short story

Hi Family,

My brother had someone email this to him and he shared it on our blog. I thought it was so good I wanted to share it with you all.


Who Started This Christmas Stuff?

A woman was out Christmas shopping with her two children. After many hours of looking at row after row of toys and everything else imaginable; and after hours of hearing both her children asking for everything they saw on those many shelves, she finally made it to the elevator with her two kids. She was feeling what so many of us feel during the holiday season time of the year - overwhelming pressure to go to every party, every housewarming, taste all the holiday food and treats, getting that perfect gift for every single person on our shopping list, making sure we don't forget anyone on our card list, and the pressure of making sure we respond to everyone who sent us a card. Finally the elevator doors opened, and there was already a crowd in the car. She pushed her way into the car and dragged her two kids in with her and all the bags of stuff. When the doors closed, she couldn't take it anymore and she stated, "Whoever started this whole Christmas thing should be found, strung up and shot." From the back of the car, everyone heard a quiet, calm voice respond, "Don't worry, we already crucified Him." For the rest of the trip down in the elevator, it was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop.

This year, don't forget to keep "the One who started this whole Christmas thing" in your every thought, deed, purchase and words. If we all did it, just think of how different this whole world would be.

Remembering the reason for the season

Hi from Donna

Good to hear the last postings. Really enjoyed the pictures Hannah. Your memory is correct I do like lighthouses and am honored to know you thought of me when you were visiting the lighthouses on your trip.

We got lots of snow last night, was hoping for a "snow day" but didn't have one, so it was off to Nicole's school to sub for the 3rd day this week for the librarian who is out sick. I was also scheduled at Kohl's Mon & Wed 9:30 pm - 6 am, so that makes finding time for sleep a bit more challenging. I'll definately be sleeping in during the day Thursday.

We finally went and picked out our Christmas tree Sunday. It's very nicely shaped and the girls and Dave did a great job decorating it after I got the lights on it. Overall our decorating has been slow in getting done, not enough hours in the day for all we have going on.

The girls are singing in the Christmas Eve program at church again this year. We are looking forward to seeing the Weber siblings & families soon. It'll be great to see all. I need to run now, will write more later.
Love,
Donna

Well, I appear to be a bit behind, so a picture is worth a thousand words, right? Here are 5,000 words and more...

One of our planned events as a group in Ireland was an evening of crazy bowling at the alley in the town just to the north of us. My hair started out standing vertical, but unfortunately it didn't last to the end of the evening, perhaps I messed up my hair when I scored my only strike of the evening...I ran and slid on my stomach, releasing the bowling ball with outstreached arms and all 10 pins went down! (No bumpers, either!)

This is my friend Nicole and I at the top of Hook Lighthouse along the southern coast. It was very cold and very windy that day, especially at the top! Good thing I went prepared with 3 additional sweatshirts on this trip, but I did have to sacrifice my jacket. Wonder of wonders, it no longer fit over all of my layers...

The girls I am with in this picture are Rachel and Katie. I am assuming this is one of the ruined castles we visited, but I don't remember. They all run together to a certain extent and I did not label my pictures very well, I guess.

This is Hook Lighthouse. If I remember, Donna is the lighthouse fan? If not, well then I don't know what I was associating lighthouses with, but anyways, I thought of you when I was there, Donna ;)

Aaaaaand...last one. Blogger only allows 5 picture uploads at a time. But, for my birthday, the 2 girls in the picture (Melissa and Chelsea, as well as Christy behind the camera) took me down to Dublin for the day. We walked around, ate our packed lunches, and did some shopping. At one point during the day we stopped to listen to some street musicians. (String quartet with a very lively fiddler!) and before I knew what was happening, I was being pushed forward and the musicians, who had been clued in by Chelsea, played me happy birthday. It was one of the most exciting happy birthday songs I've received to say the least! And to end the day and top it all off, the girls bought me Burger King and flowers and let me wear my crown all night long!

The whole rest of the trip was fantastic, save the 40 hours I was awake by the time I got to Appleton (mosly my own fault...oops...welcome to college) but it was good to see mom and I slept for 14 hours straight through the night!

Now these days after having resumed life in Wisconsin, I spend my days relieving mom of her Christmas goody baking while she's at school! I wake up and find a recipe on the counter with butter out to soften! And other than the cleaning and unpacking, I think it has been the most relaxing 3 weeks or so I've ever experienced...I'm almost ready to go back to school, but I better be careful what I say! January 5th will be here before I know it!

Wow, I had been behind in posing, so I was going to toss up just a small update but that ended up being quite long! Sorry! Hope the pictures were enjoyable. It seems the rest of you are doing well...always good to hear! Well, I wish I could share more, but as wonderful as blogger communication is, it is slightly limited. I can't wait to see you all!

Life is Good !!

Good Sunday Morning,

Guess it's time for me to write a LONG blog. Hope I don't bore you with stuff we're doing here.

I just got home from chruch, and Grandpa just got home from helping the Tennis Club with highway trash pickup. I asked him if he found anything interesting and he said yes, a Rolex watch. The interesting thing is that one of the crew had lost it earlier. How lucky is that?

Last night we had 2 couples for dinner. After dinner we played Mexican Train Dominos. After being invited out for 2 nice dinners at Thanksgiving, it's pay back time.

Friday night we went to Tubac, a quaint artsy town 20 miles south of here. They have tons of luminary lights. It is really neat to see. Then all the shops have goodies. Tubac is a place where you go, for the most part, to admire everyone's work but don't buy much because it is out of our price range.

Tuesday night I went to the Christmas Symphony with a friend. Grandpa was glad a friend asked me to go with her. That way he was off the hook and he could go and play sheepshead. He enjoys his card night!!

Last Saturday night we went to see the movie Australia. It was good, and long.

Gary, your Christmas tree sounds great. Our decorating amounts to putting garland and lights on the TV cabinet, putting a 2 ft. tree on a table, and I bought a bundle of fresh greens to put in a vase. We also put lights on the carport and a wreath on the front door. I miss not putting up my big tree with a ZILLION ornaments! I don't think many people have big trees here because the houses are small. A lot do decorate outside though.

Now, I know you don't want to hear this, but the weather here has been good. This is the 6th warmest fall on record, 13 degrees above normal. They call for some days in the high 60's this week, but it has been in the 70's everyday. Actually, it's cloudy today, the 2nd cloudy day since we got here. It's amazing to me how it can be 40 degrees when we get up and by 9:30 we can be on the tennis court in shorts and a tee shirt. It may only be in the low 50's, but with the sun, it feels wonderful. Anyway, I'm so thankful we're able to be here in the warmer weather.

So, life IS good here. We miss you all a lot and hope you all stay healthy. (Or, get back to being healthy)

Love and Hugs,
Grandma