DECEMBER 23

 Hello, friends!  Welcome back.  Thanks for all your great comments.

For those of you who asked about my YouTube channel, go to youtube.com and search for either Kathy's Happy Home (my old name and easier to find) or This is Kathy's Life (my new name).  You will see my picture next to the title and it's pretty far down on the page.

Here is a link to my latest video.

This is going to be a quick post.  I am sitting by the kitchen window and it is COLD.  It is 18*F (-8*C) outside right now.  That is up from -2*F (-19*C) this morning.  I am planning on having grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup for dinner tonight.  I hope that will warm us up.

So let me continue on with my story about the holidays.  Because my sister works in a hospital and had to work on Christmas Day, we celebrated early.  We went to her house on the 23rd so we could sleep over and celebrate on the 24th before we returned to our own home.  It was a long drive.  There was lots of traffic and instead of the usual 2 to 2 1/2 hours, it took us 3 hours to get there.  We were trying to get to her area before dark and we just made it.

There was snow in the mountains where she lives.  And we saw beautiful Christmas lights along the way.

We got settled and hung around for a bit before we got in her new car to go to dinner at a local diner.  Her car is so nice!

We met our friend Frank there and the four of us got seated in a booth.  Both of the men had burgers.  Elaine and I had the homemade chicken pot pie.  The guys said their burgers weren't that good, but the pot pie was wonderful.  We both finished the entire thing, which we rarely do.  When we were checking out, the owner was telling Elaine that it was his grandmother's recipe.  The crust was puff pastry which I had never seen before.

When we got back to my sister's house it was dark and her lights were on.  They looked so pretty.

I tried to take a picture of her neighbor's house which was beautiful too, but it didn't turn out.

Frank came back to the house too and we sat around talking for about an hour and then he left to go home.  We played with her dog, Ace, for awhile.  But it wasn't long before we headed to bed too.

And that is where I'll end for today.  I'm just too cold to sit here and type anymore.  I will be back soon with another post.

Kathy

AND HERE IT IS A NEW YEAR

 Hello, friends!  I know I haven't been around for quite a while.  The holidays are always so busy.  I hope you have been watching my YouTube channel and are all caught up on what is going on.

I thought I would share some pictures here and tell you a bit about what's been happening.

I did a lot of cooking and baking.  It has been a very cold winter and the stove going has helped to keep the kitchen warm.  Let me tell you this house is cold!  Much colder than my old house.  All of the windows leak cold air and the forced air heat is not as warm as radiators.  But we still like our house a lot.

 

This was dinner one night -- ham, green beans and sliced tomatoes.  Like my snowman mug?  We are so very grateful to my sister for the kitchen table and chairs she bought us.  For months we were eating off of TV trays in the living room.  It is so nice to have a working kitchen again.

I wanted to bake so many cookies, but got only two kinds done.  These are the sugar cookies.  The others were oatmeal craisin cookies.  I packaged them up and gave them to everyone in my Bible Study.  There were a few left and they were good.  I think I will make some sugar cookies this week.

We bought a new Advent wreath this year.  It is battery operated and the lights flicker like real flames.  With our cat George jumping on everything, we just felt this was safer.

I've been doing a lot of reading on my Kindle too.  I love to read and I'm glad I now have time to get back into it.  I've already finished two books this month and I started a third today.  I wanted to read at least 25 books this year and I think I will easily surpass that goal.

Joe bought some knit stockings at Target and we hung them for decoration.

Christmas was divided between my sister's house and our house.  I will tell you about that next time.

Hope you all had a lovely holiday season and are enjoying the new year.  See you soon.

Kathy