Goodnight 2017

I got up Friday, December 29, 2017 and took down Christmas. I took my time doing it. I packed it up neatly and stored it in an organized manner. I counted my tree ornaments as I packed them away. All one hundred ninety-two of them.
If I keep my life organized, I don't have anxiety as bad. It's the chaos that stresses me out in life. Thank the good Lord above for a calm eleven days straight to sleep in, take my time and work at my own pace.

The only time that I left the house Friday, was to meet the Paramore's and Roberts at Steak-n-Shake for dinner. Afterwords, it was back home to rest.
Brooke and I went boutique shopping again on Saturday, December 30, 2017 (as if Christmas wasn't enough). We found the cutest things at a little boutique in Algood. Brooke fround a new dress, I found a cute shirt, I found a wall plague that I love, found the detergent that I love to wash my sheets in and found the line of purse that I carry. 

While we were shopping, Stoker had taken Brooke's jeep to a friends house. While there, a stomache virus set in on him. He was so sick that he actually text me to come pick him up.

By the time that I got there, he said he had thrown up and felt better.

Little did we know that it was just getting started. By 5pm he was SICK.

Needless to say, I slept on the couch

 It has been sooo cold this past week, that we better start saving our money to cover the heating expenses next month.

We had church on Sunday, December 31st with a guest speaker. Our pastor was on his way to Bimiji MN to help his son move. Apparently it is -30° there, which makes it seem warm here at 17°.

It was about 2 pm before Stroker started feeling better on Sunday.

It was almost dark when he realized what day it was and said "Hey,...it's new years eve"!

Of course, we were in bed and dozing off when 2018 rolled in.

If you ask me, that is the best way to bring in the new year.

Speedway In Lights

We got up Thursday morning, December 28, 2017 and laid around on the couch for a while. We had no plans for the day, so I said "Today would be a good day to go to Bristol and look at the lights"
I didn't think he would take me up on it, but he got up, got dressed and we took off after lunch.
When we arrived, it was still daylight (but freezing).  We drove around the parking lot, town and by the high school.

There was nothing to see in the daylight.  We ended up going to dinner at Cootie Browns.

By the time we were done eating, the Speedway was open and the Christmas lights were on.
We had a great time looking at the lights. Stoker liked the dinosaurs the best (I think). We drove around the track, which felt really strange at the corners. It kinda felt like the car was gonna flip. 

We parked, got hot chocolate and a funnel cake before loading back up and heading home.

The Course of Christmas

Brooke and I went to Katey's for Christmas movie night again this year on Thursday, December 21, 2017.  Amy P. arrived a little later and left a little early too. We watched ELF this year.

We had a Christmas pot luck dinner at the board on Friday, December 22nd.
Stroker, Brooke and I went by to the visitation of Jennifer's dad in Rickman Friday evening.
We had dinner at the Rose Garden with the Paramore's and Roberts.
On Saturday, December 23, 2017 I told Stroker that we should go ahead and deliver Bee and Mildred's fireplace so that they can be using it this week.
When we delivered it, they were not home. We had time to set it up and have it running by the time they came in.
On Christmas Eve, December 24, 2017, we went to daddy's after church.  Phyllis made some sandwiches and I took some pasta salad.  Gary and Darlene came out a little later. I got daddy some super hero socks and got Phyllis a copper skillet.

It sure is different not going to moms on Christmas Eve. This is the first Christmas Eve that I have ever missed.  I bet she is having a good Christmas Eve though. I can only imagine what it will be like to spend it with the One that we're celebrating. 

We had a candlelight service at church Sunday evening.

That has been one of my favorite Christmas activities these last several years.

We had a larger crowd this year. It is a very peaceful event.

After we got back home, we just sat on the couch and watched some TV.

Enjoying a silent night.

We got up Christmas morning, Monday, December 25, 2017 and had a quiet Christmas in the living room. We opened out gifts one by one and cleaned up our paper mess.

 

The doggy's sure enjoyed their Christmas bones.

 

We went to Mildred's for Christmas lunch and to take all the cousins their gifts.

Stroker went to pick up Bucket and brought him back over to Mildreds.

We hung out there most of the day.

We went back to visit on Tuesday, December 26, 2017. 

I got used to not getting up early after a few days into the holiday. 

Wednesday, December 27, I didn't even get out of bed until 9am.

I took down a few Christmas decorations, but not many.

We had lunch at Cheddars. We had class at church Wednesday night and we had dinner at Cracker Barrel.

Hayes House Christmas Deco Tour

I usually put up a tree and a couple of swags in the doorways. That is plenty of decoration for me. This year, the more that I looked at moms old decorations, the more I wanted to place them where I could see them. I put up greenery, ornaments, little trees and lights in every room practically.

Everything on this table is from moms

The bubble lights are my favorite 😍 ( I know I  have said that before)

Ignore the mess in the back room, I was still dragging out decorations 🙈

 I decorated with Santa's in the kitchen

The tree on the left has some vintage / retro flower lights that are from moms.

The garland with blue lights is from moms too. It's from the year that she said she had a "blue Christmas". I remember that year, we had a flocked tree and all the lights were blue on it too.

I

This framed photo is my favorite Christmas art.

"Every Knee Shall Bow"

The train set is moms and the nativity set is a set that I had bought mom a few years back.

Here is our tree and Mr. Snowman

I added other snowman displays to the living room since Mr. Snowman already called the theme.

As the weeks passed, the tree became more full.

 I had some lights and decoration left over, so I lit up the bedroom too.

Brooke didn't want her girly pink tree anymore, so I set it up at the office.

Brooke is into "minimalism" these days. She decorated her room with simple and basic decor.

She did her own shopping this year. Her tree has more gifts under it than ours.

Christmas Commitments

After I long day of the mundane on Thursday, December 7, 2017 I sat and watched Beauty and the Beast. It's not a Christmas movie, but you can't beat a good love story.

After I attended the support staff Christmas luncheon, We went to Granville Friday, December 8th for a Mayberry Christmas dinner show. The show was good and the dinner was great. We had an awesome time.

Brooke and I hit up several boutiques in Sparta on Saturday, December 9, 2017

As a matter of fact, we made a day of it. Our favorite spot was the Hickory Creek boutique. We literally told each other to stop looking and pay for the stuff we already picked out. We could have went broke in there.

We stopped for lunch at Miss Miranda's Tea Room. It fit the theme of the day. Just a quaint little shop with soups and sandwiches...oh, and tea of course.

Mr. Snowman was out again for another adventure on Saturday. He was even talked about on the radio.

We had a quick lunch after church on Sunday, December 10th. 

We had a set up in Baxter.

Turns out, that Santa and his reindeer were in Baxter too.

We dropped back by the Paramore's because they were having an "open house" to celebrate their son Brian's graduation from nursing school.

We picked up the tables and chairs from the Paramore's on Monday. 

Tuesday, December 12th I enjoyed a great lunch and great company (Linda) at the Clark House. 

For dinner, Stroker, Devin and I went to O'Charley's

At church on Wednesday, December 13, we studied about the long journey that Joseph and Mary had on their way back to Bethlehem and how the town was full due to the census.  We also practiced caroling.

I had brunch at American Bank and Trust Thursday morning, December 14, 2017.  I made Chili for dinner.

We went to see the live nativity after dinner at Anchor Down with the Paramore's Friday night, December 15.

We celebrated our annual Christmas with the Brooke's on Saturday, December 16th.

We had dinner at Demo's and drove through the Lebenon Christmas light show.

 

We had a Christmas concert at church on Sunday, December 17th with the Agee's. Heather came to our church to listen.

That whole family has talent.

After church, we had lunch at the Paramore's and then 

I had a hair appointment Sunday evening. I decided to make some changes.

Stroker and I went to the chorus Christmas concert on Monday, December 18. We had no idea that it was historically one of the best in the State. The students did an excellent job. Heather and Paris met us there to listen too.

On Tuesday, December 19, 2017 we made one more step toward finishing moms estate. We sold the car.  I met the lady at Kevin's to sign the paperwork.

We went caroling at church on Wednesday, December 20, 2017. Afterwords, we had hot chocolate and cupcakes.