Book Club Annual Christmas

Time for another ending year of reading books at the OMBC. The Christmas night and reviewing of books read will be tomorrow night at my daughter's new home.
It has been a good year of chosen books. These are the ones, my members have picked and we have enjoyed this year.
Luncheon of the Boating Party.... Susan Vreeland
The Book Thief... Markus Zusak
The Penny... Joyce Meyer & Deborah Bedford
Julie & Julia...Julie Powell
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas...John Boyne
The Guynd...Belinda Rathbone
The Lost City Of Z...David Grann
Slumdog Millionaire...Vikas Swarup
Mad Dash...Patricia Gaffney
Secrets She Left Behind...Diane Chamberlain

What fun we have had meeting each month to discuss these great reads!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

I am truly thankful for my family. My youngest granddaughter put on FB... I am thankful for a family that loves me. Well said, Maddy !
I will be sharing the Thanksgiving dinner with my work family today. I am also thankful to get off later today, for a bit of time spent with family at my wonderful MIL home. My family will be gathered there for a feast. She has been spending days preparing. Mother In law will be 80 this January. When other family members offer to host, she states,.. she wants to continue to host as long as she is able! So thankful that MIL & FIL are very healthy and live a blessed life together.
Have a safe and happy times spent with family and friends today.

Thankful for Wonderful Friends

Just wanted to mention what wonderful friends I have... The pics of them helping me have a great Sister Retreat this October. Lorena gave a very knowledgeable nature walk teaching with laughter and demo stations of our Iowa's indigenous grasses and wildflowers.
Brenda gave us a wonderful trip back into "Days gone by" of the one room schoolhouse and living in the 1900's. She prepared a wonderful picnic at the round barn complete with table decor and a welcome unmatched by any other event. She even brought girls from her classroom to share a piano recital at the church. All this was on the grounds of the Allerton historical site.
Everything was just perfect and such fun.
Thank you so much ,dear friends!

Bradley Hall

Weekends past so quickly and this one was a cloudy, but warm one in the low 50s. DH and I
went to the neighbor town of Centerville to entertain ourselves. We stopped at Bradley Hall. It is a mansion built in 1909 during the Gold Coast era. It has 22 rooms, which are now filled with different vendors of many types of decor and foods. We spent quite some time wandering around the beautifully display items. On the third floor used to be the ballroom, we found filled with local artist work. Love to of taken more photos, but sadly did not check the camera and my batteries were blinking done. But the above photos were in the entrance and caught me in the spirit of the season.
We then went to another mansion on the North side of the town square, called the Columns. It has many wondrous items as well and seems to carry more of an antique flavor, which I love. Sorry no pics.
Then conclusion we ended up at the Double R, where the best tenderloins are made. They have been there since 1966. Same owners and family continue the same delious menu. Love it! Unfortunately, there are only open during fair weather. Thankfully, they stay open till weather becomes severe. The owner Andy Ragona was heard to say to us, that we were very faithful good customers. We have continued to visit through our high school years till present. Plan to continue to make it a weekly treat... Hopefully another week or two is left this year!

Festival of Trees

One project completed! Blank hospital, where I work has a festival of trees. Every year different staff members and others volunteer to decorate trees to be auctioned off. The last few years our dept have had a Pediatric E.R. tree done. Linda Mitchell is the the decorator. She organizes us all and everyone is willing to help. My contribution is these gingerbread men. Our theme this year is Candy land. Next week, we will bring all the decorations together and set up the tree. Many also volunteer for that event as well. Linda is busy getting everything ready and I thank her so much for the job she does each year. If you are in DesMoines during Thanksgiving do stop in and view the trees it is worth the time. Very inspiring and Festive. So check out the website and maybe stop in to see the trees.
www.festivaloftrees.com
So off to work and hopefully another project will be completed next week for me.

Holiday Time is Near

What busy times... Many events I have attended these past few weeks. In between working working. It can leave me breathless, but fill with joy.
In October after the sister retreat, we had many of my kids birthdays and attended granddaughter's volleyball games.
Also I attended the AQS quilt show in Des Moines at the Wells Fargo Arena. It was a honor to be able to attend this wonderful event. Much to my enjoyment, they had quite a large display of antique quilts. Anita Shackleford's collection of red and greens was awesome to see. Kalona also had their quilts from their Antique Amish Quilts collection. Browsing after that became overwhelming, as I walked through the many vendor's and beautiful quilts displayed from around the country. It was so very exciting for Iowa to have the American Quilt Society come to Des Moines. This was their 2ND year to come to our capitol.

Then the first weekend of November... I went to Louisville to share in the celebration of my sister Bev's 50TH birthday. I spent the day riding with my other sister, Brenda. The long ride shortened by sharing time together in the car. Much catching up with each other was done both on the way to Louisville and home. It was fun but exhausting sharing with all my siblings and Bev's lovely family.
This past weekend we celebrated my Husband 60Th birthday. A fun time shared with our children and families along with my MIL, FIL. It is always a joyous event when shared with our kids and family. My husband's mother will celebrate her 80TH in January. Looking forward to planning this event. But she informed us... not to celebrate! Imagine that?! Not going to happen!
Thanksgiving is fast approaching and many are making plans to share together. Mom, 79 years young will be hosting the event. She takes great pride and joy in this and really loves to have all her family around her. She wants to continue to be the host as long as she is able.
For me, my family is planning on coming and have fun each year. I will be working at the ER.
But being, she lives so very close to the hospital... I can catch the later part of the festivities and share some time with family.
Now on to the jobs, I need to complete today before heading back to work tomorrow.

Remembering Veteran's Day

Our thoughts today to all who have served not only W.W.2 but all Wars.
Thank you and blessings to all the families, who have sacrificed for our country.
United States Coast Guard, Army, Navy, Marine,and the Air Force.