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.