HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU!

 This past Wednesday I became older.  Well, every day I'm a day older, but this was my birthday.  I am now officially older than dirt.  Ha, ha!  It was a nice day though. 

I slept in, had a nice breakfast, watched some TV and then got ready to go to the nursing home where Joe was preaching.  I am taking lots of precautions in there and staying 6 feet or more from any of the patients.  Before Covid I used to go up to each of them, hold their hands and talk to and/or pray with them.  Now I stay my distance.

After the service was over, we drove to our favorite Japanese restaurant.  I'm still not feeling terrific, but I wanted to do SOMETHING to celebrate the day.  I figured that Japanese food is very light and wouldn't lay in my stomach and make me sick.  I was right.

Joe ordered a beef bento box.  It came with miso soup and a salad.  In the box was a seasoned beef with onions, shrimp and vegetable tempura, fried potato balls, rice, and sushi.  It looked really good, but I could never eat that much food.  I did steal a broccoli tempura though. Yum.

I ordered vegetable yaki soba.  I have not been eating enough veggies and this just hit the spot.  The noodles are very fine and made out of buckwheat.  It had mushrooms, scallions, carrots, broccoli, onions and green peppers in it.  And best of all it did not upset my stomach.  I ate about half of it and brought the rest home.

We had eaten rather early, so we waited awhile until we were hungry enough for cake.  I finished up the birthday cake my sister had given to me on Christmas.

It was a great day.

Joe gave me four gifts:  a silver and marcasite watch, a beautiful necklace and matching earrings, and what he went into the jewelry store for the other day.  A beautiful turquoise butterfly ring.  Without even knowing my ring size, he got a ring that fits me perfectly.  I love it.

And now it's back to real life and to New Year's Eve.  We have nothing planned for the evening.  I had recorded "The Sound of Music" when it was on a couple of weeks ago and I think we might watch that.  Or "Frozen" which was on last night but we didn't have time to watch.

Before I end this, I want to thank you for being a reader this past year.  Your comments and support mean a great deal to me.  I hope all of you have a wonderful New Year.  Happy 2022 to you all.

Kathy

CHRISTMAS

 Hello, friends!  Hope you all have had a wonderful Christmas.  Despite getting sick at my sister's house, it was really nice.  One of the nicest Christmases I have had in a long time.

Joe and I headed up to Northern New Jersey on Christmas Eve to have dinner with Elaine and her friend Frank.  We had so much fun.  And the meal was so good.  Ready for picture overload?

We had such a good dinner.  Ham, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, green beans, and rolls.

And, of course, we had our Christmas crackers.  They contain crowns which we wear during dinner, a joke, and a toy of some sort.  Joe got a shoe horn but we couldn't figure out what mine was.  Some kind of spring and a ring attached to it.  Oh well.

Elaine, Frank and Joe all wearing their crowns.

And me.

Isn't this little table cute?

Frank's dog, Molly, really enjoyed her toy.

The beautiful tree.

After a bit of a break, we went back to the table for dessert.  There was a cake to celebrate my birthday and a tray of homemade cookies.

Ace likes to sit on Elaine's lap with a ball in his mouth.  He loves his ball.

We gave Elaine a Victrola.  It has a turntable, radio, tape player and CD player.

Elaine gave us a basket full of goodies... tea, a glass teapot, and snacks.

Ace is an equal opportunity lap layer.

Christmas breakfast was deviled eggs, sausage, and scones.  I didn't take any pictures of it, but it was delicious.  This is lunch.  All kinds of cheese and crackers, along with salami and pepperoni.

Each of us got a different Christmas plate.

There was even eggnog for Joe.  He loves eggnog.  Elaine and me... not so much.

I was given my birthday gift at lunch.

I got a pretty glass filled with chocolate.

And a ring light and tripod to film my YouTube channel.  I love it.

After we ate, we hung around for a bit and then headed for home.  I wanted to get home before the sun set.  (And I did.)

We had such a wonderful time.  Now on to my birthday in two days.

Hope you had a great time too.  Tell me about your day in the comments below.

Until later...

Kathy

AN ADVENT CANDLE

 Hello, friends!  Hope you have had a lovely day.

Each year I get an Advent Candle for home.  In the past I have gotten taper candles to burn down.  Then I have the problem of finding a candleholder it would fit into.  This year I solved the problem by purchasing a pillar candle.  I took one of my small plates and covered it with foil and then stood the candle on it.  That way any wax that falls can be easily cleaned up and thrown away.

I've been taking a photo of it each night as it burns.  Let me show you.

It started out being very tall.

I got the one with holly and ivy as the pattern.

Here it is on the first night as we began burning it.

It took quite a while to burn through the top section.

Finally it burned through the first day.

Each day it gets a little shorter.  And so does the time before Christmas.  Day 3 is gone.

So is Day 6.

And Day 7.

Day 9.

And Day 10.  How quickly the time flies.

Day 16 has finished and tonight we are burning down day 18. 

I looked at it tonight after we had finished our devotional reading and realized just how short it was.  One week to Christmas.  Almost nothing done.  It doesn't feel like Christmas to me.  I think because I've been so sick.  I will be happy if I get anything done at this point.  I hope that next year will be much better for me.

How are things going for you?

Until later,

Kathy

THE COFFEE CALENDAR

 

Hello, friends. Hope you are having a wonderful Advent season. It is going much too quickly for my liking. I'm not nearly ready. Mostly because I have been so sick.

I bought a tea advent calendar for us. We opened one box each day. I thought I was ordering a black tea calendar and expected things like Earl Grey, English Breakfast Tea, Constant Comment, etc.  Instead, I was sent an organic chai and green tea calendar.  I didn't realize it until I had opened and tried some of them and then I couldn't send it back. I truly dislike chai, green and peppermint tea and that was the majority of it.  Finally, I decided to quit using it.  It was just too much.  (Joe didn't like them either.)

On one of the YouTube channels that I watch (Blessed Jess) I saw a Keurig coffee Advent calendar.  I don't drink coffee, but Joe loves it.  So I got one for him as a late Advent gift.  We got it a couple of days ago.

Each coffee pod is hidden behind a cardboard door.  The picture inside is beautiful.

The first pod was a Green Mountain Holiday Blend.

Joe brewed it up and it was very strong!  He did not like it at all.  I thought, "Another disaster."  He ended up throwing the cup away.  I suggested since we were so far into Advent that he open up day two.  It was a Donut House regular blend.  And that one he liked.  (Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of it or the next one.)

Today he opened the third day and it was a McDonald's McCafe Premium Blend.  He said it was delicious.  Hurray, the calendar isn't a total waste.

I've learned my lesson and will not be buying a tea calendar next year.  Maybe cookies?  Candy?  Perfume?  But I will buy another coffee calendar for Joe.

Hope you are having a great week and I'll see you soon.

Kathy

THE CHRISTMAS CAFE

 Hello, friends!  December is rolling right along.  And I have so much to do!

Last night we had our annual Christmas Cafe at church.  I love going to this each year.  Each one is different.  This year we just had music on a cd player, great food, wonderful fellowship, and a marvelous Christmas carol sing-along.  So much fun.  I took some pictures to show you, so here we go.

The tables were decorated so pretty!  The tables with green tablecloths had trees with red decorations and the tables with red tablecloths had trees with gold decorations.  There were also jingle bells, sugar plums and pine cones.

Everybody brought some food.  Pastor made warm mulled cider and some kind of punch with strawberries and plums.

As you can see, there was plenty to eat.  Such a variety!

If you didn't want punch or cider, there was tea and coffee.

The pound cake was a big hit.

Maybe we should have eaten AFTER we sang.  We were pretty full when we started.

I made chocolate chip cookies.

We just sat at the tables to sing.  We have Christmas song books which makes it easy to choose our favorites.

Usually we take a ride around the neighborhood looking at Christmas lights, but I wasn't feeling all that well so we just came home.  In fact, today I woke up with a migraine.  So that was probably working on me last night.  I was able to sleep it off so that was good.

Hope you enjoyed seeing this.  I'll be back soon.

Until later,

Kathy