New Year's Eve holiday recap

For the last several days I've meant to sit down and recap Christmas, and now here it is New Year's Eve already! 

It was a pretty quiet holiday, mostly focused on friends, neighbors, and home. I can't remember ever having such a relaxed holiday. I baked and gave away dozens of cookies, but I took it at a slow pace. On Christmas Day I cooked a turkey breast I'd pulled from the freezer several days before along with several sides from the pantry and freezer. I've spent very little time shopping and navigating crowds, and that's a relief. Crowded stores and long lines this time of year make me break out in hives.

 Here's a plate of food I took to our neighbor Heather on Christmas Day. She was home alone (she's single without family) recovering from shingles. Turkey, mashed potatoes, baked dressing, gravy, roasted carrots, collard greens, and cranberry sauce.

I also took her a large cup of ambrosia I'd made with delicious fresh navel oranges and coconut.

Martina came by for a few hours on Christmas Eve afternoon, and we had our customary book exchange. She also gave me this pretty apple shaped basket! It was nice to see her. 

 Later that night Marla's husband, Toyo, dropped by with Carsen to give me an ornament Carsen had made for me. (Marla was at home finishing a cake to take to her in-laws that night). I gave Carsen a gift of a book and sent Toyo home with plenty of cookies for the family. I finally got to spend time with Marla herself yesterday--she picked up a pizza and came over for a few hours. 

Christmas Day was so warm it felt like spring. We took the dogs out to walk several times and the weather was just gorgeous. As I said to one neighbor who stepped out to wish us a Merry Christmas when we walked past, "I'm not normally a fan of warm weather at Christmas, but today is so beautiful I won't complain!" and he agreed with me.

 It was a good and relaxing day. Here's one of the squirrels we feed enjoying a double handful of walnuts we put out for their holiday feast!

As usual, we have no plans for New Year's Eve that extend beyond the couch. I had to go out for groceries and Gregg insisted I should pick up a bottle of champagne for myself. (He doesn't drink). As I'm typing this, I'm having an early small glass to celebrate my last blog post of 2025...

and I raise my glass to each and every one of you with my very best wishes for the New Year! Thank you for being here. Thank you for being a friend. Thank you. 

Happy New Year! 

Love,

Jennifer

January 1st

Happy New Year everyone!

It's a crisp, blue-sky kind of day. I've got black-eyed peas simmering in a crockpot with the leftover bone from the Christmas ham, and we'll have some sort of greens to go along with them. I actually bought two nice bundles of collards, but if I decide to not bother with them today, I have some seasoned collard greens in a can I could heat up. It would certainly save time and effort. I also need to bake a couple of loaves of banana bread to use up some overripe bananas languishing on the kitchen counter. There's a container in the fridge with chopped pineapple leftover from the weekend, so it may end up being pineapple-banana bread. 

So for me today, I'm planning a little bit of cooking but not much else. I've also finally restarted a knitting project I began some years ago, and I may work on that for a little while. Gregg went out to clean aquariums at the nursing homes (so he won't get behind on them during his treatment). As for his treatment, yesterday was a bust. He got himself all nerved up to go have the first round, and when he got there found out he was mistaken about the day he starts. He actually starts tomorrow. That was a real letdown. He also woke up yesterday with a toothache, so as you can imagine, he's not having the best start to the new year. I told him we'll hold off for a few weeks and then have a small private New Year celebration. Maybe even that late winter/early spring weekend getaway we've been talking about...I have more time off coming at the end of February.

But for now, I'm off to stir the peas and then maybe take Miss Poppy for a nice long walk. George is asleep, so we'll let him snooze, and then later I'll take him out for his own (slower) walk. Georgie will be 12 years old this year and likes to take his time these days. He still loves his walks, though.

How the dogs spent New Year's Eve. I took both these photos shortly before midnight.

George went to his spot at the foot of the bed early on. He wasn't interested in staying up with us! Gregg went in and covered him up with one of his blankets. Look at that sweet boy!

Poppy stayed close by us in the living room, but it was past her bedtime, too. She slept like this until she got up to follow us to bed, finally. She's a good girl.

Well, damn.

Some years are better than others. Besides getting our new dog, Poppy, back in April, a whole lot of this year has been utter crap. And here we are on the cusp of 2023, and guess what? My car won't start! I guess 2022 just had to get one more little nasty surprise in before it takes its leave! *

Of course, Gregg had to work today so he wasn't able to stay home to help me deal with it. And tomorrow is a holiday, as well as a Sunday, so the dealership won't be open. Which means that I may end up taking a personal day off on Monday instead of returning to work to deal with it. But my car is our only "good" vehicle so we're going to have to get it repaired ASAP.

Even though we bought the Scion in 2014, I still consider it a "new" car. We've maintained it religiously, it hasn't quite hit 50,000 miles yet, and it still looks new. I was stunned when it refused to crank this morning. We've never had one single problem out of it! I'm hoping it's just a battery issue but afraid something else might be wrong. If I'm not mistaken, we got a new battery not that long ago during one of the scheduled maintenance visits. It may still be under warranty. I hope that's all it is, because anything else will probably be expensive. And beyond all that, I just hate dealing with car trouble. Especially during the holidays!

So, goodbye to you, 2022. Good riddance, and don't let the door hit you in the backside on your way out!

*I couldn't end this post without wishing a Happy New Year to all of you! My very best wishes for a healthy, happy, and lucky year to come. Thank you for being here!

Finally!

I'm so glad that 2020 is finally over tonight! It's been a rough year.

2020 didn't win, though. We're still here. A little worse for wear, maybe, but persevering and looking forward to a better year to come.

Happy New Year to you all, my friends! May we all have the 2021 we deserve.