#JusJoJan – 2021 – Servant

Behind from the start, I decided I’m not going to be a “servant” to the prompts. If I get in, I get in and if I miss one, I’m not going to try and make it up. There. That’s a load of pressure off me! Thanks to Linda for the prompts and for her relaxed rules about following them.

I haven’t posted since December 12. I’ve been around and commented on other blogs but my own posts have been pushed to the side. One of the reasons is that I have had some work to do, which is a good thing. The other reason is not so exciting. About the 15th of December we got a call from a friend of ours letting us know he tested positive for the virus, yes, THAT virus. We had seen him at the end of November (in retrospect not a great idea since he had flown across the country twice in the week before). My husband had gotten what he was sure was “just a bad cold” about a week after we had had lunch with our friend. Once we got the call though, we figured that hubby had better get tested. Sure enough, the test came back positive.

Fortunately my test and the test of all of our kids came back negative and hubby’s symptoms never reached a point where he needed to have medical attention. In fact, by the time we got the news of the positive test, he was already getting better. Still, it meant that we could not have Christmas on Christmas since our eldest daughter does not live with us and our son couldn’t get tested until Christmas Eve so we would not have everyone’s results back in time. For a week, we were on pins and needles even though none of the rest of us had had any symptoms.

The presents sat patiently. Actually, we had some extra time for shopping and waiting for things to be delivered.

We decided to have our “Christmas” on New Year’s Eve and that way our daughter could spend the night and we would ring in the New Year as a family, something we haven’t done since the kids were little. Even then, the kids were little and probably in bed – LOL.

Cheers

I am definitely saying a prayer of thanks that we managed to come through it as good as we did. Postponing Christmas was a small price to pay. Hopefully with the vaccines rolling out we will start to see some light at the end of the tunnel. Happy New Year to you, if I haven’t said it yet. 2021 has got to be a better year!

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Decidedly December – 2020

Wow, 4 days behind. I was working, which is a good thing, and I have some more work for next week which is also good. Let’s see what magic I can make with these prompts.

December 9 is Silver and Jingle. That’s easy! A bunch of silver bells from my craft stash in assorted sizes, just waiting to be added to some fun project.

December 10 is Jolly and Warm Fuzzies.

Saw these jolly guys sitting on the shelf at Safeway

This little guy in his warm Christmas sweater gives me the warm fuzzies.

December 11 is tree and ink. We got our tree up reasonably early this year and I am grateful for that because this weekend we are having some rain so it probably wouldn’t have gotten done. Our daughters and I went and picked it out and then put the lights on. A couple of days later, our youngest and I watched a cheesy Xmas Hallmark movie and decorated it. Fun!

Here is our tree this year

As far as the ink goes, usually I would talk about the ink I use in my crafting but this kind of ink is a bit more special. I’m not a fan of tattoos but our daughter asked me to write out La Vita e Bella for her so that she could have the tattoo made in my handwriting. Had I known she was going to get it done EXACTLY as I wrote it, I probably would have written smaller – LOL. This covers her whole forearm and the black birds represent the five of us in the family. The one outline bird is for our first real pet, a cat named Whisper, who had to be put to sleep. How could I object to something with that much meaning?

Life is Beautiful

Today is Lights and Best Decision in 2020. Again, lights is easy:

The lights in front of our house.

I’m going to have to think about the best decision of 2020. Perhaps it is getting a new refrigerator. Perhaps it is deciding to make my own website. Perhaps I haven’t made it yet! I still have some time to work on it.

Okay, there we have both the Countdown to Christmas and the December Reflections up to date. How are you doing? Got your tree and lights up? Warm fuzzies happening? Made a spectacular decision this year? Lemme know!

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Decidedly December – 2020

Another two days of challenges. December 7 is easy to combine. On the Countdown to Christmas the prompt is “Fireplace” and on the December Reflections it is “On My Wish List.” We used to rent a house with a fireplace and I just loved it. When we moved 24 years ago our house did not have one. A few years ago my husband got me a portable heater for my work area. It looks like a mini fireplace when it is going.

So on my Wish List this year is a fire pit for the backyard. I think Santa is going to get it for me too! Something like this:

Of course I would love a wood burning one but in the interest of air quality, a propane one will be okay.

Today’s prompts were “Craft” and “Fave photo of 2020.” I showed the gift card holders I made already but here is another one of my creations:

The roof comes off the top and inside is a Christmas mini-album. You can see more pictures if you click the link.

As far as my favorite photo of 2020, I have a lot but I think this one tops them.

My son and I are sitting in the waiting room at Kaiser, where he is about to have a CT scan (or an MRI, I can’t remember which). It was a scary time for us and fortunately everything is okay, but he took this picture and posted it on Instagram and it touched me. Plus, I like how my legs look thinner – LOL.

Okay, caught up again. Maybe tomorrow I can post just one. How about you? Favorite photo? Craft anything for Christmas? Lucky enough to have a fireplace or a fire pit recommendation? Share!

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Decidedly December – 2020

So I missed posting yesterday because we went and got our Christmas tree. Making it up by cramming in a whole bunch of stuff today.

Music was the theme for Countdown to Christmas and List was #SoCS so here’s a list of some of my favorite Christmas songs in no particular order and by no means complete:

• Old Toy Trains – Rafi – makes me cry because I can see our kids up on stage singing it when they were little.
• Merry Christmas from the Family – Rosie O’Donnell and the Dixie Chicks (now the politically correct just “Chicks”) Cracks me up.
• Little Drummer Boy – David Bowie and Bing Crosby
• Jingle Bell Rock –
• Santa Baby –
• Silver Bells
• The Christmas Song
• Christmas Through Your Eyes – Gloria Estefan
• Must Be Santa – Rafi
• The First Noel
• Greensleeves

The prompt for December Reflections was: Biggest lesson from 2020. Maybe not a lesson but just a reminder that nothing in life is certain and you need to be able to roll with the changes.

Today’s prompt for the Christmas Countdown is plants. Has to be poinsettia (which I always want to spell with a t, like pointsetta). My dad had a big poinsettia plant growing in our front yard. He was so proud of that thing. He worked for a florist and every year we would take about 15 or 20 poinsettia plants to the church to decorate the altar. I felt so special being able to go into the back rooms that no one usually sees.

And finally, December Reflections is Ornament. I did that the other day with the ornaments that I have been using for the past 40 years, but I also have other ones that mean a lot to me. I haven’t finished decorating the tree yet so I’ll post more pictures of ornaments when we get them out.

There, caught up for now. How about you? Favorite Christmas song? Do you want to spell poinsettia with a t? Share!

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Decidedly December – 2020

Today we have Red. This is my favorite red sweater. I love the cutout on the sleeves. Keeps me warm but not too hot. Worn with my black and white leggings.

And the second prompt is Movie. Of course I love the standard Christmas movies like “A Christmas Story,” and “It’s a Wonderful Life” but my all time favorite has to be “A Christmas Carol.” I like the old version with Alistair Sim but I have to watch “A Muppet Christmas Carol” every year while I wrap presents or it just won’t be Christmas. It is of course made for kids but as with a lot of the Muppet things, there are some jokes in there just for us adults. We even still have it in the old VHS format. Thank goodness we have a dual VHS/DVD player.

I kind of like keeping these short and sweet. Makes it easier to keep up. Lots less pressure. What’s your all time favorite Christmas movie? Have you ever seen the “Muppet Christmas Carol?”

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Decidedly December – 2020

I am really having a hard time with the prompt for today in the December Reflections. It is “Best day of 2020.” Even looking through all the pictures I took this year, I’m not sure I could find a “BEST” day. I mean, there were a lot of good days and a lot of days that were just days, which I suppose in the year of COVID is actually not bad. Maybe my best day of 2020 hasn’t happened yet. We still have some time left. I’ll have to get back to you on that one.

The prompt for December Countdown is a little easier. It is “Tradition.” For the last seven years I’ve been making Vision Cards in December. I guess you might call that a tradition now. My cards for 2020 were these:

And I wrote about them here. Going through them now as the year comes to a close, the ones that had to do with travel/adventure and connecting had to be put on hold as the pandemic certainly limited things on those fronts. I did stay connected to my sister who learned how to FaceTime, my mom by calling her at least once or twice a week and monthly check-ins with my best friend who lives quite a distance away. I did also do a Zoom scrapbooking day or two with my niece and that was fun.

The health, household, finances and business ones all got a little attention and I am pretty satisfied with each focus area. I really like using these rather than trying to make New Years Resolutions. Definitely less chance of failure because although I didn’t get everything accomplished that I wanted to, at least I touched on each of them.

Now it’s time to make another set of cards. I think the themes will basically be the same, although I may add some descriptive words and ideas to each one. I’ll share them when I’m done. What are your traditions? Did you have a “Best Day” in 2020? Share!

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Decidedly December – 2020

For our prompts today we have Favorite Hobby and Family. I have a lot of hobbies that I enjoy. Reading is one. The new Pop Sugar Reading Challenge just came out and I am excited to do that. I failed this year, reading only 17 books out of the 40 that I had set for my goal. You’d think I’d have been able to read more with the pandemic but no. I did cross off some of my poster pieces though. Pride and Prejudice, The Scarlet Letter, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Lord of the Flies and Great Expectations. I have the intention of reading Anna Karenina, Gone With the Wind and The Great Gatsby next year.

I’d have to say coloring is another hobby. I did do a lot of that because I can watch TV with the hubs while I’m doing it. Can’t really read and watch a movie. Here are some of my latest for the Escapist Coloring Club.

I think blogging might be a hobby. I might have wanted to be a writer and this is a way to do that on my own terms. I also like the interaction with the friendly people I meet (yes, that’s you if you’re reading this).

Participating in challenges might be a hobby too, to be honest. I’ve been doing the One Second Everyday video thing this year and am looking forward to the end result when I can see the whole year flash before my eyes. I have to start thinking about what to do for the A to Z this year too! Do you have your theme yet?

And for the other prompt, Family, well, I have to say that I am grateful that my family puts up with all my hobbies!

How about you? Favorite hobbies? Special family? Share!

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