End of year

I'll end 2019 with a final post on Christmas. Christmas day was a very quiet one. It was just me and Gibbs hanging out and doing a whole lot of nothing.

After I had my first cup of coffee the two of us went to the living room so that could open the presents that Santa left for him in his stocking. He thought the treats were extra yummy and he enjoyed playing with his new toy.




And last but not least was the gift that Gibbs gave to me. He gave me the gift of companionship. While he's not always the best behaved dog there is, in the past year and half we have made great progress together.

Gibbs and I look forward to another year of sharing with our blog friends We'll see you all next year.

The gifts

The best gift of all was spending time with my family but there were also lots of wonderful other gifts as well.

From Amanda and Rob, pajamas, two new additions for my Christmas village and a framed picture of Amanda and I last year at Christmas.

From Brad, Britney and Presley (I'm told Presley picked these out) a sweet little flower arrangement, a set of plates with cute baking/kitchen sayings on them, a soap dispenser, a cute decoration, and a frame with  a lovely sequin background. I'm told that Britney suggested another one but Presley thought the pink sequins were the right choice. There was also a set of markers and it all came in a wood crate that you can write on the front with chalk.

Wades oldest son and his wife, who live in Virginia sent me these adorable nutcracker tins that are filled with all kinds of yummy treats.

I also got a gift card to Applebees from Wades youngest son.

I was truly spoiled this year for Christmas.

These boots are made for walking.

Christmas eve I had taken off my boots and left them sitting in front of the couch. Presley decided to take them for a spin.

Christmas eve

All of my celebrating was done on Christmas eve. I have to say it was the most fun I've had in a long time. I can't remember the last time I laughed so much. Years ago when my kids were growing up I started making a new game every year that we had to play on Christmas morning. My daughter decided to revive the game and she created a Christmas jeopardy game. I wish I would have taken a video of us playing the game because it was a full of laughs from Brad pointing out that he took a picture of all of Amanda's answers and he WAS going to win the game, to all of us using the dog toy squeekers to buzz in with our answers. Well all of us except for Britney who only had a very quiet bell ornament off the tree.

I may not have a video of that but I do have a quick little one of Presley

Funny story

Before I get in to more about Christmas I have to share this funny story. In the picture you see my stairs that lead to the upper level of my house. I prop up the shutter and it keeps Gibbs from going up the stairs. It doesn't go all the across the step but it's enough to keep him from going past it.

Christmas eve my daughter and her fiance hadn't arrived yet, my sons fiance was outside smoking and my son and I were standing in the kitchen talking while Presley wandered around the living room. We suddenly realized she wasn't there any more. I had the basement door shut so there was no way she could have gone down there. The shutter was across the steps so that kept her from going up there. Or did it?  She later showed us (on quite a few occasions) how she so easily went right over the shutter and up the stairs to explore the bedrooms. I think Gibbs was watching her too. I may need a new trick to keep him down stairs.

Where to start

I trust that all of you that celebrate Christmas had a wonderful day and for those of you who don't I hope you still had a wonderful day.

I have so much to tell you that I think it will take several days worth of blog posts to get through it all. I could do it all at once but I don't want to overload you. Plus, when I've got lots of material I need to take full advantage of it and get as many posts out of it as I can.

The oldest news would probably be my gift exchange from work. You remember I told you the person who had me forgot my gift at home. Well it was the boss and I can hardly get mad at him. He does sign my paycheck after all. He brought the gift to work on Sunday (the 22nd) and it was worth waiting for.  I told him he did an excellent job of shopping. Truth is I know his wife did it all.

The bag included these wonderful slipper socks, a Yankee candle and some skin so soft body butter.

My favorite though was this warm and cozy blanket wrap. Excuse the goofy pose.

I won't give up my day job in hopes of becoming a model.

OK that's it for today. Be back tomorrow with more.

Merry Christmas

From my blog to your, have yourself a Merry little Christmas.

Happy Christmas eve

Digging through the archives to bring you ghosts of Christmas past (a.k.a. edits from years gone by)

Q. What did Rudolph say about the big book of noses?A. I already red that one.

Q. What do angry mice send to each other in December?A. Cross mouse cards!

Q. What kind of Christmas present just can’t be beat?A. A broken drum!

Q. Did you hear about the kid who was scared of santa?A. He was Claus-trophobic.

Christmas memories

Yesterday this picture came up in my Facebook memories with the caption "Dear Santa, don't believe what the humans say."




Then I thought of this song by Alabama

That holiday feeling

The Christsmas cards have all been sent, the gifts are bought and wrapped, the tree is up and the decorations are out. It looks like Christmas but it doesn't feel like Christmas. Is it just an age thing that the older you lose that feeling of holiday magic? Am I the only one who is thinking that it just doesn't feel like Christmas?

What a day

At work we have 2 big ovens in the deli/bakery area. One hasn't worked for quite some time. Only having one hasn't been a problem. The last few days however the one working oven has been misbehaving. I put in a call to the guy who works on stuff for us. When I get to work yesterday morning there is a note saying:

Annie, we need a part for the oven. If it works tomorrow it will be a miracle.

I tell the boss and he says well lets pray for a Christmas miracle.

I punch in and head over to get started. I turn the oven on and whisper to the oven "Come on old friend we can do this" The first things ready to go in and the oven feels nice and hot. Here goes nothing. Miracle of miracles it baked without a problem. Next batch, same thing.  The guy who does the work showed up and turns on the other oven and said that he took another look at it last night and it might just work.  I made it through the whole day with both oven working. 

It was such a gift that the oven worked that I didn't care that it was gift exchange day and the person who had my name forgot my gift at home.

In the village.

Just a few pictures of some of the new things added to the village this year. These were all very inexpensive pieces so it was easy to add a few.

I thought this little dog mailing his letter to Santa was pretty cute.

And then of course I realized that my village didn't have a Santa so I had to add him.

I had a pond and I had an ice skate repair shop but I didn't have any skaters. Now I do.

My table

I tried a little something different on my dining room table this year. I usually don't have the leaf in the table but decided after Thanksgiving to leave it in until after Christmas. Rather than the usual things I put on the table I went with some candles and odd look carolers that I bought years ago. I think they came from Christmas around the world but I can't be positive. The candle holders are actually globes off of an old ceiling fan.

Small accomplishments

Monday was one of those days off that while it didn't feel like I did anything I did manage to accomplish a few little things.

I'm not sure why I bothered mopping the floor because with Gibbs tracking in dirt all the time or even just wet paw prints they don't really look like they've been mopped.

I also sat down and got my Christmas cards address and they are now in the mail. I was going to take a picture of the stack of cards but I forgot.

I finished wrapping the last of the little gifts that I was putting in stockings. Since I've got so many of them I hung two on the hutch cabinet and the other three on the backs of the dining room chairs.

There are actually two more stockings hanging on the fake fireplace. That would be mine and one for Gibbs.

Last but not least I finished a gnome that I made. Almost everything came from Dollar Tree. I used a Styrofoam cone for the base. The beard is made from a Dollar Tree mop and the hat is a sock. The only thing I didn't get from Dollar Tree was the wood ball for his nose.

Tis the season

Just for fun today I've got a compilation of old Christmas pictures and some puns to accompany them.

This one was courtesy of my good blog friend Sandra

The Crhistmas alphabet has Noel.

Lets take an elfie.

Christmas has me feeling Santa-mental

What's the forecast for Christmas eve? Rain, dear.

How does a penguin build it's house? Igloos it together

Playing in the snow

I did my playing from the warmth and comfort of my computer chair. I haven't done anything like this in quite a while.

It was cold and snowy outside but I was nice and warm while I took this picture through the front window. No boots, coat, hat or gloves required.

A bit of editing, add some textured overlays and pop in a quote.

Hershey bars and winter gloves.

That's all you need to make a cute and inexpensive gift for a friend or co-worker.

You start by wrapping a regular size Hershey bar in plain white paper and then draw a simple snowman face on it. For the hat you take a pair of stretchy gloves. Put one inside the other, roll down the cuff and slide onto the top of the wrapped candy bar. Tie a bow around the gloves to form a tassel at the top of the hat. You can then finish it off with a piece of ribbon for a scarf. A little gift that is cheap, quick and easy.

Praying for ambition

It's getting down to the wire here for having things ready for Christmas. Yesterday I had absolutely no energy and I was dragging through the day at work. Today I have so many things that I want to get done so I'm praying for a bit of an energy boost.

Wednesday morning I had to go out and clean snow off the car before heading to work. While I was out there I noticed the moon and tried to take  a picture with my cell phone. Not a great picture but I like all the starbursts I got from the lights

I took another one to show all the snow that was on the ground. This time of year I really wish I had a garage. It would be so much easier in the morning.

Now I have a pair

A while back I showed you a Christmas ornament that I had made by covering an extra large plastic ornament with fabric. Well I wanted to make a second one so that I could hang them over my kitchen sink. Monday I managed to finally finish it

It was a rainy day so it was perfect for staying in and hibernating.

It's a wrap

Monday I decided it was time to start wrapping Christmas gifts. It's one job that I really hate to do and I probably should just buy a bunch of gift bags and throw everything in bag instead but I had left over wrapping paper so I should use it up.

I  got the majority of it done.

If you follow me on Facebook you saw that Mr Gibbs did a little snooping in the bags before I started wrapping and found his present.

He's been having fun with it so I didn't have the heart to take it away from him and make him wait.

One small purchase

The other day I mentioned that I only purchased one small ornament when I went to the craft show on Saturday. Anni asked  where the picture of the ornament was and if it was a yearl tradition to buy a new one each year.

Well here is the picture

It's really nothing special but I liked the way she used the canning jar lid to make these and I wanted to buy one so I would remember how she did it and maybe make some of my own.

Years ago, when my kids were growing up, I used to give each of them a new ornament every year. That stopped for some reason when they got older but other than that I've never had a tradition of buying a new ornament every year.

More cake

After doing the cake I posted about yesterday I had a second order to take care of. This was the order form that was left for me.

I wasn't sure if that was Happy 30th birthday Dobie or Oobie. I also didn't know if the writing was supposed to be either green or blue or did they mean they wanted green and blue, or did it mean they wanted a color that was greenish blue. I tried to call but with only the last name Anderson who do I ask for. It ended up I couldn't get through to talk to anyone any way.

I did what I thought the order meant and this was the very plain cake that they got.

I wasn't there when they picked it up so I have no idea if it was right or not.

It drives me nuts when they take orders like that though. 9 times out of 10 I can't get in touch with the person who ordered the cake to ask them questions. I try to stress that they have to be very explicit when taking an order so that I know what it means. I've also tried to tell them that I need a first name on the order so I know who to ask for if I have to call. I always feel like and idiot when I have to call and say I don't know who I want to talk to because I only have a last name. It would be so much easier if people would call during the day when I'm there but most of the orders come in at night when they are talking to someone who knows nothing about the bakery.

Cake

Another cake order at work. This was for a man who if you saw him, you would think he's homeless. He walks everywhere and he always carries bags with him. He knows everyone in town and everyone knows him. Once he learns your birthday he never forgets it and he will make a point of wishing you a happy birthday. Any way he sells candy bars and the proceeds benefit children in the area. The youth center had a party last Friday in his honor to celebrate him selling over 30,000 candy bars. I'm not sure how long it took him to sell that many.

These are the types of candy bars he sells and they wanted me to put these (in frosting) on the corners of the cake.

I told them it was just going to be a colored rectangle with the word Pulakos written in white. They said that would be fine. I couldn't really match the exact colors of the candy bar wrappers either.

A mighty fine day.

I had a bit of a tiring but nice day yesterday. There was a rather large craft show that I wanted to go to and my daughter was supposed to go with me. I hadn't heard from her so I texted her in the morning to see if she had changed her mind. Turns out she had to work and forget to tell me. It was too late to find someone else to go with so I decided to go alone. I only bought one ornament but I enjoyed walking around looking at all they had to offer. After that I went to a couple different stores. The first one had lines that were a mile long so I didn't even consider buying anything. The second one I managed to pick up a few Christmas gifts. My plan was to stop somewhere and get something to eat but I decided to head home and make myself a nice big salad instead.

Funny thing happened while I was out. I wore those $5 shoes that I blogged about and told you my daugher said I paid $5 too much for them. I had 3 different compliments from total strangers and another one from someone I knew. Looks like she is the only one who doesn't like them.

Weighing in.

This losing weight thing sure hasn't been easy. I started off pretty good but the last month has been pretty much a stand still. I did good over Thanksgiving not eating too much or loading up on desserts and I didn't gain any weight there but still.

I don't call this a diet but rather a change in my diet. I'm making healthier choices and avoiding certain things like white flour and sugar. I'm also trying to keep an eye on how much sodium is in what I'm eating.  I've lost 15 pounds so far but still have another 16 to go to get to my goal weight. I am so annoyed that I let myself gain all this weight to begin with because losing it is so hard. I suppose I could add exercise but I'm going to have to do some serious pushing to get myself to do that.

One of the biggest problems right now is that I'm getting really bored with food. Or maybe it's just that I don't have the desire to cook for just myself. A month or so ago I found some pumpkin english muffins that are really good and there have been nights where my dinner was one of those. I can do that since it's just me.

No holly jolly

I don't know what it is the last several days but my mood has been awful. It might start out ok but then it goes south so easy. I get to work in the morning and instantly find myself irritated by things people have either done or not done. I think I'm in dire need of a long winters nap.

Either that or I need to escape to this place. (found this on Facebook)

I know it's snowy and I hate snow but I think if I could hibernate here all winter I could be perfectly happy. Just stock the cupboards with food and give me internet access and some craft supplies.

This and that

Tuesday my day got off to a bad start. Early in the morning before I went to work I managed to slam my thumb in the car door.

It really doesn't look all that bad in the picture and that spot under my nail hasn't gotten any bigger but it still hurts and I keep bumping it on things which makes it hurt even more. I'm not ashamed to say that I cried like a baby when I did it.

Yesterday Ginny asked if that was a news stand in one of the pictures of my village. Yes, it was in fact a news stand. 

The picture was focused on the mom and child but you can see the news stand clearly. The lamp post lights up on this.

As I'm typing this to schedule it is snowing out. I'm so hoping this is a quick snowfall and that I don't have to brush tons of it off the car in the morning.

I always schedule my posts to publish at 12:30 a.m. In the morning before I go to work I sit down with my coffee and check to make sure the post published. Yesterday morning I discovred that somehow the time got changed on the post to 5:30 p.m.  So if any of your early birds were wondering why I didn't have a post up early it was because blogger changed the time on me. 

Mixed bag

Monday was sort of a mixed bag. It had weather that included both rain and snow. It had laziness and productivity although I think it was a little heavy on the lazy side.

I did a load of laundry and managed to put out a little more of my Christmas decorations. I'm pretty sure that this year there will be a lot staying in the box.

The village went multi level this year. I added a new building and keeping it flat on the top of my fake fireplace just didn't give it enough room. If you follow me on facebook you may have already seen this but here it is anyway.

I normally use a snow blanket that you buy in the Christmas section but it wasn't working for me this year so I cut up an old chenile bedspread and that's my new snow.

I took 3 pictures and then did a photomerge in photoshop elements. The bottom three pictures are just a few of the pieces in the village. The gas station on the bottom right is new this year.

Now I just need to clean up all the mess I made all over the house while I was putting stuff out.

That holiday spirit

It's that time of year where I attempt to get into the holiday mood. I like Christmas but sometimes it can be stressful and overwhelming. Being alone has it's challenges as well. All in all I think I'm doing ok so far.

I turned on Frosty the snowman which I haven't seen in several years.

 
I think I may have fell asleep before it was over though.

I did get the tree up and decorated.

I bought this ornament for Wade the very first Christmas after we met.