Saying Goodbye to 2009

When I look back on 2009, I cannot help but be glad it’s over and hope that 2010 brings more happiness. Despite all the negative of this past year, I’d rather dwell on the many good things from 2009- the many things I give thanks for. . . . Here’s just a random list (though I alphabetized them using the computer) of some of the things. . . I know there’s a lot more. . . . I bet I could list 2,009 things or more if I had the time.

(If you read my blog many of these may sound familiar. . . others I’ve yet to write about.)

365 Days of Life with Cody
50 mm lenses!
A family Christmas
A Home
A House
A Husband who makes me smile and laugh every day
A Job that gives me variety and freedom
A portable water heater
A Royals Win in Houston!
A trailer at the deer lease
Ability to listen to great music
Acoustic Jason Boland, Cory Morrow, and Roger Creager Concert
Adam Carroll in Concert
Air Conditioning
Amy Lynn
Answers
Backroads
Banana Cake
Baseball Autographs
Beautiful Sunrises
Bed
Blogging
Breakfast and Shakes at Jimmy’s
Cell Phones that do more
Chocolate Cake
Chocolate Fondue at the Melting Pot
Chrismons
Church Friends
Climbing around at Turner Falls
Coca-Cola
Cody and Jack playing catch at the ballpark
Cody getting together with Billy and Terry
Cody’s Blue Eyes
Coke Cans being gone from the house
Computer Skills
Confirming my middle name
Creating
Cutting a Christmas Tree from the Farm
Dance
Decorating
Deer Meat in the Freezer
Exercise
Facebook
Faith
Family
Finding Inspiration Online
Flexible Work Hours
Food on the Table
Football kicks into the brush at the deer lease
Fred Eaglesmith in Concert
Freezer Cooking
Friends
Fudge at Crowne Center
Fun at Nine Flags
Fun Shoes
Getting Cody a camera
Getting Packages in the Mail
Getting through tough times with Cody
Getting to go to the Park for work
God
God’s Saving Grace
Good Food
Good Health
Great spots to take pictures
Having my Uncle and Aunt around
Health
Hearing the History of the Round Barn
Heated Mattress Pads
Heaters
Help from Friends
High Speed Internet at home
Impromptu Trip to See KC play in Arlington
Improving my photography skills
Internet on our phones
Jack “graduating” to the 243
Jack getting to hunt
Jason Boland in Concert
Kelby Training
Laptops
Learning from Frank White
Living in a town with so many memories
Living Small Town life
Love
Macaroni and Cheese
Meeting Debby
Melting Pot
Milk
Morning Fog Paint
My kitchen
My Marriage
National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Museum
NCIS
Netflix
New Opportunities
New Speakerphone at work
No Hurricane!
Online Friends
Online Shopping
Organized Moments
Photography Class Scholarship
Pictures
Prayer
Rain
Reading Good Books
Redeemer Lutheran
Renting Camera Lenses
Route 66 Trip
Royals Hat with the Fleece Flap
Ryan Bingham in Concert
Scrapbooking
Seeing a Drive-In Movie
Seeing Chris Knight in Nacogdoches
Seeing the Negro League Hall of Fame
Seeing the Plaza in Lights
Seeing The Proposal with Cody
Seeing the Renovations at Kaufman Stadium
Seeing the Royals Play in Kansas City
Seeing the Sabres Play Hockey
Seeing wildlife
Skipping rocks in Turner Falls
Smiles
Soaking in anything I can learn about photography
Spending time with Family
Spending time with Lisa and Jack
Spending Time working to make the trailer ours with DH
Sports packages on the Satellite
Sunshine
Surprising Friends when in Need
Surviving the Year
Sweaters
Taking Candice Strigham’s Portrait Photography Class
Taking Cody to Nelson Atkins and him watching the guy break the ice
Taking Jack through Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri
Taking Karen Russell’s Photography Class
Tears
Texas State Aquarium Membership
Texting
That Cody and I didn’t get arrested when he touched the Shuttlecocks
That Kaufman’s was renovated instead of replaced
The Baseball Diversion on TV
The Field Goal at Smith’s Restaurant
The Joy Cody has gotten out of shooting a buck
The Old Front Porch
The Open Road
Time Spent at Deer Camp and Lease
Trips to Bass Pro, Boardwalk, Saltgrass
Tuesday Date Nights
Turkey Hunting
Two running vehicles
Vacation Time
Walmart Finished Renovating
Warm Clothes
Watching Jack and Cody feed the fish at the Blue Whale
Watching Jack grow up
Watching Mitch Maeir hit a home Run
Watching the Bears and Seals at the OKC Zoo
Water
Wii
Work
Writing
Zack Grienke’s Year

Christmas in Pictures, Not! Christmas Without Pictures

Since I haven’t blogged in a while, you’ll have to bear with me for a short tangent.  Last Christmas, or maybe the year before, my nephew got a Wii.  We’ve been down there a few times and loved playing it.  He and his mom came up earlier this week and they brought the Wii. . . Well one thing led to another and we wound up buying a Wii ourselves. which arrived just about the time they left Wednesday taking their Wii with them . . .

I do not have any pictures from our Christmas gathering this year.  I didn’t even get my camera out.  We didn’t get into any shooting wars.  I think that’s a first for my family in many, many years.

My mother-in-law drove up and arrived on Wednesday.  My parents, brother, and his girlfriend came over Christmas Day.  I was more organized than ever with the meal.  I had to be. . . I had plans for Christmas Day and while I wanted to eat good, I did not want to spend the day in the kitchen. 

As soon as my family arrived, we let them grab a small snack and then hit them with our best shot.  Sorry, couldn’t resist that.  We created Mii’s for them and then made each of them thake the Wii Fit Body Test. . . Isn’t that just what you should do to all your houseguests and a festival (AKA feast day)?  But, that’s what we did. . .

And then the games began. . . We played the Wii Fit all day long.  We flew through the air, ski jumped, headed soccer balls, caught fish while sliding on icebergs, and had a few snowball fights despite the fact we did not have a white Christmas.   We all threw caution to the wind and made fools of ourselves.  And with a few broken no camera moments by my brother and father, there are no pictures to embarrass us with.

Before we knew it, it was time to eat.  Yum, Yum.  We had our typical Stephenson’s Restaurant and Family Recipe meal.  We started with just a doubled batch of Banana Fritters (usually, it’s banana, apple, and another flavor).  Then came the meal- ham, Grandma’s macaroni and cheese, green beans, bread, and frozen fruit salad.  Did I leave anything out. . . I don’t think so. . . we made sure we did not have any repeats of the Thanksgiving forgets.  For dessert, we had banana cake and pumpkin pie.  And a few more Wii games.  Now, I just have to keep up with the Wii to work off all that food.

Before I knew it the day was over without any pictures.  Even the clean-up was mighty easy and didn’t get any pics.  It was one of the absolute funnest Christmas’s I can remember.

Horns

So, a week ago Friday, Cody was able to get his buck’s horns back.  He had a local taxidermist do a European Skull Mount. 

He realized, sometime after he had dropped off the horns and before he picked it up, that he really hadn’t had a chance to check out the horns.  He’d been in a rush to get out of the woods before it got dark.  Then, he made quick work of getting it the meat into the cooler.  Then, of course, we made a mad dash to the house since we needed the cooler space.  We dropped off the horns fairly early that next morning.

As he looked at the pics I’d taken, he was finally able to study the horns on his buck. . . but it wasn’t the same as being able to see them in person.  So, Friday, he spent some quality time with his horns- and the horns of deers past.

It was often hard to have a conversation with him- I’d find him staring off into the dining room looking at his horns.  I think the fact that he shot a buck was such a shock and then to see just how wide and tall the buck was became yet another shock.

Truth be told, the horns were so wide that it was hard to get a good shot of them from our dining room.

Cody has spent the last week proudly showing off his horns to all of his friends.  I suppose his joy has gotten to me. . . I’ve told him to hang them on my fireplace. . .  and if you’d have told me even a year ago that I would be saying that now, I’d say no-way.  But, I just feel like that’s where they should be

Thanksgiving Dinner

We went to mom’s house yesterday for Thankgiving.  We haven’t been over there in quite some time due to my allergy to dogs.  We decided that I’d just take plenty of Benadryl and celebrate Turkey Day at Mom and Dad’s.  So glad we did.  So glad Mom hosted. 

As it turned out, I only had to fix one thing- the Chocolate Pie.  I knew I wouldn’t be allowed to eat if I didn’t have a Chocolate Pie for my Uncle.  I even got out of fixing the meringue!  Which given that I hadn’t been feeling the best and given all the benadryl in my system, was a very, very good thing.

Of course, Mom might as well have had benadryl herself. . . She messed the meringue up twice!  But, when she got it right, she got it right.

She took it all in stride!  I really like this shot of her preparing the sweet potatoes (more on those later):

So, my task for the day was to photograph and capture the day.  Well, that’s what I decided my task was. . .I wanted to get some shots of the action.  Of course, around my family, you can’t get your camera out without everyone else getting their cameras so they can hide behind them.

There’s just something wrong with my brother’s eye in this shot. . . I’m can’t figure out what he was looking at!

Of course, the turkey took all day to cook.  The guys all rested in the living room and watched some football:

I nearly fell asleep myself (benadryl was kickin’) and was glad when there was some more action to photograph.  And that my brother found the step stool for me so I could get a different angle on things. 

My Aunt Sarah made the gravy:

Cody carved the turkey:

My brother got silly

and then decided to do a little “acting” if you want to call it that. . . at least he didn’t have a camera in his face or one of his dimented faces:

(Later when it was finally dessert time, he would put the pie at his spot at the dinner table as if it was all his. . . he did share though.)

Mom was absolutely in her element in her kitchen.

And then we sat down to eat.

See anything missing????

Just before we moved onto dessert, we started talking about our traditions at Christmas vs. Thanksgiving.  I started saying that I preferred our Christmas meal. . . that I’m not a turkey person, but eat a little turkey just because you feel like you have to. . . just like I. . . “We forgot the sweet potatoes!”. . .  So we had a little helping of sweet potatoes between the meal and dessert. . . ’cause as I was going to say, I have to have a small bit of sweet potatoes- with marshmellows on top.

Lone Star Christmas

I was browsing the internet today and came across a book called “Lone Star Christmas”. . . I thought about what the book might be about as I clicked on the book’s image which included a single spur and holly.  Lone Star. . . Christmas. . . There is really is only one star at Christmas, now isn’t there. 

It seemed to sum up what I want Christmas to be like this year.   In the last few Christmas’s, I’ve really focused on Christ- Decor for Christmas.  I’ve focused on cutting out the secular world from my Christmas.  I’ve decorated with things like Poinsettias, Stars, and Nativities.  Even my Santa cookie plate and Santa stocking have stayed in the decorations box.    And, without kids, I haven’t had to wrestle with what to do with Santa at Christmas.

I will continue this new tradition this year.  When I think about my holidays this year- From Thanksgiving to Christmas- the things I want are the same.  To focus on my faith and family with simplicity, joy, and gratitude. 

We’ll be going to my parents for Thanksgiving and I’ll be spending time with my husband out at the deer lease for much of the holiday season.  Advent starts just after Thankgiving and I’m looking forward to the waiting and preperation for Christmas.  I plan on completing several advent devotionals this year.  And then it’ll be Christmas.  I really want the focus of my Christmas to be celebrating the Nativity of Jesus with my family- and good food of course.

(To my dismay, the book actually appears to be a Christian Romance novel and I’m not sure that it even touches on my thoughts as I read that title.)