The New Year Begins...

Monday, December 28, 2020 we started our day with a quick trip to Georgetown to take Papa a treat bag. Then it was back to Sadieville. We were having a really, really pleasant day. No rain. Temperature in the 60's. We decided it was a good day to get the Christmas decorations down. Claude worked on the outside and I worked on the inside of our home. I use the armoire and the dresser in our guest room to store things from our home that we have to remove to put out Christmas decorations. So the end of my putting Christmas away was taking items out of those storage placed. I turned around and was sure I saw a tarantula on the lampshade!!

Turns out it was only Andie's hair clip from when she and Michael stayed in this room over Christmas. Whew!!

I did not take our Christmas tree down. We decided to enjoy it until after the new year began. Claude did fix the little ornament the Marx family gave us to fit the year 2020. I hung it on our tree. 

And my dear friend, Laura, suggested I check our sunset. I did and it was gorgeous.

Tuesday, December 29, 2020 Claude had an appointment with Dr. Hollen to have his teeth cleaned. I opted to stay home. I read in my Simple Abundance book and did a few household chores. 

Andie sent us this picture. A little back ground. When they were at our home for Thanksgiving, Claude showed her his new griddle. Andie and Claude share a love of cooking and all things kitchen. This is a great griddle that is smooth on one side with a ditch around the edge to collect grease when frying bacon. The other side has ridges so you can cook something and get grill marks like when you use your gas grill outside. Claude is really enjoying this new toy. Andie sent me a text and asked me about the griddle. I told her I was sure Claude got it at Bed, Bath and Beyond. She wanted to get Michael one for Christmas. I told her Claude was in Lexington that day and he could pick up one for her and she could wrap it when they came over to the house for Christmas. The funny thing about this goes back to when we all lived in Maryland. We met Andie and Michael at a new restaurant for dinner. Michael was so happy as he was sporting new sandals he just purchased from Kohl's. Claude lifted his pant leg and he was wearing the same exact sandal. Michael was appalled he was wearing what his father-in-law would choose to wear. This happened one other time. Claude said he was just sure Michael would be extra happy he now had a griddle like his father-in-law. Michael is very happy with is griddle.

Wednesday, December 30, 2020 was the day we determined we would pick up Hayden to spend New Year's Eve with us. We determined we would pick him up between 4pm and 5pm. Then we would stop in Frankfort for a burger on our way home. Plan in place we puttered around the house during the day being sure we had all we needed for New Year's Eve. 

At one point Claude went to fix us a ham sandwich. He was going to use Braswell's Dill Pickle Mustard on them. He only had the one jar and he really loved this mustard. I did too. We had no idea where he got it. I walked back into the living room and heard a loud crash. The mustard jar slipped out of Claude's hands and shattered on the kitchen floor. I went in and grabbed paper towels to wipe as much off the floor as I could. Then I used a wet cloth to clean up the shards of glass. Then I swept the kitchen floor. Claude resorted to regular mustard. We were watching Northern Exposure while we ate in the living room. I checked the Internet to find where to get this mustard. I pulled the broken jar out of the trash and wrote down the information from the label. This helped with my search. I found it and ordered Claude four more jars. I also found they make pickled green beans. Claude loves pickled green beans. Based on how good their dill pickle mustard is, I made a command decision and ordered two jars of pickled green beans. After I finished, I told Claude what I had done and that he had four jars of the mustard coming in January and two more jars of a surprise for which he had to wait. The poor guy had tears in his eyes as he thanked me for doing that for him. Ya know, he was hoping to use that dill pickle mustard jar for a juice glass. Now he would have four juice glasses. I'm not sure if he was happier about the mustard or getting this glasses. I am married to a very interesting man!!

We went to Georgetown and walked before going to get Hayden. The kid brought his duffle bag with clothes and things and also his gaming chair he got last Christmas. We had one happy 15 year old on our hands.

One cute cartoon on Facebook that fits the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020.

Thursday, December 31, 2020 was New Year's Eve. Claude and I were up and around well before Hayden. We were watching Season 4 of Northern Exposure while Claude prepared food for New Year's Eve. About 2:30pm I received a text from Hayden. It had a bit about the Lord of the Rings movies.

I sent a text back to Hayden and asked him if he was awake or was he sending this in his sleep. In a bit he showed up in the living room and curled up in the red rocking chair. We know this is Hayden's chair when he visits. 

By 3:30pm we were all set up in the basement and ready for our annual New Year's Eve celebration. We watch all three of the Lord of the Rings DVD's back to back. A pause in between each for a potty break. If we start at 3pm we are usually done around midnight. Hayden was with us last year and had such a great time, he wanted to return again this year. One is never too sure how long a grandmonster will want to do these things with aging grandparents. So we are happy to have them come and enjoy this event with us while they are eager to do so. Here is our family room ready for the festivities. The piano and bench are laden with food, tv trays are at the ready, the movies are queued up, extension cords for devices are plugged in, a yarn project is laid out for me. We are ready to stay cozy and warm in our basement for the next 9+ hours!!

Now, we asked Hayden a week before what treats he might like to have on hand that night. We received a Google Keep list of his requests. Grampa got everyone of them. There was nutritious food in the form of chicken fingers and popcorn shrimp and there was a plethora of candy treats. All of the candy treats were kept in a grocery bag and quietly placed on Hayden's gaming chair for when he came downstairs. He was one happy young man. He turned to Claude and said, "I didn't think you would get everything!!" Being a grandparent is great fun. However, next year, if Hayden chooses to join us, we have learned we will ask for his 4 favorite treats...not the top 20!!

We had a great evening watching these movies again. I posted this to Facebook. I do every year. I love the quote.

Watching Lord of the Rings trilogy with our grandson. This is Claude Christensen and my New Year's Eve tradition. One of my favorite quotes is: J.R.R. Tolkien – The Fellowship of The Ring

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo. “So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

My New Year's wish is that we all take what we learned from 2020 and decide what to do with the time given us in 2021 based on that knowledge and understanding. Happy New Year's!!

Friday, January 1, 2021 Now I must get used to typing 2021. Doesn't flow quite as easily from my fingers as 2020. But I will get there. 

Hayden slept in again. We determined we would let him sleep and return him to Casa Marx after he woke up with a stop along the way at somewhere he wanted something to eat. We watched the end of Season 4 of Northern Exposure so we could take that season to Andie when we returned Hayden. We had already taken her Seasons 1-3. I fixed a treat bag for Papa.

We drove Hayden home with the stop in Georgetown to leave a treat for Papa. Hayden chose dinner from Chick-fil-A. We made it to Shelbyville where Andie met us for the trade-off. We are so happy Hayden wanted to join us and that the Marx family lives close enough for visits. We are very grateful we have all not gotten the virus and feel safe doing this type of visiting with them.

Saturday, January 2, 2021 I awoke in our guest bedroom. I had one of those nights where I could not sleep. I took my Simple Abundance book and read into the wee small hours of the 2nd. I did sleep for about 4 hours during the night. I awoke at 7am and went downstairs to type a letter to Papa. I had not done that the night prior. When I finished the letter, I needed to get it out to the mailbox before they picked up mail. I was sleeping in a t-shirt and my clothes were in our bedroom. I didn't want to wake up Claude. What to do, what to do?? I needed something more to walk out to the mailbox at our curb. Then the light came on. I opened the guestroom closet door and took out my long winter coat. I buttoned that puppy up and walked to mailbox in my t-shirt covered by my big coat almost to my ankles. Yea me!! However, when I got to the mailbox, there was mail in the box already!! I have an app on my phone that shows me pictures of the pieces of mail I am to receive each day. I checked that and none of the mail in the box was on the eMail. I felt like I should leave Papa's letter, so I did and pulled up the flag on the mailbox. They did deliver mail later that morning and took Papa's letter. Yippee!!

Now, I determined I needed to pause in our lives and do something with just me and Claude. As he slept, I researched possibilities on my cell phone. When I could hear that Claude was awake, I went back to our bedroom and climbed in bed with my hubby. I told him I had some potential plans for our day and he could pick what sounded good to him. We settled on a drive to Madison, Indiana to get a burger at a place called Hamburger Hinkle. It was about 1 1/2 hours away. We could get a way but it would not take all day. That is what we did. Here are a few pictures. Amazingly, I did not take a picture of Hamburger Hinkle. The first picture is crossing the Ohio River from Kentucky into Indiana. The second picture is a toy store on Main Street where we parked. I thought the orange Christmas tree in the window was interesting. They sold Lionel toy trains and I believe the color of the tree was the color theme for the Lionel Company. There was also a robot head upside down on the top of the front door. I am not sure what the tower was as we left town. It was interesting to me because it was like a tower one would find in the United States topped by a pagoda structure with a man on top of that. Lots of layers of things going on there. The last picture is the Ohio River as we left Indiana and went back into Kentucky.

We parked and ordered our burgers. Then we walked about three blocks while our order was being prepared to purchase a birthday gift for Andie. Our first experience with the particular town was a year or so ago. Andie told us about a store that sells all kinds of olive oils and vinegars. They have lots of flavors and testing cups for you to try them out. We decided we would pop in there and let Claude pick out a couple of bottles of vinegar for Andie's birthday coming up in March. We went back and picked up our hamburger order and sat in the Jeep to eat. These burgers were okay. A lot like a White Castle burger. It was fun to try them out but we'll try another restaurant when we go back to Madison again.

We were home in the early afternoon. My goal when I went to bed the night before was to get up and take down our Christmas tree and get the laundry done. Once home I started on those chores and got them finished by midnight! 

While working on this, I received a message from my neighbor that it is time to order Girl Scout cookies. I sent a text to each family member allowing them to change what was ordered for them in 2020. Then I sent a message back to Kim letting her know what I needed for 2021. 21 boxes of Girl Scout cookies have been ordered for our family birthdays. Kim tells me they may not be able to set up booths outside of Walmart and Kroger this year. I asked if I could post on Facebook and she said that would be great. That post is done. Girl Scout cookies are a nice, normal thing we can do.

Nissa, our eldest daughter, sent us this picture of what she did with their Christmas present. We got spoons while in Jekyll Island that are silver spoons. They had things carved into them. Nissa and Todd's had Souper Mom and Souper Dad. Nissa got creative and made this wall hanging with theirs. So proud of our girl!

I felt a strong prompting to take pictures of the Nativities on our Christmas tree this year. Not sure why. But I followed that prompting. Our tree is covered with ornaments from our travels, handmade ornaments and White House Christmas ornaments from the 20 years we lived in Maryland. In these ornaments are some that truly pertain to Christmas. It was fun to watch for them as the ornaments came off the tree and take these pictures. 

These ornaments came from our travels. The little green tree that opens up with a silver Nativity inside is from Ireland. The cotton boll angel we purchased in Natchez, Mississippi. We drove the Natchez Trace home. The little nativity in the white ball I believe came from Costa Rica. The bell is out of olive wood and we purchased it in Jerusalem in Israel. And the last round ornament we purchased in San Juan, Puerto Rico. 

I did purchase a dreidel and made it into an ornament. The dreidel game is played by Jewish children during Hanukkah. The dreidel is like a spindle with four sides. Each side has a letter in Hebrew and that letter tells the children what to do when the spin the dreidel and it lands on that side. Our Michael is Jewish. When he and Andie were first married, they went to his grandmother's for a Hanukkah party. Bea, Michael's paternal grandmother, had little jars with pennies in them for each person. She also gave each one a tiny green plastic dreidel. They all played the game and had great fun. Then they took their pennies and dreidels home with them. This picture is of the Hebrew letters and what each one tells the kids to do.

These are the four sides of my dreidel ornament. 

This is an assortment of others I have collected over our 50 years. They were pretty or touched me in some way. 

This one is a round ball. On one side is the manger scene. One the other side are the three wise men traveling to the manger. At the top is a star that shine over the manger and over the wise men. Way cool!!

Finally, the clear glass ball with a Nativity inside. I always place this one under a light on a branch of the tree so it looks like the star above. 

I love Nativities. They come in so many varieties. When we traveled to China with Alan McKay a few years ago, he told us that you can't really find a Nativity as a souvenir in China. So he carefully finds figures that can make up a Nativity and creates his own. Clever. 

Now we are into 2021. What will it hold. I pray it holds an opportunity for me to get back into the nursing home and eventually give my aging father a real hug. That would be the best. I pray that we will find a cure for the corona virus. Or at least something that will bring this pandemic under control. I pray that I will remember all the lessons I have learned living this year. That I will not be afraid to put aside those 'important to me' to do's to pause and take a quick trip with my hubby. I am grateful that 2020 taught me I can live with a lot less and be very, very happy. I found this Christmas I really didn't have a single gift I wanted. Not one. Even on Christmas morning, if there had not been one things under that tree for me, I would have been truly happy. I had part of our family with us and I knew the others were safe and well. What more could a mother, daughter, grandmother and wife want on Christmas day than that. Nothing. Really and truly, nothing.I hope I learn some new things as we travel through the days of 2021. It is always good to learn something new.