Memories of '23

 Soon shouts, whistles, fireworks and other manner of celebration will be heard all over the world.  Some places are already in 2024 while we still have a few hours of 123123.   I hope you're having a good-bye planned in your own way.  I seldom stay awake until midnight but I just might make it this year.  (I took a nap this afternoon!)   As I look back on 2023 I'm grateful that we made it through without any big drama, health issues, financial problems, or the loss of any family members.  A bit different than the last few years.  We accomplished a few projects and have plans for some new ones in '24.  We managed a couple of trips and visits with family members.  I continued to work and hopefully will do so this coming year.  I like being able to make my own schedule with no call or weekends or holidays.   As always, time will tell. I'm not getting any younger.  I guess you could say that I'm the youngest I'll ever be right at this moment.  I'm going to pray for a good year ahead.  I'm going to pray for my family and friends for their year ahead. I know challenges come in many forms and I pray what ever the Lord sends our way we can handle it.  In short...I'm going to pray each day!  I have my motto for this new year.  It's: "LESS IS MORE IN '24".   What does that mean?  How about less spending, less accumulating "things", less complaining, less procrastinating, less eating, less sitting.  Hopefully it will help with more: saving, downsizing, happiness, getting projects completed, more health, more stamina, and perhaps a bit more blogging than this year. Happy New Year everyone! Here's a few pics from '23 that made our year a good one.

January:

Sister bonding when Midge made a surprise visit.

Feb:

I turned the big 70!  Don't I look surprised?!

March:

A visit to Chicago to spend my sister's birthday with her and her family.

April:

Spring arrived with a Happy Easter!

May:

We were able to go to our Temple's open house.  The Columbus, Ohio Temple had been closed for renovations for 3 years! It's been great to have it back!

June:

A trip to Portland, Oregon to see our Grandson, Taylor, graduate.  He's now a freshman at BYU Idaho and doing great!

July:

A friend reunion with former members of our church! A really fun time to gather and reminisce. We're planning another one for July 2024.

August:

A beautiful day and picnic at Lake Erie at one of Jack's high school classmates Summer home and many of his high school friends.  They meet once a month for lunch. About 30 or more show up and I tag along too! This was a perfect day!

September:

A new paint job for the living room and a beautiful trip to Michigan! 

The Grand Hotel on Mackinaw Island

My handsome hubby in a rare beach shot! He's not super fond of the beach. He burns easily!

October:

Celebrating the Fall season at the Pines

Decorating the Freer house for the Historical Society.

My nieces Amy and Katie at our annual Halloween gathering!  We all love October!

November:

Family gathering for Thanksgiving.  I'm so thankful for my many blessing but mostly for my wonderful family!

December:

The tree my friends and I decorated at the Freer house for the Historical Society's Christmas open house. We won the contest for the most votes for the best tree this year! Whoo hoo!

Our now functioning fireplaces make it a cozy place to sit and enjoy!

Our Hallmark town's new "Candy Cane Trail" that was a fun place to walk and enjoy the music and lights of the season.  Each month had it's own beauty and moments to remember. Time flies by so quickly and I can't believe this year is over in just a few moments.  All these pics will be in my book for this year and I apologize for all of them in this post.  I hope everyone has a healthy and safe new year and I'll be back in '24 for my 16th blogging year!

Happy New Year!!

Do You Hear What I Hear?

The day after Christmas had a deafening silence descend on the land.  No rushing around, no crowded stores, not many folks walking downtown and none in the cemetery when I walked Annabelle. I know,  most folks in the cemetery are just laying around but many do walk the paths like me.  I went to Wal-mart and it was kind of spooky! Spookier than the cemetery on a dark rainy day.  The Christmas music was gone from the stores and the radio.  It was quiet at home too and I even took an afternoon nap.  So as this year comes to it's close I thought I'd do a couple of posts since this year is the smallest posting I've done since starting this blog.  I have my saying for the new year and I'll put it into writing on my final post. That blog post will be on 123123...Dec 12, 31, 23.  A special date?  A lucky date? A buy a lottery ticket date?  Oh well, it's a fun thing to notice anyway.  Those who were sick on Christmas are slowly recovering.  My sister Midge is sick also and hopefully will be better soon.   I haven't worked since December 19th and I guess I'll be back at it by January 3rd.  Maybe then I'll know what day it is! These holiday weeks get us a bit discombobulated...my word for messed up, or turned around.  So no pics in this post just the question...Do you hear what I hear?  Shhhhh..post holiday quiet.  Until 123123.

Christmas Day Or Easter?

 With beautiful sunshine and temps in the 60's the gang that gathered for Christmas celebrating thought we should have had an Easter egg hunt to match this weather!  It's been a busy and tiring weekend as I wrapped up the Christmas shopping and also the Christmas gift wrapping.  Throw in the food prep and getting the house ready there was no hope to get that "long winter's nap"!   It was all hands on deck and we got it done in the usual YaYa and PawPaw fashion.   We only had one snafu with the food. A little mishap with the mac 'n cheese but all else was good!  The kids came in one by one at one.  After some appetizers to keep our strength up we headed into the living room for the gift exchanges.  

The kitchen was rearranged with a longer table to fit the crowd.  We had a few that had to cancel because of illness.  Our son Phil was hit hard yesterday with what appears to be Covid.  Also my daughter-in-law Evelyn had her oldest daughter's family out also with Covid.  That includes their 2mo old baby. When our oldest son Jack was leaving for home today he said he suddenly felt ill.  He's the one holding the red cup in the pic.  I'll keep praying for quick recovery for all and that we don't get it!  Even our son in Oregon is ill today.  Tis the season.

The gang starting to pick a seat and get the unwrapping started!  It seemed everyone enjoyed their gifts and I don't think any will be returned!  After this was it was time for food and fun. 

Granddaughter Summer with her constant companion, Happy.  I know I usually grab some pics of the food but I was a slacker today!  I did get some  pics of the desserts.

Baklava anyone?

Some of my homemade cutouts perhaps?  I also made a pecan pie, pumpkin chiffon pie, and dirty dessert.  Most of the desserts went home in containers as we were stuffed from dinner.  We played our saran wrap game later and along with the gifts inside the wrap there were lottery tickets and again this year only a few $1 or $2 winners.  It was fun anyway!  Soon it was time for everyone to head for home.  I did manage to grab some photos of some of the kids.

Summer and Mandy had some interesting outfits!

Mandy, Jack, Evelyn and Megan

Cameron. I didn't get a pic of his older brother, Anthony.  Anthony had to leave earlier for work.  He escaped the lens of YaYa!

Rae, (in blue), older sis Lexi and little sis Aria.  We sure missed Phil and we made sure to send home a nice selection of food for him.  Hopefully he'll feel like eating it and will be able to taste it!

Evelyn's daughter Megan and her hubby Landen.

Lexi giving Annabelle some love!

Family portrait?  Yikes!  We said goodbye to everyone and then got the house back in order.  Sometime during the evening the rains came.  That didn't stop us from our annual drive to see the decorations around Ashland.  Most of my photos came out bad as trying to snap a pic with the moving car and rain made it a mess.  But here's a few anyway.

The town Nativity.

The downtown.

The town Christmas tree.  

Ho Ho Ho!

A few lights at Whispering Pines.  It was a lovely Christmas for us and I was very grateful for the blessing of seeing family, enjoying the sounds and tastes of the season and also remembering the real reason we celebrate.

As we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, I know this time of year can be a stressful and not always a happy time for many.  I wish we could take away all the pain and suffering in the world.  We can't make it all go away but He can help us get through the tough times if we let Him. I hope everyone has had a joyous day today and prayers that the coming days will be better for those didn't.  God bless us everyone.  Merry Christmas!

The Yearly Trek

 Friday Jack and I headed out to Chicago for our annual Arends family Christmas gathering.  Jordan stayed home with Annabelle.  Jord got covid the week before and was back to work but still not feeling great.  I was grateful that he took care of Annabelle for us. My sister has a new puppy and I felt that it would be best not to add a 3rd dog to the mix!  We enjoyed seeing sweet Hope and Flynn the pup is doing well with training and getting along with Hope.

Miss Hope turned 3 on Sunday.  She's such a good dog and companion for Midge.

Welcome Flynn!  He's doing great on being house broke and can already sit on command. He's a mini doodle.

Gotta love that face!  We had a good time with family and the annual party was a hit.  There weren't as many family members there this year and we missed seeing them all.  But those that did make it had fun and certainly didn't leave hungry!

Getting the appetizers ready is my niece Amy. Her brother, Bill is keeping a close eye! There's my nephew Patrick who left warm Florida to gather with us.  Luckily we weren't too cold but we did have lots of rain.  Didn't slow us down any!

My niece Katie and her hubby Blake always host as they have the biggest house and she decorates it so pretty and has a couple of trees to bring in the Christmas spirit.

After dinner we gather around the tree to have our white elephant gift exchange.  We don't really give white elephants!  It's just a game where we bring a silly gift that gets exchanged after we choose numbers to see what order we go in.  You don't know what your getting. Sometimes  it's something nice and sometimes it's a clunker!  We all get a good laugh when someone gets a clunker that's been passed along every Christmas.  I got lottery tickets this year!  Of course I had to trade around to score them but all's fair in this game!  Unfortunately, I only won $8 but hey, I'm willing to share!

It can get a bit crazy!

My Great Nephew, Connor, was having fun!

My brother Rick checking out the loot he won.  I think it was good?

I'm not sure Amy liked the popcorn things but her son Parker was good with it.  Soon it was time to put the cap on another family gathering.  I still miss having my Mom and brother Greg there to join in the evening.  They are truly missed this time of year and always. We spent the next day with my sister and had fun and lots of laughs with her.  She's doing well and is getting ready to be able to have her dialysis at home.

Here she is with her Grandkids, Connor and Ella.  Monday morning we packed up and headed for home.  The weather turned colder and that meant snow on the drive back.

If you zoom in you can read the sign warning of snow covered roads and to slow it down.  It was very windy and a little bit of a white out near the snow belt of South Bend, Indiana.

When we hit the Ohio line the sun came out and the snow stopped.  At least for most of the ride.  Closer to home we did have some more snow but made it back safe and sound with good memories and the task of getting the final days before Christmas wrapped up here at the Pines.

Tuesday found us with a little snow on the ground and they had cancelled school.  Seriously? I didn't think it was that bad but I guess we were under a level one snow emergency.  I made it to work just fine and I took this shot after getting Annabelle out for a walk.  She was super happy to have us home!  To end this post I'll show the gift my sister gave me.

It's a "pawjamma" shirt!  Too funny!  Well, the big day will be here soon.  I know many of my blog buddies are ready and waiting and already celebrating.  We've had a really nice December so far.  It's going to be a warmish Christmas here as the temps will be in the 50's by Christmas.  I'm OK with that and it won't stop us from feeling the spirit of this season!