Are You Ready For A NewYear?

Well Christmas is over for another year. It’s hard to believe it is almost 2024. The years go by so quickly the older you get. I don’t like making New Year’s resolutions because I always seem to disappoint myself. I do like having a word for the year. My word last year was “celebrate”. I decided to celebrate as much as I could all year because life is short and it should be fun. I had a lot of celebrations in 2023. I decided to take a look back at the different celebrations throughout the year. I am so blessed with such a wonderful family and friends.

In February we celebrated my niece for her Birthday.

Also a coworker brought Valentine’s Day goodies.

I made a butterfly tree to celebrate spring.

In April the hubs and I saw the musical production of Cats in Knoxville.

In April we also celebrated my birthday and my sister bought me a tiara.

In May we celebrated the end of my sister’s chemo treatments and I am happy to say she is still doing great and cancer free. Now that truly is a celebration.

In June we celebrated my niece and nephews’ birthdays. We did them together because the dates are close together.

My nephew is a drummer as you can tell by this drum cymbal.

End of June and the hubs and I had a great beach vacation at our favorite beach, Wrightsville Beach, in North Carolina.

August and we took a trip to Northern Europe to several Scandinavian countries. We also took my nephew Tyler with us.

In September I celebrated with two of my coworkers at their wedding.

Late September and we had a short Sister Trip to Gatlinburg Tennessee.

In Early October I got together with some of my cave friends for a trip to Northern California. We visited Shasta Caverns and Shasta Lake.

In October my great nephew Caleb turned 20. He is such a character he always keeps us laughing.

We also had a much needed Sister Lunch with several of the nieces and my nephew Tyler.

December was Tyler’s Birthday and we had a cook out and cake at his house.

And finally it’s December and Christmas with the whole family.

And my hubs and I and all of the fur babies, Gus, Kitty Kitty, Allie, Sadie and Izzie hope that you had a wonderful Christmas and that you are planning a wonderful new year!!

Do you make New Year’s resolutions? Do you ever choose a word for the year. I am currently thinking about my word for 2024. I know it will come to me.

As I said Celebrate was my word for 2023 and I made sure to have as many celebrations as possible. But I actually believe that our best celebrations come just by being who we want to be and doing what we want to do.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!!

Countdown to Christmas

Happy Tuesday !!!! Less than two weeks from today Christmas will be over!!! How can that even be true? November flew by and now December is doing the same thing. I have been doing a little shopping here and there. I will be honest I am not one of those people who can plan two months in advance and get all of their Christmas shopping done a month before Christmas. It seems like at this time of year I like to enjoy the festivities as they come along. If that means shopping for gifts at the last minute that is just the way it will have to be.

The weather here has been cold but I am loving it. That’s the way it should be here this time of the year. We have also had some much needed rain.

I baked bread last week and even though the temps were cold it rose very nicely. This is sour dough bread and I probably have mentioned it a few hundred times, but I have had this same bread starter for about fifteen plus years. It has to be fed every 3-5 days. I have gone more than a week between feedings and it is always fine. Several years ago I did a post about baking sourdough bread including the recipe, but as I said you must have the starter. You can actually make the starter as well if you are not lucky enough to have someone pass it along to you. Making Sourdough Bread

***I can always tell when it is going to rise well.***

***And I had to have a piece as soon as it came out of the oven. That is when it tastes the best.***

I don’t think I have ever had a “traditional” tree skirt around my Christmas tree. I always like to use things I have around the house. Maybe a blanket or piece of fabric. This year I dug out this fluffy throw and put it around the bottom of the tree. The kitties immediately thought it was just for them. And who am I kidding. If they love to snuggle on it how can I stop them.

***First Gus dominated the new tree skirt AKA something new and fluffy to snuggle on.***

***Then Kitty Kitty, but only when Gus was not around.***

***And then both of them gave in and snuggled at the same time***.

Friday night we celebrated my nephew Tyler. It was his 22nd birthday. We had so much fun. He grilled hamburgers for us and we brought all the side dishes and I made him a butterfinger cake, his favorite. Where does the time go. The first picture was his first birthday and now he is all grown up.

I made my husband a pecan pie. I told you in a previous post that I burned the last one I made. It was really bad. I had the setting on the oven way too high, by mistake, and it burned. I tried it again over the weekend and tried my pie crust shield. I bought this at an estate sale earlier in the year. I had never even heard of one. You place it over the top of your pie while it is baking and it keeps the edges from burning. It worked great!!! I think I paid $1.00 for it.

***And look at those edges. No burnt edges.***

After I spent time knitting the Christmas ornaments. If you missed that post you can check it out here. I saw a picture with these adorable little toboggans. I decided to make some of those for a winter garland. I love the way they turned out. Another great way to use left over yarn. For these I used the size 5 double pointed needles.

I hung them from my mantelpiece. This is not the best picture. I also moved them to a table on the other side of the room. I eventually went back to the mantel I like having them between our Christmas stockings.

***You can get a little better look at them here.***

Last night we had our work Christmas party. We usually have it at a restaurant and I don’t have to do a lot to prepare. This year we decided to have it on the property at our new Visitors’ Center. It was a lot of fun but so much work. I didn’t get home until really late. I meant to post this last night but I didn’t make it home in time.

I hope you are having a wonderful holiday season enjoying all the fun with family and friends.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

Hello Monday Hello December

Happy Monday. It seems like November flew by so fast. I know it’s going to be the same way with December. This post is a catch of of the last couple of weeks so a bit of this and that.

Last Monday I woke up with a scratchy throat. Living in East Tennessee is usually reason enough for a scratchy throat with seasonal allergies and sinus issues. I didn’t think too much about it. However it was the same type of sore throat I had last year when I had Covid. I continued feeling bad all day. By bedtime I had a low grade fever. The next morning I took a Covid test and it was positive. The test was out of date so I wasn’t sure whether I should trust it. When I get sick Mark and I go into action getting him away from me as much as possible. Because he has had a kidney transplant, and is immunosuppressed he is much more likely to become sick and it could turn into a stay in the hospital.

He immediately put on a mask and I did too. I drove myself to the urgent care clinic and got a real test and it was positive for Covid as well. I went home and quarantined all week. I have a small den upstairs next to my bedroom and that’s pretty much where I stayed for the next six days or so. I binge watched Grey’s Anatomy, and knitted a ton of stuff. Mark brought food and left it at the top of the stairs. He mostly stayed downstairs. Luckily I had a very mild case and barely had any symptoms. So far Mark is still in the clear.

I knitted several more Christmas ornaments. I have sixteen total. I may do a few more to give to friends and family at Christmas.

Before I got sick on Monday I got my Santa collection out and got them arranged for the season. I also have several larger ones that I put out on the hearth in the living room. I have been collecting these for years.

The week before I got sick we had to make a quick overnight trip to Nashville to Vanderbilt hospital for Mark’s four month checkup. Earlier this year We started going over the night before the appointment. It makes things so much easier. We stay at a hotel about five minutes from the hospital. I take off a little early from work the day before each appointment and we drive over. It takes about four hours each way. We have a nice dinner and get to bed early and get plenty of sleep. It had become such a chore to drive both ways in one day. Mark got a great report and it rained all the way home. I was so glad we had gone over the night before.

We went to dinner as soon as we got settled into the hotel. Isn’t this drink pretty. An Islandtini. It was yummy too.

I think Nashville is so beautiful at night.

Vanderbilt hospital had their courtyard decorated for Christmas. It was so festive.

So as you can see a lot going on and then nothing but being home bound for a week. Actually I found that staying at home for a week and doing nothing was quite nice.

Have a wonderful week

Always remember
Love your day your way!!!!!

Its Monday, I ‘ve Been Making Christmas Ornaments!!!

Hello and happy Monday!!! I started a new coffee share on the blog yesterday. If you missed it, check it out here. I think it will be a lot of fun.

The temps here have been so warm and dry. There are burn bans everywhere. We desperately need rain.

It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving is Thursday. Mark and I are going to my nephew’s house, but I will be making a few things to take with me for the dinner. I will tell you it won’t be a pecan pie. I made one last week for Mark. I forgot I had the oven set high and it burned. It was terrible. Poor Mark tried to dig it out to eat it, but I wouldn’t let him. It was just too bad. I threw it out and promised him another one soon. I don’t know why pecan pies are always tricky for me, but they are. Sometimes good sometimes bad.

I did make a blueberry cobbler that turned out pretty well. I gave half of it to my nephew.

We put up our Christmas tree over the weekend. Someone at work just ask what colors I used and if there was a theme? We have had this tree for about thirty years. I put clear lights on it, and it is decorated with the ornaments that we have collected over thirty plus years of marriage. I love it!!! Every year when we start to decorate it, we pull out all of our ornaments and talk about where we got each one. It may sound boring but to us it is a treasure. I do change the topper out occasionally. I haven’t decided for this year yet.

I have been working on these Christmas ornaments for a week. My friend Annie from work sent me a TikTok video on them and I just loved the idea. I bought clear ball ornaments from Walmart. You can get them just about anywhere this time of year. I used double pointed needles size 5 US. It doesn’t take a lot of yarn so this is a great way to use little bits of yarn from previous projects. I cast on 23 to 24 stitches depending on the yarn weight. Leave a long tail when casting on. I knitted a little pouch about 3.5 inches long. You then thread a darning needle and run through the loops on the bottom and pull together. Do the same thing at the top but put your glass ornament in first. Weave in the ends on the top and bottom. They’re so easy and knit up really quick.