Joy - not so much

This is one of my craft fair finds.  I just love the reindeer with the sticks for ears.  Cute.

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I don't feel very joyful right now. 

When I went to the dentist on Monday, he mentioned I should start having crowns put on some of my teeth that have really big fillings.  I said okay but I would start next year after the holidays.  I think he jinxed me or the hygienist did too good of a job on my cleaning and riled my teeth up. Tuesday night, my one tooth started to bother me.  Yesterday it starting hurting a little more.  I was going to wait a couple of days to see if it stopped but then I decided to call the dentist.  I forgot they weren't in.  I left a message for them to call me.  Hopefully, I can get in soon before it really starts hurting worse.  Unfortunately, I see root canal besides a crown in my future.  I hope I'm wrong but I don't think so.  That's what I get for going LOL. 

Tomorrow I'm going to take a detour from my decorations.  I took a few pictures at the nursing home and I'm going to show those.

edited: I can't go to the dentist until Monday.  BooHoo. I hope it's not hurting worse by then.

Gift Exchange & Dinner Friends Part 2

This silvery, sparkly Merry Christmas sign was the second gift I got from the gift exchange. 

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Now for the rest of the story... Before we went to the restaurant my husband told me one time when he was 12 years old, he painted some of the upstairs of this place.  It was a bar at that time.  His uncle was a painter by trade and when he needed extra help and was running up against a deadline, he would sometimes call my husband to help. 

The restaurant was an old brick Victorian Mansion.  When we went in, they took us up this big steep staircase to a separate room (I'm thinking it must have been a bedroom at one time).  There were only like four tables in the room that you could seat eight at each table.  The food was really delicious.  I had a stuffed cornbread pork chop.  MMMMMMMM Whatever everyone had to eat they loved it. We caught up with what's been happening with everyone. Then I had to use the restroom.  OMG, there was a shower in there.  I was tempted to try to turn the shower on to see if it worked but I was afraid I would get wet LOL.  It sure was tempting though. Over the years, we've been to many restaurants and seen many things in them but I never saw something like this.   

After we ate, we went to my friend's house for a while that doesn't live far from there.  We did the gift exchange, talked some more and had some wine.  Her husband had placed some goodies on the island in the kitchen before we arrived.  Even though I was stuffed, I ended up having a couple of cookies.  I finally went in the family room and talked to her husband to avoid the treats.  Their daughter lives in Maryland and they had just gotten back.  She hurried up and decorated for Christmas knowing that we would probably come over.  I wish I would have thought to take some pictures.  Her decorations were beautiful. 

When it was time to leave, we followed another friend until Magellan and I knew we weren't going to get lost;-)  We had a wonderful Christmas gathering.  Unfortunately, some were unable to come because of health problems in their families and we missed them.  Hopefully, all the dinner friends will be back together for January. 

When I got home, my husband and I talked about the evening.  He then told me when he was young the place was rumored to have been a brothel at some point in the past LOL.  I wish I would have known that before I went.  I really didn't get to see the downstairs of the place at all..  I think I will have to go back with him now and check out the whole place a little more closely. 

Gift Exchange & Dinner Friends Part 1

I went out with my dinner friends on Friday and we had a gift exchange.  I got two gifts. Since these are decorations, I thought I'd add them to my list of things to show.  Isn't this the cutest Christmas penguin you've ever seen?  In its arms, is a throw.  I haven't taken the throw out to look at it yet because I pretty much know I won't ever get it back in the arms the correct way. 

I decided to show the other gift tomorrow.  When I wrote the post about my evening, it turned almost into a book.  You would have had to grab a cup of coffee, hot chocolate, or depending on the time of day, a glass of wine to read it.  So, part one is today. I found out something very interesting about the restaurant we went to after I got home which will be in part two. 

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The drive to the restaurant was very eventful.  I asked my friend who was driving if I could use it for blog material. She said okay but I should call her Magellan LOL.  She is probably one of the best friends I've ever had.  I've known her since our kids were in kindergarten and they are 28 and 27 now.  We've been through the good, the bad, the funny and the ugly together.  Sometime I'll have to tell you about some of the things we've been through but probably only the good and funny stuff ;-). 

So, she picks me up and we start driving and I think we're going to the freeway but then she makes this turn.  I then thought she must have forgot something at home but we didn't turn down her street.  It ended up we were talking so much she was thinking we had to go another freeway (this happens a lot to us). We turned back and got to the right one. 

We were supposed to be at the restaurant at 6:00 which is still rush hour.  There's also a big mall the way we went. Unfortunately, there was so much traffic that we had to stay in the lane where you get off to the mall.  Needless, to say it was bumper to bumper traffic.   

We finally get passed that and it was clear sailing until one friend called from the restaurant.  I told her we were running late and we were close to the exit.  Being on the freeway Magellan was driving pretty fast.  All of a sudden, I start paying attention and instead of driving on the freeway Magellan accidentally starting driving into the rest stop.  OMG, I thought we were going to die because she was probably driving at 55, 60 or 65 mph.  I yelled and said "Magellan you're driving into the rest stop."  LOL, I can only imagine what our friend on the phone thought.  Thankfully, no dying happened. 

We get back on the freeway and we finally reach the exit.  The restaurant is in the town my husband grew up in and I was kinda familiar with where it was but instead I decided to follow the person's directions that planned the dinner so we could see the town square decorated.  In the over 35 years that I've gone to this town, I never once saw them so I thought it would be neat.  Naturally, once we were close we didn't make the correct turn but we figured out how to get back on track saw the lights and ended up at the restaurant.  I was pretty happy when we got there in one piece. 

I would like to think if it wasn't dark when we were going,  we would have had an easier time getting there but knowing Magellan and me who knows LOL. 

The Surprise decoration

I was invited to my friend's house to make gingerbread houses a few years ago.  We all brought are own kits and extra candy to make them.  What we failed to realize was that once you made the houses (one person brought a little train kit) you had to let them dry in order to put the decorations on.  Duh!!  Some of us (who shall remain nameless) couldn't even get the houses to stick together at all. I think we even used a hair dryer to try to dry it more quickly.  Two of the some of us (I think there were 4) got theirs to at least stick and somewhat decorated.  One of us ended up taking it home and putting it in the basement to do the following year.  The next year when that time came, one of us decided it was way too much trouble and pitched it LOL.

Anyhow, when I was at this friend's house, I saw this picture of the snowmen hanging on her wall. I must have told her 30 2 times how much I loved it.  A day or two later, there was a knock at my door and standing there was my friend with the picture.  She gave it to me.  Now doesn't that just warm your heart.  I know it did mine.  Every time I put it up for Christmas, I think of her.

Snow people et al

Every day through December I'm going to put a decoration from my house up.  Lucky you, ha.  To make it more boring fun I might tell you something about it.  Since I put the Snow People Welcome up by the 1st and the Tree up on the 2nd, so far I'm right on track. (Wasn't that convenient, since I just thought of doing this during the middle of the night last night).

I love, love snowmen.  In fact, I'm somewhat of a collector of them.  I didn't know I was until a few years ago when I started looking around my house when it was decorated and noticed most of my decorations were snowmen.

Every year I always ask my son to buy me something Christmas.  He got me the stuffed snowman on the left and also if you can see the little Rudolph the Reindeer (musical) were from him. Just click on the picture to get a larger view.

Then there's a glass snowman I got from a friend.Also, the small tiny duck snowman.

The Let It Snow people were actually a gift gone awry.  I bought them from a catalog,  It was supposed to be for a gift exchange.  Believe it or not, it was under $15.  I was expecting this little thing and when UPS came and brought it; I was flabbergasted at the size.  I guess I didn't notice the size when ordering.  I decided to keep them for myself.  They  fit perfectly on that shelf.

The snow people in the bucket, I bought at a craft fair.

edited: I forgot.  You see that shelf?  My husband made that for me one year before Christmas just so I could put more holiday decorations up.  He is very talented.

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Not much is going on.  We went to see mom yesterday.  Everything was good over there.

I did laundry and have one more load to do today.  I can't believe I'm going to say this but I cleaned out my sock drawer LOL.  I lead such a fun life.

Have a good day.