~ Bah ....

.... Humbug!

 

First, can I just say how excited I was to get an e-mail from
Nancy @ A Rural Journal

telling us that Random 5 Friday is back!!!

Happy Dance!!!!

Really missed you Nancy and your fantastic meme!

 

1.  On Tuesday we got a third snowstorm in one week!

Yup, you read that right!  #3 storm in 7 days!

The first storm dropped 3.5 inches. 

The second dropped 8 inches.

And the third dropped 3 inches.

Not major storms .... but dang!

Enough is enough already.

And the kicker is ... it isn't winter yet!!!

Humbug!

 

2.  This is how my living room looks ....

and will continue to look until Christmas Eve.

One big mess. 

Wayyyyyyyy in the corner at the top of the picture are Tom's gifts to me!

I do not peek.   Never have.  Never will.

The mess up front and center are my gifts to Tom.

We use blankets to hide them from each other.

Our old legs just don't permit us to go up and down the stairs

numerous times so for a few years now we just keep them

in the living room/dining room.

Like I said ... one big mess!

 Humbug!

 

3.  Instead of acting like Scrooge when it was snowing

I decided to stay inside and catch up on my wrapping.

Set up my wrapping station on the kitchen table ....

made a cup of mocha cappuccino ....

turned the t.v. on and wrapped away.

Did I tell you that I.HATE.WRAPPING?
Anyhoo.....

 I kept hearing this strange sound as I was wrapping.

Very distracting.  

I turned the t.v. off ... trying to figure out what the sound was
and where it was coming from.

I went from room to room

and the sound followed.

What the ....?

I finally figured out what the sound was ....

it was coming from me ....

I was actually humming while wrapping!

Don't tell anyone!

Humbug!

 

4.  By late afternoon ....

...things were starting to look a little better in my corner.

Can't say the same for Tom.

He's usually way ahead of me with wrapping.

This year, I'm the winner!

Can you believe those are all for one person!

We spoil each other rotten for Christmas.

I'm not complaining.

But we've discussed cutting back .... spending less ....

it's getting harder and harder to come up with new things to get.

A lot of time spent running around and getting nothing done!

Humbug!

 

5.  Yesterday I had some last minute crap stuff to pick up.

One was a cake to bring to Tom's brother's house tomorrow.

As I was deep in thought .... deciding which cake to pick up,

I heard someone close by whistling ....

loudly ....

"Jingle Bell Rock"

as he was also deciding which cake to purchase.

When he finished his whistling masterpiece,

I stood back and applauded his talent!

"Very good!", I said.

At first he looked surprised.

Then we both laughed,

said "Merry Christmas"

and went on our separate ways.

 

Humbug?

Nah!

Merry Christmas to all ...

and to all a goodnight!

♥

 

~ It's beginning to look a lot like ....

... winter!

Yup, winter!

On Monday we had an ice storm.

 

Ice everywhere ....

 

And on Tuesday we had a snowstorm.

Nothing drastic ....

We got around 3.5 inches of the white stuff.

It was wet ... and heavy!

My arms are sore and my back is killing me from shoveling.

How can something so annoying be so photogenic?

 

The local weather forecast is for another storm ...

potentially a Nor'easter ...

for Saturday afternoon into Sunday!

Just what I need this time of the year.

 

I have barely put a dent in my Christmas shopping.

Anyway, I stayed in during these two storms

and caught up with wrapping what stuff I had bought

and decorated.

The tree is up ...

and the stockings are hung.

I didn't go overboard with the decorations this year.

And I'm okay with that.

But I did put up a few trinkets.

 

 

 

Today I went shopping.

Got about another 40% of it done.

Tonight I'll wrap what I picked up today ....

and hopefully finish up the pocketbook I am crocheting.

And maybe have a cup of vanilla eggnog

with a splash of Amaretto.

 

Would you care to join me?

♥

 

PS  If you haven't already, you need to head over to see

Kelly and her awesome holiday shots!

~ December . . .

. . . already?

There has been frost on the pumpkins

so I guess it's time to bring them in

and start getting the Christmas decorations up from the basement.

 

But first,

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

We headed up to New Hampshire and spent Thanksgiving with my family.

It was noisy, loud, crazy, hectic and wonderful.

Let me introduce you to my siblings.

Meet Annette.  She's the oldest of the bunch.

Since my Mom died she's kind of like the matriarch of the family.

She has 3 children, 8 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren.

 

Meet Terry.  She's the third of the bunch.

She likes to laugh and have a good time.

She has 3 children and 6 grandchildren.

 

Meet Irene. 

We worry about her.   She has severe asthma and COPD.

She's rushed to the hospital at least every couple of months because she can't breathe.

But she's a trouper.

She has 2 children and 4 grandchildren.

 

Meet Robert.   The "baby" of the family.

Spoiled rotten by 5 sisters.

He makes me laugh so dang hard that I pee my pants.

Sometimes we just look at each other and burst out laughing.

I worry about him because he's not married and I hate that he's alone.

He doesn't seem to mind.

 

The pictures aren't the greatest ... we were all just goofing and laughing and

just whooping it up. 

The older I get ... the more I miss them.

I moved away when I was 19.

I miss never having the opportunity to just

stop by for tea or coffee ...

to call them up and say "hey, let's go shopping".

**Sigh**

 

So, them there are the folks I spent Thanksgiving with.

♥

 

Christmas is in a little over 3 weeks.

WHAT?????????

I break out into a sweat just thinking about all the things that I have to get done.

I haven't started decorating yet.

I haven't started Christmas shopping yet.

I am trying ... really hard ... not to stress out.

Arrrrrrgggghhhhh!!!!!!!

 

One thing I love about December

is the beautiful sunsets it presents.

Looked out to see this .....

and was in awe.

Absolutely beautiful.

Calmed me right down.

 

So,  I'm headed to the basement to drag all of the Christmas boxes up

to get ready to start decorating tomorrow ...

... after I go to the bank, to the market,

start some Christmas shopping, pay some bills ...

 

Now, where did I put my list?

♥