Author: rvingwithapurpose

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.

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. Fourteen 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.

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. So 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.

Wednesday, December 20, 2017

We 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.

Tuesday, December 19, 2017

Yesterday was a foggy, cloudy day with nothing blog-worthy to talk about – so we didn’t. We just worked around the house and handled some business for the LOLs.

Today was a rainy, cloudy, foggy, yucky day. As is usual for Alabama winters, the temperature goes up and we get rain. Stops raining and the temperature drops. The high was in the 60s today. We had a doctor’s appointment in Cullman today and unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, the office is one block from The Duchess Bakery. And we can never go there and not get their Bizmarks because rather than squeeze some filling into the pastry, they slice it open and fill it with both a layer of white cream and and a layer of custard filling and then ice with chocolate. So, we didn’t have a choice. Duchess is one of the best, if not the best bakery in the state of Alabama. Of course, we had to have a Christmas cookie. They are so good. Today was a real Christmas splurge. The scale will not be happy in the morning. We really need to behave the next two days because Friday is the Armstrong Christmas get together.

We know this is a RVing blog and we will be getting back to RVing soon, but for the next week we will be enjoying family time and completing our doctors visits and family business.