Skip to main content

Christmas photos and newsletter Dec. 2015

Merry Christmas!

My tree - 2015


The is the newsletter I sent to family and friends this year. Hope you enjoy reading what's going on with my life as I consider all who read my blog friends!
God bless you this holiday season.

            
Christmas Cookies
With decorating help from the kiddies

Hello Folks:

It’s been a few years since I’ve written. I hope everyone is well. It’s hard to believe 2016 is around the corner. I’m excited our family will be coming here for Christmas. I’m ready - just last minute cards to do and some presents to wrap.


Ray’s been gone for two years and I’ve experienced many adjustments and changes. I miss him terribly but realized after he was gone how very ill he was the last two years. My own health has improved greatly in the last year. Caregiving isn’t an easy job.
I moved to a condo in last year. I’ve reunited with friends and my church. I’m in a women’s Bible study group and a writing group. I still attend Hocking Hills writer’s group monthly, my forever buddies.


A few of our Hocking Hills 
team: Barb, Jill, Tina.


I do book signings and workshops occasionally. Love going to Tamarack in Beckley, WV. My novel Vada Faith, Ezra and Other Stories, a book of short stories, and Dear Anne: Love Letters from Nam, a short story, are available on Amazon.com. I'm hard at work on Missing: Sweet Baby James, sequel to Vada Faith, after taking time off in the last two years to regroup.


Book signing at Tamarack
Always a good time.

The big news is our youngest grandchild - Jill and Jason’s son - Austin, is ten years old. 





Tanner, Chase and Mackenzie, the triplets, are 14, growing up way too fast. Jill and Jason moved to Ft. Knox, KY in July. I love having them closer. I’ve gone to watch Tanner and Chase play basketball. They’re really good at it! And, they tower over me! Time flies.
Lisa and Jon are still in Hillsboro. Their son Daniel is living in Nashville. He works full time for Apple computer and does photography for special events. Their daughter Jillian is a student at the University of Cincinnati and does some modeling. 
Susan and Gary bought a new home and sold their farm. Samantha graduated from the police academy, from boot camp Army reserves, and from AIT school (military police). She’s a deputy in the sheriff’s department for Pickaway County. Steven is in his second year at Ohio University at Athens. I’m proud of all of them! 
My brother in law, Brownie, and his daughter, Deb, and I took a train trip thru WV to the mountains in the fall. The train cars were from the 50’s. A really fun trip.




All I miss about our home in the country is living near Susan and her family and the friends we made while there. Especially our neighbors, the Clarks.

Please know while I haven’t kept in touch, I’ve thought of you often. I’ll never forget our long distance family and friends, who’ve been there for both Raymond and I over the years. I wish you all the best. Love and Blessings!

Lighting a candle for Raymond at
La Salette Festival of Lights


Attleboro, MA
What an incredible experience




The Celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior

Comments

  1. Great blog, so enjoyed our time with you and hope you can come out this spring or summer ! Love and miss you ! Deb

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is a lovely blog, Barbara. I'm happy that your health has been better this past year. I hope the improvement continues through next year and beyond. Best wishes to you and your family.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Merry Christmas to you, Barbara! I love visiting your blog.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sorry I haven't commented for a while, but I really enjoy reading your blog. I received this as a letter, too, and am so glad life is getting better. Wishing you and your family a truly Happy New Year!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

APOLOGIES....

For those of you who regularly follow my blog, I wanted you to know that health issues and family problems have kept me from my computer lately. Of course my mind has been busy coming up with great ideas to blog about but by the time I sit down late at night to write those lovely ideas have flown out of my head and gone back to wherever good ideas come from in the first place. I miss posting. I miss thinking. I miss resting. I miss just standing and staring, as cows in the fields are known to do. I miss all of you too. Reading about your lives and reading your comments on mine. However, I'm the eternal optimist and I see a teeny speck of light at the end of the tunnel. In two weeks life here should be back to normal, whatever that is. Have any of you figured out what normal is, exactly. I get up everyday and try to live the best life I know how. Is that normal? Or is normal different for each of us. What about a new normal? Are we doomed to live our "normal life" fo

MY HIGH SCHOOL EXPERIENCE...

Wednesday, March 16, 2011 High School - Poca High School, Putnam County, WV What year was it? Fall 1960 - Spring 1963 What were your favorite bands, or singers? Sam Cook, Chubby Checker, Conway Twitty (It's only make believe), Johnny Rodriquez. Meatloaf. ELvis. What was your favorite outfit? Straight skirts, blouses, cardigans or jackets, little heels. Other Outfits? Jeans and a white Dr. Ben Casey shirt. What was up with your hair? Everything. I put peroxide on it. Lemon juice, thinking it needed to be lighter. I cut it, styled it, put it in a pony tail or a french twist. Hair was the most important thing in my life in high school. And hair spray, the stiffer the better. Who were your best friends? Patti Jones, Karen Mattox, and Susie Bailey all thru elem school. Then added on Donna Dailey, Sharon "Mouse" Hackett and Janice Wick and many others. Also Bonnie Kerwood who was older than me and lived near me so we hung out listening to records after schoo

Shingles: not the roofing kind...

Just when I thought things could not get any worse at our house my husband R came down with shingles. On the day I had to be at the hospital in Columbus with one adult daughter in the morning and then go to Cincinnati to pick up her husband after his stomach surgery the day before, R gets up with a rash that had turned to blisters. We made a quick dash 40 miles away to our family Dr. for a check up and yes my diagnosis was correct. Shingles! So armed with two medications we headed to the medical center to see our daughter, then to Cincinnati to pick up her husband and then home to collapse and hope that that's the end of our downward spiral. I'm worn to a frazzle and so is R. No time for writing or fretting about writing. I do feel good knowing that I have some contest entries out (short stories and one novel) and will be working on my novel at least two days this coming week. I have my writers meeting on Monday at Great Expectations Cafe and Book Store and look for