December 2019

The Christmas noose is tightening, time to get busy!!

Merry month of December and good health to all! Busy busy busy.............

Happy December.
I have one more gift to buy, and one to make and I'll be done. I love going click-click-click and having the shopping done. I have never really enjoyed physically going shopping, and fighting the crowds, so computer shopping suits me very well.

Ark, as always, your pictures for the month are perfect.

Thanks, ELLEN, glad you like the pix!  I have to admit, I have only just started doing Christmas stuff.   My youngest sister starts planning for Christmas the day after Christmas.  My other sister is so organized, she makes a lot of what she gives ahead of time.  Not me.  Thank goodness for computers.....

I have that Santa outfit for Ivan.  We used it a couple of years ago at a horsey Christmas caroling. I haven't heard any mention if they are going to do it again this year.  

Happy December...We have snow and ice here in PA but it's not too bad for our first real snowfall. 1-3 in Danville today.

Thanksgiving dinner was a good one with family and friends.  George & I cooked the entire meal, everyone had nice time and the adult kids did the clean up for us.  Bobbie even help her Pap set up the Christmas tree.  Saved us from having our annual Christmas tree disagreement.  LOL

3 Christmas parties this week.  We will be busy.  Trees are decorated and some cards are ready to mail today. 
Some of the Barnabas ladies came here on Saturday and we packed 20 bags to deliver to the home bound and nursing home people from our church.  We had a nice breakfast with a quiche and fresh fruit tray to snack on.

Stay safe everyone who is path of the storm.  Winter has arrived.

One should never put away a Christmas tree when it is super cold outside.  When I put up my Christmas tree, I start with the "stem", then add the topper so I can reach it before adding the lower branches.  In order to not squash the branches too much, they are divided into 23 plastic storage tubs.  
So, today I brought in the stem, and then started looking for the topper.  Care to guess where it was?  At the bottom at the very back - the very last tub to pull out.  Such brilliance is overwhelming.  NOT.
I left the lights on a lot of the branches.  Wish me luck that they light this year.



Later in the evening: I am nearly a genius! Leaving the lights on the branches last year really paid off. I actually got the tree up in one day. In the voice of Tom Carnegie from the Indy 500 Speedway, "It's a new track record!" I've never been able to get it up in one day. Call me a happy camper. It won't take very long tomorrow to get the ornaments on it. Whew!

ELLEN:
Congrats on your new land speed record for putting up the Christmas tree!! Good idea about the lights. I haven't even thought about our tree yet. I will probably do the quick and easy little one rather than the tall one that our cats love better. Or not.... I am so not into Christmas yet.


Anyone get that ton of snow? It missed us, we just got flurries all day yesterday. My kind of snow! I like snow for about 2 hours, then I want it to melt and bring spring on.

It's been a sad day. Neighbor Ron died this morning. He had deteriorated rapidly over the last 6 or 8 weeks. After two trips to two different hospitals, there was nothing more they could do for him. His body just wore out.
I'm really sad that Pirkko will not be around since she is going to live with her daughter and son-in-law. She just doesn't want to stay in the house without Ron. The whole neighborhood will miss both of them. She was the one walking around the neighborhood handing out invitations to a party at their house about 10 years ago. That was the beginning of our wonderful neighborhood.
She did have the stroke about a year and a half ago, but she is in pretty good health otherwise. I truly hope she will be happy with her daughter and son-in-law. (He's a good guy.)

I am so sorry about Ron, and Pirkko. They sure had a hard year or so. I hope Pirkko comes to love living with her daughter......

I'm at the hospital with Terry......he has shingles. YES, shingles. AND YES, he had his shingles
shots. His immune system was down from chemo and wham, it popped up.
So, while I'm sitting here I thought I'd write.

ELLEN, I'm so sorry at the loss of your friends.........Ron, upon his death and Pirrko
for having to leave the neighborhood.

And prayers. God bless.

GRAYMARE:
Tender hugs for Terry. Shingles are terrible. I hope he recovers quickly. One of my uncles had it once for three months. The only relief he could get was sitting in cool bath water. That's hard to do for three months....
I am lucky, I never got chicken pox and so never got shingles either. My entire neighborhood got chicken pox when I was a kid and I was the last one standing. I did finally get the chicken pox vaccine around 1998, hopefully shingles won't occur because of that. I figured chicken pox would probably kill me as an over the hill adult and didn't want to take the chance I would run into some kid with it.

My new carpenter has the flu. That hay building is a never ending project.

I've heard that shingles can be just awful. Is there anything they can do to help him feel better?

Hi everyone..........

.............prayers, time, antivirals, antibiotics and time Ellen............TL is much better today
not past the 50 yard line but by tomorrow he can kick a field goal..........whew.

It rained most of the night, and now my windows need to be cleaned. Guess I better do that today since the temperatures are going to start dropping. Don't want the cleaner to freeze to the windows. LOL

Not much of interest going on right now. Happy Monday, everybody.

Poor Terry, I hope he is feeling better now.


ELLEN:
I got my tree up today. I used the quick and easy one. It's basically like opening up an umbrella and sticking ornaments on it. It is pre-lit. We have a pine tree we need to cut down in our yard and every year we swear we are going to cut it down for a Christmas tree. It is standing too close to a ginko tree that we'd rather have. It is safe again, it hasn't been cut down yet.


The carpenter came by for a check today. He has had the flu. I taped his check to the end of a 10 foot pole and handed it to him with it. He laughed....said he never had anyone do that before.

It was 57 degrees with rain half the day today. It's going to rain all day tomorrow and then snow tomorrow night. I guess the carpenters won't be here because of weather even if he gets over his flu.

Ark, you better dig out your seal suit.  If what we are getting comes your way, it's gonna get cold.  51° yesterday.  15° tonight.
The check on the 10 foot pole is funny.  

Graymare, how is TL doing?

Doing...........he's much better but no rehab will take him because of the shingles...........
so, we're on HOLD.............

Later:

This is a real fiasco.............meanwhile, here we are.

Graymare, maybe you could get some extra in-home care for him and have him home with you.

Ellen sorry about Ron and his wife gaving to leave. I know you will miss them.
GM sorry about your hubbys shingles. I dudnt kniw he was doing chemo. Sending healing vibes for him.
Ark i saw a xmas tree on tv...it reminded me of the outfits in alice in wonderland as it cascaded green with ribbons woven thru to the bottom....walah instant tree.
Hows everyones weather? We are getting a freezing mist and some snow tonight. Booo...hiss....its so muddy and damp this week.
We are packing for our trip....leave tuesday...yay! Jessi said Harper keeps telling her teachers her gramma and poppop are coming! Shes excited!
Everyone must be busy xmas shopping...its quiet on here.
Stay warm and enjoy the holiday.
Ill wish you all a merry christmas in case i cant get back on.

CB:
 Have fun on your trip!  Our weather has been icy/rainy with a touch of snow for the past couple of days.  The sun just snuck out for a few minutes and it was so great to see it.  We've been living in a misty cloud for a few days.  Ice coated everything yesterday.  The poor horses are going nuts from not being able to get out on pasture, they tear it up running around in the muck and I am afraid they would slip and hurt themselves on the icy mud.  My barn has two days worth of crapola in it and is going to be fun to clean....not.  

 I think my sister got a couple of those trees you mentioned.  They flattened out to pizza box size.  I am not sure how satisfying they are as Christmas trees, but she used them at least one year.   Ours is just a 4 foot white tree that has branches you can flatten out to get into a box.  It's fast enough to put up.




My cat, Spookette, died last night.  She had been doing so well up until a couple of days ago.  She had been gaining a bit of weight, eating better, and even meowed at me in her regular voice on Wednesday.  I hadn't heard her squacky meow since  her larynx problems began last May.  Poor kitty worked so hard to recover, but I suspect her kidneys failed her this week.  We were told months ago she was in kidney failure and I guess it finally got her.   She was a wonderful cat.  We'll bury her under the apple tree with her brother, Spooky, and several other well loved kitties.
 Now we only have ThunderPuff and Kumquat in the house and Dorian GrayCat outside.  Dorian is working hard at becoming an indoor cat, but he scares the other two too much.  He lives in his heated kitty house on the porch.

It was good to be able to come here to see some lighter news. Today was the funeral service for Ron. It was a really hard day for all of us. (Stock in Kleenex?) It was a nice service, followed by lunch at a local restaurant. Pirkko insisted that we all come for lunch there. It was the same place where she had Ron's 80th surprise birthday party. Good food.
It gave all of us a chance to visit and lighten the atmosphere a little.
Pirkko will be going to Chicago tomorrow.
They are winterizing the house, and leaving it pretty much as is until spring.

Ark, I'm sorry about Spookette. All our pets are special to us.

CB, I know you'll have a great time with your kids and grandkids. You must be really excited to get there. We'll look forward to hearing about it when you get home.

Ark...sorry about your kitty.

Ellen..sorry it was a sad day.

Ill keep in touch while im gone if i can get logged in. I think diabli or dabby as i call him will be a christmas present for a teenage girl. He will get his own kid. He will love the attention...hes a luvebug. We dont think we want to travel with horses....so now might be a good time to make a kids christmas. I will work with them both when we get back. Hes ready...he responds to verbal commands...trusts me....thats why ill work with them both...my voice and hers together for awhile...and then just hers so he bonds.
He is getting a chance.

Where is everybody? Still Christmas shopping?
I have my shopping done and most of the wrapping. By tomorrow, I will be ready to bake cookies - maybe.