A beautiful Sunday

 The sky is blue and it's going up to the 40's! 

We did a curbside pickup at the library yesterday! I had 11 books in, Ralph had 5. 

This is the first one I'm reading, because it's new and others may have it on request. So far it's really good.

My gnome collection may stay on the mantle til Easter! I supposed I should take down the little trees on the end.

 I'm taking the HQ16 to a quilt shop on Tuesday, so it can have routine maintenance. I haven't quilted in over a year, did not have the urge. I tend to get obsessed with things, and the counted cross stitch is the current obsession. 

My Cookie Swap group is starting up our book club again. They were dithering about a book, and I suggested the book I was reading at the time, One Perfect Summer by Brenda Novak. That was about 2 months ago! So we're supposed to have a Zoom get together tomorrow night to discuss it. Even if we just end up chatting, it will be fun.

Stress stitching

 I've tried not to stay glued to the TV following the disgraceful events of January 6. One reporter dubbed it "another day that will live in infamy." So I've been doing lots of cross stitching.

This was January 5.

This was January 7. Lots and lots of confetti there. I did maybe 3-4 colors. 

I also started this. It was a gift to myself. I was never a big fan of Obama when he was in office, but I love Michelle Obama and her book, and he's been on all the talk shows, and his book sounded interesting. 

We put the tree away til next year. It had lots of lights, and I only got two ornaments on it- the dove from Mike and Sam, and the clear ornament with the contents of my ORT jar for 2020. I just never got into it this year. My gnomes are all on the mantle, and they can stay there til spring.

I had a run of atrial fib yesterday, not fun. The new med the doc put me on helped it. 

I made an overnight French toast the other day, one that has cranberries and uses eggnog for the liquid. It came out really good! A keeper.

Snakes!

 Snakes arrived in Mill Creek!

They are a huge hit! Garrett named his Garrett, at least for now. Amary named hers Laze, for Lazy Snake. Manda sent me videos of the kids playing with the snakes. They were amazed at how long the snakes are. It's so much fun and so rewarding to make things for people who appreciate them. It's just great!

I moved the q snap on the counted cross stitch project. Lots of confetti, which give the project a richness of color. 

I was just going back and forth between amazon and the library website, and requested a whole bunch of books. Some are available and will come this week, others have a waiting list and it will be a while, which is ok. 

The state website to sign up for the Covid vaccine went up, and we're on the list. It could be months, which is ok, but we're on the list. 

2021 is here!

 May it be a better year than 2020 was! 

For our New Years Eve dinner I made (heated up) a deli chicken from Sam's Club, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, and cranberry sauce. It was so good! We stayed up til midnight and the noise making idiots stopped, then went to bed. 

January 2 was Jake's funeral, a sad affair. But, he lived to be 92, which is quite an accomplishment.

Heather made us calendars! So we can all see the same pix each month! She did a great job.

Today is Heather and Ed's 19th anniversary! It doesn't seem that long ago. It was a lovely wedding.

She was such a beautiful bride!

Today is also a sad anniversary, Ralph's dad Rocco died 15 years ago. 

I've been busy this morning. I made a to do list of things I want to get done in January. I made appointments with the eye doctor and the dermatologist. I made an appointment to take my HQ16 in for routine servicing. I haven't used it in over a year, and I want it checked and oiled before I use it. 

I decided to try the Goodreads challenge, my goal is always 100 books per year. I've kept a notebook for years of all the books I read, but I'll give Goodreads a try. 

Crochet wise, my goal is two snakes this year, for Joey and for Ben. And maybe a Yip Yip or two. I go with the flow for crocheting.

For Counted Cross Stitch, my project may take the rest of the year!

This is where I was at the end of 2020. I just moved the q snap. It's going to be fabulous when it's done.

And of course, a goal is to blog more often.

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.