Tomorrow is the start of a new month and I'm still back in December. I doubt that I'll ever catch up. I should try harder; but I'm still enjoying December. This picture is of Ava our great granddaughter. It's amazing how quickly one's attitude can change. Love this cute girl.

While in New Mexico in December, our grandchildren checked out the stores on Main Street in Roswell which were decorated as Whoville. It was a contest, so it was pretty exciting and made great pictures. Here is Julia posing in front of three different store fronts.

It was just a stop on the way, but a pretty interesting one at the largest pistachio in the world! It really was large as you can see in the picture of Julia.

Here is another layout of the 'kids' while they were still in New Mexico. This time, they are at the White Sands National Monument Visitors Center.

Well hopefully, I'm back on track. Not only did my Photoshop work when my husband opened it this morning, but I've found lots of pictures that I want to use in layouts. I'm hoping to spend less time on email and more on scrapbooking, at least for a while. The layout I'm posting now has photos from our son John's family trip to New Mexico the week before Christmas. It is a picture of our grandson Oliver and a picture of a sign announcing their approach to Oliver Lee State park. I put the two pictures together just for fun. I think they drove right passed the park on their way further south.

Not only have I not been making layouts, but now when I started to work on one, my Photoshop Elements failed me. It won't even open. I have to wait until my husband has time to help me with it. As much as I like computers and use them many hours a day, I have no idea how they work. So, hopefully he will find some time tomorrow to fix this problem.

Here's another layout from Oliver's 8th birthday December 10. I can hardly believe he is 8 already. They grow up way too fast.

Not long ago, I posted a layout of Julia at White Sands, New Mexico National Park. This time we have a layout of her brothers, Caleb and Oliver in the same area of the park. I'm glad they got to make that trip. What an interesting place to be, especially in December.

Yesterday I posted a picture of Mr and Mrs Clark, Lauren and Pat. I decided we needed a little newer picture, so here is one from December. It was their first Christmas as man and wife and they still have a good sense of humor. I have another picture that more adequately shows that, but I'm saving it for the family album.

In September our granddaughter Lauren married Pat Clark. We were not able to go to the wedding. Ron was still trying to get his strength back from his bout with Covid. It was sad to miss such a beautiful wedding of two very special people. Thankfully, there were lots of pictures. I have only posted two here. Today while I was trying to finish another book for publication, I found this one. It is a picture of Lauren with her mother and father and her new husband and long time friend, Pat.

Our youngest daughter's family has been suffering with health issues for months now. It is good to see them with such a wonderful Thanksgiving meal supplied to them by friends from church. Friends are a great gift, but Christian friends are very special. Matthew 22:36-40 New International Version 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: "Love your neighbor as yourself."

This is a year round activity: Roller Skating! The picture was taken of Ava in November. She likes this very special skating rink with all it has to offer. Skates is just part of it. Fun Times!

Still catching up, but this leads us well into today's news. Ron will have to get his tractor out again in the morning. At this time we have a Servere Weather alert here in Green, OH. Supposedly at 7:00 the snow storm will begin. However it started about 3:00. Now at 6:30 we have about an inch. But the big snow is 'promised'. Usually by January we have had lots and lots of snow. But this is our first snow of the year. The south has been stealing it all. Now it is our turn. I love it...since I don't do the shoveling. Now comes the tractor. Ron has always enjoyed the process, but he has been so thankful that we have had such mild weather so far. However tomorrow morning bright and early my poor husband will likely be riding that tractor back and forth over our wide driveway that many people mistake for a road. I pray that it isn't too hard for him at his age. Oh by the way, I must comment on the Severe Weather warning we got. It seems like the weather is greatly exagerated now. As far as we old timers are concerned a severe snow in OH is not 6 inches, but more like 6 feet. One would think by listening to the weather forecasts and reports that the sky is falling!

These pictures were taken a bit before Thanksgiving, but her shirt lended itself to a Christmas like theme... At Thanksgiving, we are thankful for the food God provides; and at Christmas, we are thankful that He sent his son to save us from our sins.

As they say: Live and Learn. That is certainly the case here. I was very surprised to see this picture and others that were taken in White Sands, New Mexico. I had never heard of it. I have seen white sand beaches in Florida and in Hawaii, but I had not seen any inland. I had not even heard of White Sands National Park in New Mexico. In addition, I had no idea that John and his family were traveling there so close to Christmas. So this was a Big Surprise for me...a very pleasant one. I'm hoping to blog more pictures later.

I'm still a bit behind, haven't been making layouts as often as I would like. The one here tonight uses a picture from back in October. It is our granddaughter Lauren and her new husband Pat.

Looks like Oliver is having a great time on his Christmas present. And we have videos that really show how cool this is. We have more videos that were taken that night. Its lights make it extra special. Luckily this is a great time to be on a cul de sac.

It is difficult for us to know exactly what to get the kids for Christmas. We had help from John this year while he was in town. One of the things we found was gift cards for Build a Bear. That is always fun and so we were glad to make those one of our gifts to Julia and Oliver. I'll post a picture of Oliver with his masterpiece soon.

Ava is a very lucky girl. Just look at all the gifts... and it was only the day before Christmas, not a creature was stirring, but Ava. The cool thing is. It was still light outside. Santa hadn't even left the North Pole and look at all those presents. We should have seen this same scene the next morning while all Santa's gifts were everywhere and nothing had been unwrapped.

Pictures with Santa are always special to me. Not only do I enjoy seeing the kids ineract with Santa , but I also like to see the joy in Santa's eyes. That would be a fun job...well, I have seen occasions when it was not so sweet, but not often. I love the smiles. Julia has been accentuating hers a bit. It is called live and learn.