Thursday, December 25, 2014

December 22 - 28, 2014, AZ

Thursday, December 25.  I can't believe that I haven't written before today.  It has been a busy week, having to put in a few extra hours at work and then a required Christmas lunch yesterday.  I grumbled and complained about them setting something like that up on short notice and I was so looking forward to my work week ending.  I did go to the lunch and it was very nice.  We got a big surprise - the General Manager, Mat, handed out Christmas cards and I was quite surprised to see a $100 bill in it.  Very nice.

I am dog sitting for Louie for a few days - Pat and Roger took a bus trip to Las Vegas with their community.  He's a good guy and they are both getting along well.

Yesterday, was my older sister, Rita's, 70th birthday.  It is hard to believe that we are getting so old.  I wanted it to be special for her, so I made her a lacey Angora scarf - it turned out nice, and she called to thank me and loved it.

I've talked with both sons several times in the last few days.  I spent Christmas Eve with Arlene and her family, Connie, Betty and James, and some other friends.  We played games, had some wine, and lots of good eats.  It was lots of fun.

A beautiful Arizona Christmas morning sunrise looking out at the Superstition Mountains.

This morning, I got to see the grandkids opening some of their gifts and I opened my gift from them.  It is a beautiful photo book of me and the kids' last year.  It is something I will treasure for a long time.  Naturally, it drew tears, as did all of the holiday music and memories. 

Grandkids with their gifts.

Going through the holidays has made me even more convinced that it is time for me to move back closer to family.  I feel that I need to be involved in their lives more and to be closer to family if something happens to me.  I've always said that I don't want to leave a mess for my sons to settle up and getting rid of a house that is 2,000 miles away from them is the first step.  Now, to get that all coordinated and to happen is not going to be a fun task.

I spent the evening with Nan, Dale, Monica, Loren, Dylan, and Loren's Mom, Lindsay.  We had a great visit and a delicious prime rib dinner with all of their traditional compliments - twice baked potatoes, cranberry sauce, green beans with bacon and mushrooms, Caesar salad and lots of cookies.  Monica made me this beautiful wreath - what a nice gift.


Sunday, December 28.  The rest of the weekend has been nice, most of it spent at home.  The exception to that was some shopping, as my coffee pot has been slowly declining, I set out on Friday to find a replacement.  I had already decided that I wanted to replace it with the exact same pot - guess what - it must be the old version because I couldn't find it anywhere.  After about 6 stores, I decided that Amazon was the way to go.  I should have just done that from the beginning.

Allan and Sharon came by and delivered a gift - a still life painting that Sharon made of some of my antique bottles.  It is beautiful and I will proudly hang it on my wall.  In fact, I rearranged some art that I currently have so it could have a good place.  After visiting for a while, we went to Vito's for some lunch.  Thanks, friends, I always enjoy our time together.



Today I decided that it was time to give my wood furniture a good coating of Liquid Gold and the leather backs and seats on my dining room chairs needed to be conditioned.  Everything was looking a little bit dull and it hadn't been done in a while.

The other day, I took all of the knickknacks and glassware out of the cabinet and cleaned it (a new lightbulb showed a covering of dust).  Today, I was rearranging something and knocked one of Grandma Bridge's lemonade glasses down, and it broke in lots of pieces.  Yes, I yelled out "F*%K"!  I feel terrible - have coddled and carried and packed carefully since Mike's parents gave it to me back years ago - and it survived many years before it was handed over to me.  I think it belonged to her mother.  Well, I now have an incomplete set with only 3 glasses.  Let it go, Rose.

I also cleaned out the Gargoyle shelves since I posted it on Craig's List to sell.  I'm hoping that since several Auto auctions are going on during January that it might sell.  It is a rare and unique piece but it is also big and bulky and masculine - I'm ready to part with it.  Hope it sells.

I talked with both of my sons today - and got to see Norah and Camille playing on Facebook.  They are getting better about that - and show me things, blow kisses, and are just so cute.