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?)