T'was the Weekend Before Christmas.....

It was a wonderful feeling to wake up Saturday morning without one single thing we HAD to do that day! Believe it or not, I still woke up before 8:00! I've been waking early for over a month now!

Since I didn't actually have to get up, I brought my coffee back to bed with me and had my prayer time and caught up in  my Country Diary. Then  I read for awhile - a Belva Plain novel - and then I played my Words With Friends and Scrabble games.  I called Lillian and sent texts to a couple of friends. I also sat propped up on my pillows and spent some time thinking. That's a novel thing to do sometimes. Just sit and think. It was noon when I finally got out of bed - other than the times I went to the kitchen to refill my coffee cup.

Louis Dean spent several hours blowing and mowing leaves while I puttered around the house.

I wrapped what few presents I bought this year. Mostly books for the grands. I organized all the tins of Texas Trash ready for gift giving. And since I woke up early, I took a good long nap.

It was a great day. 

Nothing that we HAD to do so anything we DID do was just because we WANTED to!

This morning we were excited about the Christmas service at Fellowship Church in Grapevine.

We have several compasses and several services.....from Dallas to Fort Worth, Frisco, Florida, Oklahoma, and more.....30 services in all from Saturday the 21st - Tuesday the 24th.

We chose the 11:15 Sunday morning service and we were not only on time but we were EARLY!

It was a great service!

If you arrived early enough, there was hot cocoa and photo op stations.

Louis Dean took our first selfie!

His arms are so much longer than mine!

I soaked pinto beans all day yesterday and cooked them in the crock pot all night, so the only thing I had to do when we got home from church was make a batch of cornbread.

We watched the Cowboy game and they lost.....

It was so nerve wracking I counted cards to ease the tension.

19 packs of Santa cards for our Christmas Eve game of NUTS!

I've collected decks of Santa cards for years and used to play NUTS a lot.

 I can't even remember the last time I played.

But we are playing Christmas Eve!

Every one gets a pack of cards and there will be 18 people here.

Not all will play, though. Louis Dean? Are you kidding?? He's a NO!

The 5 youngest grands will have a game table of their own so that leaves 12!

We will have plenty of cards!!

This evening I went out in the gazebo and used the blower to get all the leaves and pecan shells out.

I just love our gazebo. Louis Dean did a good job restoring it and it is sturdier than ever.

There's even a small Christmas tree!

It is a pre lit one but I added a strand of colored ones just for Louis Dean.

While we have plenty of our own pecans this year, I did buy a bulk bag of mixed nuts to put in the big wooden nut! It holds the nuts and the crackers and pickers.

We looked for new chairs and stuff after Louis Dean finished getting the gazebo back up - but we couldn't find anything we liked. So we pulled our vintage glider from the deck into the gazebo and that works for me. I can prop my legs up and sit back against the cushions.

We did take our two old chairs to the curb last spring so Louis Dean is making do with a big lawn chair that I just threw a red cover over. We will keep looking but for now we making do with what we have....and that's good enough.

A tree skirt is folded and used as a table cloth on a heavy trunk we moved out here to make room for the Christmas tree in the living room.

We even have two Cracker Barrel rockers for guests!

I meant to get the walls back here on the sewing room painted this year and that didn't happen.

I'll do it in the spring but in the meantime - colored lights makes everything look prettier.

I will leave these up all winter just for Louis Dean.

From the outside looking in.....

I love looking in windows.....even my own!

I've been working on the preparations for Christmas Eve.

The menu is a Chili Supper with all the trimmings.  My grocery list is made and I have a to-do list for tomorrow. Chili, cornbread made as muffins, and a Mexican Street Corn Pasta Salad, chips and dips, guacamole, Mexican pastries, a candy tray of divinity........

Tonight I made three batches of homemade cornbread mix - just ready to add the liquid ingredients.

I was dragging my feet about serving cornbread because of the crumbs. I live with Louis Dean and he loves cornbread and there is always a crumby trail around him. I thought, "Crumbs x 18???"

That's why I decided to make it as muffins in cupcake papers.

I think it's going to be an easy fun Christmas Eve gathering!

I've been writing this journal entry in front of the fireplace in the den while watching Alaska: The Last Frontier.....season 9 episode 11 to be exact!

It's nice to watch something entertaining that is wholesome and doesn't include blood and gore.....

although there is a bit of that here but it's not the same.

Well, this weekend is over and it was wonderful.

Christmas is just around the corner......