Friday Faves

I am so excited to be back for this week's Friday's Fave Five with my friend Susanne of 

Living to Tell the Story Here are my "more than five things" in no particular order.

• Thought-provoking Movie - Josh and I went to see this movie last Saturday.  It is an excellent, well-done documentary by Adam Carolla and Dennis Prager about how some conservative viewpoints are not allowed to be expressed on college campuses - a troubling attack on free speech.  I wish more people would go to see this movie.  Sure is something to think about.  

• Upcoming Performances- A group of friends from one of the book clubs I am in, and I, are getting together to go to this event on December 21.  I got the tickets purchased this week, and am excited to be getting together with good friends to attend this event, which I have never been to. 

Also, Charly and I are going to performance of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol this Saturday.  I am really looking forward to that!

• Podcasts -  Lately,  I have become a big fan of listening to podcasts - in the car, when I'm cleaning, or anytime I can listen and do something at the same time.  I have been listening to mostly inspirational or true crime podcasts (I know - polar opposites ;-) ).  Just a few of the podcasts I am subscribed to are shown above. 

Probably my favorite podcast is this one by Life Coach, Jody Moore - "Better Than Happy."  This podcast really speaks to me, and I look forward to it coming out every Friday.  

• Giving Back - a woman from our church congregation was collecting coats for a coat drive her employer (Costco) is doing.  We always like to participate in one or more service opportunities at Christmas, as a way to help others less fortunate.  We were happy to be able to purchase and donate these coats, which will help keep some folks in need warmer. 

• A great Thanksgiving - we had a very nice Thanksgiving here at our home yesterday. 

We had a traditional meal with turkey and all the trimmings.  Charly did the honors, as usual, carving the turkey.  He also baked the delicious pumpkin pies we had. 

It was just Charly, Josh and I and our good friends.

We have known this couple, Dave and Sandy, since we were young newly weds.  We have stayed in touch through the years, and are happy to live closer to each other again so we can get together more. 

Of course it was good to have Josh with us as well.   It was a very nice Thanksgiving.

• Christmas preparations - Even though Christmas is still almost a month away, our decorations are up. I like to have my Christmas decor up by Thanksgiving, especially when we are hosting dinner.  To me, Thanksgiving is a special day to start the Christmas season with gratitude for all of God's gifts.  

This little table is a perfect place to display some of my nativities.

Here's another picture of our living and dining room with our main tree and another smaller one.  

We also have these three little trees near our entryway.  Counting the small tree on the table by the nativities, we have six trees up this year. I wonder if that is enough? ;-)

Welcome to our home,  Christmastime!

Another way we prepare for and celebrate Christmas is sending out Christmas Cards. This year's cards came back and we are pleased with the result.  I used Snapfish for my cards this year.  They did a good job, and the price was right.  I am hoping to get these in the mail sometime this coming weekend.  I send to several blog friends already and if I don't send to you and you would like to be on my list, just send me an email with your address.

I have more than five favorites, so it was a pretty good week.  It really is true that when we look for good things, we always find them! I want to thank all those who read and comment on my blog for the very warm "welcome back to blogland" I have received.  It is good to be back. I will see you all again soon.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Have a warm and wonderful Thanksgiving! We all have so much to be grateful for.  Let's all take a few minutes today to remember all the amazing people and things in this world to be thankful for!

We are having a snowy Thanksgiving here in Utah.  This is the view of my front yard this morning.  Friends (a couple we have known for many years) will be joining us (Charly, Josh and I) for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner which we are hosting here at our home.  There will be lots of good conversation and maybe even a Christmas movie after dinner.  Hope you also have happy plans for the day.  Have a good one!  See you tomorrow for Friday Fave Five!

A little catching up - Part 1

First of all, I want to thank you, my blogging buddies, for all the kind and supportive comments on my last post.  Your empathetic and understanding words mean the world to me.

Next, as I am back in blog land, I want to catch  up this little blog and all my blogging friends. I went through all of the pictures I took during this past year, to find those that would represent the very best and most positive things that took place.  I like to make this space a small running record of my life which periodically, I like to have made into book form, so here are a few moments from the past ten months:

We moved into our new townhouse last February.  As soon as we closed on the purchase in December of 2018, we started remodeling and renovating. This has continued in one way or another throughout this past year.  In June, we completely redid the main bathroom on the main floor.  We had contractors take it all the way down to the studs...

...then put it back together, completely new. We are so pleased with the way this turned out.  I love the wood-look tile around the bathtub. That was Charly's choice. There is stone tile on the floor.  We hope to have the same contractor back to re-do another of our bathrooms next summer.  

We replaced several of the windows in our home, including the slider that goes out to back patio.  

We are also pleased with how it turned out.  We plan to replace more of the 

old windows in the future.

We attended our grandson Clay's baptism.  We always love being with our grandchildren.  They are growing up so fast! (This is actually the only time I have seen our daughter Tiffany and her children all year so far, even though they only live about 40 miles away.  This is not our choice and we miss them terribly).  

We took a road trip to California to see our oldest son and his wife.

Our son lives in Sacramento and it was fun to explore that area. 

We found some fun used book stores in Sacramento.

Of course, the best part was seeing our son Alex and his wife, Jess.

It was a nice trip.

We saw a lot of interesting things.

It was also a great way to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary.  

We have done quite a bit of hiking this year, and it has been fun to discover some cool places to hike in the nearby mountains.  This is a hike I did with Josh last summer to a place called Donut Falls. 

I really enjoy hiking in the mountains. 

This is a trail we hiked in the mountains just above the town where I lived during some of my elementary and high school years.

I am glad Josh enjoys hiking with me.  He is more of a hiker than his dad...

...but sometimes we can get Charly to come with us as well. 

Ensign Peak is one of our favorite places.  

It is a fairly short hike to the top of a small mountain that has great views 

of the entire Salt Lake Valley.

There are just so many great places to hike around here.

Last July, when Josh was between semesters in college, we took a family trip to Southern Utah and Colorado. We stopped  in Moab and went to Arches National Park

We love the beautiful National Parks we have here in Utah.

Arches is one of our favorites.

After Moab, it was on to Pagosa Springs, Colorado, 

where we stayed in our Wyndham Time-Share condo...

 ...and enjoyed a relaxing week this quaint little town high in the Rockies.  We soaked in the Pagosa Hot Springs  (pictured above).  Josh and I went white water rafting (but I didn't bring my phone with me in the raft) - so no pictures of that.  

 We also went (you guessed it) hiking along the Continental Divide trail...

...and some other beautiful places that have become favorites through the years. 

One place we had not been before, was Chimney Rock National Monument.  There are beautiful views at the top of Chimney Rock Mountain, and the Native American ruins are super interesting.  It was a very nice trip. 

I'll share a little more about our family's 2019 next time.  Until then, have a great week!