Happy New Year!

 Wishing you all a blessed 2024!

New Start

 Well, despite what I said about leaving the tree and decorations up, I woke up this morning ready to put away the specifically Christmassy things and tree and just leave up some of the greens and the candles. I feel ready for the new year to start, which is unusual for me! Did a little dusting, but I can't really do any cleaning until hubby finishes tiling the pantry floor. It's not a huge space, so it shouldn't take long, but it is dusty, dirty work. I'm really happy with the new floor and addition and this is the last of the flooring to be put in. We'll be putting in new kitchen counter tops and painting the inside of the house this year. We will also celebrate our 50th anniversary in June and hope to do some special things then too. 

We aren't big New Year's people anymore. Tomorrow, we'll have lunch at our daughter's house after church, (she's fine now) and then go home and enjoy a quiet New Year's Eve. We don't stay up until midnight-we generally go to bed at our usual time and say it's midnight somewhere, that's close enough! 

Christmas Past

We had a good, quiet Christmas yesterday with our daughter and her family. She was feeling a little under the weather, so we finished putting the dinner together and cleaned up after. Our granddaughters helped out too. Our son and his family spent their Christmas at home with our daughter-in-law's family this year. 

We sang at our church's lovely Candlelight Christmas Eve service, though it was a little harder to feel festive this year. One of our dear friends from church passed away on the 15th after an almost year long fight with pancreatic cancer. He was just 65. We sang at his funeral on the 22nd. It did make the Christmas season more meaningful, though, as we know he is now with the Savior whose birth we have celebrated.

Today, we've got our feet up and are relaxing, although we did manage a trip to the store. With all of the leftovers we brought home, there were still things that we needed amazingly enough! I'm not ready to un-deck the halls just yet-probably after New Year's Day. I'm still enjoying our little tree. I will probably leave up the decorations that are wintery, but not specifically for Christmas until the end of January. Our weather has turned colder and windy-we had almost 2 inches of rain the 23rd and 24th. Guess we may have some winter after all.

This is a picture of our daughter's home on Christmas morning, before the "great un-wrapping" began!

Merry Christmas!

 

A Little Bit of Christmas at Our House

 I took a few pictures around the house last week and thought I'd share them here. Nothing fancy, but I enjoyed decorating. (I am the world's worst photographer!) We aren't having Christmas at our house this year, so we only put up the top of our 9 ft. tree!

Joy!

 

Mimi and Pop Time

Our daughter and son-in-law went out of town this past weekend so we moved over to their house and stayed with our oldest grands and the grandpuppies and grandkitties. As much as I miss these 3 being little, they are wonderful to be with as teens and pre-teen. Our girls are 17 and almost 15 and they were a joy. They helped out, spent time just talking to us and it was wonderful to see them going places together and laughing and giggling as only sisters can. Our boy who is 11 was poorly with an ear infection and cough, but still wanted to hang out with us and watch Christmas movies. He also wanted to help out when he felt like it.

They are having an outdoor kitchen and covered porch extension built in their backyard, so it was pretty noisy, but it seemed to bother the dogs more than anyone else. I was impressed that the workers showed up every morning, worked all day and cleaned up every evening before they left. I know of a lot of people who have a lot of trouble getting people to show up to work. It's going to be really nice when it is finished.  

It was a good weekend!

Peace

 

It's A Little Strange

 The weather this year has been more than a little weird this year what with 3 months of drought and triple digit temperatures this summer. It seems to have set everything back a few weeks! I know it's technically still autumn, even though it's December. Our oak trees seem firmly convinced that it's still early November. It's beautiful, but a little odd for this time of year. Still, it's gorgeous and we're enjoying it. Hey, Red and Green are Christmas colors, right?

Hope

 

It's the Most Wonderful Time!