Amaryllis and ❄ Cold ❄ Weather!

 

Back in November Chris and Kristi (my son & daughter-in-law) gave me a lovely gift of an Amaryllis. Believe it or not, I had never had one before. What a fun gift this was since I was able to watch it grow from a bulb to beautiful flowers! 

11-26-23  This tiny growth popped up.

12-1-23 Five days later it has more than doubled its size.

Between 12-1-23 and 1-5-24 this little plant grew very tall, but no flowers. Then on 1-6-24, it greeted me with a bulb just beginning to open.

1-6-24 The first bulb opens!

1-11-24

                                                                    

Four days ago I woke up to three large blooms. By this time it had grown so tall that I had to tie it to a small dowel to support it.

 

1-14-24

Yesterday I discovered a fourth full-size bloom plus another bud getting ready to open! Kristi told me it would grow fast and she wasn't joking! Although it spent a month growing very tall with no flowers, once the flowers started coming they have not stopped!

It seems like winter has really arrived for most of us in this past week. Much of the country has had record-breaking low temperatures. Sunday we did not get above 0 F and on Saturday we didn't get much above it. I know the states north of us have had it much colder than that recently but for the Midwest, these are pretty cold days! Saturday our football team, the Chiefs, had a playoff game here and it ended up being the fourth coldest NFL game on record. It's hard to believe people fill the stands in this kind of cold but they do. Even Taylor Swift was there but she was in one of the enclosed boxes. She has been attending almost all of our games since she started dating one of our players, Travis Kelce.

I hope everyone is staying warm and healthy!

Mother's Day

 

This past Sunday was Mother's Day and my oldest son Chris sure did give me a wonderful weekend.  It started Saturday morning when the doorbell rang.  It was a florist delivering the most beautiful flowers from Chris and Kristi!

Sunday Chris picked me up for a special mother and son day out in Kansas City.  He has done this for the past several Mother's Days and I've come to really look forward to it.  We spent the day on The Country Club Plaza in Kansas City.  It is a popular area of the city designed after Seville, Spain which is our sister city.  There are many excellent restaurants and unique shops and you can easily spend a day just walking around.  We went to Cooper's Hawk Restaurant and Winery and enjoyed a delicious meal.  We then enjoyed walking around the area and of course we had to visit the huge three story book store there.  We finished the day off at one of the coffee shops.  More than anything I enjoyed simply being able to spend time with my son and visit and catch up on everything with him.  I would like to have gotten more pictures of the area but it was a cloudy day and not the best for taking pictures.  I did get one of a smaller fountain, Neptune although the picture is not the best.  

Kansas City is known for its many fountains.

Despite it being a cloudy and cool day we really did have a great time!  I feel blessed to have two wonderful sons.  I did not see Sean, my younger son but he did call me and we had a nice, long phone conversation.  I hope everyone here had a wonderful Mother's Day!

An Early Morning Surprise

I received an early morning phone call from my oldest son, Chris, telling me there was something on my front porch.  This was a bit confusing to me because he does not live in the same suburban town as we do, so how could he know if something was on my porch.  I got off the phone, opened the front door and sure enough, there was a beautiful bouquet of flowers propped up on the porch across from the door!  What a surprise and a wonderful way to start the weekend!

When I called Chris back he said he and Kristi (my daughter-in-law) had been to the City Market in Kansas City early this morning to shop for some fresh vegetables and had picked up those flowers for me.  They quietly dropped them off on the porch and then called me after they had driven away!  I sure love my family!