Happy Holidays

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go. The decorations are done, such as they are. 

You know me, not great at decorating for holidays which is why I defer to the man of the house.  Except for the tree, which in spite of being a skinny little thing this year, I managed to put all 800 lights on it and I am in love! Diane and I were talking this morning about our trees, both of which came from the same place. Neither of us know what kind of tree it is because it is not a Fraser Fir, nor a Douglas Fir like we had last year. What holds true for this tree is that it really holds the ornaments well with no sagging limbs which I don't need to tell you is a huge plus. As to how long it will stay fresh, who knows? Anyway, count me as a tree light lover.

Bruce has the outdoor lights up, along with his poinsettia display, so we are just waiting for our family to come home for the holidays. Am I trying to incorporate Christmas songs into this blog or what? 😀

I am back to wearing a sleeveless dress today as it has warmed right up after a week of highs in the 70's. We are meant to have 80+ degree weather this week during the day which, although warm, is tolerable with the lack of humidity. This morning it was so foggy the lake was mostly obscured.

Before the fog settled in though, I saw the swam swimming. Not seven, but one. Get it? It seems as if the swan is dividing its' time between our lake and the big one. I brought my camera to the big lake while Bruce was fishing and watched the swan take off and fly towards ours.

Speaking of birds, at the same time I spotted a very small bird atop a dead branch in one of the pine trees. Because the Panasonic with the long lens was with me, I was able to zoom in enough to see that it was an American Kestrel eating a lizard! 

While on the topic of photographs, I urge you to click on this LINK to see some remarkable photographs of the ongoing volcano in the Canary Islands. Seriously, you will not believe your eyes at what is happening there. 

On Tuesday I joined a group of residents to put the annual hanging baskets together at the front garden area.

Because my left hand still doesn't work great I wasn't a lot of help, but I did what I could. Dave and Sandy were kind enough to hang all 30 of them!

Because we have spent our lives in a small geographic area there are a lot of connections between people, including Sandy, who reminded me that their daughter was in our son Bill's first grade class with Mrs. Thrailkill, a winner of a teacher if ever there were one. She taught Matt as well and we remember her with fondness.

This was a new dish made with the Thanksgiving leftovers...a turkey shepherds pie that pretty much used up the remaining gravy and mashed potatoes. 

Not pictured is the coffee cake made with the cranberry sauce spread between the batter layers that was pretty good as well.

Whereas I am a mediocre holiday decorator, Michelle knocks it out of the park. She invited us to accompany them to the Nutcracker on Friday night and although I'd already seen her decorations the week before, I was still blown away by it all. She loves Christmas, well she loves all things that glitter really. (pictured below with phone in her hand) Because they are donors we were able to attend a pre-ballet reception where we met a very memorable couple. David and I had grabbed a seat and before long the man came along, asking if they could join us? For sure. Friendly, they readily shared their story including how they came to be dressed as they were. 

We learned that this neurologist loves dressing himself in unusual suits and his interest in dressing up extends to his wife.

Both outfits were purchased on Park Avenue so they must be good, right? It seems as if the trick to wearing something bold is to do so with confidence which they both had in spades!

Michele insisted that I get into the picture with the young ballerinas that came to the reception room.

So the night began like that. 

Soon thereafter we went into the theater where I was absolutely transfixed with the production! Oh my, oh my! 

As you can tell their seats are amazing. Unbeknownst to me I was not meant to take any photographs which a kind usher reminded me of. Anyway it was simply glorious!

During intermission, once again, Michelle insisted on taking photos and by golly, for once I was glad. My little honey sure looks handsome doesn't he?

If you can imagine I actually had my nails done for the first time in nearly two years AND wore my baby heels. A few days later Nancy called, marveling that we had actually gone out. Laughing I replied, "me too!"

Saturday, after a full morning of pickleball, while folding laundry, I watched some fantastic college football games that were full of surprises. Love it!!

The second Sunday in Advent there were loads more people.

Followed by an outdoor Christmas luncheon, and what they call an Advent workshop, but to me it just looks like children doing some very impressive crafts to take home.

Loads of volunteers guided the children,

along with a few adults who got into the crafting themselves.

Aren't they super cute?

In a very unusual move for me, I am including two photographs of myself in this post because someone else insisted on taking our photograph and suggesting that I put it in the blog. Well, here it is Cynthia who took this while we were sharing the table at the luncheon. Happy, now?

One last thing....

As a manager of a Marshalls store near Atlanta, our sister Nancy has told me some wild tales about the retail life. Seriously, you cannot imagine how difficult it is to work in retail. While shopping there last week I got a small taste of what she lives with day in and day out. Over and over she has described how nervy people are and when I began hearing this high pitched whining sound I wondered what the heck is that? As it turns out, it was a young boy riding a little toy up and down each aisle accompanied by his father.

And do you think it belonged to the little boy? Silly you if you did! No, no it did not. It belongs to the store although as long as he rode it you most certainly would have thought otherwise. What is wrong with a parent who lets their child do that??? Guess what? She's got hundreds of stories just like this one. 

Darn, I shouldn't have ended this happy post on a downer! What did I title this? Happy Holidays? 

your friend,

Gail