It's just another New Year's Eve, in a pandemic

 Way back when I used to work in the hospital, I'd work a lot of New Year's Eves. It satisfied my holiday requirement, paid time and a half, and we could see the fireworks in Philly from the higher floors of the hospital. Everyone brought food, and we tried to eat together.

Now we're usually in bed before midnight, and the idiots shooting off fireworks wake us up. The Impeached One's local golf course is thru the woods from us, and they do fireworks which we can see from our living room. 

Manda had told Amary about a pic we had of one of our past cats, Trouble, in a Barbie tent as a kitten. Of course Amary wanted to see it! I went thru every photo album and 5 boxes of pictures, but finally found it!

It was our first Christmas in this house, and Tee was only a few months old.

Here's an oldie! Every baby born between Xmas and New Year's got a huge stocking! Jeez, I was young! A month before my 22nd birthday. 

That was in 1974. Above is that baby's baby, Eddie, in 2003. 

Manda had just a few stuffies! Amazing that she left room for Steph to visit.

All grown up but so young! And our sweet Toast, the time share dog, LOL. She was Steph's, but spent a lot of time here, and we loved her so much.

So here's hoping for a better year in 2021!

December 29

 Today is our oldest daughter's birthday!

This beautiful woman is now 46! How did so many years go by so quickly? 

Because so many idiots insist on gathering and traveling, it's not safe for me to hug my baby today, and that totally pisses me off. I'll talk to her on the phone, and give her a virtual hug.

These guys are now slithering their way across the country to their forever home. Amary and Garrett have seen pix of their snakes, but I'm sure they have no concept of how long (over ten feet) the snakes really are. And, Ralph got me rattles on amazon, which I placed in them the final week,  so they are rattlesnakes! We mailed them yesterday, and I had Ralph get $500 of insurance on them. 

It's a beautiful day out, 37 and sunny. Ralph took the outdoor decorations down yesterday, while it was in the 40's. 

It was a sad day yesterday. Our longtime friend, Franny, lost her Jake to cancer. He died on his 92nd birthday, under hospice. Jake was a cool guy, with a gravelly voice, and he absolutely adored Franny (the feeling was mutual.) He died almost a year to the day after Gordon, the husband of Mary Beth and father of Gordanna. It's so hard to see close friends lose their loved ones. Cookie Swap now has two less members, and we mourn their loss.

Another Christmas!

 All the preparation, all the anticipation, then poof! it's over! What a strange Christmas it was. Christmas Eve we zoomed with everyone, or at least tried. Probably the entire world was zooming, and it was slow and choppy, and we gave up.

My Weather Channel app gives the temperatures ten days out, so I was able to finish Covid and Quarantina. I finished up at 10:30 Christmas Eve. I knew we were going to go see Heather and Ed and the kids Christmas morning for a short, masked, socially distanced visit to exchange gifts.

Eddie and Julianna were thrilled and amazed that their snakes were so long!

Julie got a dance bar, so Heather arranged the snakes so they can doo ballet!

Back home, we opened gifts from the west coast family. Amanda made this sweatshirt for Ralph!

She made me this snuggly cardigan! It has pockets, and the fabric has gnomes on it! 

Amary and Garrett chose this bird for me! When you press it's back, it sings! It's so cute. 

We had a quiet dinner, just the two of us. Ham slices, pineapple stuffing, and sweet potatoes. Best of all, enough so that we had the same thing on Boxing Day. 

When we went out on Christmas morning it was 62 degrees. By Christmas night it was 25 degrees! It rained and was windy Christmas Eve, so we were lucky it wasn't snow. 

For tonight's dinner, I have sauerkraut in the crockpot. I add a small cup of applesauce and cook it all day- yum! I'll add hotdogs the last hour, and it's a quick meal that we have maybe 4 times a year. It's at Ralph's request. 

Goals for today are to work on the WA snakes, so I can get them done and mailed. 

I'm still here!

 It's been somewhat of a trying time. I finally had the ablation for atrial flutter done on December 10, which was the first available time. It went well, and I came home that night. I broke out in huge hives on my back, where plastic pads had been placed for the procedure. I took a lot of benedryl, and called the doc in the morning. He put me on a steroid pack, which cleared it up.

I had a brainstorm, and since I was on the steroids, I went and got a flu shot for the first time in over 20 years (severe local reactions the last times I had one.) It worked, I had no issues with the shot, which made me happy. 

I have a device implanted which monitors my heart, and sends the info every night and if there are any issues, the doc is notified. 

Thanksgiving sucked. First time ever it was just Ralph and I. Too risky to go anywhere.

November 22 was Joseph's birthday. Our second of his birthday's without him. That sucked.

Snakes! All up to date as of mid December! I'm already planning who gets snakes next year, it will be my two little great nephews, Ben and Joey. 

I made cookies! Oatmeal raisin and they're delicious!

Cross stitch! When I finish this page, I will be 25% done of the main picture!

OMG, this girl! The picture of her mom and cousin! Such a beauty!

And her adorable brother!

Our favorite nurse, all geared up. She's so pissed at people who won't mask, and insist on traveling and having gatherings. 

Yes, he is deranged. But he's cute.

My grand cat Squeaky, helping Manda and Ben decorate.

Julianna or Amary? LOL, it's Amary.

And it's the day after Solstice, so we start to gain a minute of daylight per day. I'll take it! 

Our Christmas plan is to go to Heather's for an hour, stay masked, do gifts and leave. Sucks. 

And every year I say I'll do better at keeping the blog up to date. Maybe 2021 will be the years!