Our Christmas Porch and Celebrating Louis Dean's and Son Jesse's Birthdays!

 I'm still in a decorating frenzy here and enjoying the process!

Watching lots of Christmas movies!

Making meals!

These are cheese/egg bites and I really liked them.

No recipe - just eggs, cheeses, chopped onions and seasonings and a splash of Half and Half plus a tomato slice on top of each one.

I'm happy to say our possum is visiting regularly.

I've never done the front porch in pink before.

I'm doing every single room differently this year...

And I'm loving it!

Friday night Louis Dean made hamburger patties and I grilled them as well as made some steak fries in the air fryer.

Louis Dean put the burgers together and they were delicious!

We watched yet another Christmas movie and went to bed early.

Saturday was Louis Dean's 88th birthday and son Jesse's 58th birthday is on November 24th.

We celebrated both with lunch at Las Vaqueras!

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This is the restaurant my siblings and I have had so many happy times through the years.

As we walked in I nearly teared up seeing all the places we have sat and celebrated holidays and birthdays and gatherings.

Jesse had picked us up and Rachel and her darling 18 month-old neice joined us.

The food and drinks were great and we loved spending time with them!

Alas, I did not take even ONE photo!

I think I'm losing my touch!

From there Jesse took us to the John Wayne Museum and you all KNOW how much Louis Dean loves all things 'John Wayne.'

We visited the gift shop first!

Nice photo ops!

We had such a good time!

We meant to visit for the last 3 years or so and Jesse made it happen!

They did have a John Wayne coffee shop run by one of his sons but it closed last year.

They still sell the coffee and we bought some!

I was going to buy Louis Dean one of the gold handled coffee cups like Jogn Wayne gifted every single person who worked on his movies.....

but they were $85 so we made due with the coffee.

He wanted a hat but that was out of my price range, too!

The museum is a family affair and the family of John Wayne made it happen.

Our docent told us that many members of the family come every May to celebrate his birthday and that they are nice as they can be. They know the names of all who work there and it's no surprise what wonderful people they are.

There are still bags and bags of mail that was never opened after his death in 1979 and the family take turns opening up some of them.

Many of the letters he received are now part of the documents in the exhibit.

My favorite was seeing the outfits John Wayne wore in his movies!

Since Louis Dean watches so many of his films - I am going to pay close attention to the clothes!

Everything was interesting....

After the museum, we went to Jesse's apartment for some John Wayne coffee and a visit.

Levi came home while we were there so we had a bonus visit with him!

As soon as we got home - late afternoon - LD started on cracking and shelling pecans and stayed at it until after 8:00!

Ilene came down and helped me add some finishing touches to the front porch.

While LD worked on the pecans outside - I came in and finished the Santa painting for Levi.

I asked Jesse to critique it and I had told him what things I thought I needed to do.

He asked, "Are you going to paint in the fish?"

Goodness! I ad not even SEEN the fish!! On closer inspection - there it was.

So I did, indeed, paint it in!

I guess my eyesight is even worse than I thought.

This Sunday morning we watched church online and then I continued my decorating things while trying to keep the clean rooms clean!

So far I only have two! The den and the kitchen - three if you include the laundry room.

Now four since the front porch is done.

I'm in the foyer now and hope to make a good start in there.

The living room is a wreck but Louis Dean did get the large Christmas tree in there - far left at the top!

What a mess!

It's been a football Sunday and while I have been watching - I also addressed all the Christmas cards that are international. I decided to mail them first since they take longer to arrive.

I don't know why I haven't been doing that all along!

So far I have 125 entries for the Santa drawings!

I will draw the two winners on Monday November 25th and put them in the mail that day if I already the addresses.

My goal is that you receive them by December first since most people start decorating for Christmas right after Thanksgiving!