Old houses, Christmas decorations and another parade

I’m still doing randoms on Friday. Random 5 Friday is a meme started by Nancy of A Rural Journal. Nancy is taking a break, but it’s hard for me to give up my randoms.

So here we go for this week.

One

Becky Green Aaronson of The Art of an Improbable Life recently did a giveaway of a 2014 Creative Peeps Inspirational Calendar she designed and produced through Improbable Publishing. I won!

I already have it set up on my desk, ready for the new year. I’m looking forward to having an inspirational quote in front of me to help carry me through my work.

Please stop by Improbable Publishing and have a look at the calendar. Becky is donating $1 from every sale of a calendar to cancer research.

Two

Please visit Lisa at Two Bears Farm for a wonderful story about a horse rescue and continuing work to help horses in need.

Lisa is such a kind person with a generous heart for people and animals. I have been inspired by her, and I know you will be, too.

Three

Last Saturday was my mother-in-law’s 91^st birthday. To celebrate, we took her out for an early dinner at J.T.’s at the Lavalette, a restaurant in Gretna in the next county over.

The restaurant is in the Lavalette House, a lovely historic house. It was decorated so beautifully for Christmas.

And the food was great, too.

These photos were taken with my phone.

Four

Every year, the staff at the newspaper I work for have a Christmas photo taken. We put it in the Christmas issue of the paper, and it goes in the publishing company’s newsletter.

We went to Avoca in Altavista this week for the photo. The news editor at a sister paper met us there and took the group picture.

According to its website, Avoca was built in 1901 and is built in the American Queen Anne style. It’s on the site of the home of Col. Charles Lynch of the American Revolutionary War.

Avoca was decorated for its annual Christmas open house. I got some photos on my phone to share. They're not great photos, but they will give you a sense of the place, I hope.

Five

The local high school’s football team, the Altavista Colonels, will play in Salem on Saturday for the Group 1A state championship. My paper’s editor and sports reporter will cover it, of course. I don’t think Larry and I are going. But we’ll probably be listening to the game on the radio and hoping for a win. Go, Colonels!

And this week, I have a sixth random.

Six

I’ve got another Christmas parade to photograph on Sunday afternoon. It’s the Rustburg Christmas Parade. It was rescheduled from last Sunday, when we had all the ice.

I’m looking at a very busy time at work next week. We’ll be working not only on the Journal issues but on Forest Life, a monthly publication we also publish.

We’ll be laying out the Dec. 25 issue of the paper a day early, Monday, Dec. 23. So that means we have to have all our copy and photos done early.

With all that in mind, I’m taking today off. I have comp time to use, and I really need to get stuff done, like Christmas shopping, card sending, a bit of decorating, working on my editing business set up, etc.

I know this time of year gets busy and hectic for so many of us. Let’s all take a collective deep breath and focus on what’s most important in our lives.