Blessings were in abundance this week, so much so that it is hard to know where to begin. Perhaps you are intrigued by the notion of a tree for two rooms? As you already know, we have a tree that grows like a weed out front, well now we have another tree that while it is not growing, it is certainly expanding like nobody's business.
Setting the stage here...
Me: Honey, why don't you go and get the Christmas tree while I BAKE the rest of these cookies before we go on our adventure?
Honey: Are you sure?
Me: Of course, I know you will pick a good one.
Arriving home, with what he admitted was a tall tree, a neighbor saw it on his car and said, "you should take a picture."
Little did she know that this would be the first of many photographs of this tree! Because of my handy blog, I learned that last year we waited until about the 10th to buy our tree from Harris Landscaping on Michigan, settling for what I described as a Charlie Brown tree because it was a little bit scrawny. In the end it was beautiful, in part because I filled it with hundreds of lights. Furthermore, we've read that live trees are in vogue again this year, so with that in mind, when a new shipment came in on Wednesday night, he went almost as soon as they opened in order to have the best selection.
Here he is wrestling the tree into the stand in the photo below. Nice shape, tall, but seemingly perfect for our space.
Note the surrounding furniture that is visible.
With water in the tree, we drove out to Winter Garden to meet with Keith and Patty for a bike ride on the West Orange trail. Patty was kind enough to ride with me, the slowest member of the group, while Keith and Bruce were far ahead of us. After a good long while, we came to the juncture where the South Lake trail takes over and the terrain is no longer flat.
And how does your favorite blogger ride a bicycle up a hill? Not very well!!! Up this incline, and facing another, we saw the guys in front of us and they kindly turned around to ride back to Winter Garden for lunch outdoors.
Is this a sign of our times? Sadly, yes.
A nice time was had by all although little Miss wimp was way tired later on in the evening! Bruce, on the other hand, claimed his pickleball training helped him ride with ease. In my defense, aside from the hill, I would say much the same. Until later, that is!
Anyway, getting home we went to work on the tree, with Bruce using a ladder to help with the upper lights. Noticing that there was some expansion during our absence, he got out a tape measure to see just how much. Almost 9' tall and 6' wide! This is a Douglas Fir, a first for us, so probably perfectly natural but having bought Fraser Firs for as long as I can remember, it has been a big surprise. It was not easy putting on the lights, and in fact I was wishing I had more, but Bruce heard from someone that Christmas lights were at a premium this year. Blame it on Covid! So, I made do with the 900 lights I had. Before going to bed I had about half the ornaments on, forgoing my bead garland this year because of the tree girth. By golly, by the time I finished yesterday afternoon, the tree was measuring about 6'6" wide, expanding further into the sunroom. Thus, we have a tree for both rooms as part of it extends into the sunroom. Will it get larger? Let's hope not!!
Here's a better picture of what I'm describing. Virgin River on the television, shot in Vancouver area if you are wondering. I recognized it right away.
It does look pretty but it's a good thing no one is coming this year as navigating the room is really something! Actually,
oh how I wish we were having family and friends. :(
Speaking of holidays, as this blog is meant for documentation as well as entertainment, I would have been remiss if I didn't show you the feast David and Michelle prepared for our Thanksgiving. Publix for the win! Enough for several meals too.
Bill was on vacation Thanksgiving week and he finally came to see Pickleball in action. Intrigued, he called Bruce about hitting some balls on Sunday afternoon. Always up for that plan, Bruce joined him at the courts.
It has been ages since Bill was last on a tennis court ,but you wouldn't have known it. He promptly stomped both of us, one on one. And then along came Greg, part of the mastermind behind our obsession. Learning that Bill was interested in playing singles, he was all for it, going home to change and back in a jiffy. Greg is crazy good, one of the very best players, if not the best, so it was not surprising that he beat Bill several times. I said it was like throwing someone into the lion's den! Greg levitating during his serve, that I can tell you from experience is darn hard to return.
Guess what Bill wants for Christmas? Should you have guessed a paddle, you are a mighty good guesser.
So let's talk about the oven. Speaking with my "friends" at Fields Appliance Repair, I requested an early time in the day, after all, it has been 11, yes 11 weeks, since I had a working oven. Do you think my pleas were taken into consideration? No, no they were not. Around 6PM, Ollie arrived bearing parts!!! We like Ollie, so were glad to see him again. He went right to work taking it apart.
Here is the new motherboard, the mastermind of this appliance.
As a little aside from my sob story....Pam is moving into a place and was thinking of buying new appliances. Our friend Lisa was on the same text and look what she's been through with new appliances!!
Do Not buy kitchen aid. So far the cooktop has blown up 8 times, and we’ve been without 2 burners for 4 months b/c parts are on back order. Now the ice maker broke because the wiring harness was cut in half by opening the freezer door. No ETA on the new door, yes the entire door, so we’re making ice like in the 1960’s. Thank god the kitchen aid wine fridge is working right now. That would not be pretty.
Looks as if we've gotten off easy, right? Hers are only about three years old. My advice to Pam was to buy the ones with the least bells and whistles, although I think that is probably easier said than done. And here we are, once again, back in business.
Never, in my wildest imaginings, when I wrote
THIS POST, thought it would be this long before I could once again, bake cookies. Well anything really, but I did say that would be my first use and indeed it was. Molasses Crinkles are an old favorite around here, a recipe Bruce's Mom gave me. I do so love having typewritten cards that were the work of that sweet woman.
It was probably only a week or so before the oven quit working that I'd finally purchased some silicone baking mats from Costco. Needless to say, they were not broken in yet, but I gave them a try with this batch.
Although I worried they might spread together, that didn't happen, although I'm unconvinced that being so close gives enough breathing room for proper baking. That said, making two dozen at once was pretty darn nice and within about a half hour they were all eaten. I found some willing partakers!
One morning it was raining, so no pickleball for these addicts! Instead I cleaned out a few drawers in the nightstand, coming across this journal from July 1996. Reading the entries, I was transported back in time to some very interesting and busy days with four teenage boys. Actually Matt was no longer a teenager, but three was plenty. To tell you the truth, other than a few entries, it seemed as if we all had a pretty good time together. I wrote that I picked the journal because of the mother/son depiction.
One afternoon I made it to Publix for some much needed grocery shopping and it is a good thing we still have toilet paper in stock as, well you have probably read or seen the new panic buying that is happening.
Although there were a few rolls left, I imagine it was not long before they were sold. Can you believe how expensive groceries are getting? If our forefathers knew that we were paying nearly four dollars for a loaf of bread, they would, as the saying goes, roll over in their graves! I am glad we are no longer feeding six people every day, that's for sure.
Most late afternoons, Bruce meets up with a few buddies lakeside, socially distanced, of course. Dave B. put up some lights for them to enjoy.
It is kind of like their version of "Cheers" where they catch up with the news of the day.
While I was finishing the tree yesterday afternoon, Bruce was decorating our outdoor space. (taken from inside the kitchen)
I am super sad some of the stars aren't lighting up this year, although it should not surprise me because they were purchased for the party we threw for Jonathan and Alissa back in, well let's see...
here is the post written in 2013 and worth a look. Although the lit stars are not shown, our usual size Christmas tree is. (Lisa if you are reading, a nice photo of Danny is included)
Another reason we got the tree early is because we are going camping for most of next week, leaving Monday morning and returning Friday evening. Where to?
Manatee Springs State Park in Chiefland; not a crazy long drive. And while manatee is in the name, what I've most read about are the deers roaming the campground. How fun does that sound?
Sadly, I've seen very few ducks on our lake all of a sudden, however, sunrises are still good.
These were some very fast moving clouds ahead of a COLD front this week!! Speaking of cold, we are meant to experience some of that on our trip. Yeah, we get to use our sleeping bag again!! Gloves too.
Excuse me while I go make some sugar cookies.
your friend,
Gail
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