Farewell 2022 - See You Next Year

 

Hello and Welcome! - Yes this year has not been one where I've posted much on the old blog. - Can't really say why but I hope to start posting (and commenting) more in 2023.

 

Christmas here was nice, albeit slightly different then normal.  For one this we had SNOW (Ugh).  We usually don't have a "White Christmas" here but God decided we needed one for a change.  

 

One exciting thing though was that our houses made the front page of the Newspaper for our decorations. 

These photos were taken prior to the snow we eventually got.  Here is what they looked like Christmas Eve...

 

 

 

Normally we go out to eat on Christmas Eve, which we did.  We had Chinese food.  The roads were somewhat slick but not enough to keep us from going out. - We didn't go look at lights though like we usually do. - Came back home, opened stocking gifts, wrapped presents and went to bed.

 

Christmas morning we had the small family gathering at our house around 7:30 where we opened our gifts.  Then it was off to my nieces house for the family breakfast.

After the breakfast we went home and just relaxed.  Instead of fixing a huge dinner we opted to order take-out Mexican food instead.  I did make a dessert but that was all the cooking I did.  It felt good to not have to rush around preparing a big meal.

Overall it was a very pleasant day.

 

Now the snow that was there Christmas Eve disappeared the day after Christmas.  It warmed up to 50 degrees overnight with rain and by Tuesday it was all gone!

 

Getting ready to ring in the New Year tonight but I wanted to catch you all up on the holiday happenings. - My apologies for not visiting or commenting on your blogs much lately.  - I plan to improve on that in 2023.  -  See You Next Year!

Out with the old and in with the new

 Welcome & Happy New Year!

Sharing today a little of Christmas morning and a little of New Years Eve.

Joelle opening up one of her presents. - It was so cute because she would open the gift and then say,  "Oh Wow!"

Our family has had a "tradition" of having a Christmas breakfast together for as long as I can remember.  When my mom passed away in 2020 I wanted to continue the tradition even though she was gone and we were no longer having it at her place.   Instead we decided to meet at one of my nieces homes. - The first year we didn't have quite as many attend for various reasons.  This year was a little different.

Here is the group that gathered.  The photo is horrible but it was the best I could get. I converted it to black and white so it would show up better. - See the little object that my daughter is holding in the middle of the shot?

 

It's a Frying Pan ornament that I gave to my sister-in-law who is holding her hand.  It's in memory of my brother, Richard who passed away in May of 2021.  He was the family breakfast cook for many, many years.  Here is a photo of the actual ornament.  So while he was not with us physically he was still there in our hearts.

We all bring something now to the breakfast so no one person has to take it on and everyone seems to have a good time.  

Next up, New Years: - This year was a bit quieter and different.  For one thing it was dang COLD outside with a temp of only about 3-5 degrees and a foot of snow on the ground!

We still had our snacks/junk foods:

We usually set off fireworks but only did a few so Joelle could look at them through the window.

 There was the toast at Midnight and we blew our Party Horns

and headed off to bed!