, and Gramps...
Barbara had earlier made arrangements for her good friend Becky to join us at Pei Wei this evening, so we returned to the motel to try to do some packing before driving over to meet Becky. The time together for the three of us was fun, as always, and the girls had plenty of time to catch up on each other's lives while we ate.
Too soon, it seemed, we all had to leave and return to our respective places, but not before yet another photo shoot outside Pei Wei...
We were invited to go back to Jaycie's house to meet some more of the family who were there tonight, so we drove back over for a visit. When we got to the house, we noticed that Skyler (a friend of Jaycie) had driven her VW Bug over. Barbara took some photos of the girls in the house, and before we left, we got the them to come outside for a photo shoot with the car...
And then we returned to the motel to finish packing and get ready to leave early tomorrow morning.
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Tuesday, December 30
"Man plans, and God laughs." That became the underlying thought for the next two days.
Except for one little point, the day started exactly as planned...we got up early, did the last minute packing, loaded the car, checked out of the motel, and drove across town to meet Cathey and Jaycie for breakfast. That "one little point" was the weather. The front that was supposed to come in this afternoon came in last night. Roads to the south were so bad that our only option was to drive from Lubbock to Clovis, and then toward Santa Rosa, New Mexico and I-40.
By the time we got to the restaurant, the wind was howling and it was bitterly cold. We called Jaycie and told her what the weather was like and offered her the option of backing out of the breakfast. Everyone agreed that we'd had a great visit already without the last meeting being in the nasty weather, so Cathey and Jaycie decided to stay home and we decided to get out of town.
We hadn't gone five miles when the road started to ice over and we were nearly struck three times by cars and trucks that were out of control and sliding toward us.
There was a time in my life when I would probably have toughed it out, but this morning we decided that discretion was the better part of valor, so we returned to Lubbock, staying on the access road, since we could see cars already piling up on the Loop. We didn't have a clue where we might stay, but as we crossed Slide Road at Loop 289, we spotted a Comfort Suites motel with a Golden Corral right next to it. We went inside the Comfort Suites, told the lady at the desk our sad tale, and got a very good rate for a room that was already available. We had checked out of the Best Western at 8:00 am, and were now checking into the Comfort Suites at 9:30 am...a new record of non-travel for us. We immediately unloaded the car, moved into the room (with Barbara taking photos of our new digs), and hunkered down for the duration, which we hoped would be just one day.
On the good side, we were still in time for the free breakfast (which we had skipped at Best Western since we were going to eat with Cat and Jaycie). We filled our plates with goodies and returned to the room to eat and check all the weather channels we could find. As it turned out, we were very wise to have turned back. All roads into New Mexico were closed due to icy conditions, so there would have been no place to stay if we had continued this morning.
With very few customers in the hotel (a couple of high school basketball teams in town for tournaments and a handful of folks who were pretty much in the same boat as we were), we had our run of the place, including plenty of time to get caught up on washing our clothes, reading, and building photo collages for this journal/blog entry.
We wandered out a little after noon to eat at the Golden Corral. It was a good meal, but the sidewalks were to icy and treacherous that we decided we wouldn't try that again. Instead, supper tonight was Chinese left over from our meal with Becky last night.
We learned during the evening news that Lubbock police had worked over 100 vehicle accidents during the day and DPS officers had worked another 67...made us glad we were safe and warm in the hotel, even if we were off of our travel schedule.
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Wednesday, December 31
Happy New Year's Eve!!!!
Hoping we'd be able to leave this morning, we woke up early and checked all the weather reports...and every one of them showed us that we weren't going anywhere today. All roads in and out of Lubbock were icy and treacherous. New Mexico highways that we could have used to get to Arizona were closed, and I-20 was so hazardous in places that travel was discouraged from Abilene to west of the Midland/Odessa area.
So, we got dressed (very informal, as was the handful of other guests iced in with us), and went to the lobby to get breakfast and extend our stay for another day and night. Our exercise was limited to multiple trips down the hall and back, and visits to the upstairs hallway, just for some variety.
We took the camera along a couple of times to capture images of the outside and remind ourselves of why we weren't traveling today.
Reading, napping, watching the weather reports, and building photo collages for the journal/blog were our primary activities for the day...boring to the max!
We ordered take-out pizza from Pizza Hut for lunch, saving some for supper, so we didn't have to go outside at all.
We didn't know what tomorrow would bring, but we voted that if there was ANY possibility of driving, we'd take it. With that thought in both our minds, we wound down the night by ignoring as much as possible the various New Year's Eve reports and stories while packing and hoping for the very best tomorrow.
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And with that, faithful readers, we conclude the 17th installment of the journal/blog...8 1/2 years of chronicling the story of our retirement years since leaving Liberal, Kansas, on June 30, 2006, and embarking on a new life. Thank you all for following along with us, encouraging us, and becoming members of our family.
Iced in in a frozen Lubbock, Texas,
Jim/Dad/Gramps and Barbara/Mom/Grams/Gramsy
