Parties and Rain

It's almost winter around here with the wind blowing, the rain and temps in the high 40s at noon on Sunday.

Carolyn was baking an apple-pear pie on Friday when I got home from work that was to be our contribution on Saturday's get together and we sat in our kitchen enjoying wine, cheese and crackers while it finished baking. Darla then called and invited us over for a Christmas tour of the lake. A number of lakefront owners had already decorated the weekend of Thanksgiving so lights flickered off the lake and herds of "deer" stood amongst decks and potted plants.

Saturday, Carolyn went off with five of the 'queens' to the jewelry mart area of LA while I did laundry, cleaned up the house, and watched the USC-UCLA game which SC won by a measly five points when they had been expected to win by a margin of over twenty points. Carolyn called with her success at finding a birthday gift for herself from me and another for Christmas. That pretty much solved my shopping issues for the season!

The queens and their husbands met that evening down in Links Pointe and enjoyed conversation along with wine, shrimp, ham, appetizers and desserts. The ladies showed off their shopping prowess while the Oklahoma game played in the background.

Sunday, we finally made it to church after an absence of several weeks and Pastor Mike again effectively used his own life experience to illustrate the passage from Corinthians. Then we stopped by Wanda's for a brief visit and I hung a new watercolor for her that she had purchased at the community art show. Then it was home to start the process of decorating for Christmas by setting up the tree and getting all the boxes out of the attic.

Six o'clock found us at the next party of the weekend for Community Bible Study. We drove up to Villa Park in the rain and I met all the women leaders and their husbands who get together just this one-time a year. I didn't hide in the corner very often but made acquaintance with a number of guys when we found connections through our work, mutual friends, or sports centered on SMCHS.

After a full weekend, we drove home, cranked up the heat in the house, watched an NYPD Blue from last week that we had taped, then dove into bed after throwing on an extra blanket to make it all cozy. That's all folks!