Christmas past

I have a friend who just lost her Mom yesterday. Gosh it's hard when death happens around the holidays. But then anytime you lose a loved one the holidays are hard, they are never really the same.  It is like an innocence is taken away from you and you can never get it back. 
Our Mom passed away in 2007 and Christmas changed forever. We tried hard to recreate it but slowly parts of us pulled away, Jay and I started staying in Arizona and the kids were growing up. But when we lost Krystina in 2013 that was it, I don't know that we will ever recover from that.  With our Mom, she had been sick a very long time and although we missed her, still miss her, we are happy she is at rest with no more pain.   But with our darling Krystina, she was just at the cusp of discovering who she was, so young, so vital, so creative.  
I feel guilty that I am not there, thinking that things would be different if I was there. But I know it would not make a difference, we would all get together but everyone would sit there thinking how do we do this.  
I sit and look at my tree and see the ornaments we have had made over the years in their memory.

I wonder how other families do it.  Are they stronger than we are? I wish they would share their secrets with us if they are.  This summer my brother and his family came home for a visit from PA and we all got together several times and I know everyone except a few were at my sisters house for Thanksgiving.  So it's not like we are not there for one another, we are, totally there for one another. But Christmas, Christmas at Momma's house with kids running everywhere and so much food and crazy decorations and presents piled to the ceiling, that's gone, only a memory. Maybe that's the way it's supposed to be.  But I would give just about anything to have it back just one more time.
So I am thinking of Tina, burying her Mom the week before Christmas and knowing she has a young one at home I am hoping she still gets to see the joy through his eyes.
Please pray for her and for us and the many others that are missing loved ones this Christmas season.

Thursday Crafts or Thursday Therapy?

I have probably  mentioned my Thursday craft group out here in Arizona before, if not we meet every Thursday. Sometimes we have cheese, wine and a mental health meeting. ( we just sit and chat for a few hours) Sometimes our fearless leader has a craft planned for us.  Last year we make lots of bracelets and some beautiful Christmas trees mad out of safety pins and crystals.

This is mine, you stuff it with led lights and it is so pretty. ( I have to confess my friend Barb did most of mine, these arthritic hands don't work very well). This year we decided we wanted to do something for somebody so we decided to make tied lap blankets for a local hospice house.

This is an example of what we made, I don't know why I didn't take pictures, something about playing with puppies! Anyway we made six and we went to the Hospice House to drop them off and guess what there were six residents just finishing lunch. I am telling you it was amazing.  One of the ladies was celebrating her 102nd birthday on Christmas Day!! Can you imagine ?  She insisted on giving each of us a hug.  We left that place crying and feeling like we were flying.  When you are depressed or not feeling well, what everyone says is true, do something for someone else and you will feel better. I wish I had taken lots of pictures, but I am finding more and more I am wanting to stay in the moment and experience it instead of stepping outside it to take pictures. I think we should start calling it Thursday Therapy class!

Christmas in an RV completed

We finally finished with the decorations yesterday.  I must say it is still strange to be hanging Christmas lights when it is 80 and sunny outside.

Not sure why I posted this picture, oh I know I wanted you to see my tree on the table next to the lamp. It is made of crystals and safety pins, I will take a close up of it later so you can see it better, it is so pretty.

It is hard to get a good picture of the front window, Jay took this at dusk, maybe I will try one in the daylight. Don't you just love those new Command hooks? I sure do.

J

Jay tried to get one of the back, the blob of light on the right is my bottle tree. I will try to get a better one of it too.

This is what our neighbors and I call our Tiki Hut. We went together on this and put it between our two sheds. This is where we have our fire box and usually have New Years Eve dinner out here.

And this is my sweet little tree. I think I posted about it a couple of years ago. Every ornament on here is from my Mom, in memory of my Mom or Kryssy , ones the kids made for me when they were little and ornaments that Jay and I picked out together. We have a tradition of picking out a new one each year during our travels.

 So that is Christmas in a RV. I have to say it is always a little sad for me to do the tree each year, I am sure it is for many people. Thinking of Christmas's past of loved ones no longer here. But I know I have to shake it off and Praise God for all that I do have, my family, my friends,my Izzie.
As a friend of mine always says, "life is good".

New Friends for Izzie, Taming the Beast

I couldn't wait to get here and meet my girlfriends new puppies. But I have to admit I was a little nervous about how Izzie would react. She is so possessive, I always keep her on leash around other dogs.  Happily she had a great time.

These little sweeties trying to squiggle out of my lap are Molly and Maggie, they are ShiPoo's and belong to Brenda and Don.

This adorable pip-squeak is Abbie she belongs to Tanis and Dave some day I will tell you about how she got her name, it's a hoot.

I cannot tell them apart without looking at their name tags!

Now, to taming the beast.  Iz has been getting worse and worse about aggresively barking at dogs over the years.  I was at my wits end as to what to do. Our friends were starting to call her Killer.  I think it is because she is so protective of me. Lord knows when I walk I am a little hesitant about falling and I think she senses it. BUT, I have found the solution and now have a different dog.  Have you ever heard of Stop That? It is a spray that comes out with a hissing sound that along with the pheremones distracts the dog and redirects its attention.  I swear to you we used it only twice and problem solved. No more barking when walking past other dogs and when in the house and the UPS guy comes(which he does with some regularity tee her) after one alert bark I say no and she stops. I think this stuff if amazing, Iz will be five Christmas Eve and she has been really bad the last few years.  Don't know if it will work for you but it might be worth a try. I got it on Amazon and it was under $10. Hope you all have a good day, it's grocery store for me, ugh!  Don't mind cooking, in fact I enjoy it. But the planning and the shopping and the putting away and doing the dishes, well as I have already said UGH! Peace   

Christmas in a RV

I can't really get going on my Christmas decorating until Tuesday when we are getting the coach washed, but I did get started in the back around my swing so thought I would show you what I have so far.
I love, love bottle trees, have ever since I saw them in Mississippi growing up. The summer before last I finally put one up in my back yard at home.

I love looking at it, the patio at home is my peaceful place. When Jay is out riding in the mornings Izzie and I are out here, thinking, talking, praying, working out all my problems.
I wanted the same thing here in Arizona, so last year Jay got me a swing and we planted some cactus and I had a few flowers.
When we got here this year I decided what I needed back there was a bottle tree and some more flowers. So I went shopping and my good man went working and this is what I have now.

I decided since I had a tree back there I would give it a little decoration too. We haven't put up any light yet but when we get finished next week I will show you some pictures.
Being away from family at Christmas is hard. We are lucky to have some good friends to share Christmas dinner with, but I would be lying if I didn't say my heart hurts that they are there all together at home and we are here.  If I could fly boy I would go home in a heart beat. But I can't so I try to do the best I can to keep focused on the reason we celebrate and make our home here cheery and warm( although warm is usually not a problem in Arizona, but you know what I mean)
Short post I know, but I will get organized and back into the swing of things I promise.  
 

Lets try this again...

Well,I certainly didn't get far with starting up the blogging again did I?  We were having so much fun stopping at all our favorite places, then there's the driving, the setting up, the tearing down.  Probably the biggest problem is I am just out of the habit.
So I know I can't go back and recreate the last six weeks, I would be sitting here all day every day. I am just going to give you a few photo highlights and promise to do better.

This wall is in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana at a main intersection downtown (to be honest there are only a couple of intersections downtown). It is an empty building where people post Happy Birthday, Congratulations and all kinds of messages. I love going by and reading them, some are just little notes others are big posters, just think it's a kind of neat small town thing.

In most of the towns we stop in we try to find stores where they have local artists creations for sale.  Those who know me know I love to shop. But this is different it is almost like going to a museum. Every year Jay and I pick up a Christmas ornament or two to put on our little tree in the coach. When we decided we would be spending Christmas's away from home I took only special ornaments, the ones I had from my Mom and the ones that my sisters kids had made for me when they were little. This little lady I picked up in San Antonio.

This guy is not handmade but Jay really liked it. And anything that put old Mr. Bah Humbug in the Christmas spirit I am all for.

I found this one in San Antonio also, I could not resist. See the dragonfly? One of my sweet niece Kryssy's friends think of her every time she sees a dragonfly, it was a special thing for them and the colors, those are Kryssy colors, had to have this on my tree.

This picture is a bit of a story.  Many years ago I bought a pair of coral earrings in a shop in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Last year I told Jay I wanted to find a necklace to match. It is very hard to match coral so I always wore the earrings when I looked. When we were in Santa Fe last year on the way home I was on a mission to find a necklace. We went into lot's of shops, nothing, then we drove down to that little town, Madrid where they made the movie  Wild Hogs and went into an estate shop where we had bought a couple of nice old pieces.  We were in luck we found the beautiful piece in the top right hand corner. It was a perfect match and could be worn as broach or necklace. I was thrilled. We decided to just look around some of the stores in downtown Santa Fe and walked into a jewelry store that had tons of coral, so I picked up a piece and pulled back my hair to see if it matched the earrings and wait for it, one of my earring was gone. I had been wearing these earrings almost continuously since we had bought them and had never put backs on them and now one was  gone. The only thing I can think is that I had a coat on with a high collar ( I hadn't had a coat on for years) because it was really cold there.  We retraced our steps, every place we had been, I was so upset. I now had this beautiful necklace to wear and one  earring.  When I got home I searched the internet but could not find a pair to match, so brilliant idea. I took the earring to my jeweler and had her make it into a necklace, middle of photo. And when we got to Las Cruces this year I went back into the same shop where I originally purchased them and WALLA, they had a pair that matched just perfectly, the moral of the story is always wear stoppers!!
I am going to start adding restaurants and RV Resorts on the other two pages, it will take me a while but I will get it done. Looking at other RVer's and getting suggestions is how we find some of our best places.
Hope it is not to cold where you are, in the sixties here today, but goodness knows I will take it.