Christmas Eve

 I was amazed, we awoke at 5:00 am Florida time. I expected to be more tired after the trip and late night but all was well. Sarah had prepared a breakfast casserole for our breakfast. The girls enjoyed the pool and hot tub but by 10:00 am the lunches were made and everyone was on the way to the beach. Everyone but Mark and I, we decided not to sit out on the beach in the sunshine and take a bike ride instead. That didn't go very well and soon the bikes were brought back and we walked. Below is a picture of our mailbox all decorated.

It is a beautiful area with lovely homes on canals and almost every home has a boat dock with a boat in it. The flowers are really gorgeous. 

Those are in our yard but we saw red, pink and blue ones on our walk. When we got back we enjoyed the hot tub then settled down to read. The beach was so much fun for the kids.

After coming back from the beach they played in the pool until it was time to leave for the Christmas Eve service at a local church about 10 minutes from the house. That was nice, we heard the Christmas story again along with why we shouldn't be cynical. They finished with silent night and we each got a candle to light. 

By the time it was over we were all more than ready for supper. Jesse and Joanna's family joined us for the service and agreed to go to supper with us to Brook's Burgers but they were closed, next we tried a Mexican restaurant but they were also closed. There was a Mediterranean restaurant that was open in the same area so we walked into that only to find they were no longer seating anyone. The 4th try was a Vietnamese restaurant and that one was open and glad to serve us. 

As long as they had chicken fingers for the kids all was well.

My dish was the prettiest dish but all of the food was good.

Either that or we were all starving! We thought we would be taking home leftovers but we actually ate EVERYTHING. A warm sunny Christmas Eve day and I'm glad we got to celebrate it here together.

Leaving On A Jet Plane

 I went over to the barn at 7:30 am to get it clean and ready for the next guests coming in. We had breakfast a little late today. The next job was to clean out the fridge and take anything that won't last for the next 10 days over to mom's house. Mark helped move a new bale in for each stallion. We had our showers and are sitting here waiting to leave. Our plane leaves for Florida from the Peoria airport at 6:00 pm but we are supposed to arrive 2 hours early. Peoria is such a small airport we really don't think it is necessary but since we are done and just sitting here playing on the computer we will leave in 15 minutes. Sarah and Nolan have already arrived. The pool and hot tub which were supposed to be heated were not but Sarah said it didn't stop the girls.

I was able to message the lady managing the house and they had forgotten to turn on the heat for us. It took a while to get the hot tub warm enough and the pool will need to be heated once the hot tub is hot.

We took off a little early and even though it was 56 minutes from the Punta Gorda airport to our rental house in Naples Park we made it by 10:30 pm. Sarah's girls were already in bed and sound asleep. Zeke had fallen asleep on the drive and Iris was more than happy to head to bed.

Packing

Ruth was the first one to send a picture of the gorgeous sunrise this morning.

Diane followed within a minute with the sunrise over the Gulf. I think this was taken from her balcony from her condo.

Rhonda followed with one taken from her porch taken as the deep red is changing to gold.

Joan sent the picture below of mom enjoying the sunrise as the gold fills the sky. 

I'm thankful for sunrise pictures, we can't really see the sunrise from our house.

Now that Ruth is home from the cruise we are back to walking but we stopped at the dumpster. We were teasing Joan that she must have seen something she wanted and went dumpster diving.

Not really she is just making room for more garbage.

With all the Christmas parties at the barn we have filled the dumpster just a little too quickly. On the way back I had to stop to take a picture of mom's sad sad snow lady that has now lost her head.

She has a bit more body than Israel's snowman which is now just a lump of snow.

We are experiencing a meltdown each day but the temps go below freezing at night so it is melting slowly. After breakfast Mark and I drove to Raber's to pick up the half of beef we ordered from Landon. Our half was 429 pounds of hanging weight and out of that we ended up with 268 pounds of beef. It came to just over $8.00 a pound.  I usually order a whole beef but just couldn't afford it this year. Beef is SO expensive. After we got back and the meat was in the freezer I worked on cleaning up the gym and found the missing connect four pieces. 

I also got all the laundry done from the barn and our house. Mark is packing now. I've already packed for our trip to Florida tomorrow. Now I just have to work on dishes. We are not paying for a bag OR a carryon but we heard we can take 1 personal item so we each have a back pack and have enough clothes for 3 days. We are staying 9 but the house we are renting has laundry facilities. Rhoda has put in a Walmart order and is hoping Sarah and Nolan, who are driving down, will get there in time to pick it up so we will at least have breakfast food for Wednesday morning. Tomorrow I'll need to move bales in for both stallions so we won't have to worry about them running out of hay while we are gone. 

Sunday

 Mark and I went over to clean up the barn at 7:00 am. Most of it had been done last night but there were still a few things to put away.  There was a brand new toy in the gym.

Phil brought it over last night and the kids had fun with it at the Christmas party. I just hadn't noticed it. I'm not exactly sure what it is but it will sure make the ball clean up fun for the kids. As Sarah and Nolan left in the middle of the night for Florida, once the barn was done I drove up to the apartment to let the dogs out. Millie and her 3 puppies were glad to get out. Those puppies are doing amazing with their potty training.

I was trying to get a video of them playing but during the video they started doing their jobs. They still did a lot of playing before bringing them inside.

All of these puppies are spoken for. The next dog I tried to put outside didn't know me at all and refused to come out. Willow has just one puppy and as she didn't know me was very protective. I tried using a small piece of ham to bribe her but she ignored that ham and growled each time I asked her to come out. I finally left her in. Steven is moving in to the apartment so I told him I wasn't able to get her out. He explained that he knew her and was sure he would be fine. We left for church a little late and didn't arrive until 9:40 am but Joan was also late and pulled in right after us. Craig Stickling had the first service on the birth of John the Baptist. Click HERE to watch that. Randy and Kathy brought Nancy. Kathy told us on the way to church Randy was blowing a duck call and Nancy exclaimed, "Put a sock in it!" She came all decked out for church and jingled when she walked. At lunch she had to show us how.

Tim Roecker announced today that he would be retiring from the ministry in 2026. We will sure miss his messages. He had the afternoon message, click HERE to listen to that. We had no company coming for Sunday dinner so both Mark and I took a nice long nap after church. Spark and Rhonda celebrated Christmas at the barn this afternoon. Rhonda sent the video below of her grandchildren opening their gifts.

Mike sent a couple pictures of the trail camera at Middle Grove taken today. The horses are obviously enjoying the sunshine and the hay. 

The sun must have been directly on the camera on the next pictures as it was showing 51 degrees.

It was NOT that warm today. It was below freezing when we were over working on the barn this morning and 37 degrees when we were driving home from church.  Mark came with me to take Nancy home this evening. She loved seeing all of the Christmas lights. 

Sceggel Christmas

 I left at 7:30 this morning for Sam's club to pick up the food for our Sceggel Christmas party today. When checking out I told the check out lady that I wanted a bag of ice and told her first so I didn't forget. As I was walking to the car I was looking at my list trying to figure out the last word on my list. It looked like bicad. (Only after I got home and doing laundry did I realize it was bleach) I couldn't figure out what that could mean, loaded the groceries, pulled out of the parking lot and only then realized I had forgotten to pick up the ice I had paid for. The car was turned around, parked and a cart grabbed. I went in the exit and explained I had walked out without my ice. From there I stopped at Aldi to pick up $90.00 more of fruit, baking supplies and the vegetables. The airbnb guests left at noon so I went straight over to start cleaning and get the laundry going. There was a mountain of towels to wash along with a big pile of sheets. I'm very thankful to have 2 sets of machines. One of the toilets was plugged. Mark got the snake and was able to clear it. Someone had thrown paper towel in the toilet. This was a basketball team that stayed but we didn't see much of them. We had gone to bed when they arrived around 9:30 pm then left at noon the next day. Sarah and her girls were the first to arrive for the party and they helped me get the beds made and towels carried up. Rhoda and Lee arrived with lots of games. She kept the kids playing games until the dinner was ready at 6:00 pm. 

After supper more games were played. Finally we all sat down to listen to David tell us the Christmas story.

Then came the opening of the gifts. It was amazing how everyone got exactly what they hoped for. The kids wanted to play more games

so that is what they did until it was time to leave. Below is a video of just some of the games tonight.

Sarah and Nolan's family were the first to leave. They are going to try to get some sleep as they are leaving for Florida early morning. I'm thankful for opportunity to celebrate with family this Christmas, the birth of the baby, the sinless life, the sacrifice of the perfect Lamb and of course the resurrection. and our confident expectation of HIS coming again.

So Much Ice

 Last night the wind was howling, blowing so hard the house groaned. The temperature dropped to about 10 degrees but the wind chill was well below zero. I left for Morton at 7:45 am and was in the middle of the test I was taking when Mark sent a message that Evan's waterer was frozen. He had already hauled a bucket of water which Evan drank but he needed help.  I made it home about 9:20 am and we went right to work carrying buckets of warm water to defrost the ice from the top so he could open it. He found that there was no power to the waterer. 

The breaker box was also frozen shut wo we couldn't check if one of the breakers popped. Once I knew Evan had as much water as he wanted I left Mark working and started at the barn. The airbnb guests were moving in today and I still had quite a bit of cleaning. I hauled the vacuum upstairs to sweep the game room before working on the gym. Mark called to report he got the breaker box open, flipped the breaker and water was now running in Evan's waterer. The next job was a big one. There was so much melted snow yesterday then rain on top and finally the big freeze that all of the drives were thick ice. If you wanted to get out to the main road you needed to get a run at it but if a car was coming and you had to stop there was no way to get out without backing a long way then gunning it. I moved the truck out so Mark could fill the skid steer bucket with the indoor arena sand.

Together we worked on spreading that sand at the road entrance, up the drive and into the barn drive.

Joan sent a video of mom laughing at her snowman which was supposed to be a snow lady. The video was too small to share but I drove over and took a picture of that now REALLY skinny snow lady.

I couldn't believe she was still upright after all of that rain and then wind. The farmer at Middle Grove put in more bales last night. Mike sent the picture below off one of the trail cameras.

He put 6 in but this is the only bale we can see on this camera. We have 40 more bales coming from our original farmer so will for sure have plenty of hay this winter for the 30 horses out there.  The rest of the prizes for the Christmas party tomorrow are now all wrapped. I have 2 games planned and Rhoda has 10 more. 

Black Ice Warning

 Mark was coughing a lot last night which kept both of us up. By the time we finally awoke it was AFTER 7:00 am. Why half the morning was gone.  Diane called asking how things are going here, as it was pouring down rain there in Gulf Shores. It was warm and foggy here. The picture below was taken around 7:30 am. 

I was telling her about the nice green grass we have under that snow now that we were having a good meltdown. Check out Israel's snowman. I actually watched him collapse as I was on the phone.

Rhonda told Joan it was time to get rid of the fall decorations so she incorporated them unto their snowman yesterday. This morning most of the snow around him had melted. 

It was 50 degrees when I went over to the barn to clean but had started to rain and the wind turned now coming from the northwest and really started blowing. There was a lot of melting snow and with the rain on top the gym leaked a bit coming through one of the garage doors. 

I took a few trips back and forth from the barn to the house and each time the thermometer dropped. Joan's poor snowman soon looked like a starving immigrant from the North.

The last trip back to the house was about 1:00 pm and the temps had already dropped to 38 degrees with wind and rain. It is now below freezing and the winds are slamming against the doors and windows. We have black ice warnings out for the area. Hopefully our drives are passable.  I'm very thankful for a porch full of split wood. I didn't finish the barn cleaning but made a good start. Probably only about an hour's worth of work left. Mark spent all morning working on Joan's furnace. He got back to the house just after I got back. He was able to get the furnace working so hopefully it is more of a permanent fix. The hooks for the coat closet came in this afternoon. We spent some time putting them together. We have 48 triple coat hooks. Each can hold 3 coats. There are 3 sections to each 12, 4 hooks on each section. I started them then Mark used his power drill to tighten each screw.

Those were placed back in the box for safe keeping along with the anchors and screws to install them on the wall. Hopefully we can have help getting them put up in the closet on Saturday either before, during or after the Sceggel Christmas party. Tomorrow the barn is rented. The last of the Christmas gifts were wrapped. Even though we slept in this morning we both will need to go to bed at a decent hour. 

Long Day in the Snow

 Mark passed his dreaded man cold on to me and it hit during the middle of the night. Of course since I'm not a man it was only a bit of congestion but still I work a mask this morning when I went over to mom's. Right after breakfast I drove to church to put the Bible studies out for grading and deliver Lukie and Wayne's Christmas cards. Church has a wonderful system. There is a folder for everyone and cards can be put in them instead of mailing them. 

The next stop was the opposite direction but I really needed to get to Middle Grove to check if the horses have enough hay set out. When I drove up they were all spread over the hillside grazing on the bright green grass under the melting snow.

I drove back to where the hay is set out. A lot of the bales were gone but there was still some and it is good hay, so obviously they are enjoying the grass more than the hay.

When I got back to the house Stephanie was on her way bringing Elisabet and Israel out for sledding.

They were taken for a good ride.

Stephanie and Elisabet rode on the way back.

Elisabet had tumbling but Israel was left here and went to work chopping kindling for the fire.

After tumbling Stephanie brought Elisabet and Teddy, one of Israel's friends while Sarah brought her 3 plus 2 more. Those kids spent hours sledding both on our drive and the death trails.

Below is just a short video of some of their rides.

Since I have a cold I stayed home with mom tonight so Joan could go to church. She got back from church to find her house has no heat. They will work on that tomorrow. Now we are all going to bed.

Outdoor Fun

The butterbraid was ready to bake when I got up this morning and that filled the house with the wonderful smell of baking bread. We had the promise this morning that the temperature was supposed to get above freezing. It was still cold when I left for the Berean office. We had a good productive morning other than the office was completely out of Bibles. They were ordered but not delivered and we found out weren't going to be delivered for at least another week. Below are some pictures of our morning. 

Skip had a chaplain contact him direct for more studies so they went right to work folding those and getting them ready to go out. Below our two Shirleys are busy opening the mail. 

As mom couldn't come, Ray was nice enough to come to do mom's job of applying the return address on those number 10 envelopes. We were completely out.

Marvin was trying to find out who was in charge of one of the out of state prisons as we got a Bible returned.

The reason was we were not approved to send them but we KNOW we are.

Sometimes the mail rooms in the prison or jail just make up rules. Once we remind them they usually will let the Bible and studies go through. We had about 30 Bible requests but could not fill them today. The requests were entered, printed and dated, hopefully next week we will be able to send them out. We had plenty of snacks today. Lukie left us 2 dozen donuts and Sharon brought in her home made chex mix. That along with the butter braid made it seem like we were having a Christmas party once we finally finished for the day. I dropped off the mail at the Hanna City post office then hurried home where 4 of our grandchildren were waiting to play. Israel came early and worked for Mark, splitting wood and refilling our porch. We had used all of it that was on the porch during that cold spell.

We are ready for the next one. Sarah's girls had to admire the snowman Israel made while waiting for them to get here.

Then came the sledding fun. They spent HOURS outside today, coming in every couple hours to warm up.

Below is a video of just some of their fun.

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Sarah, Rhoda, Anna, Phil and Nolan were all working at Sarah and Nolan's new house installing trim and the microwave and all kinds of other work. It really warms a parent's heart to see siblings helping each other and working together. I needed to be at mom's by 6:00 pm as Berlica had to be at Bethany for the co-op concert. Three of Rebekah and Brian's children were also in this concert. Riley is in the second row 5th from the right.

Blair is int he front row 3rd from the right. 

Jordern's class was really huge.

He is in the front row 2nd from the right.

Berlica is in Choral and had a solo.

Mom and I enjoyed the concert. I left for home when Joan and Berlica got back and pretty much went straight to bed finishing this the next morning.