VEGAS BOUND 2023

 

We visited Las Vegas in 2019. My father, Hubby and I had planned to trip. Plane Tickets and lodging was all set for a 2019 Christmas Vacation. Then my father had a fatal stroke and passed away in September 2019. We decided to go anyway without Dad. It was very hard and I was so upset that the enjoyment was tainted. Walking around in a daze most of the time.  However we did have some enjoyment looking at a the decorations. As well as eating at some of the off the beat track places.

This year we are planning to rent a car and do some traveling to other sites and enjoy the holiday fare off the strip. Hubby is still having some difficult walking. Driving to places is a better choice. Will still visit some of the hotels for a look at their Holiday displays. 

I will post some activities we do on my Auntie E's on the Go Site. Hop over there to get notify when those post.

Thursday News- Holiday Times

It has been an emotional few weeks for us. However we are doing better now. The election is over, decisions have been made in my family and I think I am doing better with the upcoming changes.

It is now time to get ready for the holidays. Decorating and cooking are on top of my list. I also have a few gifts to make. We have a new Baby in the family on the way and I am looking forward to Meeting him. Thanksgiving is the holiday I am preparing for now.

Going to get my Dad and looking forward to having him with us. I wish he would live closer. However I love the time I have with him. We will be having my daughter back from college for the holiday. Loving that! Then we are going to have Critter and his family with us. Oh I am so excited about all of this. Even though, I am cooking the time will be great with them.

 I will be sharing the recipes on my Kitchen Blog and family moments on this one. The Review blog will have some new additions. And I will be sharing the healthier side of things on the Living Healthy with Auntie E site. For those following my garden blog.. we will be sharing the yard decorations. I will still be blogging in my  Health Journal , although that one is like a diary of my weight journey. So I think the time is back to blogging. As the time becomes colder and the winter storms are great, Blogging will be my outlet.

So, Hope you will be able to stop by and sit awhile, Let's share  our Holiday and Winter times.

MLK DAY......School out.

Today is Martin Luther Kings Day. I just do not know about this one. Some People still believe that they are not equal. As well as some folks believe they are better off. Mix thoughts make it so hard to understand this holiday. I tend to look at it as a Day for School to be out. The Kids are not all sure what this means to them. As like in History, it will be lost in the history books at some point and he will just be one of the great speakers of old. As it is now it is referred to as MLK Day! One has to know what that stands for. All I am hear across the wave is MLK DAY.

As a child I never knew there was a segregation problem. My school always had a mixture of people and ethnics. My parent never made a big deal about it, we had many friends of all colors. I was raised mostly in the North and we all got along. The only problem we had was with the Bikers at school. They caused a few riots. I always had a array of friends and never knew anyone who was prejudice. In Gods eyes we are all the same, Created by Him to do a good work. I think We all do good works. And if you study Slavery you will see it involve many ethnics not just one Clan.

Now I do believe MLK was a great man and caused a group of folks to start thinking differently. He did start a change to trickle down, and we the world, are moving forward. There are more opportunities for all people than ever before. We had an array of material to read, written by all kinds of folks. We have the ability to have speakers to talk about almost anything. Now this all sound like Americas Freedoms. Even Lincoln was for equal rights.

So back to the thought of this day out of school. I really do not agree with it. Perhaps they should be in school and learning about the Great Speakers of our Nation. Instead of rejoicing for a day off. Just to be able to sleep in and hang out with friends. So maybe today we could ask a couple of kids, across the age group, " Why are you out of school today?".
Will we hear from them about Martin Luther King?

Holiday Songs

Well, here it is the one to hear before the Mid-night hour....

AF---FeaturingThe Dinning Room

AKA ----- The Reindeer Room. When I was little the flying reindeer always amazed me. A few years ago I learned that NASA had always reserved the airways on Christmas eve for Santa and his Flying Reindeer. this must mean It is TRUE! Oh yes I am a believer, even in my Older age. Found a book on this subject some time ago. It was then that the dinning Room was Pinning the name The Reindeer Room. To Salute their duties. I love decorating this room.

so, here is the book I wrote about.

don't forget to visit An Island Life to see more Friday questions.

Your Friday Holiday Question:

What is your favorite holiday Look? Do you like Snowman, Santa, Reindeer, Angles or maybe you have another. I would love to hear yours.

Monday News...Getting ready...

The time is getting closer and the house is lighting up. Every room is lite up with the Joy, spending the Light of the Season. This home is a believer in Jesus Christ, We believe He is the Son of God, sent to the earth to bring us Light and Hope. Jesus Christ is the Messiah promised to us by God Almighty. He is the Great I AM. Lights represent the Light of the world has come and is still very much alive. So, that is why we celebrate Jesus Christ Birth by using Lights.

With that said, we have been enjoying the lights of the season.

Here are a few Blue peeks.

This is what we did this Last weekend...
A harbor Light show.

Loved this one..Yummm

All wrapped up...

Baby, It's cold outside!!

,


If you live close to Baltimore this is a great Light show. Get out to see it.

Be sure to visit Writer Cramps to see more Monday's Miss Marple. You never know when you need that Alibi!
I add this post to Blue Monday this week, you can see more Blue Photos at Smiling Sally

Getting House Ready

Have been decorating the house for a party next week. I started decorating a few weeks ago. First the Tree went up. Then some outdoor lighting. It took me a while to get to the Kitchen and Solarium. Still working on them. Getting House Ready is fun, I turn on the holiday music and start moving.

Planning a Holiday party for this Friday. So Planning the Appetizers and drinks is on going. there is a show called the Chew, Love the show. They had some good ideas on the food side. I might try out the stuffed Mini potatoes. Looking for a good kid friendly punch now. Of course the Mulled Gluhwine is a must for the adults. Maybe even Spiced apple cider.

I hope the weather will be nice. Want to have the outdoor fires going. I will have to post the Photos of the house throughout the week. Thinking about featuring one room per day. I have six rooms that are holiday decked out. That will work out fine for the upcoming week.

Today I wanted to show the Hallway. It can cost a lot to purchase Holiday photos. I have been adding to mine each year. This year I had gone out to look a came back empty. With the ecomony tight, there was just nothing in my price range. Driving back home I got an idea from remembering a Germany friend. Every year she would use her own house pictures and deck them out. So, with a cost of about 2.50 per picture this is the results.

A Hall lined with Presents.

Now if you viewed the first photo, You noticed one of the photos is not hanging straight.
Well, That is because there is a noise maker attached.
Folks will want to straight it and it will make a glass break noise.
The tag says nice/ naughty.
Now if they straighten it the tag will says...
Naughty.
I just had to do something funny for the party.

The hall entrance view...

So your question......
Are you planning a funny thing for the holiday?

don't forget to visit An Island Life to see more Friday questions.

Aloha Friday-Holiday Fun times

We started off the Holidays by going to a Christmas Town. I love doing something right after Thanksgiving to Kick off the Christmas Holiday time. Here are a few photos of our Kick off to the Christmas season.

A Christmas show
Do you know these folks?

Family enjoying a S'more cookie

A must visit to the North pole....
to see....

Santa Clause!
Got a wave.

A question for you:

How do you start your Holiday Season?

don't forget to visit An Island Life to see more Friday questions.

Monday News.Festive Time

We enjoyed a Festive time this past week. Going back to Wednesday with the trip to Dads home. The drive was quite nice. Traffic was down so we made great time. Getting there for breakfast. It is also nice to see and visit Dad. We live over 250 miles apart so, it isn't a daily thing. Mom has been gone for about four years now. I really miss her. So, I try to see Dad as much as I can.

This year for Thanksgiving ,we decided to go out to a Banquet. We went to the Oceanfront Hilton, In Virginia Beach. It was very nice. Live music and traditional food. Dad, My Baby Brother( now 50!) joined us. After the banquet we took a walk on the boardwalk. I loved the fire pits at the hotel. the weather temp was around the lower 60's.

We went back to the house and visited with my brother a while. Later we played Monopoly, dad won!

On Friday Hubby and Daughter went out to do some Black friday shopping. As for me I will not do that. Dad and I worked on putting his New Telly in place and setting it up to the sound system. that took all day. I cooked a turkey dinner, using a small turkey breast roll. Had made a pumpkin pie on Thursday. We enjoyed a meal and then watched some TV.

Saturday was a lazy day for some of the family. As for me....I made breakfast, a turkey and swiss quiche . Did some cleaning for Dad. Cleared out the Freezer from the last years meals. Washed the freezer and now Dad is set for a while. Daughter and I went to the Lynhaven Mall, got to see santa dancing to a light display. I really liked that. Then he jingled his bells and wished every one a Merry Christmas. Later that night we headed out to Christmas Town, in Williamsburg. I really love that display, it gets me in the Holiday mood. Here is a Blue Monday photo post of one of the lights attractions.

We walk through villages all decorated with lights, Holiday music playing and the smells of the holidays. Each town has the theme and countries tones and feelings. It was even snowing in the North pole and french section! This was the second year for this event. I hope they keep doing it for this could become a tradition for us.

Now it is time for holiday decoration in our home. I am planning a Holiday party so, that means decorating the yard and home.

How was your weekend? Did you do anything Special with the Family?

Sunday we headed back to Maryland . Traffic was good we made it in old record time!

Be sure to visit Writer Cramps to see more Monday's Miss Marple. You never know when you need that Alibi!
I add this post to Blue Monday this week, you can see more Blue Photos at Smiling Sally

Happy Easter!

We are enjoying are time with family today. Remembering the joy that has been bestowed to us, From our God Almighty and His Son, Jesus. Who Arose from the grave to overcome death and give us the joy of Everlasting Life! In Him(Jesus) we will never die. Our souls will just continue to live in His presence. What a gift of Joy to recieve from The Almighty God!


Happy Easter, the beginning of Our Everlasting Life. Available for all who seeks and accepts it.

the photo is from the Virginia Zoological Park. Taken by Auntie E

" Butterfly Elephant".

A butterfly....transformed into a new creature ...Beautifully changed into a new creature... depicts the power of our God and Savior. Transformed into a new person to have the old pass away. The joy of becoming a Christian and Walking in the Lord forever more.

Friday Questions- Your holiday fun?

We are at Norfolk Virginia now. My daughter and I drove down on Wednesday. Yesterday we went to the Botanical Gardens. Dad and I haven't been there for over 20 years. Last time we went it was called Azalea Gardens. It was really enjoyable. I posted some photos on my Auntie E On the Go Blog.
They have Eagles nesting there. So we we able to see the nest and chicks. We even got a eye view of the adult eagle. What a sight!

Our Easter Celebration will be spent with Dad. We will go to Church and then out to our favorite Easter Brunch. Walk along the beach and just enjoy our freedom from bondage and the wonderful earth our Lord has created. Easter is a time to remember the true sacrifice and release from the sin that kept us from Gods Presences. A time to hold close our families and friends, to share the good news of a Everlasting Life and a hope of a New Earth and Heaven to come upon Lord Jesus' Second Coming.

Until that time I will enjoy this Earth and its wonders. Happy Easter Y'all.

My question to you....

What will you be doing this Easter Sunday?

Part of Aloha Friday Meme.
To see other questions follow this LINK to An Island Life.
There you will see other entries.

WW- The Eve's Activities

I love Wednesday blog hops. Want to play along? You can link to any of the link below (they are Meme's) or to my inlinkz at the bottom of today's post. We will all visit you.


Interested in wordless Wednesday?
Check out this Link to sign up.

When some of us blogger need to just add words on Wednesday's post. Surf over to Parenting by Dummies to join the Wordful Wednesday group.

need to talk.....Join in the Wednesday fun...
at SuperMom .

As in Monday's post, we had family over on Christmas Eve. Here are some photos of the fun activities.

We rolled and baked cookies.

then we decorated them...

Next....Opening presents......

More about mine later on this week.
Oh yes, we were all laughing about it!
It was one only for Auntie E......

Monday's News- Holiday Fun.

We had a fun weekend. On Friday we had family over. Critter , Alex, my S-I-L and Hubby spent the day with us. Critter and Alex help with the cookies. Critter help cook them and he made breakfast for everyone. That little one, now seven, Loves to cook. I enjoy him when he visits. We had French toast. He broke the eggs and beat them. helping my daughter cook.

Later that day we finished rolling out and baking the cookies. Then when the parents arrived, we iced and decorated them. We had a blast doing that, everyone, adults also, was enjoying the imagination fun. My sister in law stated that she felt like she went back to the era of Beaver and the Cleavers. Now that was great, we all loved the show. Fun time and very enjoyable. We had a great meal and then opened presents.It was sad to see them go but, we had fun.

Saturday, Christmas day. Teen Daughter got us up around 7am. I was tired because I spent the night talking the Santa. We had to catch up on the years News. He was quite busy this year, preparing for this one night. My daughter was given a Guitar, Hubby received a GPS and for me A Kindle! What a surprise for us all. Santa knew exactly what to give us.

Hubby got me a new set of Pans. I really needed them. Plus I received a lot of Gadgets. Now I will be busy Posting "Weekend gadgets" on my Kitchen site. I gifted hubby a remote car starter. He had been wanting one of over a year now. My daughter gave her father a camera. My daughter also got one from us, it was a SLR one. She will be posting some awesome photos on her Blog site. Of course there was also clothing given to all. Overall we had a pretty good Day.

Now I want to end with a note of Joy. Christmas is really about celebrating Christ the Lords' Earthly Birthday. We did attend a Eve service to help keep our minds focused on that. However with that said, This household celebrates "Three Kings Day" on January the 6th. That is a true day for Celebrating our Lords' Birth. As the Wise-men, we give him that day totally. Praising and thanking God for the gift of his son.

Looking forward to showing photos on Wednesday. Please come back to check them out.

So how was your weekend?

Be sure to visit Writer Cramps to see more Monday's Miss Marple. You never know when you need that Alibi!

It's Christmas Day!

Well, Merry Christmas to all of you. This year is the start of new beginnings. Christmas Eve we had Family over and we had a blast. It was such a joy to share the day with them. Critter and Alex spent Thursday night with us. We made sugar cookies and watch all three of the Santa Clause Movies. I love them all and the kids had never seen them before. On Christmas Eve their parents, my S-I-L and Hubby, came up and we shared a time of fellowship. Icing and decorating the sugar cookies we made the day before, was a blast. We all sat at the Kitchen table and laughed together. Then we ate a dinner together in the Reindeer room (Dinning room). I made a Fruit and spiced Pork roast(will be posting the recipe on my Kitchen site later). The kids were so eager to eat that they sat at the table waiting for the dinner to be serve. It was so sweet to see that. I guess they love Auntie E's cooking,hehehe.
We opened presents from each other and shared in some fun time watching the kids enjoy theirs. They had to leave and I missed them before the drove away. Don't worry I will see them on Sunday at church.
that evening we went to a local church to attend a Christmas Eve service. Saw a few folks we haven't seen for some time.

This morning we opened our gifts and enjoyed the gifts from Santa. That's right, We believe in this household. So, Santa still drops by and leaves us goodies.

Now I have to tell you...as most of you know, I LOVE SNOW! Now the weatherman said "Sorry no snow for us for Christmas"...well what does he know? I asked Santa for Snow and Low and Behold after we opened presents, IT WAS SNOWING! Big Flakes the kind I like. So there you have it a Perfect Christmas Morning for ME!
Have to go now and put on the Ham.

How is your Christmas Day going?

WW- A Santa view.......

Interested in wordless Wednesday?
Check out this Link to sign up.

When some of us blogger need to just add words on Wednesday's post. Surf over to Parenting by Dummies to join the Wordful Wednesday group.

need to talk.....Join in the Wednesday fun...
at SuperMom .

Oh yes it"s Wednesday, A few days just before Christmas. Thought I would feature Santa Claus, Kris Krinkle, Pere Noel, Kanakaloka, Shengdan Laoren, Babbo Natale, Ded Moroz (“Grandfather Frost”), Father Christmas and he has many more names. What do you Call Him?

Whatever you call him, he still represents the kindness of gift giving. Originally a priest by the name of Saint Nicholas. He was born 280AD, that is two hundred and eight years after the birth of Jesus Christ. Nicholas was from a town across from the Mediterranean Sea along the Southwest boarder, by Egypt and Israel. He was a christian and raised in the church. His parents where in their fifty when he was born. Those day life expectancy was not long. He had good morals and was raised to Treat others as you would want to be treated. He start Giving to the village folks who had nothing. First Putting Coins in their Stockings as they sleep in the night. Later on came the Physical gift, like Craved wood Toys and Crutches. He would listen to the town folks to find out what they needed. he never told folks it was him. Giving in a secret fashion and standing back to see their joy. It got to be the talk of the town and word spread fast. folks even stay up to try to see him, however they never did!

No matter what you think of Santa Clause, as we call him, his spirit of Giving was meant to be Christ like. Even though the gift of Jesus, Everlasting Life is so much more precious, We hold on to the Joy we see in the children and Adults as they open gift supplied by the Santa spirit.
I love all the looks of Santa throughout all the countries. Just think Santa is known almost everywhere!

I have left this one large,
click on photo to see them close up....

Here are some view of Our Town Santa visiting the Neighborhoods. To check on their list and remind them to be good.