Our Darling Little Maid Mintie

Aramintie

29 Sept 2006 - 25 Feb 2012

Today, we lost our little Mintie-Fish. We were blessed with our little darling's presence for five and a half wonderful years. She was born on Sept 29th, 2006, in the dining room closet. She was the first of the babies of Olivia's last litter to pop into this world. She was the cutest little thing from her first appearance. She was a very dark tortie who looked so much like her mother that it was disconcerting. She had her mother's round face, her mother's buff chin, her mother's round legs, and even her mother's three buff toes on her back foot. It took us about a week to pick the perfect names for the three surviving litter-mates. We debated on Arwen and Tinkerbell before settling on Aramintie. She fit the name perfectly and acquired several nicknames over the years. Maid Mintie, The Mintie-Fish, A Baramintie-Fish, Little Mama, and Mintiekins.

Aramintie was the cutest little kitty you've ever seen. Everything about her was round. She had perfect little peppermint toes and the roundest golden eyes that could look right through you. She was a little, live stuffed animal. Cuddly, soft, round, and wonderful. She didn't like being held, but she eventually got to like it enough that she would be pushing away from you as much as she could, all the while purring like a little motor boat. She never ate wet food, only kibbles. From a baby kitten she never cared.

Her favorite toys were little fur balls, which she would have full-blown wild-manzies with, stuffing them in her mouth as much as she could and growling away at it until she vanquished her little toy. Catnip was a wonderful thing, which made her totally nutsy, causing her to roll around the floor, going from one toy to the next. She never meowed, not even as a baby. However, she had no trouble growling. Mostly at toys while she was playing. You could here the low sound in another room. She usually played alone, and didn't require too much companionship. The other kitties, particularly the mama's babies, thought that she was there mama when she was sleeping. You would go upstairs and find Avis or Manly or Frodo cuddled up against the sleeping Mintie-Fish, and you would know that they thought she was Olivia. :o) Aramintie also loved to play with the laser toy. She would be a dark shadow zooming around the rooms after the little red dot. She was really amazingly fast and rarely ever missed it.

Aramintie always loved another kitty to cuddle with her, although she never really sought companionship herself. Her human involvement consisted of a little frenzy every day around 2:30pm. Like clockwork, she would be at the computer chairs, stretching one paw onto your legs. Her claws were unmistakable! ;o) You would pet her, brush her, sometimes even hold her. She really was a little stuffed animal. She would sleep with her chin stuck straight out in front of her on the bed, or curled up into such a tight little upside down ball. Her favorite spots were on dirty towels in the bathroom (sometimes she would even pull a towel onto the floor so she could sleep on it), against Mom's pillow on her bed, the top story of the kitty tree house while we would be upstairs watching movies, or on the top of my piano. She was a very musical kitty, I could play my piano while she was sleeping on the top and she would care. Of course, she would stare at me through one opened eye over the top of the sheet music, but if I pretended not to notice her, she would go back to sleep. However, if I hit a wrong note, the eyes would pop open and I'd be in for more staring. Funny baby. But she didn't mind showtoons, classical, even opera, as long as it was on-key.

Well, she has always had mouth problems since she was probably six months old. However, she was never depressed, actually she was a very happy cat. But we knew that it would eventually get worse. She would occasionally have a bad day. You could never pet her face or her chin, even on good days. But she ate great and was always normal. For the past several moths, though, she has had more bad days and the last couple weeks she started really going downhill. She wasn't happy anymore and she started losing weight. We knew, and although for the past year we had all known this would come soon, it still hurts. This morning Dad had to take her to the vet. You know, it doesn't matter how many we have or have lost, each one is so special in their own way that it really hurts to lose them. At least she won't hurt anymore. Knowing that she is waiting for us with Dee, Sydney, Caddy, Aline, and Little Joe, I still can't help crying. I am rejoicing and thanking God for the five and a half wonderful years that he gave her to us. We'll never forget our little Mintie-Fish - one of the sweetest little kitties, who blessed the world with her presence. My Darling, I Love You!

(*Click this link or the photo at the top to view a photo album of Aramintie.)

". . . the LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; . . . Blessed be the name of the LORD from this time forth and forever more." - Job 1:21b & Psalm 113:2

"My heart is, and always will be, yours."

Every day, around 2:20 in the afternoon, I make sure to go check the mail. Most of the time we only get junk mail that gets thrown out or recycled immediately. Sometimes I wonder why I am so excited and wait for the mail to arrive. Well, Monday dawned grey and cold and I patiently waited (again) for the mail. Went out at 2:20 and filled my bird feeders before opening the trusty metal mail receptacle. Two things, neither was to become recycled material in the next batch of cereal boxes. One was a secret, which I still don't know about, and the other was an oversized envelope addressed to me in my own handwriting. As I am not in the custom of writing myself letters (I'm not that desperate to get mail!), it had to be fanmail. Sarah and I have slacked off of writing it (need to get back at it!), but there are still a few that we sent out there. Well, this was an interesting envelope because it had the US stamps which I had put on it and it had a UK stamp below the US ones. I figured out which one it was by the time I was halfway back to the house. Only one person had I sent fanmail to in the US who was a British person. When I opened it, I saw that I was right.

They were from British actress Emma Thompson who starred in the 1995 film of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. Ooooooo, was I excited! I have been waiting (patiently) for these. Slightly surprised that it only took ten months. I had kind of expected over a year. Well worth whatever wait. We each got a photo and I got a bookplate to mount in my copy of her Sense and Sensibility screenplay.

The funny story about the screenplay goes back to the first times we saw the film. My very, very favorite scene in the film is when Edward comes to the cottage and proposes to Elinor. So romantic.

ELINOR rises suddenly, EDWARD turns and they stand looking at one another.

ELINOR
Then you -- are not married.

EDWARD
No.

ELINOR bursts into tears. The shock of this emotional explosion stuns everyone for a second and then MARIANNE makes an executive decision. Wordlessly, she takes MARGARET'S hand and leads her and MRS. DASHWOOD out of the room. ELINOR cannot stop crying. EDWARD comes forward, very slowly.

EDWARD
Elinor! I met Lucy when I was very young. Had I an active profession, I should never have felt such an idle, foolish inclination. My behaviour at Norland was very wrong. But I convinced myself that you felt only friendship for me and that it was my heart alone that I was risking. I have come with no expectations. Only to profess, now that I am at liberty to do so, that my heart is and always will be -- yours.

ELINOR looks at him, her face streaked with tears of released emotion, of pain, and of happiness.

I actually saw the movie for years before ever reading the book. Decided that I would try the book, so during the last quilt project, I got the book-on-tape of it. Really enjoyed, waited for the proposal and when it finally came . . . she passed over it! Never a word! She just says that (to paraphrase) everyone knows what happened so no need to tell what actually happens. She skips to dinner that night. Well! I had to stop the tape and think. Maybe I missed it. Rewind. It's still not there. Can't have missed it. Rewind again. Positively it isn't there. Man! I was stunned! My favorite scene. One of the most romantic proposals ever. It sounds just like Jane Austen. It isn't! That meant there was only one option. They wrote it for the movie. I thought about it for a moment. Emma Thompson wrote the screenplay. I really liked her playing Elinor, now I really liked her screenplay! I became an instant fan of hers. If you have ever read the book, you know how Sense and Sensibility is not written for film. Emma Thompson did a fantastic job adapting the book to film. In my opinion, she sooooooo deserved the Oscar for Best Screenplay. I would have sent her my screenplay, except postage to mail it would have made it outrageous. So, a bookplate will suffice. I couldn't be happier!

Happy Winter, Rise and Shine . . .

"Snow, snow, snow, snow! . . . ."

In the immortal words of Irving Berlin, "SNOW"! Not a ton, but enough to make the world white and the roads covered. So, we are sticking around. Yesterday was an absolutely wonderful day. We had coffee and a big breakfast and then Dad and I went upstairs. He tied flies and I dusted books. Pulled the sofa out and did all the shelves behind. Tons of books, as they are juvenile non-fiction. I did manage to organize them well enough so that I have about a foot and a half of free space. I did take some off that were miss-shelved. However, I am hoping that I will be able to put them in their proper shelves and not lose much space.

Jennie called in the afternoon, so we talked for about an hour. She was cleaning her apartment and I was sitting behind the sofa! Guess we were both kind of dusty. ;o) It was great to talk to her since we got to meet last Sunday. Turns out that she took French lessons in high school and used to be able to write it. So, I am going to really try going through my French-English Grammar book. She said that we could try writing letters in French if I learn enough and she brushed up. That would be fun!

Well, today is still snowy and the roads are white, so we are sticking around. The wind is really blowing and it is only 58 degrees in the house, even with Dad getting up all night to do fires. So we are going to try and keep warm. Actually, I think Dad will tie some more flies later. We are almost done with our audiobook of Pride and Prejudice. One more disc to go. It is really swell. Emilia Fox is reading and she does different voices for every character. She is brilliant. Dad and I are really enjoying it, so we'll finish it later.

"For to the snow, He says, 'Fall on the earth,' . . ." - Job 37:6

Bloomfield Cemetery and Books

Last week we went (again) to Bloomfield Cemetery, just outside of Sparta in Morrow Co. This is one of the prettiest cemeteries that we have been to yet. It is also where most of the Swetlands are buried. My Swetland genealogy is really coming along. I already have over 1200 people in my family tree. Truanna's daddy, Joseph Carper Swetland is among those buried at Bloomfield. Below are some photos of me standing next to his marker and the large Swetland monument. I keep finding more Swetlands there in the vicinity. Girls who got married and I don't know their married names. I think I have most of them now, although I do still get surprised. Here are some photos that Sarah took of me while we were there. The first is me with a child's stone that I was cleaning off so that we could transcribe it. The second is me with the Swetland monument, and the third is me behind Joseph Carper's stone.



The past couple of days I have been going through transcriptions of Knox Co. newspaper articles on rootsweb. A lady's grandmother saved thousands of clippings from the 1900s to 1940s, and she has been typing them up on rootsweb for the past several years. Absolutely fantastic! I have found so many good ones, it is amazing. Well, I have been putting obits on the findagrave memorials for anyone I recognize the name for. Found one for a "P.B. Chase", buried in Bloomfield. Well, I knew we had seen him, so I figured I would send the obit. Long obit. So I read it. So interesting. Turns out that the man is the guy who built the beautiful estate on SR229, which we pass on the way to the cemetery and we passed for more than a year when we went to Church in Sunbury. I always mean to stop and take a photo, but never have. Well, this Plimpton Chase is the guy who built the beautiful estate on his family's property which was originally his great-grandfather's Revolutionary War service land grant. They are selling it on sotheby's right now for almost a million dollars.



I thought it would be really fun to have them in my family tree. However, I don't have any Chases in the Swetland tree. However, like Bloomfield and Chester townships always are, they are related! It only took us five minutes to totally connect the Chases and the Swetlands! Truanna's mother is Emily Howard, her father's brother (so her uncle) had Martha Howard who was Plimpton's mother! Not only that, Martha's sister Rachel was married to Jacob Y. Beers and they had Emery, who married Joseph Carper and Emily's daughter, Elzina! Honestly, if you studied all the people buried at Chester Baptist Cemetery and the people at Bloomfield, they are almost all related to each other. It really is amazing.

Today it is grey, windy, and snowy. We got about an inch and a half last night and it is supposedly going to snow some more today. Yay! So, this morning we are going to make some coffee (already have the hot tea!) and I am going to vacuum some of the books upstairs. Last night I did four shelves of the childrens bios. A couple nights ago I did five shelves of the Wanna-Bes. It is so nice looking when they are dusted and all even on the shelves. I am listening to an audiobook of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice". It is read by Emilia Fox, who played Georgianna in the 1995 mini-series. I am over half way done and really enjoying it. Lizzy just toured Pemberley with her aunt and uncle. So, those are my plans for this beautiful snowy day. :o)

". . . the genealogy of all their little ones, their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, through all the congregation . . . " - 2 Chronicles 31:18b

God Save the Queen!

Sixty years ago today, the newspaper headlines proclaimed "The King is dead; long live the Queen!". Today is the 60th anniversery of Queen Elizabeth II's reign. Sixty years ago, Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip were in Kenya on a tour, when they found out that King George VI had died that morning. Prince Philip was told and he told the Queen while they walked in a garden. The next day she arrived back in England, this time as its' Queen.

Former PM Clement Attlee to the House of Commons: “It is our hope that Her Majesty may live long and happily and that her reign may be as glorious as that of her great predecessor, Queen Elizabeth I. Let us hope we are witnessing the beginning of a new Elizabethan Age no less renowned than the first. We hope that Her Majesty The Queen and her Consort may live long and prosperously and may see more peaceful days than those which fell to the lot of His late Majesty whose loss we mourn today.”

British and Americans alike, few of us can remember another Queen of England. Today, she is the second British monarch to reign 60 years and only her grandmother, Queen Victoria, has reigned longer.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill: "When the death of the King was announced to us yesterday morning there struck a deep and solemn note in our lives which, as it resounded far and wide, stilled the clatter and traffic of twentieth-century life in many lands, and made countless millions of human beings pause and look around them. A new sense of values took, for the time being, possession of human minds, and mortal existence presented itself to so many at the same moment in its serenity and in its sorrow, in its splendour and in its pain, in its fortitude and in its suffering.

The King was greatly loved by all his peoples. He was respected as a man and as a prince far beyond the many realms over which he reigned. The simple dignity of his life, his manly virtues, his sense of duty - alike as a ruler and a servant of the vast spheres and communities for which he bore responsibility - his gay charm and happy nature, his example as a husband and a father in his own family circle, his courage in peace or war - all these were aspects of his character which won the glint of admiration, now here, now there, from the innumerable eyes whose gaze falls upon the Throne. . . .

. . . All this we saw and admired. His conduct on the Throne may well be a model and a guide to constitutional sovereigns throughout the world today and also in future generations. The last few months of King George's life, with all the pain and physical stresses that he endured - his life hanging by a thread from day to day, and he all the time cheerful and undaunted, stricken in body but quite undisturbed and even unaffected in spirit - these have made a profound and an enduring impression and should be a help to all.

He was sustained not only by his natural buoyancy, but by the sincerity of his Christian faith. During these last months the King walked with death as if death were a companion, an acquaintance whom he recognized and did not fear. In the end death came as a friend, and after a happy day of sunshine and sport, and after "good night" to those who loved him best, he fell asleep as every man or woman who strives to fear God and nothing else in the world may hope to do. . . .

. . . There is no doubt that of all the institutions which have grown up among us over the centuries, or sprung into being in our lifetime, the constitutional monarchy is the most deeply founded and dearly cherished by the whole association of our peoples. In the present generation it has acquired a meaning incomparably more powerful than anyone had dreamed possible in former times. The Crown has become the mysterious link, indeed I may say the magic link, which unites our loosely bound, but strongly interwoven Commonwealth of nations, states, and races....

For fifteen years George VI was King. Never at any moment in all the perplexities at home and abroad, in public or in private, did he fail in his duties. Well does he deserve the farewell salute of all his governments and peoples.

It is at this time that our compassion and sympathy go out to his consort and widow. Their marriage was a love match with no idea of regal pomp or splendour. Indeed, there seemed to be before them only the arduous life of royal personages, denied so many of the activities of ordinary folk and having to give so much in ceremonial public service. May I say - speaking with all freedom - that our hearts go out tonight to that valiant woman, with famous blood of Scotland in her veins, who sustained King George through all his toils and problems, and brought up with their charm and beauty the two daughters who mourn their father today. May she be granted strength to bear her sorrow.

To Queen Mary, his mother, another of whose sons is dead - the Duke of Kent having been killed on active service - there belongs the consolation of seeing how well he did his duty and fulfilled her hopes, and of knowing how much he cared for her.

Now I must leave the treasures of the past and turn to the future. Famous have been the reigns of our queens. Some of the greatest periods in our history have unfolded under their sceptre. Now that we have the second Queen Elizabeth, also ascending the Throne in her twenty-sixth year, our thoughts are carried back nearly four hundred years to the magnificent figure who presided over and, in many ways, embodied and inspired the grandeur and genius of the Elizabethan age.

Queen Elizabeth II, like her predecessor, did not pass her childhood in any certain expectation of the Crown. But already we know her well, and we understand why her gifts, and those of her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, have stirred the only part of the Commonwealth she has yet been able to visit. She has already been acclaimed as Queen of Canada.

We make our claim too, and others will come forward also, and tomorrow the proclamation of her sovereignty will command the loyalty of her native land and of all other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire. I, whose youth was passed in the august, unchallenged and tranquil glories of the Victorian era, may well feel a thrill in invoking once more the prayer and the anthem, "God save the Queen!"

Meeting Jennie in Cleveland

Today we finally got to meet Jennie! She and Carrie drove to Erie, PA for the weekend and today, Jennie drove to Cleveland and met us! For the first time! We met at the Cleveland Art Museum and then spent some time at Pizza Hut before we had to all head separate ways at 3:00pm. I have been writing to Jennie for three or four years now and we talk on the phone, but it was fantastic to be able to finally meet her. :o) Hopefully it won't be three years before we can meet up again! We almost forgot to take any photos, but thankfully Mom remembered before we left the parking lot. ;o)

The Cleveland Art Museum was fun. I don't think we've been there in ten years. They are still not done with the renovations, so not all of the collections are displayed, but they had a lot. The armour and weapons section was great, as always. The swords and daggers were gorgeous. As far as paintings go, we we went through all the sections except for the modern art. They had a Reynolds painting which we wanted to see, as Sarah has been studying Reynolds paintings of the Eliot's lately. It was much larger than I expected. Gorgeous. I was particularly excited to see that they own a painting of Yosemite by Albert Bierstadt. He married a Swetland (well, an Osborn, but her mother or grandmother was a Swetland). His painting looked as cool in real life as the scan did!

However, the best part of the day was getting to meet Jennie. We have talked about it for so long, it was fantastic to finally be able to meet each other!

"A friend loves at all times . . ." - Proverbs 17:16

Welcoming the New Year with "Lord of the Rings"

Another Year, another New Year's Day, another Trilogy Tuesday. Ever since the real Trilogy Tuesday on 16 December 2003, we have celebrated the New Year by having our own trilogy day. When Lord of the Rings was coming out, we practically burst with excitement and anticipation waiting for the next movie to be released. New Line Cinema did a special one-showing-only deal where you could see all three films back-to-back. What was even more exciting was that they showed them the day before Return of the King was released! So, December 16th found us standing outside a theatre in North Canton at 9:00 in the morning. Mom, the two of us, and a friend went together.

They played the extended versions of Fellowship and Two Towers and then the last film! Boy, were we excited! The theatre was nice, and the crowd was great (since everyone was a real fan)! You got a sticker that you stuck on your seat and if anyone was caught swapping seats, they were ejected. The first film began at 1:00 in the afternoon. You got an hour between the first and second films, and 45 minutes between the second and third films. We ate at Panera for lunch, at Pizza Hut for dinner. The last film ended after 1:30 in the morning. It was really a fun way to see the third film, and really fantastic to be able to see the two extended versions on the big screen! Everyone got a special souvenir from New Line Cinema. They made special little stand-up frames that contain one real frame from each of the three films. We still have these in our room in shadow boxes. I even got one that had Elrond in it!

So, we made a family tradition that every New Year's Day, we watch all three films. We don't watch them any other time of the year so that they are special. This year we actually started early enough that we were able to finish them and it was only 10:30! It was a yucky day outside and we were all really tired, so nobody minded sitting all day. Since we replaced our surround sound receiver last year, it was fantastic (and loud!). The scene of the Flight to the Ford was as wonderful as ever. I am really wanting to try and make a little doll of Arwen in that scene. Of course, Elrond, Galadriel, and Eowyn were fantastic. Especially scene 56 in Return of the King. Sarah and I waited so long for that one scene, it is special!



Winter finally arrived. Snow, rain, wind, grey skies. Don't mind though. It is nice to be able to stay home and not have big plans. I got an audio book from the library that I am really wanting to listen to. Might go upstairs today and start. Pride and Prejudice, read by Emilia Fox (who played Georgiana in the 1995 mini-series). I bet she'll be fantastic!

We are still working on FindAGrave.com. We have sort of adopted Morrow County cemeteries and are working at getting photos and burial records transcribed for a lot of them. However, I have made slight detour. Mom found transcribed records of a Liverpool, England cemetery. It opened in 1825, was closed in 1898, and in 1913/14 they turned it into a park(!?). Removing the large stones, burying the flat ones and removing the surrounding wall and chapel. Now it is this flat grassy area without a sign or anything. I think it is weird. It is now a common spot to get your wedding photos taken. Oh, well . . . It turns out that Mom's great-great Grandmother's first husband and three of their babies are buried there! Fantastic, as she has spent years looking for them! So, I started inputting people onto findagrave. So far I have done 231 people. Gave myself an arm cramp yesterday. They have transcribed the records from 1825-1837. Only twelve years (only! ), but there are over 13,000 people buried in those twelve years. I told Mom this morning, I have managed to do two days this week where I input 100 names. At that rate it will take me over 130 days before finishing! What you probably don't know is that there are over 80,000 people buried in that cemetery (which was an area that was not quite 5 acres). Whoa! So, I will keep working!

God's blessing on the New Year!
"lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen." - Matthew 28:20b

Let's watch the old year die, with a fond goodbye . . .

"One minute to midnight, one minute to go. One minute to say "goodbye", before we say "hello". . . "

[PHOTOS COMING. . . ]
Well, OK. Not exactly one minute. More like seven hours. But how romantic is that! I like Irving Berlin's version better. Christmas was wonderful. We had a nice morning doing presents. I got a whole box of old Etude magazines. They are very interesting. Took me three evenings to go through the contents of them all. I pulled some articles aside so that I can type them up for my movie and opera blogs. Even found one that has an article on Deanna Durbin's "current" film, It Started With Eve! That was exciting. I also got a Blue's Clues beanie. It is so cute. Let's see, some of the other exciting things were two Julie Andrews Christmas CDs, a glass emerald, a fantastic snowed Lilliput Lane of an oast house in Kent, and several old leaf-shaped pins.

I spent the day before Christmas Eve working on Sarah's presents. Two charm bracelets. One that has all different charms for Bing Crosby and Nelson Eddy, and another with all kinds of Cuba-themed charms. We also got her some books, an old "pin money" bank, a honky-tonk piano player planter, and this set of four very odd-looking German Christmas decorations (four guys playing musical instruments).

Dad got a bunch of fishing themed things. A cool ceramic travel mug, a decorative storage chest, pajama pants, etc. Also, a really cool set of Cuban stamps. They were fun to find. Got them at the National Stamp Show in August. It was a blast trying to keep them a secret from Dad! Mom got the usual candy and Jelly Bellys, a glass basket like her Gramma used to have, Yes, Minister, and Sarah and I bought her a bean cookbook. It isn't released until January 15th, so she has something to look forward to. It says it has 150 different bean recipes!

At noon on Christmas, we went down to Buddy and Kay's for dinner. She had her family up like usual. Always fun over there. We stayed until evening visiting. It was a lovely Christmas. Fun morning, fun afternoon. Nice to go somewhere for Christmas. All in all, we all think this was one fo the best Christmas days ever!

On Thursday, Mom and the two of us went up to Mansfield and just had a fun, easy day. Got some cat food, went to Panera. Just simple and fun. Yesterday all four of us went out. Headed to Columbus, but stopped at two cemeteries on the way. Had to take a few photos at Chester Baptist, so Dad got to see Truannie's monument! We also spent over an hour looking for some old cemetery in Pagetown (not exactly the booming metropolis!). Finally found it behind somebody's house. Managed to take photos of all the remaining stones before it really started raining. Then we headed down to Whole Foods to get coffee and milk. Ran out of organic coffee last month. Bought some coffee at Kroger which was terrible! This morning we had some nice, wonderful coffee. :o)

Tomorrow is our annual Lord of the Rings day. Every New Year's Day we watch all three LotR films in a row. Makes for a long day, but so much fun! Almost 12 hours of solid film time. This year we are going to make sure and start soon enough so that we can finish. Several times it has gotten so late that we all fall asleep. No fun to not finish. We have been doing this ever since we went to Trilogy Tuesday in 2003. What fun!

"And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years. . . " - Genesis 1:14

Christmas with the Keultjeses

Tuesday night was our annual Cuban dinner with the Keultjeses. We spent the day getting the nice dishes down and washed, setting the table and making the food. Gramma and Grampa sent a box of plantains and yucca. Plantains . . . Mmmmmmm! They were great this time. Not too green. I like them when they mush flat and start turning black. Yum! They are always a blast when they come over. Just wish it was more often. Claire and Hannah are up here until Saturday morning, and coming here was the first thing they wanted to be sure to do. :o) It was really a fun evening. Time flew by and before we knew it it was late. Good fellowship always makes the time go faster. Christmas wouldn't be the same without the Keultjeses! Actually, now that I think about it. I don't think that we've had a Christmas in Ohio without them!



Yesterday, I spent the day wrapping and working on Christmas presents. Mom and Sarah spent the day making rum balls. They ended up making four different kinds. Bourbon rolled in coffee, Bailey's and Kahlua rolled in powdered sugar, German chocolate (Frangelico rolled in coconut), and cherry brandy rolled in sugar (with a brandied cherry inside!). We wanted to give some to Hannah and Claire to take home, but didn't get them done before Tuesday. So, we ran up to Mansfield last night. Impromptu and fun. They had called Mrs. Furr and she came over too! We all ended up staying until after 9:30pm! It was sooooo fun. Claire and I probably drank a gallon of hot tea. She kept making it, until they ran out of one kind of tea bags! Mrs. Keultjes kept digging up snacks. It was really fun, especially to get to spend time with Claire and Hannah again. They don't get up here often, so it is always great to get to see them.

Today we were going to go up to Stan Hywet to see the Christmas decorations. However, I think the weather is going to be better tomorrow, so we might be going tomorrow instead. If we stick around, then I will work on that present some more today and maybe finish wrapping some more presents.

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." - Isaiah 9:6

Happy 90th Birthday, Deanna Durbin!

Today, my favorite singing star turned 90 years old! Deanna Durbin lives privately in France now, removed from Hollywood and everything that goes with it. However, there are still many fans who have discovered her beautiful voice through home video, cds, and the internet. As I have already related how I came to love Deanna (on the previous December 4th blog post), I will share a beautiful song from one of her funniest films. This winter's project (or should I say, "one" of this Winter's projects!) is to put together my Deanna scrapbooks. I have several contemporary scrapbooks of her that I have gotten online, as well as tons of photos I want to print and lots of memorabilia (magazine covers, postcards, sheet music, etc.). Actually, two days ago I got another old Deanna scrapbook. Can't wait to do all of these.

Here is a fantastic song, from her 1940 film, It's A Date. Co-starring Walter Pidgeon and Kay Francis. If you've never seen this film, you've really missed out on a grand piece of entertainment. This is one of our favorite Deanna films. Very funny! With her and her actress mother trying out for the same part in a play!

" . . . can I hear any more the voice of singing men and singing women?" - 2 Samuel 19:35 b