2024 Is Out The Door!

 My final post for a lean posting year.  This year has flown by as it seems all do these days and just uttering the numbers 2025 makes me shake my head.  I still can't believe I'm "in my seventies"!  It's been a busy month even with not working as much as previous months.  Christmas came so quickly but these days I've had the chance to sit still for a minute and enjoy the decorations and quiet.  Jack is finally going to be able to close the office door for the last time.  It's taken 3 months to wrap it all up.  He practiced for 47yrs and part of that was with his dad, so clearing out the office also meant clearing out items that were there when Dad was alive.  It's been hard work and emotional work.  His Mom worked there too as the office manager back in the day and there were items there that will always remind me of her.  I got a little teary eyed as I vacuumed up the rooms.  We filled a dumpster, took furniture to a church mission, sold some things and gave much away.  His patients will miss him.  He had 4 show up yesterday and since he still had an adjusting table available, he took care of them.  One of his patients showed up this morning as we were cleaning because they saw his van in the lot and he hoped to get an adjustment.  We chatted for a bit but had no equipment left to do anything.  Yep, this chapter probably goes as the hardest part of this year for Jack, but we're hoping for new adventures in 2025.  Yesterday I did take time to make my Greek New Year's bread.  It's called Vasilopita and it's baked with a coin inside.  When it's cut on New Years, whoever gets the coin in their slice will have good luck for the year. 

I made enough for us and one for a neighbor down the street and one for my BFF Donna.  I wish everyone a very happy and healthy new year even if you don't get the coin in your slice of life tomorrow!  2024, you're out the door!

Has Spring Sprung?

 No, Spring isn't here but it sure feels like it!  We've had temps in the upper 50's to 60de the last few days. A little sun here and there was nice but mostly we've had rain.  I know we were in a drought this summer, so I won't dis the rain.  This is not really unusual weather for our area as I've looked back over the years on my blog and found warm temps this time of year.  I can even recall a January time when we had a 70de day when my BFF Donna and I used to walk.  I know the cold is coming this week, so I'll enjoy this reprieve!  Last night I finally took the walk around our "Candy Cane Trail" at Freer Field.  It was pretty amazing.  It first started last year but they really upped the beauty factor with tons more lights and sights.  Annabelle came with me as Jack was a little under the weather.  I wish I had remembered to put my memory card in my camera to get better pics....senior moment!  So, here's just a little taste that I took with my phone:

Start at the beginning:

Annabelle enjoyed the trek and lots of kiddos stopped to pet her.  She's a good sport and loves people so petting her was a bonus for her.  

The lighted trees and little vignettes like gingerbread people were beautiful.  There were many other cute stops for a photo moment or just to look at like a Nativity set up or a reindeer looking for Rudolph!  It's about a mile or more and we did win a place in the Guiness record books for the most lights on metal trees or something like that.  If you go to Facebook for Candy Cane Trail, I think you'd get a much better depiction of the event.  

My pathetic pics sure don't do it justice.  However, it was a nice, warm night with no wind and Annabelle and I enjoyed our walk.  There's only a few more days to blog before closing out 2024.  I hope everyone has a good Monday and a Happy New Year! 

Merry Christmas A Day Late!

 You know the saying, "A day late, a dollar short"?  Well, that's me today.  Late and lots of dollars short! I have been bad about blogging but dealing with blogger and sign ins and such has become a bit of a pain. We'll see how the new year goes with all that.  In the mean time, Christmas day went well here at the Pines. It was a little different this year.  We've always hosted Christmas celebration on Christmas day.  When our grown kiddos had littles it wasn't bad.  Most of the in-laws did Christmas Eve and then we had the next day.  But the littles aren't little any more and a few are married and have their in-law traditions to deal with.  So we sort of had a gathering that came in different times. Phil's girls came early because their other Grandma was having her Christmas that fell into ours.  Our Granddaughter Lexi was ill so it was just Phil and Rae and her sister Aria that made the trek.  They opened gifts and ate some of the snack things I had set out before  heading out on their way.  I was a little miffed that this was happening but couldn't really do anything about it.  It was a quick fun time with them anyway.  Next, most of the crew came at the appointed time with just a few coming in a little later.  I had all the gifts pretty well organized into family boxes and it went well.  I think everyone liked the gifts and no returns are necessary!  We had some fun laughs along the way before heading into the food zone.  Ham and a million sides were served and then we played a game and tried to eat dessert even though we were still full! Ha!  

Gathering around the food!

This is Hazel smiling for YaYa.  She's my daughter-in-law's Grandbaby who's become a favorite visitor here and we are happy to be step "Great Yaya and Great Pawpaw"!  She has a 1yr old little sister, Tatem, but I don't think I have any pics of her from yesterday. 

Granddaughter, Summer with her constant companion, Happy!

Wait, I do have a Tatem pic...standing by her Grandma, Evelyn.  

Jordan with his girlfriend, Brittany and her little girl, Haylee.  It was nice having tiny kiddos again around the Pines!

Driana and her hubby, Jonathan.  Driana is an RN and works at a University Hospital in Cleveland.  I work at University Hospital, Samaritan, here in Ashland and she just starting training doing EGD's and colonoscopies at her facility..hmmm....just like YaYa does down here in Ashland! We had a lot of colon stories to tell each other!  I did a bit better with photo taking this year.  I'm usually pretty busy with food prep, talking to my family, organizing the gifting and such and forget to snap a pic.  Oh well, I will show this one photo that did make me laugh.

This is a bad shot of Evelyn and Sam's back sides but the little girls were excited to look out and see a couple of Santa's reindeer in the back yard.  Yep, three deer showed up and I couldn't resist telling them that the reindeer were visiting to say good-bye for this year and to be reminded to be good for the new year ahead. I think the adults even bought that story! Ha! (no one noticed the "reindeer" had no antlers!) 

Here's a pic of the quiet before the storm as we got the livingroom set up for the family.

I found these green chair covers on line and they fit my yellow chairs to make it look a little more festive.  I sort of like to decorate for Christmas!   Last weekend Jack and I went and helped the Salvation Army by ringing a bell by the red bucket.  Annabelle came with us.  I promised Jack I wouldn't put this on Facebook but I hope he doesn't mind this pic on the blog:

We were laughing at the tiny size of the bell! However, Annabelle looked cute in her sweater.  She loved all the attention from the shoppers. Even though we were indoors, this is the exit for the grocery store and it got pretty cold with the door opening and closing.  We were assigned for an hour but after 45 minutes we noticed poor Annabelle shaking.  It was cold on that tile floor so Jack took her to the car and warmed her up until I finished the last 15min.  I think I'd rather do the Christmas in July bell ringing next year!  On a final, not so jolly moment, I want to mention a sad note from this past week.  We had a boy, 13yrs old, in our Church pass away.  He committed suicide because of being bullied so bad at school. Such a tragedy for this family and his friends at Church.  I think social media is the worst for kids when it to gives access to constant bullying and encouraging suicide.  I don't know what could have been done for this young boy to help him but being vigilant about checking kids phones and hopefully taking action if necessary to stop this.  Prayers go out for his family and his older brothers.  This can be a tough and cruel world for kids.  We certainly had bullying in our day but face to face where you can duke it out, get it over with, and walk away.  Times are different now.  Well, I hope this new year ahead can bring peace to everyone and hope for better things along the way.  Have a safe and happy rest of your holiday season.  

December Is Almost Half Over!

I started this post last weekend but it's now Friday the 13th but not unlucky!  No work so Jack and I did some final shopping and running errands.  Our December started out pretty chilly. We got the wood stove up and humming along  only to shut it down last weekend as temps were in the mid 50s! Cold came back yesterday along with snow but the sun has shown the last 2 days and I can take cold when it's so pretty and sunny out.  Ashland had it's annual parade and tree lighting last Saturday.  The crowds were crazy so we watched it on TV. I'm grateful they stream it for us old folks! They have fireworks afterwards and we could hear the booms all the way in our neck of the woods..  Our Freer Field Candy Cane lane got into the Guiness record books with the most lights on metal trees....or something like that!  Well, we have few lights here at the Pines but not in the Creep Woods.  Before our snow came this week I walked the woods with Annabelle when the temps were mild last weekend.

The lights here aren't the Christmas ones, just the Mother Nature type with the slowly setting sun. We will have the beginning of Christmas activities that include a Church social tomorrow, caroling during the week, cookie making, gift wrapping, and hopefully some Christmas movie watching.  I bet all of you are busy too or perhaps just enjoying the peaceful music or going to see Christmas lights.  What ever your activities I hope it's a good weekend.  I'll be posting some pics of our adventures.  Here's a little pic of the house and my decorated new fence:

Here's the snow from yesterday:

I want to put a quick shout out to my BFF Donna who made me the cutest wreath:

Thanks Donna!  Happy mid December folks!

November Farewell

 Well, that went slick as snot on a doorknob!  November has earned it's farewell for 2024.  Thanksgiving was a smaller than normal affair here.  A few kiddos showed up later for dessert and we all had a lovely time catching up, planning for Christmas, and enjoying a few new members.  Jordan's girlfriend, Brittany, and her daughter, 2yr old Haylee.  I will try and get picks later because I really blew it this year and never got any!  What? Yep,  Oh well, there will be plenty of Kodak moments next month.  That's tomorrow my friends!  So I will bid November farewell.  We had our first snowfalls and now it's super cold.  But that's Ok as we have the woodstove humming along and we are toasty and comfy.  Today I went shopping with my daughter-in-law, Evelyn, Granddaughter Summer, and her Mom...my son's ex wife Stephanie.  Yes we are one big get along family!  My son Jack and my hubby Jack went with us for a bit but took off to buy food for lunch and watch the Ohio State game that turned out to be the real turkey this year.  Oops.  We girls stayed downtown and shopped for small business Saturday and I got a few things for gifts and we laughed a lot and had fun.  Here's one pic I did take of Summer.  She had brought her dog Happy along and he was so darn good. Never heard a peep or bark out of him.

Nobody in the stores minded that he was there and I bet many didn't even notice.  After some hours of fun Summer and her Mom went their way and Evelyn and I headed back to the Pines.  We did take a quick stop at the Parsley Pot and found some things we couldn't resist.  At home Evelyn and myself enjoyed a quick snack of all the wings the guys had bought!  We were starving since we hadn't eaten all day.  We had fun and I'm going to be decorating for Christmas starting tomorrow.  I can't believe how quickly this year has gone but I shouldn't be surprised as every year seems to fly by quicker.  I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving.   Bye Bye November...you didn't disappoint!

Almost Turkey Day!

 If I don't get posting soon it will be 2025!  It's been a busy time for us with Jack getting the office closed and my working more days than normal.  Our Docs are taking off lots of time in December so they're trying to get as much done now.  Poor Jack has folks always asking how he's liking retirement.  They don't understand that he has 47yrs of practice to close out that involves patient records, equipment that needs to be sold or disposed of.   We've sold a few things and will be giving some things away to a local church that has a thrift store that folks can come and get things for free.  What things would we have?  Well, chairs, tables, file cabinets, decor...and the list goes on!  When you are self employed it's not like you can just walk out the door with your gold watch and forget it.  When the company that shreds documents came and took his patient records for shredding it was hard to see his professional life heading out the door.  Jack loves his patients and what he does but time moves on and we have to flow with it and find a new adventure.  So hopefully by the first week of December we'll be there.  This past week brought the first snow of the season:

Just a dusting here even though it snowed all day it just didn't stick more than this.  For some reason the first snow is almost magical and Annabelle and I had a fun walk in the woods and enjoyed the crisp air and pretty flakes.  Come February it will probably have lost its magic! 

 

Annabelle put on her winter duds for the walk.  You can see it melted pretty quick
 but the forecast is looking very cold with more snow starting on Thanksgiving.  That will make travel a bit iffy for those driving or flying. Also that means wood burning season will begin to keep us cozy and warm and the electric bill down!   This Thanksgiving we won't have as many around the table  because our grandkiddos from our oldest son will be going to their other Grandmother's house.  We trade off every other year.  The feast will go on here for those who will attend and then we'll be shooting pumpkins as usual if the weather doesn't turn too bad.  The squished up pumpkins will be put into the woods and creek for the animals to enjoy.  I hope everyone's holiday is great and filled with warmth, love and mostly gratitude for blessings.  Happy Thanksgiving!

The Quiet Month

 I always call November my quiet month.  The brightness and beauty of October with fun and sometimes craziness of Halloween is over.  The trees have lost their luster giving way to brown and dull color.  But many times on walks or drives I spy a tree with bright red or orange refusing to give it up just yet.  There is beauty though in dusky afternoons and a walk in the Creepy Woods.  Sunday it rained buckets which was so needed since we've had very little rain all summer and Fall.  It was a day that would have been great to snuggle up with a good book and just enjoy the sound of the rain.  However, I signed up to help decorate the Historical Society house for Christmas and we got it done but now I'm not super excited to think about decorating my own house! I'm one who likes to enjoy each holiday on it's own and don't want to gloss over Thanksgiving with Santa. So I'm planning my menu (which doesn't really change from year to year) for Turkey day.  Some of my Grandkids are going to their other Grandparents so not as many gathering this year at the Pines.  I know we'll enjoy the day with whom ever shows up. Plus there will be pumpkins to shoot!    Jack and I went to a craft show on Saturday that we always try to make each year.  It's a fun tradition we have and Jack is good about going with me to watch me look at stuff I really don't need but seem to find a little bit here and there to buy!

What I bought at the craft show...it will be put away until December.

I bought this set of salt and pepper shakers.  I thought they were pretty cute. They will find a place in a few weeks. 

I thought this cane was cute too and would look nice on the fireplace hearth.  I also bought some homemade soaps from one of my co-worker's wives who has her own home business.  I can put them into baskets as gifts.  My Father-in-law always said I was a sucker for anything cute or smelled good.  He was right!   I scored homemade ornaments too.  I put them on a present for each person every year.  Hopefully it will give the Grandkiddos some ornaments for their own trees some day.   Well, this quiet month is moving by quickly and it's almost at it's middle.  I did mow today when I got home from work.  It gets dark early and it was chilly but it's the last mow of the season and I just needed to also mulch up some of the leaves.  Rain is heading our way tonight and a little prediction of snow for next week.  Not really ready for all that yet! 

Annabelle and I have been walking a lot in the Creepy Woods.  This was a few weeks ago and now most of the leaves are down.  Soon it will be hunting season and we don't venture up there in case someone is hunting without permission.  Don't want to take any chances!  Until then I'll try and enjoy my quiet month and I hope you do too. Shhhh

Bye Bye October..

😞 Yes, my favorite month is on it's last hooray but what a way to go.  Happy Halloween and I hope everyone has a wonderful time of it even if no kiddos make it to your door!  We don't get trick or treaters here at the Pines but I decorate and enjoy it anyway.   I'll be taking everything down tomorrow except the outdoor ones go today since rain is coming this afternoon.  Poor kiddos will have to beg in the rain tonight.  It's very windy out and with the rain it will seem like a real spooky Halloween time.  Here's my decor that's on it's way back to storage until next year.  So sad...bye my friends!

Happy Halloween! Boo!

Sorry...Not Sorry

 This week we're at peak color season for our leaves.  I've been taking pics on walks with Annabelle and I sure wish the camera captured the true beauty that my eyes see!  So sorry for the following pics but this month is my favorite and I just can't help it!

Morning walk with Annabelle.

Our neighbor's trees along that walk.  

The not so creepy woods.  Our favorite walk place.

The sun going down and the trees behind our house are glowing!

This window in my kitchen holds a little metal pumpkin that looks adorable at night! And finally;

Every year I say I need to get rid of decor and sometimes that actually happens. However, sometimes I find something that finds me! This framed picture reminds me of my blog buddy, Robin, who has the best witch headers on her blog! I found this at a new store that my sister and nieces found when they were here.  Happy Halloween..almost!

75 In A 35!

 My post title does not mean I got a speeding ticket.  I read a thing that said September went fast but October is going 75 in a 35. So true!  The month is half over and I'm so behind in posting. I don't know where my days go but I need to get on the blog path or give it up.  So here's a recap of the past weeks.  We had our annual family Fall gathering last weekend.  The weather was great except a little rain came right before the party but thankfully stopped and all was good. Before the party on Saturday my sister and my nieces and little 'ol me put on our flannel shirts and headed downtown for Flannel Days.  All the stores had sales and discounts for wearing flannel! The town was super decorated up.  Free food at Home hardware but we didn't stop for any.  We found some cute treasures of course and enjoyed a beautiful morning at the farmer's market.

Lots of places for photo moments.  Here's Midge, Amy and Ella (Amy's daughter)

Katie, Amy and Ella.

The downtown area had tons of straw bales, pumpkins and mums to add color and fun.  After a few hours we had to head back to the Pines to get set up for the party at 5.  We had a good turn out and we enjoyed good food and fun!  

Amy, Midge, and Katie ready to party!

My Granddaughters, Summer and Driana.  Like last year I set up a little photo area.  

Summer and her boyfriend Coby.  He put on an amazing fire act for us. It was a surprise for sure and if I could figure out a way to upload the video I'd do it!

We had some silly games for the kiddos.  I know this is dark but the kids had to throw a ring around that thing on someone's head.  It was actually pretty fun!  Well, throw in a fire in the pit and more games and such and it turned out to be a great night.  I sure appreciate my family coming from Chicago and spending the time here.  They went up to Kalahari on Sunday and Midge and I and Jack just hung around the Pines and enjoyed the quiet time! All too soon they headed back home on Monday with the promise to see each other in December for our annual Christmas gathering.  Soon it will be here.  In the mean time, I plan to enjoy this lovely Fall.  We've had little rain and lots of sunny days and even frost on the pumpkins last week.  After a few warm-up days it will be cool again at the end of this week.  That's how fall goes in Ohio!  Here's a few fall colors in my neck of the woods:

My walk with Annabelle at the cemetery this afternoon.

Trees in the Creepy Woods.

Path to the Creepy Woods.

Love those leaves!  

You never know who'll you'll meet at the Pines!

Ghosts can be found in lots of the trees.

The spiders have been big this year!  

The sunsets have been fabulous!  So that's all for now...lots of pics I know but my blog book will appreciate it!  Night all!