Christmas Day

Look at all those presents , hope a few are for me.
Ashley , Andrew, Terry and Cindy
Suzanne,Andrew and Terry
Ashley, Suzanne, Andrew, Terry and Kerrie
Mema and Terry . Look at all those presents , they must have been good all year.

Christmas , what a wonderful time of the year. Some people say that Christmas has been too commercialized and I guess in some respects Christmas has with all the buying and gift giving . I guess we do . On the other hand Christmas is the one time of the year when all the families try to be with each other , which I think is good. Our family get together at our house around 12 noon on Christmas day after our children have had Christmas morning at their homes. Cindy , Rick and Ashley arrived here about 11am . Cindy and Ashley got busy helping Mema with the dinner . Soon Terry, Suzanne , Christopher and Andrew arrived . Then Kerrie and Jerry arrived. We had dinner and then opened the presents . They all left soon after that . They all had other stops they had to make.. They all said they would come back later which they did. Christopher and Haley Christopher,Terry,Andrew and Suzanne

It was a good day which Mema and I enjoyed very much and look forward to each year. So I think you can buy presents and enjoy dinner with family and also remember and give devotion and honor Christ on the day we call Christmas.

Christmas Eve Ritual ... The Things We Do Ever Christmas Eve

Mema shopping at Walmart Christmas Eve morning.
Leaving the Waffle House after breakfast
Sam Evatt good friend and my haberdasher( as they were called years ago) .



Well for several years now Mema and I have done the same thing every Christmas Eve .

We start with a quick trip to one of the stores here in town. This morning we decided to give the Walmart in Boling Springs the honor of our time . Now very seldom do we have to buy anything but we go and look and if Mema sees (what she thinks is )a bargin we will buy it . Mostly we are just looking around and looking at the people as they go about their last minute shopping. This store usually takes about a hour of our time then it off to get a breakfast somewhere. We picked a Waffle House in the same area as the Walmart this morning. After we left the Waffle House we stopped by a local grocery store where we picking up two trays of food for a friend of ours that is home bound recuperating from back surgery . We spent some time with them helping her to get her ham and turkey in the oven. After that we went to a sporting good store on the west side of Spartanburg . Mema did buy me a pair of running shoes there. While we were in that part of town we stopped by a friend of ours that has sold me many a piece of clothing over the last 25 years of so. Sam Evatt ( Sam Evatt's Store for Men) a good friend and an expert on men's fashion. From Sam's we went by a local Bible store here called Christian Book Supply where Mema bought some DVDs that she had been wanting. Our last stop was The Big Lots Store which did not take long, but we love to look at all the things they have. Mema headed to the Big Lots Store


After that we went back home and started getting the ham and food ready for tomorrow.

Then about 5 we left to go to a restaurant that we have been going to for years now every Christmas Eve. Guess you might say it is our anniversary dinner . We were married on Christmas day 1955 ,52 years ago. Now each year some and sometimes all the family is there . At times some have other plans . This is a day that we look forward to ..... Merry Christmas to everyone....

The Christmas Season

Well tis the Christmas season, The Halls are a little late getting started this year due to some construction that has been on going for the last month . That is about finished now or near so that we have started putting up the Christmas decorations . My main job is to get the decorations out of the attic and garage and putting the lights on the tree. Delores (Mema) puts the ornaments on the tree. Mema also has a collection of Byers Carolers dolls that she displays on the mantel and other locations around the house. A few years ago Mema was in to ceramics and one of the things that she made was numerous Old World Santas that she also uses to decorate the house with.. Today that is about all we did worked the house over getting it into the Christmas look. So I guess some more shopping and then get ready this weekend for the Christmas dinner . Our son Terry and our daughter -in -law Suzanne will be here with the two grand boys Christopher and Andrew , also our daughter Cindy and our son-in-law Rick will be here . Granddaughters Ashley and her boy friend Will and Kerrie and her husband Jerry. We also look forward to having a family friend Larry here , Larry is just like one of the family and has gave us the pleasure of sharing Christmas with us for the last number of years. Usually there are several more that show up.. We all have the Christmas meal and then spend time opening out presents... Will keep you posted on the post Christmas events . So The Halls wish one and all a very Merry Merry Christmas .. And let's all pause and take time to remember the
ONE who is the Reason for the season. So hope all of you have a Christ like Christmas.

THE COTTONWOOD TRAIL

The Cottonwood Trail is located on the west side of Spartanburg near Spartanburg High School along the bank of the Lawson Fork Creek. It is maintained by the Spartanburg Area Conservancy (SPACE) . SPACE was founded in 1989by the citizens concerned over the loss of green areas and open scape in Spartanburg County . Initial funding for SPACE was provided by the Spartanburg County Foundation.SPACE is a private not-for-profit land conservation organization.The trail is used by walkers , runners, bicyclist. Cottonwood is about 1 1/2 miles long but, with all the side trails you can make an outing about any distance that you like. I use it mostly for running and any run will pass people running , walking or people just out with their dog. Like this morning when I ran into Mr. J. Gallagher and his dog Precious . At other times you will be out there by yourself. Just the slight sound of the creek rippling along , a squirrel rustling the leaves , birds winging it to their nest,a hawk in hot pursuit of a small duck darting in and out of the curves of the River this morning he or she as the case might be was lucky and foil the attempt of the hunter and was spared to fly another day. The woodpecker pecking away on the old tree that stands out in wetlands over which runs a foot bridge from which I was observing him busy at work . They say that the woodpecker is looking for bugs and other insects , but I think sometimes that red headed rascal is just making music with his rat-tat-tat for all to hear. Here are a few shots from the Cottonwood.

Recycling at its finest..good use of an old power tower

Nice smooth trail good for running or bicycling .

Basketball Game

Christopher and Haley enjoying the game ??

Tuesday night basketball was on the menu for the evening . So after work we were off to Chesnee High School to watch SCA play Chesnee High School . We arrived early and to our surprise the girls were playing . Our girls team are young and small so Chesnee girls were ahead by a wide margin. The girls were playing hard but went down by the score 57-35.

The boys game was a different story it was a see-saw battle through out the contest and came down to the last seconds of the game before the outcome was decided . With Chesnee leading 40 -37 and 8 seconds left a steal by Demorris Chambers and with a slam dunk cut the lead to 40-39. After a 5 second violation on the inbound play gave life to the Warriors and an inbound pass by Mason Crow to Bryan Keaton on a backdoor cut and a layup to make the score 41-40 and seal the victory. With about 5 seconds left Chesnee was not able to get a shot off.... Game over...

Construction Continues The Floor Men

The Construction Continues Well it is Saturday Morning , and no construction has taken place this week, which is just as well because with my dogs here it would have created a problem . So the hard wood floor men are supposed to come today and repair the floor where the wall was between the den/kitchen and living room. They came by late yesterday to look the job over and see just what needed to be done and it was decided that to make the new blend in with the old hard wood floor in the living room the best thing to do was to refinish the floor in the living room. I am sure that would look the best , it would also cost more. As any job that you undertake it always runs more than originally plan , so it is with this job. Delores and i ( you noticed that is with a small i) decided that the best plan was to have the whole room refinished. The only question was the time element . We would like to have it done while they were here, but they have jobs line up till the 10th of December and that will be pushing the Christmas season . Delores likes to have the Christmas tree up by now. Or will can wait and have a mix match floor till after Christmas. We are pretty tire at the present time of having the house torn up and are ready to get the furniture back in place and the house back to normal . We will make that decision this morning when the workers arrive . Stay tune.... to be continued.....

Thursday December 6th

The floor men are back to repair the floor after a few days of will be there won't be there . The job did not take long and went about as well as could be done with the problem of two different height floors . The old den floor is about 3/4 of an inch higher than the living room and that is a lot to make up in a 4 inch span. So now wait till Monday to start the refinish of the hard wood will keep you posted...

Wednesday December 12th

Well I think the floor is finished the men put the last coat on the floor yesterday and came back this morning and finished the trim around the room with 1/4 round. It looks good and as for the job I will not comment . Did have some issues with the job , but decided that I was tired of the house being in a mess . Was glad to get them out of here so thing can get back to normal. With just 2 weeks till Christmas we have a lot to do . So tomorrow it is putting the furniture back ,

and getting the Christmas tree put up. Will start a new post tomorrow on the Christmas season..

and will come back later when all the details of construction is finished...