Author Archives: ~~Rhonda

Living in a small town, I share my life with my husband Russell (married in 1977), five children (one still at home), and six cats (one indoors, the others outside).

I teach an online class called “The Christmas Notebook” which is about all things holiday prep. The many facets of celebrating Christmas comprises one of my favorite hobbies. Other favorite things include gardening, reading, cooking, and scrapbooking.

decorating the kitchen

My sister Genny and DD did a lot of the decorating in the kitchen this past weekend while I worked on other things. Brooke had helped me on Friday and we put up new garlands as the old ones were shedding terribly. I made each one long enough to fit each window so they will […]

floor tile in the bathrooms

The tile installers have been here all day. I took a few pictures while they were at lunch. The tiles are installed in the downstairs bath, but not yet grouted. Upstairs, they have just started putting down the tile. They will be back tomorrow to work on the third bathroom. I’ll be glad when the […]

stringing popcorn and cranberries

Saturday morning, my sister and I took about four hours to string popcorn and six bags of cranberries for the living tree. DD helped for a little while, too. This is not quite half the strings we need for a 9′ tree. The 9′ tree sits on a 2′ box, making the top 11′. I […]

menu plan monday ~ november 10, 2008

We are well underway with the Christmas decorating. Remember…we have to start early to have those 20+ trees up in time for our annual open house on the first Sunday in December. I’m seeing a lot of these lately. Keeping in mind how much I need to get done this week, I am planning an […]

living room tree

Last evening I put lights on the middle tier of the 9′ living room tree and today I spent three hours finishing the lights on the bottom tier. Looks great! And it should. I used twelve boxes of commercial grade, 200 count light strings. This tree sits on a revolving stand and makes a beautiful […]

a year old!

The twins went home on Monday, but before they left, we had an early birthday celebration. Panda didn’t seem to care for that first bite of almond flavored frosting, but she got into it. Tabby, not so much. Now they are a year old! 🙂 ~~Grandma

the storm before the lull

Yesterday, DH brought lots of boxes down from the attic. There are fifteen boxes just for the living room. This is the part of decorating for Christmas that looks like chaos to the untrained eye. 🙂 It’s all organized by box and by room. Each box decorates a particular part of the room. For the […]

new tile in the downstairs bath

The new tile in the bath was grouted yesterday, in the midst of getting our son and his family packed and on the road. The tile guy did a great job. The medicine cabinet goes back up tomorrow. The tile goes around the window, over to the tub. The view out the bathroom window…the trees […]

in honor of election day

DH make the eagle from the Great Seal of the United States. Ummm…riiiiight…. He didn’t add the extras…arrows, leaves, banners. You get just the basics with DH’s pancake art. ;-D Those other things are "dots," which DD always asks for. Now that you’re inspired…get out there and vote! ~~Rhonda 🙂

our babies are going home tomorrow

The twins have been angels this week. A dream to take care of. They’ll be heading home tomorrow, which is sad for us, but happy for them and their mommy and daddy. ~~Grandma