Texas!!

I got to go on an adventure last weekend!! 

I hopped a couple planes and ended up in Dallas, TX! First and foremost to see my hubby and secondly to go someplace I have always wanted to go.

ATHENS TEXAS!! 

Athens is where my Grandma M. grew up, and where her mom and sister stayed. 

The highlight besides just being there was finding their home! It is an office now and was unfortunately closed so I did not get to go in. But just being there, knowing that was were my grandma had played as a little girl and said good bye to her mama when she went off to the war as a nurse was oh so sweet!

This is my great-grandma in front of the house, this picture and the other two were pictures my grandma took with her to the Canal Zone that I found in an old wallet of hers.

After leaving the house we found the Methodist Church and talked with a couple parishioners who were familiar to the area, we were wondering where the old Methodist church was so I could see where my family had worshiped. Sadly it is gone, but my great-grandma and my aunt would have been there when they built the new one and would have worshiped there. 

We were also able to find out from them which of the cemeteries they would most likely be in. AND!! We found them!!

Tabitha is my great-great grandmother, Ann's mother.

Ann is my great-grandmother and name sake to my sister and my little Leili.

Dorothy is my great-aunt, she and my grandma were great friends, they often talked on the phone even though long distance was so expensive. I remember answering the phone at my grandma's house and chatting a little with aunt Dorothy and always being so amazed with how much she sounded like my grandma!

May was a mystery to me. But she was in the family plot and obviously carried our family name. I searched her out when I got home, she is Ann's half sister. Tabitha raised her after marrying my great-great grandfather after he was widowed. 

Sadly my trip was super short and the only Texas wildflowers I saw were on this beautiful mosaic in the airport. I am glad to have gone somewhere on my "bucket list" but this one is not crossed off! I am already plotting my trip back! 

It was so wonderful and I am so glad I got to do it with Dan!

Yarn Along!

Knitting and reading are two very different but essential things I use to make it through life! Knitting helps with keeping my hands busy and using up anxiety, where reading is an escape from life and anxiety!

I recently finished Into the Wild by John Krakauer for bookclub and then dove right into Nikolas and the Pantheon Trials written by a friend from college, Dallas Graham. Nikolas is turning out to be a great read! I highly recommend it!!!

And I just finished another Pebble Vest, this one for a friend's new baby boy! And then started on some mittens for me because its flippen cold!!! They are to wear over my gloves when I am outside. 

And that is the happenings for this weeks yarn along!

A Review...

 I have neglected this space this year, not consciously but just because this year was a whirl wind. A whirl wind that takes over and overshadows everything else. But I will try to be present in this space this year and so I will start with a quick review of last year in a few pictures I found on my computer! 

 Leili in January learning letters the yummy way!

 Girl Scouts is always a great (and yummy) part of the year!

 Jake my ever helpful boy/yarn swift in February!

 March was a little warmer and our outdoor adventures started.

 Mono Lake, one of my favorite places. Jake and I flew by when we helped my sister & family move in April.

Chickens and Riley hugs.

 Leili the lizard catcher with friends.

 A Tahoe getaway in May.

 Mother's Day on a boat!

Around the fire on the beach making smores at Tahoe.

 Riley roads the Tahoe Rim Trail again this June.

 Camping with friends at Pyramid Lake in July.

Celebrating the end of radiation with my mom in August with a hot pink mohawk!

 Saying a painful good bye in September.

 Making the best of traveling for services at Devils Post-pile near Mammoth in October...

 And Mono Lake...

 And Travertine Hot Springs near Bridgeport.

 And then November brought our much needed snow!

 Thanksgiving hike with friends!

Our Winter Solstice walk at sunset.

Christmas celebrated with Daddy here with us!

And we ended the year standing in line to see the new Star Wars!

There was much in-between, some was on instagram if you want to see more but now lets shake off the old and get into the new!

Happy 2016!

Yarn Along

Joining Ginny today for her Yarn Along!

For book club this month we chose a whopper! East of Eden, all 601 pages! But I like Steinbeck's writing style so it is easy to read and get engulfed in the storytelling (although I have already been surprised at some things I never would have guessed he'd write about...).

Knitting report: I finished one of my gnome baby hats and gave it away and have another cast on already, both in Cascade 220. When I went back to Jimmy Beans for more Cascade 220 the very nice (and enabling) gentleman invited me into the back room where they keep sale yarn and past limited edition colors...SO DANGEROUS! I splurged on this Madelintosh Chunky in Cove, the picture dose not do it justice!

Also pictured is the balaclava I am making for Riley. The whole thing has not been going great and now the shaping/decreasing is REALLY not going well at all. I am actually considering frogging the whole thing. I've already frogged back bits and pieces fixing things and really this is starting to seem like a lost cause. Maybe I can find a different pattern or have Riley pick a completely different something for this yarn.

Yarn Along ~ Finished Gifts!

Joining Ginny today for the Yarn Along!

Well...Christmas came and my knitting aspirations did prove to be a little too big. The balaclavas for the boys ran into a major hitch, and the shawls for the girls proved to be a project I could not do around them or even one very easy to take along, but I did get the shawls finished! The balaclavas will take a bit of frogging and  re-working. 

These are the same pattern as the first shawl I made for myself a couple years ago, I wear it tons!

HERE is the ravelry link.

Happy New Year!

The In-between!

The beauty of lights, warmth of making and baking, family on a long dark Solstice night, and celebrating the gift all mankind received on the very first Christmas day! It was all so simple, we did not do everything but it felt so lovely and blessed. And now in the "in-between" we all feel a bit like Petunia in this last picture. Content to relax, enjoy, and just be. I hope this feeling can last as long into the New Year as it possibly can!

Merry Making!

This year I have purposely created time for the small fun things we love about the Christmas season and have purposely chosen to not do things that bring more stress than merry! So far this has been going really well, I hate feeling like Christmas is so overwhelming that I want to skip the whole thing. Hopefully we have not overly offended people but in the grand scheme... 

So here is a bit of our merry making so far!

Saying YES to mini marshmallows!

Our Winter/Advent nature table is one of my favorites.

I am going to be so sad when I don't have a little one who gets excited for the Little People Nativity. I both this for Riley's first Christmas.

Nativity art is always so sweet!

Kirsten got the Lucia outfit this year! And that Nutcracker just next to her is the one my mom splurged on when I was 5 and she took me to see the Nutcracker for the first time.

St. Nickolas Tag ~ we learn about the St. Nickolas and his desire to tell children of the coming Christ Child's birth. December 6th we wake to stockings full!

Christmas crafting with friends!

St. Lucia ~ the Saint of Light celebrated with light and warm goodies!

Cold snowy mornings enjoyed indoors with noses pressed against the windows and warm cups of tea.

Beautiful, yummy, Texas pecans! I could be back in my Grandma's house with the ceramic light up tree when I taste these! 

Beautiful Christmas music and performances! 

And finally a tree carried by my guy...I am a lucky mama!

What are your favorite ways to make merry?