Busy new year start

I can't believe how quickly the first part of January already flew by. But I was so busy. One thing on my agenda is to make a banner for our church. This year we are celebrating the 50th Anniversary. After making different designs in my head I finally got down to actually try different techniques. I have progressed really nicely but about that another time.

Cleaning up my hobby room is something which really scooted up the ladder of importance. I can't find my tools anymore and that is serious.

But look what I found! An old birthday card from my girls. It made me happy again! But this time I had to pitch it. Or did I?

New Year's resolution: Have friends for dinner more often. So I tried out new things. Here are the taco shell makers Sarah gave me for Christmas. They are super. You can see later in this blog how they look on a plate with salad in it.

I had to try whether I could make "scoops" for dips. Works great too ... but time intensive with only 4 forms.

I brought some cooking seasoning packages from Germany last time:  Salmon on a bed of (fresh from Costco) spinach with a wonderful sauce.

Yes, lacemaking was on the agenda too. The monthly meeting with my lace friends was in Williamsburg this time. James drove because he wanted to do something there too. I distracted him with my talking and he turned too early. Look the loops we had to drive to get on the right way again. And besides that we had a horrible rain.

And yes, we even had snow. It came down in thick fat flakes.

 ... in a short time.

 It looked very pretty.

The sky was much more red which doesn't show up here. But still pretty. It was gone by noon though.

The day after MLK day we drove to Nashville. Brrrrr was it cold but blue sky and the 10 hours in the car were not too bad. After arrival Helen and William came to see us and I finally could claim my birthday present from them. Helen and William had made a "I love Omi" mug for me with his hand print. You can see how happy I am. 

Helen said that when I drink it looks as if William's fingers are poking my nose. Funny!

The next day we took care of William for a little while. The little guy had no problem sleeping and waking up in Grandpa and Omi's place. He always has a smile for us.

Got to do some eye rubbing still.

He wanted to have what we had for dinner . He picked the strawberries out of the salad pretty quickly but yes, he also ate salad.

The last strawberry.

And then when Mommy came we chatted in the kitchen ...

... and had a little more snack.

The BIG DAY.
Yesterday was Helen's birthday.
Happy Birthday, my sweet daughter!
Her original plans that she wanted to do had been scrapped due to the weather. Plan B suited James and me just fine. I baked a cake in the morning. Since Helen told me what she would like made it so easy. In the afternoon we picked William up from preschool. We played hard. I can feel it in my muscles now.

Grandpa felt a little tired and put his feet up and tried to "rest his eyes" but William got wise to it. He invented a game and called "boo" every time James closed his eyes. I thought too late of taking the video and missed the best part, but here is a sample. And another one. James got a little tired at the end of jumping every time. William also loves arranging whether the foot-part of your recliner should be up and down.

 William loves cake. Ake, ake!

He also loves cantaloupe and blueberries. We thought not so much cake but fruit might be less of a sugar rush. 

But the cake was gone first. And he loves blueberries a lot.


Helen said she had a great birthday. For us it was a great day too. William didn't have a nap in preschool and he never napped because we had to "play hard" at the townhouse. So I suggested to Helen to bring his PJs which she did. After the cake he was ready for a bath. Ready for bed he fell asleep in the car going home and slept till next morning at 9 am.