TOMMY IS READY FOR CHRISTMAS

Tommy is ready for Christmas.  She is now "friends" with Santa, and won't bark when he comes.

We have been very busy with our Santa visits, with the last home visit for Santa is at 10 pm Christmas eve.  Yup....Santa will already be on the way back to the North Pole to load up his sleigh!

Soon after our wonderful day with family we will be ready to head south.  We have designed a new blog for our future adventures.  The blog is entitled "Riding the Wind"...and the address is:

http://www.theresa-vanderhorst.blogspot.com/

Once Christmas is over...check out our new blog.

This year it's going to be much easier to make the posts since we now have a "hotspot" on our iphone.

We can "attach" 5 electronics to it.  Aaaah....technology.

Let us not forget the REAL REASON for the SEASON...to remember the great love that our Lord & Savior has that He became man and came to be born in a manger....to live with us and die for us. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL....

Until we "connect" again....(on Riding the Wind blog)

Yes, Virginia....THERE IS A SANTA

Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.

Click here to seethe newspaper clipping
Newsman Francis Pharcellus Church wrote The Sun's response to Virginia.


"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old. "Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. "Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.' "Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?"VIRGINIA O'HANLON."115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

HO HO HO Merry Christmas 2011 !

It has already been a very busy Christmas Season 2011 already this year...AND IT'S ONLY DECEMBER 5! But it has been a wonderful "busy"...we love it.


The unique opportunity to volunteer at the historic Embassy Theater & it's annual Festival of Trees in Ft. Wayne came our way. (It's a way of the Embassy to raise money for it's on-going restoration.)

This is the room where we entertained the secred wishes of the little children who whisper into Santa's ear.

One of the beautiful trees in the lobby....

Yesterday we went to Granger for the 4th annual "Photos with Santa" event. What an awesome and fun afternoon; pictures with kids and enjoying our 6 of our grandchildren and our daughters and son-in-laws. It was a great family afternoon. Of course Charolette & Yvonne love to sit on Santa's lap.

Yvonne & family

Charolette and family....
The exciting event yesterday was extra special for Lincoln....because he asked Santa for his TWO FRONT TEETH!

Our next blog post will be on our "new" blog when we head south after Christmas. It will be at a whole new address and we will let you know.....stay tuned until we "connect againn".

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR

Brrrr....IF IT'S WINTER....IT'S INDIANA, JANUARY 2011

Last week end, before the blizzard of 2011, we traveled to Chicago to have a "personal" lesson on geocaching from the family geocaching guru, Kevin. Anyway...he knows more about it than Chris, and Chris' knowledge is minimal. After Mass on Sunday, we headed to a park that Kevin knew there were some caches hid. Chris had to put his previous "lessons" into practice. It was a chilly day; had to dress warm. (10 degrees) Searching
Dawson ready to follow where the trek took us.

For those of you who do not know what a hand-held GPS looks like..here it is.

Checking coordinates with Kevin at his side

There it is! In an old downed dead tree.

Caches come in all shapes and sizes. One finds them, leaves something, and signs a little log inside the cache.

We were just getting started here. Were dragging a bit more than this by the end.

Looking for the 4th and last cache, we had a wonderful surprise. We came on about 24 deer just grouped up together under the trees. They didn't seem too worried about us; they were used to not being threatened. After a while they started comming back towards us so that they could resume their rest under the trees.

There were two very nice bucks in this group of does.

These guys are growing up so much. It's hard to believe.

A couple of weeks ago we went to visit some very old friends in Tecumseh, MI; Greg and Kay Kambas. Chris has known Greg all of his life. Of course, we took Tommy, the traveling beagle along. We took her nice big bed so that she would feel at home. It had all of her familiar "smells" on it. However, she preferred the teensy weensy bed of Kay's little Yorki, Sugar. It was so small that Tommy's big fat butt hung over the side. Quite a sight to behold.

On the coldest day of January, we decided to hit the road to the "ice carving festival" in Tecumseh. Dressing warm, we trudged up and down main street, enjoying the sights and events. Here's a carving outside of the American Legioin Post.

We watched this guy carve this butterfly at various stages. Got prettier every time we went by.

Almost the finished product.

It may have been cold, but we found many excuses to get inside some of the local establishments to warm up: i.e. hot chocolate in one, wine tasting in another, and local church's bell choirs in the carpet store. They really were beautiful sounding.

And the final reason to get inside and get warm was for an enjoyable lunch with Greg & Kay. Lots of fun and laughs. Had a wonderful week end.

Just realized that the only picture I don't have is their little Yorki. Next time....

So, until we connect again....

A QUICK TRIP TO MONTANA....almost....

Our niece and her husband, Cassie & Kyle, from Montana made a quick trip to Indiana d/t a death in Kyle's family. They are staying with our daughter Charolette. Luckily, the weather did a bit of a thaw, so the roads were satisfactory for us to meet for a "play date". (Of course, all the kids in the area were doing the "happy dance" d/t schools being closed....all the back roads turned to a sheet of ice with the rain on the snow. Ya should see our driveway) We met this little 8 month old chunker, Camden, for the first time. He certainly doesn't miss any meals. What a sweet natured little baby. He held out for a 36 hour train ride from Montana to Chicago. What a trooper.
Cassie and Kyle. Cassie is the daughter of my hubby's brother, Mike, who lives in Washington state.

Of course they had to get a picture of Camden with "Santa".

The wonderful family portrait...the little cutie on my lap is Kennedy....not from Montana. She's part of the "Presidential Sweet" of Indiana. Our fun visit was much too short. We barely took time to take a breath in between giggles and bouncing kids.

Here is a pic of our two whirl-wind kitties. Stephanie is such a cat person. I think everybody in the county tries to pitch extra cats near our place. The grey one was discovered here at just a few weeks of age and almost starved, the summer of 09. Then last summer a starved little white kitty emerged from the wood pile, and earned a place in the VanderHorst menagerie. Woodie came by his name naturally and Sugar is the more grey kitty. Woody is an instigator. Luckily I got this shot when he was getting ready to start harrassing Sugar. They are usually tussling and chasing each other. Loads of fun to have around.

So....until we 'connect' again.....

MADDY'S 9th BIRTHDAY

It's hard to believe that the little girl who was born with such a huge amount of hair....has grown to 9 years old!!!

This is little Kennedy....getting tickled by Papa's whiskers :)

Kennedy certainly has her "volume control busted" as Grandpa VanderHorst (Chris's dad) used to say about Dean when he was a baby.

Here's a smiley Lincoln....managed to get him away from the Wii

....and last but not least Reagan....always ready to cuddle.

Had a lot of fun watching Marmaduke in the PS Theatre....that's the Presidential Sweet Theatre.

What fun with the kids.

Madison made a very nice choice for dinner: split pea soup. Yummy. Good choice, Maddy.

Until we connect again....

HO HO HO Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, friends and family. Most of you know that Chris is truly Kris Kringle. He enjoys being Santa's helper in the northeast Indiana area. This year Chris, and two of our daughters, Yvonne & Charolette, got me a Mrs. Claus dress. We were enjoying our time listening to kiddies wishes for Christmas at our local bank.

"I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" That was a popular Christmas song when I was still young enough to sit on Santa's knee.

For the last three years, Charolette has planned a large Christmas event, inviting many of her friends from school, church, etc., to come and bring their kiddies to see Santa. In a pause between kids, here she poses with us. What fun we had. We had some worry about the weather this year in driving our four wheeled sleigh to the gathering. But, we survived quite well.

Several members of our family are hooked on "words with friends", a type of Scrabble that two people on iphone can play with each other. We played "words" with Julio in Indiana while we were in Alaska! Lots of fun. Here, Dad and daughter spend a little "down time" when there were no children at the Christmas event.

Merry Christmas to all and God bless all of our friends and family. Most of all, bless our soldiers in harms way, and bring them home safely.

JIM & GINNY'S SPECIAL DAY

Last Tuesday morning began with Yvonne, Dawson & Charlie packing themselves into the back seat of our truck and all of us heading to New Jersey for Thanksgiving and my brothr's wedding. Granted, all of us were tucked into the truck before, but the boys were 4 years smaller that time! But it worked! The first idea was to take the Prius. Would not have worked...too much "stuff".

We stopped along the way to visist a very long time friend, Trish, and her husband, John. We've known each other so very long....that she was my coach at the delivery of Charolette & Andrea. That's a looooooooong time friend. We used to babysit for each other's kids, have a "day out" in the small town of Craig, Colorado by taking the kids for a "ride" through the car wash, and (I remember) accidentally dumping spagetti in her silverware drawer! We had such fun together.

She is such a wonderful cook, too. We were treated to tacos for lunch....but not just any tacos; all the wonderful "fixins'". Thanks, Trish & John, for your hospitality.

Here's the happy family. They were posing for portraits and I snuck in and took the shot.

Jim's daughter "officiated" at the wedding. (Turn around is "fair play"...Ginny officiated at Holly's wedding last year)

The happy couple.

A little activity book was Charlie's best friend. It kept him busy for hours and hours.

Ginny's mother, Ginny also, was so excited about the wedding. Ginny and Jim made the day very special for her. She also celebrated her 90th birthday FOUR TIMES during this week. And when someone achieves that respectable age....as well they should! She had a surprise party at her church the Sunday before ( her church of 65 years!), at Thanksgiving, and at the wedding (and one other time, too).

Holly & David, last year's wedding couple, and this year's expectant parents.

Dawson beginning to enjoy himself more at the reception.

Mike and Ashley.....next year's happy couple. They will be wed during the Labor Day holiday. Off to Jersey again!.....

The first dance of the newly married couple. They chose: "Mamma, He's Crazy" What a hoot!

And my brother can actually dance!

This was taken at the Thanksgiving dinner at a beautiful restaurant on the ocean. But, unfortunately d/t the fog and overcast, chill and earlier sunset on the east end of the time zone, we couldn't get the full effect of the setting. But the warmth on the inside over-powered the gloom outside.

Me & Ginny, senior. She is such a wonderful lady. I'm glad she had such a good week.

Meanwhile....back at the wedding. Dawson, warming up to the fun of the reception, demonstrated that he could "cut a rug" (HIS words) To Dawson's right is Jimmy (son of Jim, who is son of "big Jim"...too many Jim's but no "juniors") who is busy applying to college's this year. Further to the left of the picture is Craig, our nephew.

It was a wonderful week end, sharing Jim & Ginny's big day, but also loved visiting with all the niece's and nephew's...and seeing how big all of their kids have grown. I just don't know where all the time has flown. And next year...we get to celebrate again! Woo pee!

The trip home was a bit long. But we made the 700 miles in 12 hours. Whew!

But Yvonne still had another 3.5 hours to go....a long day.