Good morning on a cold and blustry Monday morning. The wind has howled all night with gusts up to forty miles an hour. I have new limbs down and I noticed that the cover for my John Deere, the yard sweepers and a table had all blown off. I'll have to go put all of that back tpogether when I get home today. And, we even got a skiff of snow on the windsheilds and roof tops. Winter weather is going to be around at least the first half of the week. By Thursday it will start getting a little warmer but then, of course, it will rain. I have enough work to do this week to keep me indoors so it doesn't matter a lot to me. I just am not ready for snow yet though.

I am of course at work with an empty office. I have been going over last years Christmas Eve service and the Cantata Sunday service. I'm putting together the service for both of them this year and since I haven't been to either of these services at this church in many years, I needed to know what traditions have remained and what has changed. They look fairly straight forward and I have a lot of material at home to draw from to create both programs. I was surprised though that Pastor Art didn't do a sermon with either of the programs. I may change that and do a short homily or just do an extended meditation for communion. It depends on how much writing time I'm going to have between now and then.

Julie, Jim and the pups all got home safely and they got the table we sent with them home without it raining on them. Jim had really wrapped it well so if they did run into a shower it wouldn't get wet. We won't see them now until Christmas. She has a horrible schedule from now until then. She is taking two classes at the university and running the Barnes and Noble Bookstore that services the campus. Her "between semesters" is called Rush and it is hectic beyond words with students ordering new books, selling back their old books, doing book rentals and all of he otherstuff like stocking shelves and pulling book orders. They put in some hellish hours during Rush and it always wears her out. And of course she has to get ready to start her own new classes too.

I really proud of Lisa and her family. Lisa, Matt and Amanda will all be starting college again in January. Matt is continuing his automotive classes for an Associate degree. Amanda is taking Spaanish simply because she wants to learn it. And Lisa is taking some CNA (I think) classes as part of her desire to eventally become certified by the State of North Carolina to be  the Director of a Mental Health Facility. I am so thrilled to see the grandkids finally decide to go beyond a high school diploma.

I need to start practicing my trumpet again. I am planning to do a duet with our choir director/organist on Christmas Eve. We will do "O Holy Night". I needed to add something else to my schedule. Sometimes I am my own worst enemy. LOL

That's it for today my friends. I hope it is warmer where you are than it is here. Have a great day.