Here is a photo of our grandbaby, Lucas. What a fun little guy he is! I love to just hold him and watch his little facial expressions while he sleeps. Can you tell I am smitten? 🥰
The Baby
Category: Family
BABY!!!
We have a baby!!! The Girl and The Son-in-Law had their little one last night. He is healthy and perfect and was so sweet being content to just snuggle with Mama while he was waiting to be weighed and measured. These days they give Baby and Mama a whole hour to snuggle before taking Baby over to do the weighing and measuring, and giving him a little shot. He was so brave he didn’t even cry when the nurse gave him the shot! The nurses and doctors were wonderful and The Girl felt well taken care of the whole time. He was 9 lbs 1 oz, and 21″ long. A big boy! The little family will be in the hospital for the next day and night, receiving instruction and visitors. Nana and Grandpa are so excited!!
Catnap
My Son
Thought I’d share this nice photo of The Boy. What beautiful kiddos we have! 💗
A Wedding!
We had a wedding! The Girl and her Fiancé were married on January 14th. We had the wedding at a house here in town that is set up and decorated to hold weddings, and had a bilingual ceremony in English and Spanish, since The Son-in-Law’s family speaks Spanish. It was a lovely ceremony and I would like to get a transcript of it, the minister did a great job. The bride and groom declared that they had a fun day. After the wedding everyone came to our house for cake and coffee and we had a nice visit. The lady who runs the wedding house took photos too so we had some family photos done for the first time in forever, and a photo of all three of our kids together for the first time in years. In fact, it was the first time they had all three BEEN together in years and years! We enjoyed meeting the Son-in-Law’s family, with the rather whirlwind courtship and wedding we hadn’t had the chance to meet them before. Here are some photos for you to enjoy!
It was a lovely wedding and the The Girl and The Son-in-Law enjoyed themselves, which was the most important thing. They now live in wedded bliss upstairs in what used to be just the The Girl’s space, so they can save up for a place of their own. The Son-in-Law fits in well at our house and we are happy to have him here.
Hooray, wedding!! 🥰
Christmas, Part 2
As I mentioned in a previous post, we had our Christmas celebration at Mom and Dad’s on New Year’s Day instead of Christmas Day because an ice storm we had messed up schedules. I went over to their house on New Year’s Eve to make the dressing and do a couple of other things for meal prep. To make the dressing you first make the cornbread, then eat a bit of cornbread when it’s done with lots of butter. When the cornbread is cool you break it up into pieces, add white bread (in this case, hot dog buns) and add the chicken broth, onion, salt and pepper, and sage to taste. I mixed it all up and didn’t even really have to add anything except a little bit of pepper after I tasted it. Mom declared it a triumph, so we put in in the fridge to cook the next day.
Mom has the timing down exactly right for all the holiday foods, so I kept going to her to figure out what to put in the oven next. We had rolls (they go in the oven last); mashed potatoes with sour cream, butter, cheddar cheese, chives, and bacon (The Hubs made that); turkey breast (that goes in first since it isn’t cooked), ham (made the glaze the morning of, didn’t have any cornstarch to put in it the day before); a veggie dish with broccoli, cauliflower, pepper jack cheese, sour cream, and other yums; chips and guacamole (always made first for an appetizer); and sweet potatoes with orange juice and marshmallows (put the sweet potatoes in under the broiler to brown the marshmallows — I didn’t do it quite right and the marshmallows melted into the sweet potatoes but they were still delicious). The we had chocolate pie and pumpkin pie for dessert, but everyone wanted chocolate pie so we left the pumpkin for Mom and Dad to eat later. It wasn’t the same as when Mom makes the dinner, but it tasted good and everyone enjoyed it as far as I know. The Girl and Her Fiancé weren’t able to join us because she wasn’t feeling well and he was scheduled to work.
We had gift-opening time before we ate and that was fun as usual, I got some very nice gifts and I think everyone appreciated their goodies. I received this Garmin Venu smartwatch and I then modified it with a screen protector with a pink frame and a new black band with a lace design, because I enjoy making things my own, ha. It started out like this:
And now it looks like this:
The screen protector just snaps over the whole front of the watch, and came in a set with many other colors. The band came in a set with many colors to choose from as well. I found both sets on Amazon. I also ordered a new RoadID with my pertinent information on it in case of emergency, it fits over the watchband. The one for my old Garmin watch was too large for this band.
Some other photos from our Christmas celebration:
I wish I had gotten more photos, but I was busy concentrating on the food.
We all had a great time visiting and I was sorry when we all had to go home. I went to Mom and Dad’s again this last Sunday and helped put away the Christmas decorations. They have been using a potted pine as a Christmas tree for the last three or so years and it is oddly doing well in its pot outdoors during the year. Dad says it is almost a bonsai tree at this point. Here he is taking it back outside to its place on the deck.
We had a great time together celebrating what God has done for us through His Son, Jesus. Amazing Grace, indeed!!
Christmas and “Limbo Week”
(My Sis-in-Law calls this week between Christmas and New Year’s Day “Limbo Week” and I’ve decided to adopt that phrase, although if one spends the week finishing out the year strong and doing some planning for the next year, I guess it isn’t completely in limbo!)
Well, we didn’t have our Christmas at Mom and Dad’s after all on Christmas Day. Mom and Dad weren’t able to get her in to dialysis on Friday because of the ice storm, and Dad called me and suggested we postpone our Christmas celebration to New Year’s Day since he didn’t think Mom would be feeling very well after skipping her usual day of dialysis. They were able to get her in on Saturday because there was a cancellation, but we had already decided to postpone. But my Sis and Bro-in-Law will be able to come on New Year’s Day, so it will be nice that they can be there. We had a simple Christmas Day at home with The Girl and The Future Son-in-Law and watched quite a few popular holiday movies! Then I went out to Mom and Dad’s to visit and help decorate the tree and we had a Zoom meeting with the Sis and Bro-in-Law to say Merry Christmas.
I also didn’t have my breakfast with Marnie on Saturday because there was still a lot of ice in the morning, so we had our breakfast on Monday instead. Marnie changed out our usual hiking theme this year and gave me writing-themed gifts, and I thought that was awesome. I am fixing to start writing a book about our Pacific Crest Trail adventures, and identifying as an author is the first step! She gave me a doorknob hanger that says, “Go away, I’m writing (or thinking about writing)” that has a picture of a typewriter on it, which is very cute. She also gave me some crystals meant for writers, that are supposed to help with clarity and creativity, inspiration and ideas, concentration and focus, and imagination. I don’t know if crystals actually help, but I have them on my desk just in case, ha. I was so inspired by the things that she got on Etsy that I went to Etsy searching for more writing-themed items, and found a necklace and some earrings made of old typewriter keys that I immediately ordered. What better thing to wear if I go to some sort of writing conference? So fun!
The saucer is pink Depression glass but the pink color doesn’t show up well in the photo.
So we are looking forward to our Christmas on New Year’s Day. I will go out on New Year’s Eve day and help get the food and everything else ready. Today Marnie and I are going on a hike to the “backcountry” of Silver Falls State Park. We didn’t invite Linda because much rain is forecast and Linda does not like hiking in the rain! We didn’t hike last Friday or Saturday because of the ice, or the week before that because Marnie wasn’t available, so I’m looking forward to getting back in the swing of things with hiking. I’m sure next week we will start up our regular hiking schedule. Today it’s supposed to be in the high 30s/low 40s F so fairly chilly, but I got a cute new warm hat and I hope it will keep my ears cozy.
The bill will be handy to keep my rain jacket hood from falling in my face. Also, it has a ponytail hole.
Hope all of you have been having a happy holiday season! Have a wonderful and productive “Limbo Week” getting ready for 2023!
Engagement
The Girl is engaged!! Her fiancé took her to a park and proposed to her, with a purple night sky for the background. She loves her ring and they are over the moon. They will have a small wedding soon. Exciting!!
Mom & Dad’s
I spent this last week at Mom and Dad’s staying with Mom while Dad traveled down to a reunion in his small hometown in California.
I drove Mom to dialysis in Salem three days, and during those days I needed to figure out what I wanted to do with the four-hour time between drop-off and pickup. I had noticed that the St. Vinnie’s thrift store was across from the dialysis center and thought some thrifting time would be in order, so I went across to the St. Vinnie’s and found a great deal on some old Nancy Drew and Dana Girls (like Nancy Drew but with sisters) books — 1930s books WITH the original dust jackets in very good condition for only $3.49 apiece! I also got some Sue Grafton books, a couple by Aaron Elkins, another mystery writer, and a 1940s Mary Poppins book. I had planned to go to some other thrift stores in the area but decided to go home to eat and get something I forgot to bring with me.
Most of the time at the house I spent with Mom in the living/dining room watching HGTV and Hallmark Christmas movies. We find the movies very predictable and Mom has seen most of them, but she still likes to watch them. It’s not so bad to have a day full of happy endings! I set up all my things on the dining room table, I pretty much just brought my desk (computer, calendar, books, etc.) and then set up a charging station on the buffet, ha. It is the house I grew up in (but remodeled) and I got to thinking about what will happen to it if Mom and Dad decide to move to town like the neighbors are doing. It will be hard to see it go out of the family, since Mom and Dad built it 48 years ago. The house is octagon-shaped, so very unusual. I forgot to get a photo of it.
On Friday when Mom was in dialysis, I went to the grocery store to get some things. Mom wanted a roast so I got two (BOGO!) although they weren’t the kind she wanted. I waited in the line that had a very big, very slow cashier-in-training. He also seemed to be a bagger-in-training and a coupon-reader-in-training, and the poor guy was sweating. He kept having to ask another cashier to come help him, but I think she really just wanted to talk to the man who represented a Medicare supplement insurance company! After buying groceries I decided to hit up two other thrift stores, the Salvation Army store and the Goodwill. The Salvation Army store doesn’t have a big selection in general, so I went to the book section. I seem to be on a book kick lately. The books at the Salvation Army store are not in any kind of order at all, so you just have to scan the shelves to see if anything pops out at you. I found all these books I was interested in at the Salvation Army and Goodwill (the Perry Mason and “E for Evidence” came from the Goodwill), so I was happy with my scanning job! The Goodwill at least has the books in category and “letter” order, but not completely alphabetical. There were so many people at the Goodwill I just left after perusing the book section.
After I picked Mom up from dialysis on Friday we went to Nancy Jo’s restaurant (Or Nancy’s, as I still stubbornly refer to it, since it was their original name. There was some copyright problem, so they changed it to Nancy Jo’s.) to get burgers, and Mom got onion rings. We drove home in one of those traffic-jams-for-no-reason on the freeway, there was no accident or any reason for a traffic slowdown but we crept along for miles before the traffic started moving shortly before our exit. Since Mom would have a hard time getting into my van, I’ve been driving her to town in her car. It is quite zippy and I have enjoyed driving it, although it feels like I’m going slower than I actually am so I need to pay close attention to the speedometer!
On Monday after I dropped Mom off I had to pick up some things I ordered online. I ordered these Christmas ornaments from Target to pick up at the store, but unfortunately there was only one left between both of our area stores. Isn’t it cute? Since The Hubs likes trucks and we are doing a black and white and blue theme for Christmas this year, I thought it was perfect. It will also go with red and black or pink and black themes. I do themes now instead of using our family and traditional ornaments because the ornaments and decorations have to be plastic or metal so Philip won’t hurt himself with them. He does try to get them off the tree and has knocked the tree over a couple of times by climbing up into it.
I also picked up some things I ordered at Ulta on Monday. The girl at the checkstand there had combed her eyebrows straight up and then penciled them in so it looked like she had really long, straight up eyebrows. I had to try hard not to stare. Is that a thing now? When I think of long eyebrows growing straight up I think of an old man, so I wondered why she wanted to look like a grandpa, ha. They do hire some of the most interesting-looking people at Ulta and many of them have what I would consider odd eyebrows, but then I really do prefer the natural look for brows. Eyes, go ahead and do ’em up! Lashes to the sky! But eyebrows, just pencil them in natural-like and not conspicuous. After Ulta, I went to TJ Maxx and bought all sorts of socks I really don’t need. ‘Tis the time of year when warm fluffy socks in the store seem so inviting!
Dad got home on schedule and right when the “bath girl” was finished helping Mom. We were glad he arrived safely. He had a good time at the reunion and visiting with my uncle and other friends.
I had a nice, relaxing visit taking care of Mom this week. I meant to work on some writing and reading and didn’t get to that, but that’s okay. I leave you with this photo of the view from Mom and Dad’s dining room deck.
Turkeys
Wild turkeys at Mom and Dad’s.
every day's just like starting over 