Favorite Christmas Decorations or Why Everyone Needs an Aunt Joyceee

My Aunt Joyceee is a lovely soul. She is a precious one. Who could help but love her? Over my life she has gifted me with her gentleness and kindness and her love. She joins us for our family gatherings and I am always glad to see her. When we take road trips together we have great fun. Everyone needs an Aunt Joyceee to love them like mine has loved me.

Joyceee has given me some of my favorite Christmas decorations. As I'm decorating this week, I think it's time to document some of her contributions to our Christmas stash.

In 1994, she made and gave me these lovely old time cross stitched Santas. Aren't they dear? They are stitched on paper and inserted in a wooden base with a tiny pine tree between them. Each Santa is 1 1/2 inches at his base and 5 inches tall.In 2000, Joyceee cross stitched another tiny treasure for me, a Christmas sheep with a wreath on her neck and a tiny brass bell. The frame is 5 inches square. A couple years ago she gave me a lovely glass tree ornament. I love hanging it on the tree and worry that the dog will bother it. It is teardrop shaped, 6 inches long with a 4 inch diameter. Mary and Joseph are in the stable as sheep graze on the hillside under the night sky. Thank you, Joyceee, for these treasured Christmas decorations but most of all for your love and for being the special aunt you are to me.

lookin' out my backdoor

lookin' out my backdoor, originally uploaded by lamb lady.

This is the moon, Venus and Jupiter (L to R) in close proximity on Monday, Dec 1. Brad called me out to get an eyeful of the sight last evening. It was cloudy, rainy and ugly earlier in the day, so quite a treat that we were able to see this spectacle. It was just after sunset and you can catch a glimpse of a tree in the bottom right of the photo. I have a smart camera. It took this shot on "auto" mode. Nothing that I took manually looks as good as this shot.
Shortly after we came inside to get warm the phone rang. It was Lane proudly announcing that he'd gotten an 8 point buck in the afternoon. Now it's not everyday that a boy gets his first buck, so we drove up to check it out. There were grandparents, great grandparents, aunts and uncles there to see Lane's deer. He was really tickled and tired. I bet he slept good last night.

I know it's November but today was like October

When I was in the fourth grade at South Elementary in Bedford, PA, Mrs. Shaffer gave us a tiny book of poetry. We memorized verses of poetry each week. It was a chore but some of those poems are with me yet, as is the little booklet. That was over 40 years ago. Wow! That was a long time ago! Below is one of my favorites. This time of year always calls it to mind. Hope you enjoy it, too. Mrs Shaffer would explain all the lines to us the week before we had to recite it.

October's Bright Blue Weather
By Helen Hunt Jackson

O suns and skies and clouds of June,

And flowers of June together,

Ye cannot rival for one hour

October's bright blue weather;

When loud the bumble-bee makes haste,

Belated, thriftless vagrant,

And Golden-Rod is dying fast,

And lanes with grapes are fragrant;

When Gentians roll their fringes tight

To save them for the morning,

And chestnuts fall from satin burrs

Without a sound of warning;

When on the ground red apples lie

In piles like jewels shining,

And redder still on old stone walls

Are leaves of woodbine twining;

When all the lovely wayside things

Their white-winged seeds are sowing,

And in the fields, still green and fair,

Late aftermaths are growing;

When springs run low, and on the brooks,

In idle golden freighting,

Bright leaves sink noiseless in the hush

Of woods, for winter waiting;

When comrades seek sweet country haunts,

By twos and twos together,

And count like misers, hour by hour,

October's bright blue weather.

O suns and skies and flowers of June,

Count all your boasts together,

Love loveth best of all the year

October's bright blue weather.

Merlin Takes Pause

sweet pup, originally uploaded by lamb lady.

This guy is as loyal as a dog can be.

Just After Sundown

after sundown, originally uploaded by lamb lady.

I love to watch the sky changing at this time of day. The hour after sunset has the most amazing skies.

Want To See More?

Whether the sun was in or out, the La Sal Mountains north of Monticello, Utah, had a dusting of snow on them throughout our stay. Monticello is the county seat for San Juan County, Utah's largest geographic county. The town has 2,000 residents; the county has 11,000:

The San Juan Mountains to the east in Colorado, made a beautiful backdrop for Monticello. Famous Telluride, Colorado is about 100 miles due east of here:

Sheep on the Navajo Reservation with a lovely view for their grazing pleasure:
Some antelope stopped their grazing to look at us before they ran off: A copper mine east of Phoenix was quite impressive. There was some heavy equipment that looked tiny on that hill:

More Arizona/Utah Trip Photos

I've almost gotten caught up since returning home 2 weeks ago. Waa Waa Waa!
Here are a few more photos from our trip.

This is leaving Harrisburg. The Susquehanna River and the green fields. The moisture in the air:

Between Tuba City and Kayenta on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona are these stone "elephant legs." That's my description of them. I don't know if the locals have a name for them. The size of them is astounding. There they stand along the highway. Nothing else around them looks like they do. Notice the shiny silver pick-up truck parked at the base of them for a size comparison. That's it there, so tiny you can barely see it:We stopped at a convenience store on the Navajo Reservation. There were nine dogs in the parking lot. Brad and Barb went into the store and I waited in the car. I fed a potato chip to this fella and thought I was going to lose my fingers. I guess that's how he earns a living. We saw pastured sheep near there with dogs running about. They weren't herding dogs, believe me. It made me nervous. I don't trust dogs near the sheep:In the Monument Valley area again. The landscape is so dramatic there:Trees growing in a wash add soothing green to the harsh dryness of the Colorado Plateau: