Tuesday, December 31, 2024

New Year's Eve......


 

A new gaurd has been added to the collection. They are fun with their diffenent outfits.

 


 My new one gifted to me from my wife is the Scottish plaid pants. I like his red crown. with a green insert. 



The tank is clean and the fish are happy. I figured it hasn't been done for over a year or so. It was time to make sure the fish survive. 



I see there are still crumbs on the top plate from when we had company. We like to buy up many kinds of sugar things and let the kids and grand kids feed themself without any restraint. Being a double diabetic it is a mockery to me and yet I do ignore from it all.  I usually send home what ever is left to the family as they leave. I accidentally missed some cookies in a cookie jar so I had them out there for my wife to eat. I will be washing things up and put it away in the next day or two. 

My wife asked to go out to a Chinese place for supper tonight. It is her first time to eat out in over a year. I am excited to see she is willing to go.

Happy Newy Year.

Monday, December 30, 2024

Olive Wood.....


 Made from the scrap wood of the olive trees in Israel, these were gifted to us and are added to our collection. 







We had another foggy day with no sunshine.  Rain is predicted and then snow. It will be later own as it starts to get colder that the white stuff flies.  It is Monday and the end of the old year is near. It has been a rough year for us and yet a victorious one with my wife doing well. She is still in the healing mode but it is a eighty percent to the good.  Thanks for stopping by today. . 

Sunday, December 29, 2024

Sunday Stuff...


 

My newest ornaments were inexpensive as the whole collection of things were on a close out sale.  I bought them to put on a small tree that sits outside the door but it seemed easier to hang them on our garland on the fireplace. 

They are not valuable collectors but they still have good shape and color. All ornaments are fun to have. 


My latest project is to clean my largest quarium. The angel fish are in holding in a smaller tank, Here they are begging for food and also wonder why I put them im cramped quarters.


Evidence of a job well done is shown above. I let the water settle for a while and let the water get warmed up by its heater.



As I transfer the angelfish back into the big one I will proceed to shift fish out of the other two smaller ones cleaning one while all the other fish live in the other. I miss having gold fish as they are so much easier to photograph but they do spoil a tank so much quicker requiring more frequent cleaning. 



I received a pop up card from my wife for Christmas. It is a group of wild life animals sitting around the fire. It is a really well designed card. 

The weather is warmer around here but snow is being predicted. Our foggy conditions come and go and we are now back to  hazy fog. It is winter and any snow or rain is welcomed to raise our water table. We have had a quiet Sunday.  Thanks for checking in today.

Saturday, December 28, 2024

Jewels Aglow.....


 The tree does glow and can be seen from the outside. There are a lot of lights on the tree as it heats up the room. The lights can almost remind one of jewels that are shining on the tree.


My wife's friend Shari liked to make things with buttons. We have a number of them as she gifted them to us each year up until she passed away. She attached them all on a place mat and loaded it down with special buttons.

 


 

She was such a creative person. The top is decorated with different symbolic shapes. I believe there is a little butterfly on there. 


I was being a little creative today. My wife found some origami papers in her studio and handed them to me. I had to relearn how to fold them. I had a goal to make ten today but it didn't happen. I had to blog and its too dark to see this time of the day. 


It is Hanukkah day four with the sun setting at 5:41. The candle light almost looked like the sun but it wasn't that. 

Thanks for stopping by today.  Did you miss me yesterday?


Thursday, December 26, 2024

After Christmas....


 


 


 Things have calmed down with the day being a fogged over day. It may rain tomorrow which can wash away the fog. We have our leftovers of Christmas dinner to eat on for a couple of days. I went to the grocery store/pharmacy to pick up meds for both of us. The grocery store is busy putting out New Year's items to buy and bargaining out their Christmas things already.  We won't take any decorations down until after the New Year's Day.  We both have been taking it easy for the day and leftovers helps with the meal planning stress.  I really didn't have much to buy with groceries but did get some vitamins and a few stry items that we did need.  

I do have a project or two going on but I will share that later.  Thanks for stopping in today.

Wednesday, December 25, 2024

Tuesday, December 24, 2024

More means More.....


 It is a busy day with gift wrapping and all other things. We will be alone this Christmas but we know that living far away from family means that some holidays we will be home alone. I was making a last minute stop at a store looking for table candles. I didn't find any but I found half price ornaments and ribbons for wrapping of presents. 

Our weather will be mild tomorrow. We won't be getting out for sure but it will not be a white Christmas. I think rain is in the forecast . I wish you all to have a great day.

Monday, December 23, 2024

Long Lost.....


 


A wonderful creche that we don'[t always display. It hasn't been out of the box for a few years.  When I took it out to see it the whole thing is far more impressive than the photo on the box. It is called a nightlight, when I read the label but it is much larger than any night light would be.

Sunday, December 22, 2024

Partly Sunny....


 

It was cold out there this morning.  It was the shortest day yesterday so we will tilt back now.The reflected sunrise in our bedroom windows is an added touch. The tree has been beaten up by all the winds.  It almost lookes like a crooked tree from Whoville. 



When I brave the cold and stand in front of the tree, I was able to get this great sky. It has been so cloudy that I really didn't expect to see any sun today. 



It has been many years when ducks and geese were the rage in decorating. I found these in a drawer in the basement and thought it would be fun to bring them out. I don't remember anything about the origins of they purchase of them or if they were gifted to me. 



On the same shelf you can see more refined ceramic pieces. I had never noticed it before but the one angel is holding a teddy b ear. The smaller angel has some very fine colors of glaze painted on it.



A graceful dove hangs on my wife's angel tree. We are having a quiet day today. It is a good day to plan out things for the next few days. My last day to go to the grocery store is noted and we will see if I go back Tuesday for any last needed item. We are warming up a bit today as it is above freezing. We have seen partial sunshine so far and any sun is so welcomed. We both have gifts yet to come to the door and we both agree that we won't be fussy if things don't arrive on time. It will make Christmas last that much longer. 

Thanks for checking in today.

Saturday, December 21, 2024

Angelic Sounds


 It had been a busy day. It’s not fun shopping but I was out there. It was a lot of chaos but I am glad to be home. Thanks for stopping in today.

Friday, December 20, 2024

Christmas is Coming....


 

 

It was so bone chilling cold outside this morning as I walked to the mail box. The temp is 24 degrees F. but the wind makes it feel like 7 degrees F. It hurts the skin that is exposed to the air. I snapped photos of the sled this morning to send to my brothers but I guess I will share them here too. I have so many memories of sledding with sleds down the steep hill behind our house. All four of us would be out there and the snow would get so icy and slick from so many of us making a good trail. My brothers are in their 80s now and live in warm states but here I am still living in Iowa, freezing.

  


I am really pleased with the blue that I painted the front door last year. I also upgraded the wreath with extra balls of color to make it more festive.  The bells hanging there are an extra that we hang there for the sound effects. The ribbon on the bells are sure messed up as I view the photo. I may get it straightened out soon.



I wrote out Christmas cards to those that I have received and also to those I think I will probably get soon. I  had to dig through old cards to find a couple of addresses. It was quite satisfying to get it done and I can send late ones if there are some that I didn't remember and come in later. We both are waiting for packages to arrive for our Christmas presents.  I am not sure if the strike will mess with arrival times but a lot of mine will get here today or tomorrow. 

Thanks for checking in today.

Thursday, December 19, 2024

Rows....


 


 


 It is a very windy day. The warmer temperatures are good at getting rid of the snow but it doesn't feel so warm. Wind chill keeps us humble. With all of our packages mailed we have had a quiet day. I put up a garland around our front door which I wasn't going to do. A change in mind just happened.  I think that is the last for me to decorate. More coffee and hot tea breaks for me for the season. I did have an Amazon mess up with an order already. They sent a different color than I had ordered. Maybe the worker who filled the order is color blind. I get to take it back to a station and they reordered it for me. It will come late for sure.  Thanks for checking in today.

Wednesday, December 18, 2024

Middle of the Week....

 

The past few days have been busy. A couple of days were spent buying and wrapping Christmas presents. There is a huge sigh of relief that two people in our house has made as everything is now in the mail. The sled dogs in Maine will be busy and the mail persons will be delivering many boxes. 


If I were better organized we could send packages back at Thanksgiving to the Chicago area family but I am not organized at that time. I ended up sorting presents and stowed everything into five different boxes. With every present marked, they can all be mixed and matched to fit into the containers. My wife and I got handy with the packing tape to get it all done.



The snow that we now have on the ground makes the cold weather feel colder. It was a day where the winter coat has to be zipped up and the hood being used.  The trip to the mail box this afternoon was a quick one as I didn['t want to linger out there. 

Thanks for stopping by today.

Tuesday, December 17, 2024

Tuesday.....


 

The morning sky was glowing for a short time  and I took a shot out in the cold. The sun comes up behind my neighbor's house but I still can see the effects from it. 



Joy is a gift of banana bread from a guest who arrives at our house for afternoon tea. It is filled with raisins and walnuts and that takes it further than just banana bread. It isvery large so we are going to freeze half of it.



My wife's village is a big hit for visitors to see when they come to our house. People ask as to how it gets to be a big collection. I say that she gets gifted a piece a year and in the past forty years of marriage she does get to have a big city. She didn't really start collecting them until the past 15 or 20 years. 



We got our first batch of Christmas gifts mailed out today. It won't arrive until after the special day but it is fun whenever they receive it.  Our other batch is one of many presents needing to be wrapped and then me finding boxes for the items to use for shipping. Our weather is better which makes going to do shopping more pleasant. I was out the past two mornings and it was almost tolerable. The crowd on Monday was insane as everyone looked like they wear doing panic buying. This early morning I didn't have any crowd to fight with and I finished shopping for our kids. I have some to shop for yet for my wife but that will be easy when you live in a big city with lots of stores that are less than five miles away from where I live. 

Thanks for stopping by today.

Sunday, December 15, 2024