MAKING LEMONADE and Some "End of the Year" Thanks

WHEW!, what a week. Got my mom home from the hospital last week on Monday night. On Christmas Eve, drove 250 miles (each way) to pick a daughter up for Christmas. Got there several hours early waited for her to get off work, and her truck broke down on her way home where I was waiting. We had to leave it there over the holiday as no garage was open that night, and didn't want to pay 2 tow bills. Good news was it was still there on Sunday when we returned, and no "boot" to boot. Figured out what the problem was, got a free tow on Sunday and fixed those problems Monday and I drove back home. (Her truck still needs another $700.00 in repairs, but it is manageable (will be okay) for now). All good news, when you make lemonade out of lemons.  How is that you say?..... She would have broken down whether I was there or not, it was a blessing that I had planned to be there to pick her up and bring her back to Ocala for Christmas. I was able to let her vent, cry, help her get it fixed without missing any work, see her family for Christmas, mine and her moms, and found out about the other two serious problems that would have done some major damage (to her truck and her emotionally) had we not known what to do to keep it good for awhile until it can be fixed. I do say a true BLESSING!  Then you add into the mix, that she only had $300.00 in savings, and the repairs that we had done came to $700.00. But She got $100.00 cash in one present, $30.00 in another, and I forked up the cash that I got for Christmas and the repairs were taken care of. Plus, we both had gotten Outback gift cards, and Sunday night we had a fantastic dinner together with NO WAITING! Yep, lemonade with sugar!.

Now, I also got some cards and what not over the week and here they are.....

Courtesy of Don Roth (OCT). Really, Merry Christmas!

I can not remember who sent me these for the want list. I put them on my scanner before I left for Ft Myers.

This huge vintage Topps fold out came from James Herman as was the one below.  This sweet Niekro add to the collection nearly covered the entire flatbed of my scanner. I still need to figure out what year it came from though.

This is another Topps fold out, but much smaller than the Niekro, and also need to find out what year this is from.

The cards below came courtesy of Alex from Chavez Ravining. Alex had sent me a huge stack of Braves which I am only showing about half.

These I already had in the team sets, but...... I needed a 2nd copy for the player binders. SWEET!

Nice inserts that were all needed, plus a few team set needs.

Six more inserts and three for the team sets.

Alex sent me 10 from the this set ( I didn't have ANY before). I only showed nine of the ten as the refractor you see above also came with the base card.  SWEET!

Turns out I did have the two Finest cards, but didn't know it.  Thanks Alex, I'll have the Dodgers out soon.

I wish all of you a very Happy and Healthy New Year, and remember when life hands you lemons, make lemonade!