Hill Country Lights

We visited Park Ranger's parents in Fredericksburg on Christmas Day, and one of our activities was to see the Christmas lights in Johnson City. Johnson City was not known for it's lights when I lived there, but it is known for that now and deservedly so. We saw the Blanco County Courthouse. It was completely draped in white lights. They had horse drawn carriages giving people tours of the displays.

After the Courthouse, we went to see Dexter Haynes' display north of town. I'll have to admit that Dexter's display was quite impressive also.

And then to top off the evening, we saw the trees at the Pedernales Electric Cooperative. Every trunk of the old live oak trees were completely wrapped in white lights as well as lights in the leaves of the trees. It was quite a winter wonderland and something one should see if in the area during the holidays.

She's Baaack!!!!

Hello readers. I'm back! My family and friends have a been after me to blog again, so here I am. Life distracted me for a while, but the gift of an iPad from my family has motivated me to get back to writing. We'll start things out light and easy this morning with a little craft blog.

Last year, after Christmas, my daughter Amy and I started couple of projects for the next Christmas. These little Santa ornaments were my project. I gave them away as favors to all the friends and family that visited during the holidays this year. They are made with chili peppers that I bought by the bag at the grocery store. I used craft paint to paint the faces and beard and glued a pom-pom on the end of the stem for the hat. All of the chilies have a natural curved stem that gives an adorable, unique look to each Santa. The stem is also used for the hanger. Cute, huh?

My next craft is a crocheted project. They are scrubbies crocheted with nylon net. they are a little labor intensive but worth it. You buy the net by the yard and have to cut it into 2 inch strips, then you have to tie the strips together. This is a vital step, because the tied ends provide the stuffing for the scrubbie. You crochet two discs and then slip stitch them together. The stiff, rough net makes great dish scrubbers. The softer net makes a great bath loofah.

Stay tuned for more projects.

Celebration

The fourth of July has always been a holiday for fun times with the family.  This year, Park Ranger and I ended up not having any plans for the holiday.  Katie and Tim went to Arkansas.  Amy was floating on the river with Andrea and Nate.  We didn't have a thing planned.

Amy's roommate, Lindsay, and her boyfriend, Mike, decided to make a trip to the DFW area to see the sights.  They asked if they could stay at our house.  Of course, we told them we would be delighted for them to stay with us.  They ended up not getting to the house until after 10 on Saturday night.  Sunday, we went to church, and then went to have hamburgers at Chaps for lunch.  On the way home, we decided to stop at the Ballpark and see if we could get tickets for the Rangers vs. White Sox game.  We were able to get tickets--yay!

At lunch, we were throwing around some ideas for the rest of the day.  Someone brought up the idea of making cookies. I am always game for someone to help me make cookies.  So I enlisted Lindsay and Mike, and we made cutout sugar cookies of flags and fireworks.

The  Ballpark is a fabulous place to spend the 4th.  They had about 150 young men and women take their oath to be inducted into the Air Force.They had an F-16 flyover, which is guaranteed to get me fired up.  They had a huge flag in the outfield and some great singers singing the National Anthem.

The game was a stinky game.  The Rangers lost the game.  They didn't get beat, they lost it.  After the game, they always have a fireworks display.  It is always fabulous--hearing the patriotic music on the big speakers and seeing the fireworks up close and personal.  Lindsay and Mike enjoyed themselves, and we enjoyed being with them.  They spent another night and left on Monday morning.

We got up early on Monday morning and got the lawn mowed and weedeated for the festivities later on that afternoon. 

On the way to the Ballpark, I heard from my brother, Terry.  He was on his way through Arlington and wanted to stop by.  I told him that we weren't at home and what did he have planned for the next day?  They didn't have anything planned, so they came over in the afternoon for hotdogs and homemade ice cream.  Terry's comment to me was, "What kind of homemade banana ice cream are we going to have?"  Needless to say, I made banana ice cream.  It was some of the best I have ever made.  It got rave reviews.  I don't think my family could remember my homemade ice cream, it had been so long since I had made it.  Katie, Tim and TJ got home from Arkansas at about 5:00, so they came over also. 

Even though we didn't have much planned, we ended up having a full weekend and thoroughly enjoyed and celebrated this Independence Day.