THANKS!  I am thankful for all of my friends who showed care and concern for me... special thanks to Zakiah for the research and the contacts she made, and for getting me in touch with Eugenia, who gave me the link I needed in order to pay for my membership to be renewed.   Thank you to Eugenia for that information; it is good to be back to blogging again.

So . . . where have I been this week? I have been writing our annual update letter, and am still working on getting out Christmas cards and letters, and I have also been doing some decorating of our living room.

I created my own card (with the help of a site that graciously allows folks to use the clipart for free).  Also, one thing that I enjoy doing is making collages, including creating a photographic "recap" of the year.  A lot of the pictures you may have seen if you have followed me throughout this year. I am sharing the card and the collages with you in the rest of this post.  I won't plan to put up another blog until Christmas day (since we celebrate with our family on Christmas Eve), but I shall try to keep up with visiting all of you my friends, who are much better at updating than I am. 

That being said, HAVE A BLESSED CHRISTMAS!  ~ Love, Carolyn

I decided to use the dark meat & giblet gravy from Thanksgiving to make a pot pie for supper.  But since Mom doesn't like giblet gravy, I made up a nice concoction  to make a second pot pie with some of the white turkey meat.  The two pies turned out beautifully, and they both received rave reviews from those who ate it.  Here is the before supper picture.

The second picture shows how much Mike, Mom, and I ate.

As you can see, my photo turned out kind of fuzzy, but you get

the idea.

I am so glad that we are inside of our nice warm house.  It is 19 degrees (but with a chill factor of 4 degrees. It snowed most of  the day, and we are supposed to get more overnight.  I am always concerned for our older son on these cold nights, especially when it is nasty out, too. He delivers pizza.

Due to our mobility issues, we plan to stay home from church tomorrow morning. {Mom has to walk with a walker; Mike is totally blind, but has very firm footing; I have post-polio, and walk with braces (& do not do well in ice and snow) ... though I do very well getting around otherwise.

However, my brother will pick us up so that we can all go to our church's special Christmas program (one showing at 2 p.m. & one at 6 p.m.) He will let the three of us out at the front porch of our church.  It will be nice to go together all four of us. Here is the link to the site of our church's musical program.

I will post pictures of the cold outside world tomorrow, or sometime soon.

Hope you all have a blessed Sunday.

p.s. - If you like to listen to Christmas hymns played on the piano,  I recommend this blog.  Cory shares his talents with piano teachers and piano students, as well as with those who enjoy all sorts of other piano music on his YouTube site.

1. How do I make sure that my Xanga account stays active after my current subscription is  expired– supposedly in 3 days?

2. I can’t find a way to pay & update my account. Also, I can’t find the “Profile information” – about people on Xanga as I used to be able to do with the older Xanga. Is it osomewhere that I just haven’t located yet?  Finding out if a person’s gender, country, interests, etc.

3. If I want to ask to follow a person who has a lock on their blog, how do I request that?

I have lots of other questions, but I will stop here for now. Thanks for your help.

   This is a really well done, informative piece of work done by one of my cousins, about being responsible recyclers of e-waste. The video needed to have at least 100 views by Wednesday, December 4th, but it has over that now.   I learned a lot from it, so I'm posting it here for anyone else who would like to see it:   VIDEO

A few collages from the past two weeks.

I. Thanksgiving meal was fixed by the whole family (except husband Mike, whose contribution was to stay out of the kitchen until dish-washing time).  In addition to Mom and us, were my brother Don, and our daughter-in-law Amber (who with our son Tom live in our downstairs apartment)....  poor Tom had a migraine.

II.  Carolyn's Kitchen: I try to provide lots of variety and yummy meals that will please most everyone. Sometimes I take pictures of the meals that I create.  Mom likes to cook and especially to bake, and so she has contributed as well!

III. Grandchildren cuteness:

IV. Inspirational quote & picture

"Leave the broken, irreversible past in God's hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him."     (Oswald Chambers)