Another belated post: Christmas in July 2019

Our sweet daughter-in-law, Jamie, absolutely loves Christmas! Since joining the family, she has introduced us to a new tradition; Christmas in July. Each summer, she goes all out with decorations, gifts, and a delicious meal. This year, we thought we might not get it squeezed in with the crazy schedules everyone had going on. But, we managed to find a Saturday when almost everyone was free! We were missing Gerson and Seth this year. 

To increase the level of insanity, Jamie introduced a marathon of crazy games for us to play. We had to pin Rudolph's nose on ourselves by slinging around a pom-pom on a ribbon. We had to shovel snow (cotton balls) from one bowl to another with a spoon held in our mouths. And, we had to use our face muscles to move a cookie placed on our foreheads into our mouths. I've decided I am NOT any good at crazy games. Luckily, we had happy winners for all the games. 

Instead of drawing names for a gift exchange this year, we all brought a White Elephant gift. I personally think the things Scott and I took were the best; but, I'm sure those who received them might think differently.  There are captions on the pictures to explain each gift and who received it. 

The pictures below are some that Jamie took that day. My camera was dropped on our road trip to South Dakota and has a huge scratch on the lens. I just haven't managed to replace it so I've fallen down on the picture taking duties for family gatherings. Thank goodness Jamie is pretty dependable about taking pictures! I screen shot these all off her Facebook page; but I'm sure she will forgive me.

The twins waiting the arrival of their cousins.

   

Sophie choosing Scott's gift: Ryan's old skateboard wrapped
in aluminum foil.

Her alternative gift selection was a condiment
vest for your pet. 

Sophia selected the gift I took. A HUGE box of
old clothes that Ryan left at Scott's house.
She was particularly confused when she pulled out
an old pair of underwear.

Leslie got a gross picture of her and G touching
tongues.  YUCK!

Scott got a coloring book with farting
animal pictures.

 Jamie always manages to give each of us some thoughtful little gift. She gave the girls Christmas hats. The Ohio State fans some super cool scarves. And she gave me some yummy smelling lotions from Bath and Body Works.

Maggie wearing her hat...

Sophia rocking her's...

Leslie and Becca with their scarves...

Silly Samantha being Samantha...

Poppy (clean shaven... which we all agreed just looked weird)
in his scarf.

The Buckeye fans...

Sophie in her hat..

And "Dan" with her new mug and hat. 

Jamie and Samantha...

Sophia modeling the doggie condiment vest. 

 And, last but not least, a few random shots taken during game time. I felt like we were all on Minute to Win It! The girls had a blast and I think the more competitive members of the family did too. 

Doing the cookie shuffle...

I can't remember who won any of the games.

Poppy wearing his nose. I think he actually won this game.

Ryan wearing his Rudolph nose.

Dorothy and Leslie shoveling snow.

Mimi shoveling snow.

Sophie shoveling snow.

Jamie, thanks so much for a new tradition and yet another reason to gather with this crazy bunch of people I love so much. 

At long last: a post for Sophie's birthday.

The worst thing about forgetting to post is disappointing the grands.  Mags and Sophie read the blog often and they were the ones that pointed out I had not posted about Sophie's birthday celebration. The second worst thing about forgetting to post is all of the forgetting that goes along with procrastinating. Here is what I remember. (Maybe Maggie and Sophie can fill in the blanks after they read this and I'll do some editing.)

Sophie wanted to spend her birthday at a lake near where they live. It was a beautiful, man-made, and well maintained park called Burger Lake. It has a picnic area, water slides, a small snack bar, lots of life guards and friendly staff. The water is cool and clean (for a lake) and has a relatively smooth sandy bottom. All in all, really nice facilities.

The family drove up at met at the lake, staked out our area at some tables in the shade, and started the grill.  Gerson did some grilling since he doesn't swim, and Ron kept him company. The rest of us escaped from the heat by hanging out in the lake, watching the kids play. There were a lot of people there; but, the place is so large and well thought out so it didn't seem that crowded. The only down side is the parking and the entrance. Those can be a little crazy!

After swimming and eating, we left the lake before it got too hot. They ask everyone to get out of the lake around noon to give the life guards a break and do any clean up that's needed. It is the perfect time to leave because it beats the afternoon crowd. We all went back the Hotel Gutierrez and enjoyed one of Aunt Jamie's delicious cakes, ice cream, and present opening.

I'm pretty sure others took some pictures, so maybe I'll screen shot them and add them later. In the meantime, here are the ones I took.

Samantha, Sophie, Sophia, and Maggie

Gerson in his strange Uncle Sam outfit.

Ryan, Jamie, Samantha, Maggie, Sophie, Leslie, and Rebecca

Sophie, Samantha, and Sophia

Birthday Girl, Sophie on the water slide

Samantha on the lower diving board.

Maggie on the diving board

Sophia running off the diving board

presents!!!

twinning with the cousin

Reading her cards

Oooo! MONEY!!

Uncle Scotts yearly gift of change. One dollar for every year.

HUGS!!

It's just what she wanted!

Why?  .... I don't know.

Cake time with lots of candles to blow out.

YUMMY!

Happy Belated Birthday Post, Sophie Lyn. I'll try really hard to not procrastinate next year. Love you bunches!!

Retirement Bucket List: The Mercantile, Pawhuska, OK

Retirement brings an opportunity to do the many things I put off while I was working because I didn't "have time." Little did I realize, some of the things that I now have the free time to do, would still need to be planned around work schedules.  Not mine... my family's! Visiting Pawhuska, Oklahoma to shop at Ree Drummond's shops is no longer on my retirement bucket list.

I have been a fan of The Pioneer Woman since Ron bought me an eReader for my birthday several years ago. Her biography was one of the free books that came on the device. When I read her story, I was impressed with her can do attitude and generous spirit. That led to following her blog and watching her from time to time on television. When she released her kitchen line through Wal-Mart, I fell in love with her choice of colors and patterns. I don't have a lot of her things; but, what I do own, I love.

Going to Pawhuska with Ron didn't really seem like a lot of fun, so I never suggested it as a stop on any of our road trips. The women in our family have talked about taking a girls trip so I thought my birthday would be a great weekend to plan this particular trip.  I posted it on our family Facebook page and hoped for the best. Sadly, work and scheduling conflicts kept Rebecca and Jamie from going. But, Leslie gave up one of her weekends to tag along.

If you have ever driven in North Texas, around the Ft. Worth/Dallas area, you know you can't count on Yahoo Maps prediction of a 5 1/2 hour drive time actually working out. We left Leslie's house in Ft. Worth around 1:45 on a Friday afternoon, expecting to arrive in Bartlesville around 6:00 - 6:30. Ha! We rolled in closer to 8:00 because of the crazy traffic. Luckily, that turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

I had though we would have time to head over from Bartlesville from Pawhuska and get a head start on our sight seeing/shopping Friday evening. Since that didn't work out, we left Saturday morning, earlier than planned. Here is the blessing part. The Mercantile opens at 7:00 a.m. so when we got there, there was hardly anyone there at all!! We browsed through the store, got an idea of what we wanted to actually buy, then ate breakfast in The Bakery. I had the pumpkin scone and hot chocolate and Leslie has The Everything Croissant. Everything was so good!! We didn't eat lunch in the restaurant because by the time we check on making a reservation, they had a 2 1/2 hour waiting list. Instead, we hit Main Street to see the sites and do some shopping.
There are several unique shops in town; all in older, original buildings. Everything has a quaint feel; but is very tourist centered. Lots of iron work, Western themed items, candles, jewelry, clothing, and antiques.  We decided to go back to The Mercantile and make our final purchases, then head back to the hotel to check out early. Sweet Leslie paid for what I had picked out as a birthday gift. Thanks, Leslie!
I'm sure there are lots of other things to do in the area. But, we didn't do any research beforehand; and, I really just wanted to see The Mercantile, The Bakery, and Charlie's Sweet Shop. Check, check, and check.
I still haven't replaced my camera (it has a huge scratch on the lens) so had to take pics with the iPad. Sadly, there aren't many to share.

This had to be the most delicious scone I've ever tasted. The hot chocolate was amazingly creamy and rich. Neither one was in any way a disappointment.

The end of the bakery counter has an assortment of kid friendly bake ware. Such cute things!
Around the corner is a set of windows where you can stand and actually watch the bakery items being made. 

One of the most interesting buildings in town was the Triangle Building.
Don't know the history or story of the current use; just thought it was cool.

The Mercantile and Bakery are in the same building. The bakery is upstairs;
and, the restaurant and store are downstairs.

There was a really old, run down building on the top of a hill
across the street from the main shopping area. I found out once I got home
that is used to be the Osage County Courthouse.
Such a cool building just falling apart!

The Mercantile has just about everything you could possibly want for your kitchen. I didn't see many rugs or place mats, like the ones I bought from Wal-Mart. But, they have the most
adorable collection of dish towels!

Living in an RV is a choice I have not regretted. It does impact what I buy though. Everything must be lightweight, small, durable, and absolutely necessary. I've been trying to get buy with one plastic measuring cup. That doesn't really work, so I picked up her cute stainless steel set. I also got rid of our large plastic strainer and replaced it with the sweet, tiny one. My favorite, which isn't absolutely necessary, is the sifter. Isn't it too cute???
Thank you again, Leslie.

So, our trip wasn't as well attended as I had hoped, took a more adventurous drive than expected, and was much shorter than planned. But, I loved every minute of it. Next stop, Missouri Star Quilting Company, Hamilton MO!!! Who wants to go along?