Just a saying

My nephew comes out with some cracking sayings.

This one is my favourite.

"My Granny is different to other Grannies"

"Why's that?" asked his mum.

"Because she's special." he replied.

I couldn't agree more.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to you and yours

from me and mine.

xxx

I love a bargain

I just happened to be passing Hobby Lobby at 9am today

when I saw it was open an hour early.

Wondering why it could possibly be open at that hour I went in to investigate.

All their Christmas stuff had 66% off.

I just had to buy myself a Christmas stocking.

And all for the bargain price of $3.40.

(About GBP 2.20)

I love Texas ♥♥♥

A little hooky time

A little "Me" time on Sunday.  In fact a lot of "Me" time.

Longmire on Netflix and some hooking.

I'm determined to get this throw finished as I miss 

the variety when using lots of colours.

Only another 120 squares to go!!

The Force Awakens

Star Wars - The Force Awakens.

So much hype over a film.

 But Oh! it was worth it.

It was BriLLIAnt (or awesome as they say here.)

A little loud for 8.30am but I had my trusty ear plugs with me so all was well.

Snowflakes

I was a bit of a loose end yesterday and needed something to do.

Something easy, but fun to make.

I decided on giant snowflakes.

It's amazing what you can make with some printer paper,

sellotape and staples.

ETA:  This is the link if you want to make your own
http://www.finelyground.net/2012/12/diy-3-d-paper-snowflakes.html

The Scent of Christmas

I stole the idea for today's post from my sister Ruth

Like her we have lots of candles around our home which seem to be more decorative than useful.

We do have a cupboard full of tea lights and candles (plus torches in case of a power cut) 

but never seem to bring them out and light them.

We have several things around the house that have a Christmassy scent

the first being our newest candle.  Kitchen Spice.  I has that subtle Christmas smell without going overboard on cinnamon.

We also have pot pourri. It's called Orange Spice

and smells divine.

and lastly no Christmas would be complete without pine cones.

These have a really lovely light cinnamon smell.

All in all.  It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas!!

German Christmas Festival - Tomball, TX

On Saturday I managed to drag both boys to Tomball to check out the German Christmas Festival.

I was great.

There was beer and gluwein, bratwurst and strudel

and good old German thigh slapping music.

There was also bouncy castles, climbing walls, pony rides

and Texas music.

The rain stayed off and a good day out was had by all.

Decorating

Decorating this year is going at a much slower pace than last year.

This time last year it was only 5 days until my family arrived

so it had to be finished.

The tree is up.  All 7½ feet of it.

 

The dining area is decorated

But the lounge is still a bit bare and the banister needs a garland.

At this rate it will be time to take them down before I get them up!!

How are you preparations going?

A quick patch up job

The Teenager has a habit of "launching" himself onto the sofa

instead of just sitting on it like most folk.

Paddy Bear, from Chelsea, lives on the same sofa

and has to put up with being sat on daily.

His hat has taken the brunt of the "launchings" so I thought it about time I fixed it.

(Especially as the Teenager likes to point out that his hat is ripped!!!)

A quick search for my embroidery thread and a spot of blanket stitch 

and his hat is fixed.

Now to teach the Teenager to sit!!

The Giving Tree Pt 2

I wanted to make a note of the Giving Tree in my December Daily but

didn't know what to make.

I saw this button tree on the front of a magazine and thought

"I can do that".

So I did.

I think it turned out OK.  

I'm going to put the details of this years family on the back.

The Giving Tree

Every December, back in Scotland, I would take a walk into

Elgin and visit the Giving Tree in the Giles Center.

The tree would be covered in envelopes and each one would 

have a child's name and age on it.

These children were all children in care or without families at Christmas.

Some were as young as babies and some others were as old as 19/20.

Each year I would pick a card with a boys name on it, the same age as the Teenager.

I would then pick a card for a boy of 18 or 19.  Just because.

I then bought and wrapped a present and handed it back to the Giles Center who then

passed on the presents to the Social Work department.

They don't have that kind of thing here as Houston is just so big.

But what they do have is a radio station that host's it's own Giving Tree.

The Giving Tree

KSBJ Houston is a Christian based music station that, every year, hosts the Giving Tree.

Launched over 20 years ago, the KSBJ Giving Tree connects families, with needs, to individuals and families who would like to help meet those needs by providing gifts to the “nominated” family.

Lori is a member of our line dancing group and works at KSBJ.  She asked if the group would help and the ladies very kindly volunteered to help a family this year.

Our 2015 family

This is a single father.

He works full time - but funds are tight.

He has 3 kids still at home.

Boy – Anakin - 15

Boy – Matthew - 9

Girl – Maddison – 8

I thought we’d buy something for the oldest boy as he’s nearest the Teenager’s age.  All he asked for was some clothes and a set of headphones.  As I didn’t know what kind of headphones he needed I bought some clothes.

1 x pair of jeans

2 x polo shirts

All things any 15 year old boy could wear.

I hope he likes them.

Do you do anything similar in your town?

A Christmas Knees Up

Tonight was the first Expat Christmas Knees Up done Texas style.

It was held at the Midway BBQ in old Katy 

and was a mixture of Texan and British.

We had Mesquite BBQ food (which was delicious) 

followed by British style puddings.  Trifle, mince pies,

Christmas pudding and Sticky toffee pudding.

There was line dancing and darts or card games and dominoes

and a great selection of music.

All in all it was a great night and the ladies that organised it did a great job.

Looking forward to next year's already.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to my lovely mum.

21 again!!

I hope you're feeling better and that your card arrived.

Sending lots of love

♥♥♥♥♥

No internet

I've had to do a bit of catching up today as we're just back from 

2 days, 8 hours and 16 minutes (or something like that)

of NO Internet!!!

I know!! Whatever next?

I've found loads to do and apart from not being able to check

my e-mails for any possible job related info, I haven't really missed it.

The boys however were a totally different story!!

Thankfully, normal service has now resumed.

At 18............

At the age of 18 the Teenager could, if he wanted,

go into the local Academy Sports shop and buy these.

Shotguns and pistols

or 50 cal bullets. 10 for $30

Thankfully he doesn't want to.

His mother is pleased about that.

Me on Monday

Today was a dancing day.  A grocery shopping day.

A laundry day and a rent paying day.

The weekend saw us taking a trip to the local town's Christmas market.  

It rained and half the vendors didn't turn up.

It saw us shopping for fresh bread.  Bread in the USA is, in general, disgusting.  

It's way too heavy and has too much sugar in it.

It saw us dropping the Teenager off at work.

and it saw me catching up with the last Hunger Games movie.

How was your weekend?

Me on Monday is brought to you by Sian at From High in the Sky,

by the colour Blue and by the number 6.

(Ha Ha.  Who remembers that?)

Patio Postcards

Mary-Lou could you please email me your address so I can send you

Presley's Journal.

Thanks

Looking Back

Do you ever look back at your blog posts and think

"I'm so glad I blogged that as I'd forgotten all about it?"

Today I wondered what I was doing in previous years so took a look at 2009.

It seems that, yet again, I was left to walk Mossy

in the rain.

I miss my boy.

http://lizlee-liz.blogspot.co.uk/2009/11/wet-walk.html 

What were you doing on 28 November 2009?

Letter to Santa

I think my sister and I might have left one of these for each other when 

we were younger but not now.

Love you Sib xxx

Bike Rides

With the weather cooling down a bit it is much

 nicer to be out and about on our bikes.

On Sunday we took an 8 mile trip around the local lakes.

 Sorry about the finger in this photo!!

Even the Teenage one decided to join us.

The boys decided to race off and hatched a plan to wait until

I turned up, puffing and panting and then they'd ride off.

But I cottoned on to that plan and went riding past!!

It was a bit chilly to begin with but soon warmed up.

I only lost the chain once but it was soon fixed by John and

I must work out how to use the gears as we found the only hills in Katy!!

Another good day :0)

Christmas Markets

I love a good Christmas Market I do.

So aren't I lucky that there are several to choose from in Katy?

John and I went along to the Home for the Holidays 

market in old Katy yesterday.

There was a lot of "Tatt" but also some good ideas for "make your own".

I liked the idea of making wine bottles into lamps

(although if I kept all our bottles, I'd have to start my own business!!)

I liked looking at the trees and wondering if I could add something to ours this year.

I liked the metal garden ornaments.  I really liked the peacock but would be worried

that someone would nick it from the front garden!!

and I liked the gorgeous small of the Christmas potpourri.

Orange Spice.

I ended up buying a huge bag of it, plus the bowl to put it in and the oil to refresh it.

It looks great on my coffee table.

The next market is in the local town next Saturday.

I hope John has some pennies left!!!

Seeing Stars

I spent an hour or so this afternoon laminating and cutting out

orange stars for one of the teachers at Seven Lakes High School.

I just wish someone would pay me to do it, instead of doing it for free!!

December Daily 2015

This is my favourite yearly journal.

Probably as it's all about the lead up to the BIG day.

This year I was just going to use the left over Christmas stash

I've had for years.  But I went to Hobby Lobby and that all changed!!

I bought some lovely Paper Studio papers and lots of embellishments

(all with 50% off).

I'm using a 6" x 8" Recollections Album and got a bargain as it was BOGOF!!

It is, of course, lime green and now has this cute little Santa on the front.

I had a rummage around and found a number of odd sized page protectors

and will just add paper, embellishments, journalling and photos every day.

Hopefully :) 

Roll on December 1st.

Help Needed

Deb over at Paper Turtle has a niece who is in 5th grade

and is doing a Travel Journal.

It has found it's way to me via Belfast and London 

and now I want to send it on.

BUT

rather than send it back to the UK  

I was hoping that there was someone out there in the good old USofA or Canada

that I could send it on to.

If you would like to be the next recipient of this journal please let me know.

All you have to do is answer some questions about where you live, 

send Presley a postcard and post it on.

Easy Peasy!!

Any takers?

Just a little homesick :(

I admit to feeling a little homesick just now.

My friend Rehana and her husband own the Al Bahar Indian restaurant in Elgin, Moray 

and I shared her Facebook post for anyone who might want to hold

their Christmas party there.

This is what she replied.

Rehana Ahmed likes this.

Comments

Rehana Ahmed Thank you  was just remembering you yesterday as I was gazing at your pic in office Xx

Like · Reply · 14 mins

Liz Lee Anything I can do to help a friend J Can't believe I'm still on the cupboard door. You must all need a night out to get some new photos J

Like · Reply · 9 mins

Rehana Ahmed Aww Liz ... I always miss you at this time , new and old all treasured 😀

Like · Reply · 8 mins

Liz Lee You're such a sweetie J

Like · Reply · 7 mins

She is one of the nicest people I have ever met. 

She is kind and generous and always willing to help in any way.

It’s at times like this that I really miss my friends back in Scotland.