Merry 2010 Christmas!!

As we end 2010, we want to wish all of you who read this very happy holidays! Our year was a good one. Still have not sold our house in Michigan, which continues to be a bit of a financial drain for us, but we have good health and really are very fortunate. Mike had his left total hip replaced this fall and his thoughts about that are further down in this blog. Various pictures of some of our other activities are also posted here. I found a good part time job as a public health nurse in a town about 40 minutes from here and think I will grow to love it. We have not been able to see our St. Louis friends either out here ...or in there...as often as we would have hoped...but are loving living here in Owensville. And are making new friends here. Mike has become a bit active in the local theatre group and we are going to join both the Arts Council and the local Democratic club. We have found a wonderful church which we are now members of. These folks have been so friendly and welcoming to us in every way....and we look forward to developing lots of friendships with them. We have joined the choir and love singing in harmony with their lovely voices. We have said to each other many times....how glad we are that we chose Owensville as a place to live...and look forward to having many happy years here!

Below are some pictures of our Christmas Decorations. We got two new electric heaters and have loved having mantles to decorate. This Christmas besides giving and going to parties with our friends...both new and old, we will have Mike's kids and grandkids out on the 26th for gifts and dinner. They are predicting snow on Christmas Eve so to go to the 11PM service at our church should be lovely! We can walk if it gets too deep!! Love living in a small town. Hope all your days are merry....and that 2011 is a wonderful year for us all!!

Some decorations on the porch.....

One of the smaller mantles.....

And the larger one in the parlor.....

Fall outings.....

One evening in the late summer, we went with some friends to eat in a restaurant which is inside a cave! It was interesting......the food was OK. But I think all of us feel....we've done it...no need to do it again! Then in October, my dear Uncle Larry and cousin Nick came for a visit. We toured a lot of wineries...cause that is the area we live in. Here is an old historic stone church...And the historic RR Missouris River town of AugustaAt a winery on the banks of the Missouri RiverUncle Larry swigging from the bottle....well....not really!At Hermann....a wonderful old German town near usAnd on a trip into St. Louis...we visited the house Uncle Larry...and my mom...grew up in. I lived there for a while too...a wonderful house in South St. Louis.

Family Reunions

We had two family reunions in August....the Balluff one in MT Morris....and here is the whole crew at breakfast....Enjoying our picnic/BBQ in the park....Aunt Ruth and Lucas...Aunt Ruth and Ella....the oldest and the youngest!A good pic of Luke...and it is hard to get him to pose...which is why there always seem to be more of Ella. But he is soooo handsome!!My brother David in town...and we took in a Card's game at Busch Stadium...fun!!And the Kuehnert/Wright family reunion...cousins reunited. And two kids named after my mom's cousin Evan who is missed by us all.All of the cousins....do we look hot...and I mean that in the bad way?? It was one of the hottest days of the year.....in the 100's! YIKESSS!!

Spring and summer fun 2010

On a hot summer weekend, we went to Sedalia to the Scott Joplin Jazz Festival...toured an historic home and listened to some great Ragtime Jazz.....

We saw Ella...our grand daughter get her medal in gymnastics

And went to the Rose evening at the Missouri Botanical Garden in June

Paid some visits for wine drinking and music to our local Wenwood Farm winery.....

And had fun with the kids in the backyard.....

Luke has great potential for golfing....hopefully his granddad can take him out this spring now that he has a new hip!In the spring my two BFF's and I went to the Mo Botanical Garden too...one of our favorite places in St. Louis.