I have tried so hard to find something happy to write about since the 25th but Baby it just ain’t happening. Starting with Richard’s heart attack which resulted in a permanent pacemaker and a few days in the hosiptal.  He is home now but restricted in his actions.

Then the hubby’s blindness that usually clears in a couple of weeks is hanging on since Thanksgiving. 

Yesterday one of my cockateals injured either a wing or leg and I thought she was in death throes with the flapping and fluttering going on.  I held her to calm her down and moved to a smaller cage with a rope perch that is close to the bottom of the cage.  I put some medicine in her water and covered her warmly.  She seems a little better today but I’ll keep her separated with medication for a couple of days.

So it has been a bitch for the last few days but it is going to get better because everyone and everything is still breathing—Thank God!! 

Now I’m going to learn how to use my new camera, have the evil one show me how to put pictures on my blog, and start the New Year off on a good foot .

On New Years Eve my eldest will be 42.  He will have a party but I think this old lady is going to stay at home this year.  Happy birthday Son and Happy New year to all of you …

Wow such an afternoon we had!  We ate, we played word games, we opened gifts, and we laughed.  My brother and his lady joined us for dinner. 

I had a poem ready describing our Eve festivities but some where between me and you it evaporated.

  A little bit of troubling news on the morning of the 24th kind of sidetracked my train of thought.  Our good friend and holiday dinner attendee was admitted to the hospital with chest pains.  We are trying to keep posted on his condition but not being related it is hard to do.

And in answer to the question was Santa good to me?  Yes I got my camera and it is scaring the piss out of me, but I’ll keep reading and maybe I’ll learn to use it. 

Hope your Christmas was as warm and happy as ours!!!

The peanut butter mice with the twizzler tails are a disaster.  They taste great and look like a train wreck on the Christmas plate. 

The mopping is done and the milk jug luminaries (all 50 of them) are in the bed of the pickup ready to put out tomorrow afternoon.  The green part of the red/green Jell-o is setting up and the red will be mixed before I hit the sack.

So I would say we are pretty well ready for Christmas Eve.  So I’ll say Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!!!

I have a small dent in that must do list.  After a short trip to the Dr.‘s because of a little blood pressure problem, I rolled up the sleeves and started in!

It is 8:29 pm and I have vacuuming done.  Bird cages and cat box are neat and un-smelly!  Fresh bedding on the the old sleep rack and the third tub of laundry is in the dryer.  The utility room is mopped but the kitchen and main bath still need it.  Still have the peanut butter mice to make and the red and green Jell-o.  My poor old ankles screamed that is all for today, dummy. So I’m not gonna argue! 

Tomorrow we will finish up and read four or five days of newspapers that are sitting on the counter. Tis the season to be hustling your butt to get everything done! Ho Ho Ho!!!!

I’m finally assembling the last of the Santa heads.  I have four to go.  Why I ever started them is beyond me now.

Today I was supposed to mop and vacuum.  I was also going to go find the luminary sand. Even start assembling the luminaries.

Ah ha! That’s the answer!! I hate housework.  That’s why the Santa heads.

Well as Scarlett said, “Tomorrow’s another day.”  So I end up wearing a curtain rod for Christmas!!!!

The list is long and time is short.
So much to do, so much work.
Make peanut butter mice with Twizzler tails.
Dust, sweep, vacuum, and fill mop pails.

Birds in their cages tearing paper for a nest,
Got to clean that and the cat box at best.
Review the menu, finish the Santa heads.
Scrub the nooks and crannys, also change the bed.

Don’t forget the shrimp and order that special cake.
Buy the sand for milk jugs, whatever luminaries take.
The time is passing quickly and here I sit.
Wondering what else should should go on my list!!

The table is covered with plastic mesh squares.
In hope that Santa head ornaments soon will be there.
I only need four so that’s twelve little pieces.
Red, white, and green yarn to sew ‘til it ceases.

Now Sweet thing is to blame for this great dilemma.
Those three sided Santa ornaments, Momma remember?
Can you get me a pattern so I can make nine at most.
My work has a party, with gifts, that they host.

No problem, I smile, I’ve got all the supplies.
Already this idea floats behind my eyes.
I can make some and place them with jars of jam,
For neighbors and the mail lady, who’s name is Pam.

It’s a snap I think because I’ve just about a week.
To run to the store if there is something I seek.
Now today is the 20th and things need to done.
Man, when I started this was gonna be so much fun!!

Yesterday Sweet Thing and hubby Dave came to visit.  Now my tractor is ready for any snow old man Winter throws my way.  Dave is my arms, legs, and anything else that refuses to work when I need some thing done. 

So you see I am very fortunate because I have Dave and the Evil one in my family.  One for household help and the other for the technical problems I run into all the time.  My third male helper is my eldest who isn’t always up to see me but if I called he would come.

My hubby is in his fourth week of blindness so I sometimes feel a little panicky about keeping things up around here.  Now his vision will return eventually, but with diabetes it comes and goes. 

But I am a lucky lady because I do have him, the guys, but most importantly the daughter and daughter-in-laws in my life.

My hope is that others my age have a someone or two to help them also.

I made a wreath last year for the front of our pickup to use in the lighted Christmas parade.  It was fake evergreens with wired in deep-red poinsettias and the same color velvet ribbon that matched the color of the truck.

  Retiring from parading this year, I hung the wreath on the front of the truck anyway.  Yesterday, in the middle of a parking lot, a woman came up to tell me how lovely and festive it looked.  As I thanked her I thought I had spread another bit of cheer!!

You have heard me speak of my hubby.  It is now time he have a name (no, a nice one). It will be 30 years in July of 04 that we have been married.  I thought I had married a man but he turned out to be an encyclopedia who loves me.  You know his type—asked the time and he tells you how to build a watch.  He spouts little known pearls of wisdom like a fountain in a hotel lobby.

Example: This morning over a bowl of Raisin Danish Oatmeal he revealed that if the pepper grower has a good crop he places a wreath of red peppers on the front door.  That way visitors could take a pepper with them.

OK, what inspired that gem I asked.

His reply was that when you add hot water to the oatmeal you reconstitute the raisins. That means they were dried first for packaging in the oatmeal.  Which led to—the farmer dried his peppers to make them into a wreath.

Which led me to decide that Jay has way too much knowledge to have it wasted on me alone.  So hold on friends, you are going to learn how sirloin steak got its name, how to make a flan, and why every day is a new experience living with him.