it's been a long time since I last posted

Facebooking with friends has sort of supplanted the blog but I'm going to try to be more faithful about blogging again.

November flew by with the major events being:
A womenade potluck dinner on the 9th where we tried something new. We asked everyone to bring in addition to their dish to share and their check for $35, something for newborn babies. There is a group called Mama Bears that knits blankets for newborn babies of families in need. The baby items were intended to go with these blankets. As usual, the ladies in this group were so generous and we ended up with nearly 50 packages of newborn clothing. The clothing was separated and wrapped in cellophane wrapping and tied up with ribbon. The numbers are shrinking but every time we have one of these we get a few new people.

On November 15 I held a t'ai chi demonstration with a few of my students. The idea was to show potential students what they will learn and to give a short lecture of the benefits of the t'ai chi practice. I've been teaching it here for nearly 3 years now and there are about 6 people who have kept it up and actually have a t'ai chi practice of their own.

I have started to do some marketing work for the church. So far this has included creating advertising materials for various church events like vacation bible school, senior lunches, Thanksgiving services, brochure of outreach ministries, t-shirts, shopping bags, bulletin board education showcases and banners for Christmas services.

The senior lunches at the church have become very popular. November's was right after Thanksgiving. It was the 4th one we've done. They are held the last Monday of each month. Surprisingly we had nearly 50 people that day. We served beef stew prepared by yours truly plus a coleslaw salad, rolls, and baked apples for dessert. We created a survey to see what people think and the feedback was very interesting. Some people who only attend 1 or 2 of the luncheons commented on all 4 lunches we've had! For the most part the feedback was as expected - folks don't want fish dishes, no cold dishes, no lima beans!

Our daughter, K, was here for Thanksgiving week and for T's 60th birthday which happened to be on Thanksgiving day this year! We had a wonderful time with her showing her sights she didn't see the last time she was here. The weather was much cooler than her last visit when we had 80s at Thanksgiving. She didn't bring enough cool weather clothing. She shared my sweatshirts and we bought a little space heater for her room to keep her warm at night. She is used to a higher heat level than we keep our house at. We visited with P&S and their daughter and had a wonderful Thanksgiving with all the fixings from both families. Everyone had their favorite from homemade cranberry sauce to creamed onions and bread stuffing to Chinese rice stuffing, green beans with mushrooms and a butternut souffle (first time I've made it) which was a star. We were conservative on the pies and had the traditional pumpkin and pecan. K was in charge of hors d'oeuvres and had bacon wrapped scallops, spanikopeta, mushroom stuffed pockets. I'm hungry just typing all this.

The beginning of December is the anniversary of our moving out here. Every bill possible seems to be due the beginning of December - property taxes, insurance bills on house and cars, life insurance premiums, long term health care etc. It's also health check-up time. I got a clean bill of health with everything in the "normal" range. Yay!

I am going to try to post at least once a week. Now when I next log in I can see how I'm doing.