A Quiet Christmas Eve, Eve.

Saturday, December 23, 2017

Today was cloudy and rainy. Hard rain for a while but it had all cleared out by lunch time. It remained cloudy and windy all day. It was quite warm this morning before the rain but afterward the temperature started dropping. Tomorrow night’s low is 28. Seventy degrees to 28. Yep, that’s Alabama weather.

So, what did we do today. Max cooked Anne a wonderful omelet while David cook an equally wonderful one for Jenifer. Of course, they also cooked one for themselves. It’s been so nice to have David and Jenifer with us this Christmas. Such a sweet couple. We just sat around and talked while it rained this morning. Good times. Later we walked up to Aunt Helen’s, fixed lunch for Helen and Juno, visited with the rest of the family for a while then came back home to fix lunch for ourselves. This afternoon we started loading the few things we need in FRED for the next two days in Tuscaloosa for the Anne’s family Christmas. Just before dark it was another walk to Helen’s and a few rounds on the track for some additional exercise. For those wondering, we still haven’t unwinterized FRED. We may do that tomorrow after we park at Anne’s mom’s house. The weather this weekend will be okay but we are looking ahead to next weekend. If we unwinterize we may have to leave a little earlier than planned to avoid re-winterizing. We have postponed the decision until tomorrow. That’s it for today. Sorry no pictures. Everyone stay safe traveling for Christmas and please remember what we are celebrating.

GREAT FAMILY CHRISTMAS!

Friday, December 22, 2017

Today was cloudy all day with rain part of the day. No significant amount, but messy. The forecast is looking a lot better temperature wise and we may un-winterize tomorrow. We are going to have some 27-32 degree nights but FRED should be fine with that. We will check the forecasts again tomorrow before we make that decision. Christmas Family Photo

Today was a really nice day – inside – at our Armstrong family Christmas gathering held this year at Aunt Helen’s house. We had all the surviving members of Max’s Dad’s family present today for the first time in a long time. The senior members of the clanFourteen total present with Aunt Jean being the oldest member of the family at 94, soon to be 95. We usually do not do the traditional Christmas dinner at this gathering and this year we had chili, vegetable soup, sweet potato biscuits with ham and several delicious desserts. There was lots of good food for everyone to enjoy and we spent the time visiting and having a good time. We brought small items to place in stockings for each other, but the true focus is time spent with family. Our LOL’s were all pretty tired by mid-afternoon but all seemed to have enjoyed themselves. Juno kept telling us this evening, “this was a really good day.” Their joy made it all worth while. We thank God for the blessing of time with our family.

The stockings experience
The “Stockings” Experience

Its Almost Time For Family Christmas

Thursday, December 21, 2017

It was a cloudy to partly sunny day with mild temperatures for this time of year. It’s actually looking much better with lows only at or slightly below freezing for the next week. We do have more rain for tomorrow and Saturday. And it doesn’t look like we will have a white Christmas. Oh, well.

This morning we had to go back to Cullman for some tests. Trying to get all this done before the first of the year. Think there are two more doctor appointments next week and we will be done. We made hopefully our last trip to the stores and then back home and final preparation for the family to arrive. Cooking Soup and Chili for ChristmasSo thankful for safe travel for everyone. We have been cooking the soup and chili for tomorrow and looking forward to celebrating Christmas tomorrow with the Armstrong side of the family. Lots of good visiting this weekend.

A Rainy Drive

Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Another rainy driveWe were up early today to check the radar because we were scheduled to head to Tuscaloosa to see Mama Ruby. Last night the prognosticators were predicting rain with possible damaging storms. It rained most of the night and continued to rain this morning. However, the system was downgraded over night and the probability of damaging storms was much less. So, based on the movement we decided to wait until about 8:15 to depart. It rained really hard for about the first 30-40 minutes but the remainder of the drive was just cloudy. About lunch time we actually saw a little sunshine.

We visited with Mama Ruby, took care of a lot of little things for her, had lunch with her and then took her to the beauty shop. Anne also got a hair cut. She really doesn’t like to have to get her hair cut when we are out of town so hopefully this will last until we return in February. On the way home we stopped at Aldi and Publix for some groceries – getting ready for the Christmas weekend. That’s it for today. Please pray for safe travel for everyone traveling this holiday weekend.