5 Question Friday

Time to head over to Mama M's for 5 question Friday!

Rules for 5QF: Copy and paste the following questions to your blog post, answer them, then watch for the linky post to appear and LINK UP!

1. What's the best Christmas present you've ever received?


I'd have to say my flagpole that the kids got me last year. I had one at the old place and it was the one thing I could not take when I moved - just about broke my heart. But the kids came through and got me one for the new house!

2. Worst/Funniest White Elephant gift ever received?

I've been pretty lucky with the white elephant gifts and haven't gotten any really bad ones - although I've seen a few - like the "coon penis bone" - yes you read that right and it is really just that.

3. Is your Christmas tree plain and simple (white lights and matching ornaments) or is it wild and crazy (colored lights with lots of ornaments collected over the years)?

Colored lights and lots of snowman ornaments.

4. "How" do you iron your clothes? The old fashioned iron/ironing board way, the shower, back in the dryer, etc.

The old fashioned way - but only when I absolutely have to - in other words when I have nothing to wear to work unless I actually do it.

5. How much baking do you do for Christmas and what are your "must make" items? (I'm looking for recipes here, peeps...)

Fudge is the one "must have" item around Christmas for me!

Pondering with a Purpose

Thursday means it's time for Brenda's Pondering with a Purpose.

Her rules are really easy:

1. Grab the Pondering with a Purpose Badge (in her sidebar)
2. Look at the week's prompt
3. Post something on your blog that relates to the prompt - it can be a story, a poem, a picture -- anything you want it to be.
4. Go back here and add the URL from your post to the linky list on Brenda's.
5. Go check out the other bloggers who have added their links to the list.
6. AND most of all.... Have fun!

So this week the subject is:  Close Calls

So I read Brenda's post today and this is the first thing that came to my mind:

Way back (at least 20 years ago) before my parents moved back to VA, my mother decided she wanted to go home (VA) for a visit. My dad could not take off so me and my husband (now the ex) said we would drive her down. We were in a 1984 Blazer - I guess that makes it closer to 30 years ago - with both my kids in car-seats in the back with my mother. It was in the middle of the winter and it there was what we thought was a light mist coming down. Everything was fine until we got close to an exit and the semi ahead of us went to change lanes. The "mist" was freezing and the semi jack knifed. It ended up completely sideways. A pickup truck in another lane hit it. Jery (the ex) somehow got the Blazer stopped - literally 2 inches from the cab of the semi. The semi driver was ok, and thankfully so was the pickup driver, although the pickup itself was totaled. Not a scratch on my babies. I will always thank God that Jery was driving and not me because I honestly don't know how he managed to get stopped. All I know is we ended up with 2 wheels off of the pavement - he said he did that to get traction.

I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life. I had already been through one bad car accident that killed my older sister but thankfully I was knocked out and really don't remember much about how it happened. Brenda is so right. Your life can change in seconds.

Hodgepodge week 57

Wednesday again - time to hop over to Joyce's at From this Side of the Pond for the weekly 

hodgepodge.

1. Do you put Christmas decorations in every room of your house? If not every room, what rooms do you decorate?

I think I have something everywhere except the computer room.

2. If you could visit one of the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden) which one would you choose and why?

I'd love to see Iceland - it looks like a beautiful country.

3. What does the word faith mean to you?

Faith - believing in something without being able to see, hear, touch, smell, or taste it - just knowing it's there.

4. You can go back to your childhood for one day...what day and age would you choose?

I think any of the summer days spent with cousins at my grandmother's house would be nice.

5. When did you last have 'punch'? If it's not too much trouble share your favorite punch recipe.

Punch? Probably at my daughter's last "Miche" party. Can't think of a recipe off of the top of my head.

6. Do you fill stockings at your house? Are stockings opened before or after the bigger gifts?

I did when the kids were young but not any more. The stockings were always emptied first.

7. What takes your breath away?

Sonogram pictures of my first grandchild!

8. Insert your own random thought here.

Random thoughts - it's getting closer and closer to Christmas and it's getting harder and harder to come to work every morning. I am soooooooooooo ready for the Christmas break ( I get a whole 11 days off)!

Chats on the Farmhouse Porch

Time to go over to Patrice's at Everyday Ruralty for our weekly chat!

1.Where is your favorite place to think, reflect, or pray?

I've always found that the mountains are the best place to think, reflect, or pray.

2.Did you believe in Santa as a kid?

Until I was around 8 and the family was going shopping on Christmas Eve. My Dad kept saying that maybe Santa would have been there by the time we got back but then he made us kids wait in the car for what seemed like forever before he and my mother came out. They were inside putting out the presents and I wasn't that dumb!

3.What's your favorite kind of Christmas cookie? You can add a recipe if you have time.

I like them all but anything with peanut butter and chocolate is always a favorite.

4.Did you grow up around any of your grandparents?

Mostly my maternal grandmother.

5.What's your favorite winter sport-skiing, skating,sledding, other(?) ? If you are in a warm place, what is your favorite winter sport to watch when the Winter Olympics are televised?

Love to ice skate! Haven't been in years though ;(.

Meet me on Monday

Every Sunday Java from Never Growing Old will post five get to know you  questions that you can copy and paste into your own Monday post and we  can all learn a little more about each and every one of us!!

Java will add a linky so we can follow who participates and get to know them  better!!  Be sure to link the POST and not just your whole blog!!



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Questions:

1.  Tomorrow I'm going to _________?
2.  Pudding or Jello?
3.  What book are you currently reading? 
4.  What is the first concert you went to see?
5.  What is your current weather?
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My Answers!
1.  Tomorrow I'm going to ship my son's packages to England.
2. Pudding - definitely.
3. Just took my last online final last night so now I have time to read Brenda's new book Disrupted Lives.
4. The Beach Boys - way back in 1976.
5. 30 degrees but clear and no wind chills so not too bad.