As I was looking for a good quote about winter, I kept coming back to this one about recovery and preparation, as I've been trying to recover from my post-Christmas cold all week. I think it's time for a doctor visit, as recovery is eluding me. Rex and I are both hacking like ex-smokers and it is beyond annoying. So I'm preparing to be well now - enough with the tissues and hot water/lemon/honey drinks. It figures I would decide to go 'Dry January' just when a few hot toddies would have come in really handy.
In the good news category - we are with heat now!! Only a month later, both the upstairs and downstairs heaters are fully functional. The gas man came this week and our propane tank is full, so I figure that means we've had our cold snap for the year. Now to find a place for the three new space heaters we bought...
I absolutely cannot complain about our 'winter' down here though, especially given the week that much of the country has experienced. If you are digging out of loads of snow or staying colder than you'd like to, you have my sympathy! Stay warm and dry and hunker down and enjoy some good winter soups and stews. As I'm writing this late on Sunday night, we are experiencing a fierce thunderstorm! It's crazy - pouring rain, howling wind, and it's 66 degrees out. Crockett was asleep on the floor upstairs with me when he jumped up and started barking like crazy (in the middle of the storm). I finally went downstairs with him, only to find that the back door had blown open. Guess we hadn't closed the storm lock properly! Thanks, Crockett!
Since I've been feeling under the weather, I haven't even tried to revive any exercise programs for the new year, and I've barely even walked. I hate to start out behind! So far, I have managed my Dry January (even though we ate at a cool brew pub on Saturday night!) and I've stuck to my 10-12 hour eating window. Have you heard about that one? Limit your eating hours to 8 or 10 or 12 hours - so if you wake up at 8, eat breakfast, and your other meals/snacks as usual, but then don't eat anything after 8 PM. If you know me well, you know that I'm not an early riser and eating dinner after 8 PM is a regular occurrence around here, so this one is a bit of a stretch. So far, so good. And it's keeping me away from the midnight candy snack! What are you working on this year?
We did rally enough this weekend to start the monumental task of putting away Christmas decorations. Time for true confessions - this year was the first year I've even decorated for Christmas since 2013 or so. Just call me Scrooge, but since we've either been away every year or (worst of all) home alone, just the two of us, like last year, it just hasn't seemed worth the effort. But since everyone came here for the holidays, I was under orders to pull out all of the stops! Don't get me wrong - I loved having my Santas and my Snow Village out, and trees lighted and decorated, but I truly hate taking it all down. Like my friend Dana says - it takes all of the sparkle out of your house. And it's work!
So far we've put the most of the Santas (except the ones I just noticed in my upstairs windows...) and Snow Village away, and replaced all of the top of the kitchen cabinet holiday decor with the usual beach decor. Now to attack the snowmen and trees and miscellaneous holiday detritus, and to find where I hid all of the things that normally adorn the horizontal spaces in our house. My challenge this year will be to work around the full size baby crib that now lives in our Christmas/guest room closet. I'm not sure there will be room for the fully decorated fake tree that usually resides there! First world problems, I know!
Thinking about Christmas decorations (or lack thereof) reminds me of my mom and my grandmother. Neither of them ever let a house go undecorated for Christmas, I can assure you! Not only did they drag out and decorate trees (and since they were both widows for 20+ years, that was no easy feat!) but they also made original flower arrangements for every room every year. I am lucky enough to have a few of their special Christmas ornaments but I surely did not inherit their floral design talents. I'll stick with Santas and Snow Village and trees and call it festive!
Do you have a Snow Village or any other village that you set up each year? I'd love to hear about yours! I had three separate Village areas this year - the Main Street, from fire station to police station, with a bank, movie theater, TV station, bowling alley, pizza parlour, corner drugstore, chocolate shop, and gas station in between; the suburbs, with five houses, the library, church, hospital, McDonald's, and brew pub (new addition this year), along with the village tree and a snowy creek and sledding hill; and the beach, with a surf shop and the Lost Shaker of Salt bar (also new this year). I do love setting up the villages and watching the lights come on every evening.
Time to wrap it up so that I can get things packed away safe and sound for next year. Make it a fabulous week!
Jan
Content used on this week's page: 2018 Day2Day Book and Themes by FOREVER; Font: KG Call Me Maybe
