It's A New Year!

Happy 2022 (three days late) to you!!  I last posted here on December 1, 2021 -- wow.  I had not intended to take the whole month of December off; I usually enjoy writing various Christmas posts.  This year though, I was having my family here on Christmas day, and I wanted to focus solely on getting the house ready and then on family and spending time together.  It seems like it worked out very well.  It was so nice to have the house cheerful and bright with Christmas lights and filled with family voices.       

      I have a small family, so there were just eight of us here, but I was thankful we could all be together.  We missed my dad, of course, he would have loved it.  Never the less, we had a happy gathering.  :)  The weather was so warm here (72°) no less.  That's not what I think of as Christmas weather folks.  I opened three or four windows so the house wouldn't be too hot, and that's a first that I can remember.     However, today we have this --   

   I love it!!  It was beautiful when we got up this morning, but it's melting fast now.  It sounds like a lot of you also got a good snow last night and this morning.  I've had fun taking pictures today.     Back to Christmas -- ours was very nice; some parts weren't as good as others, but overall, it was a good Christmas.  I loved all my gifts, big and small, and I feel like people liked the ones I gave them.  Giving truly is as much fun as receiving.  Will spent the night here on Christmas Day, and we then went to my in-laws' new home on December 26th to celebrate Christmas with them. When Will stayed here Christmas night, the three of us watched "A Christmas Story" on TV -- such fun.  We hadn't seen it in a few years and really enjoyed it.  I love that movie!  We found out that the director of the movie is Canadian, and most of the snowy outdoor scenes were filmed in Canada.  Also, I had no idea, but Higbee's was a real department store chain.  I Googled it, and it was interesting to read about.     I am hoping for a better year in 2022 -- of course we all said that at the beginning of 2021, didn't we?  What a farce that turned out to be.  In spite of all the nonsense around us, I'm thankful for our family, our home, and our (mostly) good health.  We're planning some more improvements on the house.  The 70's called -- they want their bathrooms back, 😏 so we hope to get our bathrooms remodeled/updated this year.  In addition, we're planning to get the interior painted and new carpet for the bedrooms.  We'll see if we're able to get all of this accomplished.  We hope to use the company who did our exterior work last year.      I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year and that you're staying well.  Is there anything special you're hoping to do this year?  Thank you so much for visiting today; I'm glad to be back!  Have a good week All!  😊