Carl Crossman

One thing I really enjoy about Christmas time is the time I am able to spend with my family. Two of my cousins were able to stop by last night and stayed the night with us. They are on their way to Kentucky to visit even more family members. Even so, we had a nice time this morning sitting around the fire and playing a game of cards.

My Mom and I teamed up against them for a game of pinochle. Mom and I lost by one point but it was fun all the same. They will be leaving soon but it was nice to see them and catch up on family matters. Christmas is truly magical for those who are fortunate enough to have family to spend it with.

Written by Sonny Quinn

I woke up this morning, raised the shade in my bedroom window and was surprised to see that it had snowed overnight. This is the first snow of winter this year. The first snow is always special to me for some reason. I remember as a child that when the first snow came, we would all race home, grab our sleds and head for the nearest hill.

It didn’t matter that there may have been only one inch of snow on the ground when we got there and it wasn’t good for sledding, but, we would wait. Sometimes we waited for hours for the conditions to be just right. Once they were, we would set sail down those hills on our sleds as fast as we could. The races we had were fantastic, the crashes were always fun for some reason and just the general comraderie we felt with our friends was worth all of the cold and runny noses.

Today, I still get that feeling when I see the first snow of winter. I think maybe I should grab my sled and hit the hills. I am sure my back and legs would not appreciate that, so I think I’ll leave that for the kids and just watch. Once we have finished out sledding, we can all go inside and watch a great movie on our satellite tv from www.DirectStarTV.com.

Thanks for the post from Al Mills

This past Black Friday I found some really wonderful deals at Walmart. The best deal would be the $199 laptop, which retails for about $500! I was there just after midnight on Thursday morning, and was in line to get it and after about 30 minutes of waiting I did! I am currently using the new laptop to write this blog for you, and couldn’t be happier with my deicsion to go out and shop on Black Friday at Walmart.

It was a successful trip, lots of great deals, and lots of new things were bought. I easily saved over $500 on my purchases this day, so I cannot complain about the lines and the waiting, it was well worth it. I got home around 6am, made a cup of coffee, sat ont he couch and watched some Satellite TV and just relaxed.

I am definitely looking foward to going out next yearr on Black Friday and getting some more great deals. This was my first year going and shopping on this crazy day, but in the end it was a successful trip and will be made again in years to come!

Over the years I’ve always just bough Hannukah gifts instead of make them because I’ve never really had the time to make any of them. But this year, I was determined to break that streak and make at least one gift this year.

I picked up quilting as a hobby over the summer and thought that I could try and make a Hannukah themed quilt for fun and give it to my daughter. So I went online with my CLEAR Wimax and found some patterns for what I was thinking about doing.

Out of all the quilts that I considered making, I settled on a dreidel quilt that I thought would be nice for my daughter to put on her couch in her apartment around Hannukah time to be fun and festive. IÕm actually almost through making it too, which will give me a little bit of breathing room before I have to start cleaning my house and getting every little thing ready for everyone to come home for Hannukah. I love having everyone home, but itÕs also so stressful until they finally come.

On the way back from purchasing a brand new pair of Digital Hearing Aids downtown, my husband and I went home to purchase an old-fashioned ice cream maker on the internet: one that was similar to the model we had years ago. Every year, Tim and I like to add a little something to our familiesÕ Thanksgiving experience, and this year we thought we would do a little homemade ice cream. We thought it would be a great accompaniment to the desserts we are planning, and we also thought the old-fashioned machine would be an interesting conversation piece. The ice cream maker should prove to be a lot of fun for everyone.

We also thought it might be humorous to buy a few pilgrim hats for our grandkids. Our daughter tells us that our grandchildren are learning about Thanksgiving in their elementary school, and we thought they would have a lot of fun with the hats. Thanksgiving is coming right up, and Tim and I are still thinking of a few extra things we can add to our holiday get-together. When it comes to special occasions were very adamant about giving our family something very fun and memorable.