Wow, Wow, Wow!

Christmas day was warm and sunny, a little breezy, but all in all a lovely day spent with great friends eating way too much fabulous food and yes, taking home bags full for later. Then my renter brought over food too! I'm still thawing and eating it (I put dinners in the freezer when I got home)! Saturday was more like Memorial Day as it hit 80F and the humidity was so thick you could cut it with a knife....you knew the weather was about to change....BUT....not with EF3(winds of 160+) & EF4 (winds of 200+ mph) tornadoes!!! So much damage and carnage with 11 deaths and still 18 unaccounted for! So many homes and apartment complexes totally destroyed, so many homeless with only the clothes on their back in shelters, the temps dropped by 30 degrees in less than 30 minutes and rain, rain, rain so hard you could not see (3.5 inches). Flash flooding (with people having to be rescued) in the low areas because of all the saturation of the soil already. Sunday was really cold and wet (poor responders and people checking for loved ones or pets or to see what could be salvaged) the rain just kept coming in wave after wave and then the hail starts...what? in December? Yes, several different storms had the hail stones and so heavy it covered the ground very quickly and took a while to melt, then overnight into Monday morning....SNOW! Yep, we only got the edge of it (dusting or flurries) but others only 2 miles away got 2 inches of the white coverage! The wind was atrocious all day yesterday and it never got to 40F, but felt like the mid 20's all day! Winter finally found us...so many changes in such a short time...awful 4 days from super happiness to total life changes in just hours!  8 of the deaths were caused by the tornado picking up cars off Interstate 30 and tossing them like toys onto the expressway beneath them...crushing them! They never had a chance. Now it is all headed east and north....praying for those in it's path!
This morning thankfully, it is dry...cold (upper 20's-32F) and the wind has decided to give us a break. Some good news, yesterday a couple that had been dug out of the wreckage of their home on Sunday returned after being checked at the hospital to dig out both their dogs (FAMILY) trapped in the wreckage (2 days)...vet says they have no broken bones, just a little traumatized and cold, wet and very hungry....but will be fine!
Before all this happened, I was busy scrapping, scrapping, scrapping and reorganizing all my files on my computer, backing it up and even doing some paper scrapping.  I took lots of photos of my fur babies happily opening all their presents on CHRISTmas morning and coloring in my adult coloring book (boy some of those are very intricate designs) and enjoying all the holiday music! I am having my blog put into book format at the end of this year...(only 2 more days)....so I am still going to post the pages I did so they will make the book.

This was the card made for Penny (at her request) to put on FB to wish all a Merry CHRISTmas from her family to all her friends...Weymond has all 5 grand babies on his lap and then the 5 are around the tree at Amy's house...the quick page is by Fecnikek! 

This one I created for her too using a QP by Miriam's Scraps, but she chose the first one to publish and then printed this one! LOL!

This is Margaret and Lance's card they posted...sweet babies! I created this page using Raspberry Road Designs Season of Joy kit and free clusters!

This was Amy's but she kept having problems with getting it to post...This postcard was a freebie from Fecnikek too!

This was for TBT the day before CHRISTmas of CHRISTmas day 2012 in Grapevine, TX with my friends Jannette and Mike and his mother Anne and his sister Julia...we had a wonderful day together...the card is also by Fecnikek and wordart is by Miss Boots (Random Thoughts at Linda's Place)
Well, back to the real world now...today is trash day and I need to get mine out for collection and now that daylight is finally here, I have a few wet boxes to gather for them too! My fur babies stayed nice and dry and warm (their electric blankets were plugged in) but some of the boxes they use in warm weather are soaked...no worries I have a stock of new dry ones to put out today...LOL!
Chat in a couple of days to start the new year off right! Y'all have a good week! Make lots and lots of memories to share! Love, Mat