Thursday, December 15, 2016

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, and a Warm Winter Solstice

Seattle Ornament 
Merry Christmas to my Christian friends,  Happy Hanukah to my Jewish friends,  Warm Winter Solstice to others.   May the time you spend with family and friends be blessed and special.   If you are reading this we thank you, we care about you and we hope you are healthy and feel blessed this season of the year.

Greetings from NE Kirkland, we are settling.  I was so proud when I had unpacked every single cardboard box we used in the move, now I am unpacking some of my plastic packing crates that I had stuff stored in the attic at the old place.  This place has a bit more room and we put some awesome storage shelves up so there is room.  Now if I want a thermos for a picnic lunch I don’t have to go to the attic and move boxes around.  I just have to go to the store room and reach on a shelf.   Each box I open I still look at the stuff and decide if we use it and if I should find a place for it or take it to the Goodwill.   I am down to about twice a week trips to the Goodwill. 




Small, but Special Christmas Tree 
Christmas is coming, and for the first time since I can remember I am inspired to decorate some.  In the old house adding all the decorations just felt like clutter that choked both of us but new house has more space and decorations feel like fun.  For years I have collected those Santa's from around the world, my mom also collected them and she was so happy to give me some of hers.  She is always happy to know that someone else will also treasure the things she has treasured.  I am thrilled to enjoy her Santa’s.

Here is a look a recent week:   Monday; roofing company to look at problems ( one skylight is leaking,,,)  and give us an estimate and furniture delivery (2 loveseats; one for my office and one for the front room.   Tuesday; electrician from the heating and air-conditioning company hopefully finishing up his work and then in the afternoon we get trained on how to use the thermostats….. Tuesday is also family dinner; it is the evening during the week that I know I will be cooking.   Often friends join us that night also. I love the discussions that happen on Tuesday nights; politics, religion, science, food, technology, healthy living and travel. I don't think anything is off  limits because it is such a safe environment, tolerance is the rule, we don't all agree but we don't put down others or what they believe, in fact we often try to figure out what the heck some other people are thinking.

CeLinda and Lido, taking a break 
One week my Uncle Ray and his girl friend arrived to break in the guest bedroom, they went north to visit others and came back through at the end of the week and joined us for family dinner.  We also have had a house guest, Lido, his parents have gone to India.  Lido is a cute little thirteen year old Havanese dog.  He is really bonded to his mom and so that means he transfers his attention to me,  he follows me everywhere.  His mom is an early riser and now he wants to follow me and I don’t get up so early.  When I wake up he is at the foot of the bed resting and waiting for me to wake up.  Halie, one of the granddaughters is also pretty regular and pleasant surprise.  We think she thinks of new excuses to come see us but whatever we love it that she likes to “hang out” here.

The weather has been amazing this fall.  We have had a couple of storms, enough to blow the leaves off the trees but also a lot of nice days .   Bill has been working like crazy to clear a spot and reassemble the yard shed so we can move the last items from the storage unit into the yard shed.  When the storage unit is gone we will officially be moved.  I think we are supposed to get snow soon.   We haven’t had any snow to speak of in years so I guess we will wait and see what shows up.

Pile of Hats....... 
Thursday is always knitting for me, sometimes I go to the local yarn shop in the day time and I always have one and sometimes more over to the house for salad dinner and a few hours of knitting.   Thursday evening’s Bill often joins friends to listen to music; jazz and blues are his favorites.  Friday is date night; we both look forward to a break from our projects and spending time with good friends. I still work some Saturdays and Sundays are for church and of course football but we also try to see friends and family that are busy all week.

I am finally knitting again.  I felt like I lost my knitting mojo during the move just because I chose to not sit down but this week I cast on a new project.   It is a really sweet baby romper, it is just challenging enough to be fun and a big stretch in the middle of mindless knitting to give me a break.  Other than that I have knit a few hats;  scrap yarn and knitting in a circle, easy hats for my gift bag. 




We had a nice Thanksgiving holiday seeing lots of family and catching up with each other.  I contributed non-dairy mashed potatoes to one of the thanksgiving meals and Bill made a blueberry pie for the other.  I confess in the past that I have complained about spending so much time in the car but this year I realized I love being in the car with Bill,  we always have fun on ‘road trips’. We talk and laugh and solve world problems while we are driving from place to place.   I have no spectacular new recipes to share but I had better get with it one of my new year’s goals was to go through the piles of recipes and get them into my computer and eliminate that pile of clutter.  I am afraid I may have to extend that goal into next year


I am still watching football,  the Seahawks won't win the  Super Bowl this year but there have been some really good games and the University of Washington Huskies have had a  great season. The Seattle Sounders, the local soccer team just won the MLS Championship.  The parade celebration didn’t draw quite the crowd that the Seahawks Superbowl parade did but it was a big deal and so nice to be celebrating something good for a change. 

P.S.  This is your Christmas Card...... 



2 comments:

Karen said...

You don't think we'll go further than the Division title???

CeLindakot said...

If the Seahawks could play football in both halves of the game we would do better. It is just hard to watch when they are not playing at their full potential.