Got to Marcia's and was greeted at the door by either Cody or Lily - not sure which grandpup it was because I can't tell them apart looking straight down at them - they are both little black fluff balls. I can't remember what mixed breed they are, but they both have poodle in them and have that type of curly fur - and are adorable.
I brought something with me that I needed help figuring out how to open it to put batteries in it - a foot massager I bought at WalMart on a whim to pamper myself (I hope my grief counselor reads my blog because she is always telling me to pamper myself :) Anyway I just could not get the compartment to open where the batteries go and the little drawing on the instruction pamphlet was no use. Of course Traci popped it right open to which we laughed and she said Mike was probably shaking his head at me for not being able to figure that out :) Check the massager out (see photo below) - Butler has had "fun" trying to attack it the past couple of days.
Marcia out did herself with ham, green bean casserole (that Brad watched everyone take their portion to make sure we didn't take too much of "his" casserole :), stuffing, sweet potatoes with mini marshmellows and good, ole A&E old fashioned cottage cheese. Later we had Chrissy's awesome apple crisp with ice cream - I definitely got full. It was interesting when Marcia was dividing up the food for us to take some home and put the rest in her frig that when she was putting some of the green bean casserole in a container for Brad he says, "oh I have my own container in the car, just a second and I'll go get it", or something to that affect. Marcia and I about died laughing. It just happened that Traci had made sandwiches for them to eat on the road from Peoria, IL to Cherokee, IA when they drove to see Brad's mom and family on Thurs, so Brad was bringing in the container the sandwiches had been in. We had to give Brad a hard time about coming prepared with his own food container.
Normally when we have dinners at Marcia's Mike has said the blessing. Traci and I sat down first and were waiting for everyone else to be seated before starting to eat and when Marcia sat down she asked if I'd like to say the blessing. I was really touched that she asked me to do this. After the blessing we all dug in and ate and ate and ate - it was really good.
Colton (one of Chrissy's boys) was there and Brad brought in his iPad for us to see what it looked like and then Colton played some games on it while the rest of us visited. Marcia's good friend, Trish, was with us and somewhere along the line us women folk got to talking about Mike Rowe (Dirtiest Jobs dude) - poor Brad. Out of five women in the room, four of us are single, so Brad was kind of on his own there for a while. I seem to have brought up Karl Urban too which was a new name for the ladies. Now realize, I loved Mike dearly, and miss him greatly, but to look at photos of him or him and me hurts too much right now - so my desktop wallpaper is a Karl Urban photo :)
Cody and Lily kept the afternoon lively letting us know when the squirrels were out and about in the yard and whenever anyone was walking anywhere in proximity of the house - they are a riot. We also gave Marcia a very hard time that it's time for her to get a digital camera! She has taken some really awesome trips these past couple of years and has an Alaskan cruise (spring) and a trip to Africa (October) planned for next year. She better come back with at least 500 photos from the African trip - at least. Chrissy and I told her we'd do a digital scrapbook for her - all Marcia would have to do is say I like that background and put that photo there - we'd do the rest. It was sad to say bye but we had to - with Brad and Traci and I heading out around 3:00 pm.
Dad called this evening and left a voicemail to tell me about a Percheron horse show on IPTV at 7:00 pm tonight so I turned it on. It was like the World Expo Event 2010 that was held in DSM this year at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in October. People come literally from all over the world to this annual event and this year DSM hosted it. I immediately texted Chrissy so she could watch it - the day we had gone to the Fair together we had spent time in the horse barn and the larger horses were there that day. The show was amazing. I've always said after God created man/humans, the next best thing were dogs and then horses. When Dad grew up on the farm they had Percherons as their draft horses. They had Unicorn teams (1 lead horse then 2 behind), 4, 6, and 8 hitch teams. They had 4 across teams. They had young drivers from aged 10 driving teams of 2 in competition. For entertainment they had a guy with a team of 8 ride Roman - just bridles, reins and him standing on the two back horses. They had plowing competitions - what Dad actually did on the farm when he grew up. They had the weight pulling competition with the heavier class of horses pulling 10,000 pounds more than their combined weight. I think those big horses are awesome!
I was able to find my Branson Christmas photos so I'll drop a couple in each blog between now and Christmas to get you in the mood........
Check out my foot massager! I could have picked my standard leopard print but decided to expand my horizons and go for zebra print instead :)
Four calling doves.......
This was one of the 12 Days of Christmas light displays around the Branson area. They had a contest for people to find the light displays and write down the location where each display was, then they would put all the correct entries in for a drawing for a prize.
This lighted tree was at the resort we traded into - Big Cedar - which is 5 to 10 miles outside of Branson. It's outside the clubhouse by the outdoor swimming pool.
