Bird watching with Daddy's background music

Please watch the video in my Snipits, it is worth your time, trust me!

It has been a blast visiting with my family of origin the past few days. It doesn't take long for Daddy to get his fill of me and Pat laughing and "cutting up." He hates to admit it I think, but he enjoys at least some of it.

Jr. gave all of us some wonderful news either yesterday, the day before, or possibly even today. The days tend to run together these days. I had more or less come to the resolve that we (the family of origin as I often refer to it, and the spouses, children, etc.) would not be spending Christmas together this year after all.

Somewhere in the mix and furry of the excitement of Pat being able to be in Arkansas for Christmas for the first time in 30 years, I assumed (and yes, I do know what "they" say about assuming!) we would somehow all be together. As it turns out, Pat and I were the only ones who were privy to that information or assumption. 

It seems that everyone else's ESP antennae were not up concerning my/our wishes on the matter. Oh well, even through all of the confusion,  all worked out for the best, anyway. Actually, everything worked out even better than I had imagined! 

Jr. inquired of a local Bed and Breakfast their holiday schedule and found that though their original plan had been to be closed during Christmas, the owners very graciously offered to allow Jr. and family to be their guests once they discovered his "connections" with Mom and Daddy.

What a blessing for us all! It certainly is a dream come true for Pat and myself.  It remains to be seen whether our parents consider it a blessing since we will all three (children) be under one roof again. LOL

Our church Progressive Supper draws nigh. As I may have mentioned, we, collectively, will be visiting 5 different houses for the following dinner courses: Appetizers, Soup, Salad, Entree, and Dessert. Tom and I will be hosting the "soup" portion of the meal. A fellow church member will be making a venison stoup (a cross between a soup and a stew). She made the "mistake" of mentioning how good her homemade venison soup was and before she knew it, she was recruited into supplying her masterpiece for our portion of the dinner.  We supplied her with freshly frozen meat from my eight-point bagged earlier this year. She didn't act as if she minded too terribly much. Grin.....

Tom had told me about this fantastic "Cheeseburger Soup" his sister, Barb, "wow'd" him with a number of years ago. With little encouragement, he called Barb and secured the recipe so that I could do my best to replicate the soup that made such an impression on my husband. I am hopeful it will "go over" Friday night. I will do my utmost to please the crowd.

I wish to have another soup or stew to go along with the other two to offer a bit more of a choice. Possibly something meatless.  I should have given myself more time to shuffle through my cookbooks and my favorite recipe sites on the Internet. It is a good thing I work well under pressure. Yeah, right...... I should, I suppose, because I never take advantage of time, I frequently allow time to run out and find myself frantically trying to meet a self-imposed deadline. Such is my world....

Home again, I am happily reunited with my husband. He is without exception, the most patient, loving, accepting, one-of-a-kind man I am so blessed to have in my life. I am not sure why he loves me, but for whatever reason, I am thankful. He is precious, and I am his biggest fan. Tom is everything to me as he is who I have always wanted, always needed. Strangely, he has said much the same of me. Love divinely designed.

Today is the birthday of my father-in-law, Murry. He's quite the character and I am very fond of him. He has a quirky personality and sense of humor which I find endearing. He teases me unmercifully at times and I adore it. Happy Birthday, Dad.

Because of the recent sleet and icy road conditions, BeeJay's has been closed. I attempted to reach anyone who happened to be in, but unfortunately, my attempts were unfruitful. Perhaps tomorrow, eh?

A Little Off.....