CRAZY COUSINS

I think these two crazy cousins could be dangerous if left together for too long! They will give you a case of the giggles for sure!

Stacy Ritter and Christy Bowman at TMS.

STACY AT THE FT WORTH STOCKYARDS

I love this picture of Stacy on the Grapevine Vintage Railroad Engine that pulled our train into the Fort Worth Stockyards Station.

NASCAR LADIES AT TMS

Christy and Stacy are big NASCAR fans. They enjoyed spending Tuesday morning at Texas Motor Speedway. From all the laughter, I think they had a good time. I'm sure they would love to attend a race together.

RIDING THE TRAIN FROM GRAPEVINE TO FORT WORTH

Samantha and Steffinee at the depot before departure.

On Monday ten of us boarded the train in Grapevine and rode in the old-fashion first class car to The Fort Worth Stockyards. We all had a great day. It has been great having Janet and Stacy visiting. We are sorry to see them leave today.

Samantha, Lindsay, Linda, Steffinee (in hat), Lauren (behind Grandma), Janet, Steve, Cindy, Stacy, and Chad in the back.

Samantha Having Fun With Cousin Stacy

Steffinee and Samantha wanted to take Stacy and Janet to one of their favorite places, the Great Wolf Lodge. Here are Samantha and Stacy having fun.

Hangin' With George

Just hangin' out with George Strait down on Main Street in Grapevine!

More of Grapevine's Christmas on Main Street 2014

Samantha loved the red tinsel tree.

Grandma liked the green on this tree and Samantha enjoyed sitting on the window ledge.

I was just strolling along when Samantha tugged on my arm and pointed up. I would have missed this one but she notices everything.

PICTURES FROM FOUNDERS' PLAZA ON MAIN STREET

Pictures from Founders' Plaza on Main Street.

FROSTY WITHOUT THE SNOW

Nothing like hugging Frosty when it is 70 degrees and there's no snow on the ground! (Thank Heavens!!) Thank you Texas weather.

 

SAMANTHA AND GRANDMA WITH SANTA

More Main Street Fun. Dustin refused to get his picture with Santa this year so Samantha insisted Grandma sit down. She told me I didn't sit close enough to Santa (his foot was in my way!) and that I had more of a frown than a smile.

OLD FASHION CHRISTMAS ON MAIN STREET

 Part of the Main Stree Christmas that reminds us of our past. Christy once built a replica of this cabin and did a report on its history when she was in middle school. She came in second place in an area contest.

SOME OF THE CHRISTMAS TREES ON MAIN STREET

There are so many beautiful Christmas trees on Main Street. I took pictures of Dusin and/or Samantha with several of them. Here are a few:

Dustin collects coke items so we had to get a picture with the coke bottle tree.

Samantha like the blue tree even though the sun was in her eyes.

The big ornament tree and the sun wasn't in Samantha's eyes.

CHAD, MARY, SAMANTHA AT CHRISTMAS PARTY

Chad, Mary, and Samantha at their church small group Christmas party tonight. Lookin' good there, Chad!

MORE FROM CHRISTMAS ON MAIN STREET

More pictures from our visit to Grapevine's Main Street yesterday.

Grilling with Santa outside the BBQ restaurant on Main St.

Dustin didn't want in the pink bows picture!

Writing her letter to Santa. (She took her Indiana Bear with her so it could celebrate the Texas way!)

Mailing the letter.

Fun Times.

THE NORTH POLE EXPRESS AT THE GVRR

The old fashion train, sometimes pulled by the steam engine, is a special treat in Grapevine. You can ride from Grapevine to the Ft. Worth Stockyards daily. But at Christmastime they have the North Pole Express. Children wear their pajamas and hear the Polar Express story on their trip. We didn't do that but did get a picture in the Grapevine Railroad 'picture engine'. 

CHRISTMAS ON MAIN STREET

I do so love our hometown of Grapevine, Texas. I love Main Street all year but especially at Christmastime. It is amazing how the city and merchants make it so Christmasy.  It has become an annual tradition to take Dustin and Samantha downtown and take lots of pictures. We went this afternoon while the temperatures were around 70 degrees. Will have to go back one evening for the light show. Papaw couldn't handle it and spent most of his time sitting in the library. Dustin, Samantha, and I walked almost the entire length of Main Street up and back. This old grandma is one tired lady!

At Main Street and Dallas Road. Samantha had to shade her eyes in the bright sunshine.

In the park by the log cabin. More shade her so Samantha didn't have to shade her eyes. I have their pictures next to this large ornament for the last two or three years. So interesting to see how much Samantha has grown. Dustin hasn't changed much.

ANOTHER FAVORITE ORNAMENT

This is another of my ornaments that hang on my tree every year. This ornament reminds of one of the best group of Sunday School kids I ever taught. It was a combination class of kids from the church and bus kids. It was a large group of 5th and 6th graders. The bus kids had very little knowledge of the Bible and the church kids were very helpful to them. This ornament was given to me by one of the girls in the class from our church. The year was 1991. Her mother was a precious friend who is in Heaven now. I am still in touch with some of the kids from that special class.

A SPECIAL ORNAMENT

I know is just a cheap little ball ornament but it has a special place on my Christmas tree every year. Mom and Dad gave me a ball ornament every Christmas. You can see this one is dated 1988. That is the last one from both Mom and Dad. Dad died in April of 1989 so while this may not look special you to it is very special to me. I sure miss celebrating holidays with my parents. We had a lot of great Christmases together.

This ornament also reminds me of my Indiana childhood Christmases.

GRANDMA'S ANGEL

I love pictures of beautiful 'House Beautiful' Christmas trees but that is just not me. I have been putting my tree up this afternoon and with every ornament that goes on it there is a Christmas memory. From my childhood to last year, memories are all over the tree. Here is a picture of my favorite ornament. Just seeing this little angel takes me back to my happy childhood Christmases. We lived in an old three-story farmhouse with very high ceilings. My dad would go out into the woods and come back with a tree everyone said would never fit in a house. But they always did and my sister and I loved them. And this angel was always on that tree. I am so glad my parents allowed me to take that angel with me after I had a family of my own. I have always called Lauren "Grandma's Angel". When I can no longer use this little angel I want it passed down to Grandma's Angel.

ISABELL AT CHURCH BANQUET

Isabell and friends tonight at the church Christmas Banquet.

CARLOS AT CHURCH BANQUET

Carlos with friends Moriah and Chandler tonight at the church's Christmas banquet. Love that smile.

Young Chad at Christmas

Love this picture of a very young Chad on Christmas morning at our house on Northwood Dr. in Bedford, Indiana. This was Christmas 1979 when he was three-years-old. Seeing this picture brought back some great memories of Christmas with our families when the kids were young.

Samantha November 30, 2014

They had the Christmas decorations up at the church today and Samantha wanted her picture taken with the two small trees at the end of our pew.

Spring Mill State Park, Indiana

Thanks to my former classmate Beth Allen Snead for posting these beautiful pictures of Spring Mill this Fall. I spent many hours there as a child and teenager. We even held one of Cindy's birthday parties there before we moved to Texas. Our Junior Prom (yes, grandkids, in our day we had both a Junior and Senior Prom) was held in this Inn. While I hope to never live in Indiana again, I think Southern Indiana is beautiful and it has many treasures. Spring Mill is one of them.

Fall decorations at the park entrance.

Spring Mill Inn, Fall 2014

THANKSGIVINGS PAST

I loved spending Thanksgiving at Grandpa and Grandma Hawkins' house with cousins, aunts, uncles, my sister, my parents and grandparents. Wonderful memories of special Thanksgiving days. So many are missing now and I miss them. Grandma and Grandpa, Mom and Dad, Aunts Elsie, Audrey, Mary, Gertrude, and Marie, Uncles Orville, Loyd, Kelsie, and Bill, and Cousins Joey, Judy, Johnny, Tony and Teddy.

Isabell's Eggs

The kids all have something they particularly want for holiday meals. Isabell is looking forward to deviled eggs tomorrow. Some like lots of paprika and some like a little so here they have a choice.

Aunt Sis and Becky

Thank you to Sherry Childers for sending me this picture of my aunt Oweedah 'Sissy' Butcher and my sister Becky. Great picture. My dad was the oldest child in his family and Sissy followed a little over a year later. Dad couldn't say Oweedah so he called her Sissy and she is Sissy or Sis to all of us still today. Her birthday is in February and I am guessing she will be 88 then.

DUSTIN'S 22ND BIRTHDAY

Saturday our oldest grandchild turned 22. It was a quiet day and he helped me with yard work, quite the birthday celebration. Thank you Dustin for all your help. Our annual birthday ritual is that I make him his favorite Coca-Cola cake. This year he ask if I could make it a cherry coke cake so we added some things and he was very happy with his cake. We got him a new desk chair and his mother gave him a tablet. His Bowman grandparents are in Vietnam but he got a card and a check from them. All-in-all, he had a pretty good day.

Once a Grapevine Mustang, always a Grapevine Mustang!

VETERANS FAIR

More pictures of the Veterans Fair today. I had to force Steve to go then on the way to the car he said, "Thank you for bringing me". He told me he was really glad he went and I think it was very good for him. Thank God for a beautiful day.

Thanks to our Congressman Kenny Marchant and the City of Grapevine, Texas for a great Veterans Fair today. The food was great (free makes it even better!), the music was very good, and the booths were all helpful. We got a lot of information, added Steve's name to our Congressional District Wall of Honor and he thoroughly enjoyed visiting with other veterans, especially the Air Force ones. He talked to some pilots who flew the 111, the aircraft he was a crew chief on and some who were stationed at Nellis AFB as he was. So glad it was a very pretty day that he could be out and enjoy himself.

The USO did a great job. Thank you USO.

Entrance to the fair.

 

If you didn't know better you would have thought the Andrews Sisters were there singing their famous WWII songs.

Steve proudly wearing his Air Force Veterans Cap.