To all our friends who visit here, Dear Husband and I wish you health and good fortune in the coming year. We've come through several trying years, and it's our hope that all our lives will begin to see some improvement. So, we raise our cups and bid you...
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
We had a beautiful White Christmas. Not too much snow, just enough to give a good cover and make everything look lacy and pristine. IT looked traditional, old-fashioned, even, and I really enjoyed it.
Yesterday, though, it started to RAIN! Who ever heard of rain in December in Illinois!? It was a light rain, but between the rain and the fact that it was in the forties, the snow was a gonner. Well, almost a gonner. We still have a light patch here and there, and the mounds that were plowed to the side of the drive are hanging on, but I doubt they will make it through the night.
We could have really used this rain in October and November. It's hard on the perennials and trees to go into winter without adequate moisture, and it's tough on perennials to have to get through the winter without the insulation of snow cover, and the resulting drink they get from the spring thaw. This evening our temperatures are supposed to drop back down well below freezing, into the twenties. Plants will shiver and party-goers will need to be careful on icy streets on their way home.
I suspect that we are all doing the same thing right about now. We've spent so much time working on Christmas in the past month that we need to play catch up during this last week of the year.
I have not had a chance to be in my studio for about two weeks. Two of my quilting friends have donated close to 500 yards of fabric to Scraps on a Mission, which makes quilts for people at our local hospitals. One of the Empty Nesters wanted to get a project like this started, and I offered my assistance. Now I spend my time cutting out kits for ladies to assemble this summer, and I am the keeper of all that fabric! I've organized it into six boxes, plus a box of kits, and that seems fairly manageable. I've washed part of it, and now I need to press some of the fabric that I want to cut. My goal is to get the cutting table cleared off, and two projects set up for cutting in the future.
AND....I have a quilt on my design board that needs to be sewn together. I have plenty to do in the quilt section of my life.
Do you still iron? For the most part I've found clothing that doesn't need a lot of pressing, but I have a FULL to overflowing ironing basket at the moment. The napkins from Thanksgiving, white antique pillowcases with the crocheted or embroidered trims, a couple of small table cloths, my Mother's Christmas apron, and an immense stack of quarter-yard pieces of quilting fabric all need to be done. I may set the board up in the living room and iron after dinner until I get it done!
I've been crocheting squares for Share A Square 2010. If you're not familiar with this group, please click on the link to the right for more information. I've encouraged the members of my exercise group to make six-inch granny squares, and so far we have created 98 squares. I find that I can make one square while I watch (or listen to) a one-hour T.V. show. Over the past 45 days I've made about 30 squares. If I can make the time, I'd like to make two more before I send off my current mailing, so that I can say we have made an even one hundred! And, of course, this is on-going.
One of the reasons I need to clear off the table in the studio is to make a sorting area for personal papers. I hope this is a project that won't take more than a day or two, and the sooner I get it done, the better. DH says I keep EVERYTHING. He's almost right. There are a few insignificant things I throw away during the year. Which means, that before I do our taxes, I need to sort through all this stuff to determine if there is anything which needs to be kept for taxes. DH and I will need to be meeting in the basement on a nightly basis in the future to destroy documents. He gets to work on things for the company, and I will need to work on our personal papers. I doubt we need to keep the gas and electric and phone bills from 20 years ago. Besides, I want to reuse some of the binders to hold my cooking magazines!
I also need to file the papers I've been collecting on my Mother's behalf. I'm pretty sure that I can get things down to several three ring binders, and I'll check with the CPA to determine how long those will need to be kept.
I might see the top of the desk again, soon! What a pleasant and amazing thought that is! lol
So, I assume that most of you go through this same procedure, of catching up with your lives following Christmas. I wish you smooth sailing and great success as we move toward 2011.
It doesn't really matter which day of Christmas this is. They've all been very pleasant.
Dear Husband and I were Empty Nesters on Christmas Eve, and chose to have dinner at Mother's church, followed by the traditional candlelight service. Christmas Day we traveled to celebrate with his children and our grandchildren. I swear, the girls could open a toy store!!! *S*
This year has been very laid back, and low key, and comfortable. I didn't get the tree decorated, but we've really enjoyed the lights. I was battling with two fake trees that had light problems, and decided to quit fussing with the smallest one. We have a fake Sitka spruce tree that is up year 'round with ornaments that my quilting bee has given to me. Dear Husband felt that tree was enough! And you know.....I think it was, too, but it was in the foyer so that everyone would see it as people came into the house. As we wrapped gifts, we put them under that tree. Perhaps next year it will have a more prominent place in our living room.
The last few days before Christmas I made non-Christmas cookies. With the exception of Russian Tea Cakes and Sugar Crisp which I only make at Christmas, the rest were cookies I might have made through out the year. DH asked for Spicy Nut Slices. I used a store-bought peanut butter cookie mix as the base for fudge tarts. I tried an apricot/walnut/coconut bar cookie that wasn't "much of a much" as my Mother would have said. I tried a pumpkin cookie that made SEVENTY-TWO COOKIES!!! I have them with nuts, and without, with icing, and without, and some with nuts AND icing! lol I guess this was the year of the pumpkin cookie!
I boxed a lot of those cookies to give away, but there are all together too many of them left. DH has more restraint than I do. I'm getting a lot more sugar in my diet than I usually do.
I did get decorations up around the house. I started with wreaths, swags and garland outside, and then put up two fresh evergreen wreaths inside. I love the scent that I can smell from my recliner. Stockings, mistletoe, the elf that Mother made, scented candles, a candlewick angel my oldest sister made, and other odds and ends that are always a part of our decorations made it up. I have the quilted wallhanging that Mother and I collaborated on hanging in the hallway with a paper-pieced wallhanging that features Christmas fabrics.
We didn't ignore the traditions, we were just making a few new ones. *S*
I hope your Christmas has been as lovely as mine, and I wish the best for you this coming year!
I've been a social butterfly this month! It started with a Christmas dinner with my quilting bee December 3rd. They always help me to get into the Christmas spirit, so it's great that our dinner is always the first Friday of December.
The second party I got to attend was a very posh gathering in a subdivision called "Falling Water" The houses are grand, and the landscaping is awesome, and everything that doesn't move is lighted! We had a wonderful time, and our hosts made sure that Bears afficionados wouldn't miss the game! Just to the south and to the east in Indiana, roads were closed due to a winter storm. We celebrated for about ninety minutes before we decided that we needed to make the trek home.
This morning, the woman who leads my exercise class is having her annual Christmas party for the class, right after we exercise! It's a lot more fun than it sounds. We all bring something to share, and she and her husband provide quiche, sausages, juice and coffee. They have a lovely home and our class loves to visit with them.
I decided that I would take a Praline Pull-apart Bread. It's rather like a cross between cinnamon rolls and Monkey bread. I rolled frozen white dinner rolls in butter and then in a mix of sugar and cinnamon, and placed them in an Angel Food cake pan. you sprinkle pecans over them, and set them in the refrigerator to thaw overnight.
This morning, Dear Husband woke me when he was ready to start his day, and I finished the preparations for the bread by whipping cream and adding cinnamon and brown sugar to it. The mixture is poured over the rolls and then it's baked for an hour. It sits for ten minutes (can't you tell we are sitting as we speak?) and then it's turned upside down onto a serving platter.
I'm really looking forward to this party. I like my classmates and really enjoy having the time to chat with them. Even people who are not a part of the current class will attend this party, so I'll have the chance to catch up with old friends.
Isn't that the best kind of party?
We are at the wrapping stage of the season. I'm just amazed, because I frequently spend a couple of days just before Christmas wrapping all our gifts. Most of Dear Husband's gifts came in on Monday, so while he was at work today, I opened the bags, checked the invoices, made notes about what came from which store, and then boxed the gifts.
It was a good plan, because just as I closed the last of the boxes, Dear Husband walked in the door. It's so bitterly cold that he hasn't been able to put in a full day at work. He's been repairing heaters and other equipment, and working on proposals, and then coming home around lunchtime..
DH asked if he could have the scissors and tape, so he could wrap gifts. I let him have them, and went off to move some laundry. You have to realize that DH doesn't wrap gifts for beauty. His wrapping is very functional. I asked him if he really WANTED to wrap gifts, and was relieved when he said, "No." I told him that I would wrap everything but my own gifts. He could do those. He seemed to be as relieved as I was! *G*
So, I wrapped the gifts for my youngest sister's family, which need to be mailed off tomorrow morning. Then I finished the wrapping on DH's gifts, and wrapped most of the packages for our oldest granddaughter. I have a long way to go with the wrapping, and a short list of things I still need to get, but we are well on our way to being ready for Christmas.
I really like the idea of simplifying our preparations for the holiday. I've enjoyed the past two weeks more than I usually do because there's less pressure to have everything "perfect." I think I may get around to making cookies next week! YEA!!
I knew that weird weather was on it's way. By the middle of the week I knew it was headed this way, and I hadn't put up the outdoor decorations yet. Thursday, I said to myself, "I better get it done today while it's still clear outside." Friday, I thought, "It's going to be awful tomorrow, I should really get the wreaths and swags up before it RAINS."
Well, this morning, I brought in three fresh evergreen wreaths from the garage, added bows, and then hung one on the brick wall perpendicular to the front door, one on the back side of the fireplace, facing the foyer, and the last went up on the face of the fireplace. I love the scent, I chose to go with total simplicity this year, and just added burgundy bows to the greens. In the past I've decorated them with dried natural plants, like milkweed pods, lotus pods or teasle. Some years I've decorated with silk poinsettias. Other years I've used branches of silk berries, but this year I went for simple.
I wasn't going to decorate the carrage lights this year. What I'd really like to do is buy oversized wreaths made of fresh evergreen, add a bow to the bottom of the wreath, and then slip it over the light but I really feel that's prohibitively expensive. This year my grocery store was selling really lovely swags with a variety of greens for an exceptionally low price, so I bought three of them, and added bows at the top where everything was wired together. Then I wired them to the bottom of the lights.
The last thing I did was to loop a garland of holly across the top of the door, letting the ends hang down to outline the door. I used burgundy bows at the upper corners to hold the garland in place.
Best of all.....I finished before the rain came in! YEA!!!!
I spent some time today crocheting squares for Share A Square, and I worked on the smaller of the two fake Christmas trees. Last night I took off the string on the top third of the tree. Today, I put on a new strand. I plugged the lights in, and darned if only half of the bulbs lit up! I managed to discover a loose bulb and get the new strand going, but now there's another old strand that is out. I haven't been able to find the bad bulb, even using my new handy dandy toy. I finally stopped working on it because it was just too frustrating! Reminds me of a conversation that Joy and I have had before.....".....those darned lights!"
I feel good about what I got done, but I hope to do more tomorrow. There's still two weeks to Christmas! *G*
I've found a person with whom I am totally in sync! My Postmistress!
Today, when I stopped to send a box to my sister, this lady and I were the only two in the post office. I have decided to be politically incorrect and wish people "Merry Christmas." They may respond as they wish, so I'm going to say what I want.
So, I told her I knew it was politically incorrect, and then wished her a Merry Christmas. She agreed with me! And that started off a five or six minute conversation about all the things we object to in our current government.
The upshot of our conversation was that if we don't tell our government that we object to the decisions they are making they will never know that they are on the wrong track. Those of us who have been part of the Silent Majority now need to take responsibility for where things are going. Write your representatives. Tell them what you think, and continue to let them know what you think.
And for my part, I wish you a Merry Christmas!
A bucket list is an on-going thing. There will be things you get to cross off, and things you realize you need to add. Tonight I've thought of something I want to add to my bucket list.
I want to visit the Arizona memorial.
I've read about Pearl Harbor and December 7th all my life. I've read the history of the bombing, and seen movies and documentaries on the subject. Tonight, on the news, we were reminded that the bombing took place 69 years ago, and there are 3,000 or fewer people alive who survived that day.
I want to go and pay my respects to all the people who lost their lives when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and thank them for their service.
I was very busy today, finishing up paperwork, clearing the decks so that I can focus on decorating the house for Christmas, but after dinner, I just couldn't avoid the thought that today would have been my mother's 94th birthday.
It was just incredible that she lived to be 93. She didn't like the fact that she had outlived most of her friends, and that she was the last of her generation. She told me one day that she didn't want to live to be 100. I immediately chastised her, focusing on how amazing it would be to have lived an entire century. It took me a while to understand that she was lonely, and she missed those who had lived through the same experiences that had shaped her.
In a way, I understand. I no longer bother to look at "People" magazine. I haven't a clue who those people are, and don't care for their fashions. I'm disappointed that WGN 720 AM radio is changing, for the worse. I've listened to it for my lifetime, and now someone has decided that they need to take one of the most amazing stations in the nation and make it just like every other faceless station. How very sad to loose a good friend. I'm seriously thinking about deleting all the movie channels from our cable package. I just don't enjoy the movies they are showing, and again, I have no idea who most of the actors are.
Mother went through that. Even though she and I shared interests, I hadn't lived through the Depression or World War II. I enjoyed jazz with her, but I didn't live through the era when it developed. Although I thought I understood, our experiences simply weren't the same.
Mother was lonely. She wanted to be needed, and we were all busy trying to make life easier for her. Hindsight is very enlightening.
I hope that my mother is with her family and friends, and is at peace.
My fingers are so cold I can barely type, and I haven't even been outside today! Snow and cold moved into our area late at night on December 3. I went to the quilting bee Chistmas dinner that evening, and the cold front moved over the area while we had dinner. The snow held off until I got home, and for that I was thankful. I bundled myself up in bed and snuggled in for the night and ignored the snow to come.
It wasn't that bad. I had to make a morning trip to the dentist. I was supposed to get a new crown today, but the temporary crown came off on Thursday. They tell you to clean it off, put some denture fixative in it and put it back it. It worked! I was able to enjoy dinner with my quilting friends on Friday and on Saturday it was still there! Yea! So, the dentist had me come in a couple of days early to put the permanent crown in, and I had to travel through the snow.
There were very few people out on the roads, and it was absolutely gorgeous outside. Dear Husband had me put the SUV into four wheel drive, and I left in plenty of time. Most of the drivers were using common sense, and the roads were fairly clear. I took one road that just had tire tracks, but it wasn't slippery. I rather enjoyed the quiet and beauty.
So, this morning I have been attending to office work, and taking care of bookkeeping for my Mother's accounts. I moved from the personal computer to the office to fax off a document, and my fingers froze! I think I'm going to have to put a small room heater in my office for the winter.
Or, maybe if I'm lucky, Santa will give me one of those Dragon voice recognition software programs for Christmas. Heck, DH needs it more than I do. Maybe I could use his on cold days! *G*
Happy Holidays to you all!
