Fellowship Church on Sunday and the Ranch on Monday!

I love Sundays!

I get up early enough to have some quiet time before Louis Dean wakes up and when he does - he goes in his music room and puts on some gospel music for us to listen to as we get ready for church.

This particular morning it was Elvis Presley and the Statler Brothers.

We met up with the Bells as we arrived at just about the very same time.

We all love Fellowship Church and I love that we attend together.

There's something special about families worshipping together.

We are about to start our Christmas services and I am looking forward to being with all my children and grandchildren at the 3:00 service on Christmas Eve.

 

The Bell girls are singing in the children's choir on Christmas Eve and they had their first practice after church on Sunday and Granddad and I stayed to watch.

All three girls are up there but you can only see one.......Let's play I Spy!

Can you spot her?

We all decided to go out to eat at Cheddar's afterwards......

I do love their margaritas!

We enjoyed good food and good service and then Amber ordered two of the Cheddar's Monster Cookies for the table!

It just so happens that Amber worked at this very Cheddar's back in her early college days at Northlake before she went on to Texas State. Back then, when a customer ordered one.....the server actually made it for them. First they put the order in for the cookie and then as soon as it came out of the oven - these were freshly baked back then - the server would put the sundae together and serve it in the hot skillet the cookie was baked in. They don't go to that much trouble anymore. It was still good but not nearly as good as they used to be!

Louis Dean took these rolls home with him!

As a matter of fact - he is eating one right now as I write this.

After we got home, I went straight to bed for a good long nap while Louis Dean settled down to some serious football watching.

Apparently Tabitha had been napping as well.......

she is such a good kitty but she is NOT a lap cat!

Unless it is Louis Dean's lap!

She has never sat in anyone's lap but his......and my feelings are just a little bit hurt about this.

We were up until 1:00 in the morning watching Home Alone movies while I finished addressing all my Christmas cards. Pardon the handwriting on the ones that are at the end of the alphabet as my handwriting had started to deteriorate by this point. I actually ran out of cards before I did addreses so next year I will order 250 instead of 200.

I was up early this morning to finish up a few things since we were leaving for the ranch later.

This sweet poinsettia on our coffee cart made me smile.

Rayne gave that to me on Friday and I just love it.

It's a real one and I am hoping to keep it alive.

It took us awhile to get ready as Louis Dean slept late and rightly so.

A working man needs his sleep!

We packed up the cats, locked up the house, stopped by the post office to drop off all the Christmas cards and then picked up a couple of my prescriptions and headed south, making one potty break stop outside Hillsboro and then another stop for milk and wine and a rotisserie chicken at HEB.

Watching Louis Dean unlock and open the gate is one of my favorite moments!

I came in the front room first so I could turn on the porch light on as it was dark at 6:00 when we arrived.

The first thing I saw was this beautiful evergreen and rose arrangement on the table in the front room.

Beautiful AND fragrant!!

I'm so happy I saw this FIRST!!

AND Dean and Sherry came down and we had a nice visit.

I have sure missed them!!

Then I unlocked the camper and discovered we'd had a massive invasion of MICE!

SO happy to have Samantha and Tabitha with us!

I knew we had seen evidence of mice on our visit last month but Louis Dean thought he had dealt with that. I knew he had NOT since I heard them in the pantry while I was doing my make up as we prepared to leave here in November.

I was NOT prepared for the mess they had made and the damage they did!

They completely destroyed the pantry!

Louis Dean was my Knight in Shining Armor!

He unloaded the pantry, cleaned it.....

took everything that could be saved - as in canned goods and such - and washed them down.

He bleached everything and then washed all the dishes that were in there.

I fixed him a supper of chicken and baked sweet potatoes and he ate and went right back to work.

It's now nearly midnight and I hope he stops soon as I am so ready to go to bed. 

Tabitha likes to sleep at the foot of the Girl Bunk and that is perfect for me.

Not sure I would sleep in the camper tonight if the cats weren't here.

I will close tonight's journal entry with this photo of a beautiful honey bee necklace, earrings and pin.....

I received this in the mail a few days ago and have been wearing them ever since and have them on now. The only problem is - I don't know who to thank!

I couldn'tfind a card and I really LOVE that someone sent these to me and THANK you!!

PS.....Just ordered a bundle of Grandpa Gus's Mouse Repellent Pouches and spray.

Thank you, Debbie M!!