Happy Winter! May all your snow be on the ski hills and trails and not on the roads.


If you'd like to look back on where we've been, go to:
The thread "Support for a Healthy Lifestyle in Autumn 2021" in Sandbox forum

I'm here! We're not having a very wintry December, though. But Happy Solstice!

DH and I had some work done on the house that we had to be in a Air BnB and hotel for a week ( defective tile lot throughout the house,including all bathrooms)
So we tried going to the gym, but only made it a couple of times. Between the actual work plus coming back home, Christmas, and putting the house back together it has been a hectic time, but one that got us us outside our box. We are finally back to normal, but have been thinking about the new year because it feels like a new house to us. Just feels like year 0 and a chance to rethink our old ways and things to jump start getting out of our ruts. So we are going to the gym today, but then going for brunch at one of the places we discovered while we were staying at a local Air BnB. My husband really likes exploring and " being around people" so that's the plan for today.
Does anyone else have the feeling 2022 is a new beginning?

Thank you, Ann. Happy Solstice everyone.

"Does anyone else have the feeling 2022 is a new beginning?" Unfortunately, not around here as Omicron is rapidly closing everything down. Lots of Deja Vu!


We got a box of assorted things off to Vancouver yesterday. Cost a bundle to send it, but as DH said, less than an airplane ticket. He spent more to send it the fastest way as it wasn't a lot more than the cheapest way, and it MAY arrive before Christmas.

We have gradually gotten out decorations that we hadn't planned on this year, but the tree for this year will be the little ceramic one. Dropped well over $200 on various groceries yesterday - my larders were quite empty in preparation for going to Vancouver. But it also included some frozen King Crab legs for Christmas eve and a side of salmon which I'll cut up into meal-size portions as there wasn't much remaining in the freezer.

Hello.
Day off, cloudy and chilly, will try to get outside a little..

Ann, love the cartoon, One can hope it will be a better year, but somehow I don't think so.

This is off topic, but if any of you are interested in a good history talk, Heather Cox Richardson and Ken Burns are going to be speaking in a half hour on the beginnings of the Republican party - not political, just historical. 1pm for the the east, 11:am here in the mid country. Both are supreme speakers, exceptionally knowledgeable and it should be great. Streaming on Facebook.

Thanks, Judith. I've missed it, but I do enjoy Heather's postings on FB.

Ann, it was good and I suspect it is available on her Utube channel or they kept mentioning his UNUM site. It was only a half hour and surprisingly, Ken just raved about her and fed her questions which she went into detail on. Do you subscribe to her daily "letters from an American"? Ken even said it's the first thing he does every morning - read Heather. Here's the link to the talk http://www.pbs.org/.../heather...

Hopefully I'll get propane today - put in the order 3 weeks ago, and there's a big, many day storm bearing down on us. I'm not critically low, but I'm always trying to keep stockpiled with food and fuel in the winter.

Did aquafit this morning. Made a cranberry cheesecake this evening. Tomorrow, dinner rolls and a cardamom bread using my sister's recipe.

Got the link for our Christmas photo letter sent to people today and have enjoyed getting responses from people. If you wish to take a look, you'll find it at: https://violaann.smugmug.com/O...

That's quite a diary, Ann.

I don't get long letters from anyone anymore. I think a lot of people assume if something noteworthy happened it went on facebook. Of which I am not a big user or fan.

My county is giving out many thousands of home covid tests.. many hundreds of them thru the library, and that was the bulk of our business yesterday. People were all very grateful. Hopefully this good will translates to some of them coming back for books or programs. We will be back to it on Monday morning I am sure.

Glad you're able to get Covid tests. Around here, they say they'll have them in locations and the line-ups start at 4 am and then they either don't have them by the appointed time or they quickly run out.

We have a huge winter storm barreling toward us - happy for the moisture, but not looking forward to being snowed in. I am prepared, but still don't enjoy it when it goes on for days. I see that southern California, my heart home is also going to get some rain. They need it so badly - so do we in Colorado, so I'm going to be preparing jugs or winter sowing. My new obsession!!

I sure hope the rain means relief for drought areas and replenishes reserves a little. Maybe Kelli will update us on those incredibly variable ponds she has photographed.
Lynda must not be feeling too good.

I baked a maple walnut bread for Son1 and gave it to him. He visited today as they will go to his girlfriend's family for Xmas. Then felt guilty and baked a pumpkin loaf for this house. Walking today was minor shopping. Might look up recipes to use some more of the buttermilk I got for the one loaf.

Well, just to keep things interesting, I got up this morning to water dripping from the kitchen ceiling - no pipes up there, so it has to be leaking roof!! I did get ahold of the wonderful guy who has fixed everything for me for years. His guys came and got up in the attic and saw where it's coming from, but can't fix it today - it's raining and snowing all day. So a big bucket up there and a new door for the place they get up in there. Never a dull moment - I had this horrible image of the entire attic filled with water and the ceiling collapsing!! Of course, as soon as it freezes again ( tonight) it will stop - for awhile.

Merry Christmas to all!!

That is interesting, all right!
THose guys sound like good guys though, to come today and help mitigate..

We took our usual (lately) easy walk by the water- the water was extremely calm today. Just barely lapping at the thin trip of sand along the riverfront near the bay and harbor entrance. Barely any birds to be seen or heard.

Hope all are well this holiday season.

🎄🎁Merry Christmas everyone! ⛄️🤶

Judith, I am sorry about your roof leak, a heck of a time for a leak, your lucky to have someone to go take a look at it.

It is -7 here with with blowing snow, for sure the birds are staying under cove today, me too. 🥶 😱 😨

BRRRRR!!
It was in the 60s here and sunny for good parts of the day, really a treat! we got to play catch and sit on the deck.

We had a beautiful Christmas dinner with 180 friends here in the park. The SU and I were in charge of the dessert table, which consisted mostly of cutting pies.

In the mid 80s and sunny all day.