Proof of rain in Sunny California . . .

The proof is in the raindrops! The rain is heavy and happily brings to mind the fact that we had the roof repaired earlier in the year. Hopefully, no surprise rain drops falling on our head in the house! And, the roofer also was kind enough to clear out the rain gutters for us. As you can see from the pictures, the rain is coming off the roof quite nicely.

My rainy day afternoon . . .

The weatherman was correct and the rain has been pouring down since noon. Since going anywhere in this weather without a really good reason would have been foolish, I settled down for an afternoon of sewing. Yes, I did my chores first and the laundry is washed, dried, and put away but thank you for inquiring!

My husband needs five gifts for his office at Christmas so I made up some 'gift bags' that will last long after Christmas. All of them have the same back applique as shown at the top right picture. Just have to get some Christmas green tissue paper and figure out some trinkets and goodies to put in the bags and that is one annual 'problem' I won't have to think about come December.

Going with Spaghetti for dinner. I just pulled out several containers of sauce and leftover gravy from the freezer and put them in a big pot. My literally 'pot luck' sauce is usually very well received by the family. Unfortunately, I can never repeat the recipe! A bowl of hot pasta sounded good on a cold evening.

Especially the third quote!

"To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music, no choreography, and the dancers hit each other."
-- Jack Handey

"Never express yourself more clearly than you are able to think."
-- Niels Bohr

"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia."
-- Charles M. Schulz

"A country can be judged by the quality of its proverbs."
-- German Proverb

Christmas thoughts, a cold morning, finished projects. . .

It is nice to wake up to a colder morning for a change . . . cold being probably a different temperature given this is California! Our idea of cold is a lot difference than the reality of cold back East. Anyway, getting to use a blanket after a hot summer was very nice.

Busy morning as this is our weekly religion class with our pastor. He has been offering it to the parish for the last couple of months and everyone is thriving on it. My teenage son and I have yet to miss a single session and are learning so much about our Faith. It is actually a bit scary to realize what we don't know and are finally learning. It explains why there is so much turmoil and antics going on in our Church, today. People are not being taught. In fact, our pastor said he makes this is goal in his priesthood . . . to teach. For that, we are so very grateful. It is interesting, however, to note that the more liberal mind sets and questions come from the senior citizens in the class. I'm amazed because you know they were raised in more conservative households and I wonder what happened down the years to make them question so much.

Rain is still in the forecast for today. It is nice to look forward to but kind of sad to see our summer garden going brown and useless. I always pray to be here another season to see it happen all over, again.

Lots of sewing piling up as I plan Christmas gifts. I'm also knitting some gifts so am torn between hand sewing in the evening or picking up my knitting needles. I enjoy doing both and find myself conflicted! I also, finally, ordered Rosary cord and hope to get back into making Rosaries for the missions, again. When I stopped, several years ago, I had made and sent around 10,000 of them on my own. I'm a bit ashamed of myself to have let this prayerful craft go by the wayside. Anywa, I got out my beads, prepared the proper length of cord, and plan to get started, again. It will be a nice craft to put back into my life as Advent approaches.

Finishing off six lined bags for my husband's office. They exchange gifts with each other during the holidays so we thought a homemade bag with some goodies would be nice. Not knowing the religious bent of his fellow employees, I went with 'generic' angels and stars for the fabric. So far, they look pretty good. They have some Christmas colors but they are not 'screaming' Christmas so could be handy any day of the year.

Also, beginning to think about Christmas baking and who needs a plate of cookies for the holidays. I like to get started right after Thanksgiving and deliver them way before Christmas so people can enjoy them before the holiday rush of goodies comes upon everyone. I hope to post some more of my own recipes here as I dig them out for my baking.