HAPPY NEW YEAR

Our wish to each of you is peace and health and happiness in the new year. You have all added treasure to my life. Thank you and Happy New Year.

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Universal Gift

I hope everyone who reads this had a wonderful Christmas break. We had a quiet morning by ourselves and then the siblings arrived, bringing with them noise and laughter and fun! What a great day we had...almost made it worth not seeing John and Jill and the grands! ALMOST!

You know how sometimes the Universe gives you a gift...not because it's Christmas, or your birthday, or even Arbor Day. Just because. Well, on Saturday, the Universe gave me just such a gift. I received a phone call from a niece I've not heard from in years. I've known her since she was tiny and lost touch in recent years. She's grown, married, and the mother of 4 children, the newest born just the week before this Christmas. I'll admit it's partially my own fault for not trying harder to keep in touch. I'm a lazy bum about things like that. On Saturday afternoon, my cell phone rang and there she was, my Erica! I surely do miss her. We talked for something like a half hour and got caught up. And yesterday I kept going back to our conversation and smiling all day. Hopefully, I won't be so remiss in keeping in touch.

No pictures today...didn't take a single one during the holidays...my bad! Maybe that should be my New Years Resolution. No, I recall now that there is only one New Years Resolution I ever made that I kept. And that resolution is: Don't make any more New Years Resolutions. Ever! I'm keeping that one.

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Silver Dollar City

John and I took the day off yesterday to run a few errands and then spent the day at Silver Dollar City. We hold season passes and the festival that is held each year from the beginning of November thru the end of the year is one of our favorites. An Olde Time Christmas is an onslaught to your senses, for sure! They put up over 4,000,000 lights throughout the City. Some of them are on during the day and some only come on after sunset. Yesterday was a bit foggy - you can see in the picture that the fog came down off the clouds pretty low. There were probably fewer than 400 people in the entire park! We are so used to seeing thousands that yesterday was a real treat! No waiting in lines for any of the shows, no waiting in lines for food, no waiting in lines for the bathroom, no waiting at all! We saw the two main shows that we like ( a musical version of A Christmas Carol and a Living Nativity) and then shopped a bit, the Mill and the Candy shops are both musts for us! Then we saw the lighting of the enormous, 5 story Christmas Tree in the main square and then toodled on home. Here is one of the trees they place throughout the park - just lovely!

I don't know if I'll get a chance to post before Christmas...if I don't, I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Thanks so much for stopping by...

Monday Musings

We usually don't spend the holidays at home and I don't see the need to decorate just to be out of town. This year we will be home for Christmas so I put up the tree in the entry. Gilligan the cat loves things that dangle so I've not put any decorations on the tree with the exception of the topper. So far, Gilligan hasn't tried to climb the tree and topple it over. I made a felt tree skirt years ago. It took me almost 14 years to complete it cause I would work on it and then lose interest (it's one of those with millions of felt pieces and even more millions of sequins). Once I completed it, it's been used for over 20 years under the tree. I just know Gilligan will spend every waking moment chewing on threads and sequins if I put it under the tree. So I will wait for Christmas Eve when Santa comes and puts gifts under the tree to put the skirt under there. In the meantime, it sure does look pretty with only the lights and the topper.

Here is the most recent picture of Dolly. She sure is a pretty girl, isn't she? She runs and jumps out there in the field. In fact, all the cows are quite happy to be home!

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Harvey is a real Doll-y

Some of you may recall back in 1994 when John came home from deployment and decided we needed a new dog. We went to a place down near the border of California and Mexico where we were living at the time and he picked out an adorable male golden retriever. We started calling him Sierra but he seemed to respond to the name Calloway. We were responsible fur-people parents and took our darling puppy in to the vet for neutering. Our vet, the incomparable John Augustine in Poway, California, said to my dear husband, "I notice you are calling the puppy him. You do realize it's a girl." Calloway became Callaway.


And then, there is the recent issue of Gilligan the cat who started out his life here at Pieceful Harbor with the name of Ginger - it seems cats don't show their male or femaleness till several weeks after they are born.


Now we come to the reason for the history lesson - you see, when baby cows are born, it's difficult to tell whether they are boys or girls unless you grab hold of them and tip them over to see their parts, OR until they - um - well - pee. Ruby's new calf was determined to be a boy because our neighbor stated that she'd seen his wangdoodle (by the way, all newborns have what appear to be a wangdoodle but it's really the remants of the umbilical cord). John and the neighbor's husband went to band Harvey the boy calf before they brought him and his mamma and brother and aunt and cousin over to Pieceful Harbor yesterday. It seems Harvey didn't have anything to band cause Harvey is a Dolly! So Ruby gave John his much-hoped-for girl calf! Dolly will help to perpetuate the herd!


Yes, the herd is now residing at Pieceful Harbor! John and John P. spent Saturday doing the final prep for bringing them over. They installed the gates, put in the watering trough, the feed bunk, and the hay ring. They brought over the last bale of hay that they had over at John P's house and arranged for more hay to be brought over.

Sunday, they went over and loaded up the bovines and then called me so I could document the momentous move. Here they are coming out of John P's fence and turning into our drive. Closer....drive thru the fence and open up the gate on the trailer. Here they come!



And they were so happy! Huevo spent the next half hour just jumping and running and eating grass. The others were just a gleeful! Dolly stuck pretty close to her mamma...I tried several times yesterday and today to get a good picture of her but everytime she saw me with the camera, she moved over behind her mamma so I couldn't get a decent picture. Will keep trying, though.

The dogs aren't sure what to make of those cows over there. They are in their run on the far left of the picture and those cows are used to having dogs around so they don't even move when Carson and Briscoe start barking at them.

Today I had off so the first thing I did was make a batch of Martha Stewart's No-Fail Fudge. The recipe is in her Holiday magazine this month. Oh, my gosh is that good stuff. I chopped up some black walnuts and put them over the top of 1/2 of the fudge and on the other half, I put crushed peppermints. Now we are both happy.



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Friday Reveal

I saw this on another blog I go to and thought it might be cute. See if you agree with me on any of these.
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper if it’s something in a box. Gift bags for the oddly shaped stuff.
2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial.
3. When do you put up the tree? The weekend nearest John’s birthday (Dec. 10th).
4. When do you take the tree down? New Year’s Day.
5. Do you like eggnog? Not at all.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? I recall a typewriter from my paternal grandmother. My brothers got G.I. Joe tanks and I got the typewriter.
7. Hardest person to buy for? My husband. He has no significant hobbies, and, frankly, we both buy what we want when we want it.
8. Easiest person to buy for? Grandchildren and daughter-in-law!
9. Do you have a nativity scene? I collect them.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail. But time-consuming cause I write a newsletter as well.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I honestly can’t recall a bad gift!
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? That would be White Christmas.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I pick up things year round if I see something special for someone but I shop in earnest in October and November.
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I don’t recall but I’m sure I have.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Pumpkin pie for breakfast. Sugar cookies.
16. Lights on the tree? Of course! Millions of white lights!
17. Favorite Christmas song? Mary, Did You Know and Do You Hear What I Hear?
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We try to travel to see our only son and his family but this year we are staying home.
19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? Maybe…if I sing it.
20. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Morning. Santa doesn’t come till after you fall asleep!
21. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Christmas commercials! T’is the season to be jolly, fa la la la la…la la la la. (Ferrero Roche)
22. Favorite ornament theme or color? I love them all!
23. What do you want for Christmas this year? An umbrella swift and a yarn winder.
24. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel.
25. Favorite Christmas dinner? Ham, baked sweet potatoes, green beans, cranberry relish, with pie for dessert!

Feel free, any of you who are reading this, to take this and use it on your own blog.

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The Shack

Good book. Read it!


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