The Winter Storm...

Sunday, December 5, 2025 was the day the winter storm arrived. It was predicted well ahead of time. By Saturday the reports were confident that we would get measurable snow followed by sleet and freezing rain followed by more snow into Monday. 

Our Church leaders were concerned and alerted us on Saturday afternoon that they would assess the possibilities and provide direction about church being held on Sunday. The decision was made to not use the church building in all of our stake on Sunday for services or activities. I made sure my ministering sisters received this message. Then we hunkered down (as they say) for the duration. 

Sunday morning, we got this sweet message from our Bishop. He had been traveling a lot in December. 

I got up and did my home PT. Claude woke up while I was doing this. I took this picture about 9am before I iced my shoulder. 

We watched Music and the Spoken Word. Then I took this picture at 11am.

Claude would lay down for a nap. I worked on my Blog. Then I took this picture at 1pm. The snow was still coming down pretty heavy. 

By 3pm, this was what the snow looked like.

I read my novel and stopped about 5pm. By now, the sleet was coming down. This would lower the level of the snow received from the weight of the ice. The windows along the front of our home were covering with a layer of ice. The windows along the back were not. This was due to the direction the snow was falling. 

Dark came quickly and I could no longer get a picture of the outside of our home. Claude fixed a nice baked potato soup and we curled up for our evening together. No loss of power or water. It is good to live in a neighborhood where the power lines are buried. 

Monday, December 6th, we looked out to see the snow had stopped for a bit. Anne Jennings Way had been plowed. There would be more snow during the day. Here are my views at about 10am. We watched our across-the-street neighbor shoveling his drive. Once he shoveled and lifted up a large block of ice. He put the shovel down and lifted the block of ice and tossed it onto his yard. The ice must have been about 3 inches deep. The trees in the back were covered in ice. The forecast had been for 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch of ice on top of the snow. I am sure we got the half at least based on the covering of ice on each twig of the tree.

Our day was spent inside watching through our windows and on our devices. Claude made a heated up the leftover Baked Potato Soup and made us BLT's for dinner. I finished reading my book. It was an excellent read. I have given it to Claude in case he wants to read it. Then I will give it to Jake. He used to love and collect giraffes. 

Tuesday, January 7th, the snow had not quite stopped. It would flurry for the next few days with snow again Friday into Saturday. The temperatures were to remain below freezing. 

I started my day with home PT. Claude went to the shed to get the big shovel in case it was needed to start trying to clear our driveway. He told me you put a foot on the top of the snow then it takes a second or two before your foot goes to the ground. Then you had to pull it out of the snow to take the next step. Yuck! 

I went out front to check on Claude. I wasn't hearing the shovel and was concerned. He had removed the snow from the garage door behind the Jeep and was analyzing where he should expend his limited energy next. He pointed out that the resident rabbit seems to have stayed close to our home.

When Claude stopped for a break, this was all he could get done. We had at least 6 inches of snow. That, in itself, would have been fun to remove. Then we had ice come on top of that 6 inches of snow. As Claude shovels, there is about 3 inches of ice on top of the snow. It is grueling work with a shovel. You lift a shovelful and the ice breaks as it fall. The ice makes that shovelful heavier than just snow would. The goal is to get the driveway clear so the Jeep can get out. Then to clear the end of the driveway at the street across to the mailbox. This is very difficult. The snowplows have cleared the street but that means the snow they plowed is mixed with the ice they plowed and rolled over at the curbs. At the end of the driveway is a mixture of ice and snow that will be grueling to clear away. 

I am always fascinated when the tree branches get covered in ice. They have a very thick coating of ice on them. I tried to zoom in to our little birdhouse in the tree. It had ice that dripped and formed little icicles. 

Our very tall grass in the front flowerbed is completely laden with ice. And my two little flower pots with silk flowers are coated with snow that has blown off the roof or in from the front yard.

We did post some requests for help with a friends sons and some local boys. Claude was able to get in contact with the mother of the local boys. They would come Wednesday to shovel out the driveway. When Claude finished, he had a path wide enough for the tires on one side of the Jeep to drive out of the driveway. If he got nothing else done, we could get out of the driveway. 

Staying inside while Claude worked to shovel was very difficult for me. I love when the two of us work together to get things done, especially in the yard. I could do nothing about that work. However, I could fix him a cup of hot chocolate and lure him in for a break. In the evening, I cooked fried chicken with rice and gravy for dinner for him. Claude is usually our cook and he very much appreciate a good warm meal without having to do the cooking himself.

Wednesday, January 8th, the mother of the two boys we found on Facebook let Claude know her boys would be at our home about 9am. I had office PT at 10:30am. They arrived promptly. I sent this picture to our family on the family Facebook page and let them know 'the cavalry had arrived'. 

They shoveled full tilt until 10:15. By then they had the driveway clear and the walkway from the driveway to our front door clear. They did not clear all the turned over snow and ice by the snowplow on my side of the driveway. This is where one sees the difference in a teenagers physical ability and a 75-year old man working alone. We were very grateful for these two young men. Claude paid them what they asked and a bit more. He also alerted them that he might want them when he have more snow. The prediction was for more on Friday. 

Claude drove me to PT and then did the grocery shopping for the next week. He also dropped off some mail we wanted to send. The mailmen had not delivered mail on Monday due to the road conditions in Georgetown. We were not sure he will even stop until that snow is away from the mailbox. 

I spent time cleaning out files on my laptop. In the course of this, I found a poem that Andie sent me about teaching. I eMail it to Andie before I deleted it form my laptop. I received a sweet not from Andie later in the day. She was thinking about that poem and looked in her computer files but could not find it. How fortunate I had it and sent it to her. Andie is an excellent teacher and this year has a class that is the most trying she has ever taught. Oh what our teachers today are called on it do. 

Claude also cleared off the satellite dish. We were not getting our television guide and no shows were recording because of snow and ice on the DirecTV dish. In the evening, we were to have full use of our television. Usually, if service is interrupted, we can still watch shows we have DVR'd. These were running low and no new ones were being recorded. Now we were back to normal with our television.

Thursday, January 9th, I had a restless night and got out of bed early. I went to the living room and sent my Trivial Pursuit questions to the family, read some things on my phone, did my home PT and iced up. When I finished, I went back to bed. Claude was up and left me to sleep a bit more. Thank heavens for retirement so I can do that when needed. 

We decided to go out to a sit-down meal for dinner this day. With promise of more snow coming, we thought we should get out on a day that was not snowing. Our decision was to eat at Cattleman's Roadhouse. We really enjoy this place. Claude had an exceptionally good steak and I enjoyed my salmon with extra dipping sauce. We had a lovely server with a beautiful braid over her long dark hair over her shoulder. As we finished eating, a song came over their speaker. The server was cleaning another table and she turned to Claude and me and asked what musical group we liked. I told her we were Eagles fans. Claude said we liked traditional country. She looked at us and asked, "Do you think you could tell me who this is a picture of?" I got out of our booth and walked two booths down. There hanging on the wall was a big picture of Roy Rogers. I told her it was Roy Rogers. Claude told her his real name was Leonard Slye. She was surprised to find out that the picture was Roy Rogers. She didn't know his face but she did know the name. I left wondering how old Claude and I really are. I thought everyone knew Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. Alas, even that is now a generational thing. 

After our excellent meal, I paused to take picture of the icicles on Cattleman's Roadhouse. The sun was shining right on them and they were beautiful. It is truly like looking at crystal reflecting in sunlight. I told Claude I loved how pretty this was. I also told him that the only way we can see this kind of beauty is to endure the storm we just went through. I marvel that it is a parable about life. There are things that we desire that are worthy and beautiful and uplifting but to get to that point we often must wade through the difficult things first. Such a beautiful way to teach me that life lesson.

When we got home, I quickly went to our back yard to check the sunlight on our trees as the ice on them was getting ready to melt. Same crystal beauty!!

In the evening, I checked Facebook and learned that the train in Sadieville had jumped its track. We lived in Sadieville 17 years and never saw this happen. Fortunately there was nothing hazardous on the train and no one was injured. It would cause havoc with Hwy 32 traffic going into and through Sadieville. I wasn't plowed well. That is typical as it is a lesser county road. The people living in Eagle Bend only have and entry and exit to that development at one place. That is off Hwy 32. If they shut that down, there is NO back entrance to their homes. 

Friday, January 10th, we opted to begin our day with our beloved Biscuit Run. Snow wasn't to come till the afternoon, so we had morning to get out. This afforded us a bit more time to plot an anniversary trip in February. We started this over dinner at Cattleman's Roadhouse. We would do a little more reading about possibilities while we ate our biscuits and watched traffic. We blocked off two weeks in February for our adventure. Claude has wanted to drive The Florida Key's Overseas Highway. It is one of the longest over the water bridges. It is actually made up of 42 bridges and runs for 113-miles. It connects that larger keys and goes from Miami to Key West. We are looking at driving for 3 days to get to Miami. Then whatever time we fell we want to take to drive from Miami to Key West. Then return home. I looked at flying and renting a car. It will cost much less to drive it ourselves. Plus, we get a road trip. We have done Key West before, so we will definitely drive to Key West so we drive the entire highway. But we will then focus our visits to some of the other Keys. 

Back home to spend our day at our laptops. I have soooooo many files and pictures on my laptop. I am trying to go through them, delete files I really don't need, clean up duplicates of pictures, and generally tidy up my laptop. I usually do a really good backup in January. That is my goal.

I ended this day so very grateful for our sweet little home. The comfort and peace it brings to our lives. The warmth and shelter in bad weather. We are richly blessed at this point in our lives to have a beautiful home we can manage pretty well. 

Saturday, January 11th, we had about 3 more inches of snow overnight. This was just snow and it was a bit powdery (dry). Claude was able to shovel this away from where we had already shoveled. I noted we had icicles hanging from our roof. This is not really normal for us. We usually have snow and when the sun come and shines on it, even if the temperature is still cold, it will melt away without leaving a lot of icicles. Because of the ice on top of our snow and temperatures staying below freezing for the week, the melt off from the roof is different this time. We have icicles! While they are beautiful, I see them as room and gutter damaging as well. So, a picture to keep is in order.

Katelyn posted this picture showing her hubby, Drew Roper, was selected as Play of the Week for his ice hockey team. Drew loves this sport very, very much. Way to go Drew!

I had two interesting calls from grandmonsters this day. The first was Raelyn. She sent me a message first with a fun question. I replied. Her next message asked if she could call me. I asked if she had her mother's permission. She replied she was going to ask her. You see, Raelyn and Emelia know how to called and video chat. They love and want to do this. However, I have learned that it is often when they have been asked to clean their rooms or lay down and rest by their mother. Not wanting to aid them in getting into any trouble and wanting to support Katelyn in raising four every active little ones, I have learned to ask if they talked with Katelyn about calling first. I quickly got a reply from Raelyn they would call later that evening, now was not the right time. So cute!

I also got a text from Bailey asking if she could call. I assured her that would be fine. She said she would call as soon as she was finished with her breakfast. A couple of hours later, Bailey did call. We chatted for a while, then she got to the need for this call. It seems she finally found out she was accepted to the University of Kentucky Honor Band for January 31st through February 2nd. Since there was not school all week because of our bad weather, it took longer than usual for Bailey's acceptance to filter down to her. Since UK is nearer our home that hers, she was wondering if we could come pick her up on Friday after she finished school, stop and get some dinner on the way and then deposit her at her first practice at the University of Kentucky. Then she wanted us to pick her up on Friday and bring her to our home to stay for the weekend. This would end Sunday in the afternoon with a concert. We would be her wheels to get back and forth to UK. I assured her that was a weekend we could do that. At the end of the conversation, she said, "Well, I'll go talk to my parents now." Later in the evening, I got a call from Andie, her mother, to discuss these arrangements. It seems Bailey set up everything and then came to tell Andie about it. While Andie is pleased and proud of Bailey for being about to make her arrangements, she really would like to get an idea of this plan before Bailey sets everything up. It makes me feel that Raelyn will be in this same situation as she raises her girls! Ha Ha!!

I had a wonderful afternoon at my laptop. Very productive. 

Claude chose Star Wars as our next round of evening movie watching. Fine with me!!

We have some witty and clever people naming their snowplows. Todd, our son-in-law, saw one that was named Clearopathra. 

Sunday, January 12th, evidently they didn't get our church parking lot as clear as it needed to be for two congregations to overlap with parking. We started meeting at 9am this year. Georgetown Ward meets at 10:30am. Today, Georgetown Ward sent out a notice their time would be moved to 12noon so there was no overlapping of need for parking spaces. 

Katelyn sent us this cute picture of Joel from behind. We purchased him as belt while we were in Arizona on our Route 66 trip. We saved it and gave it to him for Christmas. Katelyn assured us he LOVES his belt. How cute is that little backside!

I have been hearing what often sounds like chucks of the back of the hour breaking off or cracking. After church I looked in the back yard. Now, in most places where there isn't concrete, the snow is still smooth. Our backyard looks liked this.

This is because all those little coatings of ice on the branches and twigs of our trees is now melting and falling to the ground and on the patio. It doesn't show up well in this picture, but it looks like little pieces of glass in the snow. That is pieces of ice from the limbs. Isn't nature amazing?

Claude tried to nap. He was unsuccessful. This earlier schedule will be interesting. I watched to shows with Albert Lin. He is an explorer that does everything that other explorer/adventurer types do. The difference is he lost one of his legs in a car accident. He has a prosthetic leg and he climbs mountains and scuba dives with the best of them. I enjoy learning about the places he explores. I greatly admire him for not letting his disability define him. 

Now, I am at my laptop for the remainder of the afternoon. I'll finish my Blog for this week. Then I'll work on all the clearing of files and backing up my laptop I want to get done. That way, on Monday, I can start on that to do list for our anniversary trip, for our Greek island trip, for Relief Society, etc. This is a great Sunday for me.

Happy New Year 2025...

Monday, December 30th, we started our morning with a biscuit run. Time to get ready for New Year's Day. Nothing quite like a good biscuit to have a conversation about what must happen and being sure we are ready. This was followed by a Kroger grocery run for the final fresh items, then to Walmart for a couple of errands, then to CVS to pick up prescriptions for Claude and then back to our little cottage. We had time to finish off things on our laptops that needed to be done before company. 

We left for LaGrange in the afternoon. We would pick up Hayden to bring him to our home for our annual New Year's Eve moviefest. Michael also wanted my Frank Lloyd Wright puzzle. We took Hayden's Christmas presents so he wouldn't have to haul them around. One present was a new cane. Now he can have one at school and one in Kentucky. 

We planned to stop at Zaxby's in Frankfort for our dinner with Hayden. Claude missed the exit so we drove on to Georgetown and got our meal at the drive-thru window of the Georgetown Zaxby's. We would dine at home with our grandson and finish our evening with some more Psyche episodes. 

Tuesday, December 31st, was New Year's Eve. Hayden sleeps very late when on a break. I got up and headed to office PT. They increased the weight size on several of my exercises. My are would be a bit more sore after this. But, a good kind of sore. 

By a little after 3pm, we were all in our places, food at the ready for whenever anyone wanted to eat anything, and it was time to begin our Lord of the Rings marathon. Oh how I love these movies. We watched them with a brief break between each to freshen our treats. At midnight, Hayden alerted us to the fact it WAS midnight. We were right at the end of The Return of the King. I love the scene as the ship leaves the harbor for the Undying Land. Such a nice ending for the movies.

We headed to bed. Hayden stayed up a little longer. 

Wednesday, January 1, 2025. Happy New Year!!

Hayden slept in REALLY late. I was able to get more laptop work accomplished and took down the interior decorations. Claude had taken the exterior decorations down while I was office PT on Tuesday. They were in the garage being sure they were dried out before boxing them up. I was able to get all the decoration boxes out to the shed including the ornaments, garlands and lights from the tree. I had the tree taken apart but not squished back for storage in the boxes. 

Hayden woke, had a bit to eat and we left for LaGrange at 4pm. Andie and Michael invited us to dinner. Michael made some great air-fryer chicken and Andie made double backed potatoes. Excellent meal. Afterward, I cut Andie's hair before she goes back to school. After a nice visit, we headed back to Georgetown.

Thursday, January 2nd, I started my day with office PT. Then it was home to be sure we were all ready for the forecast of a major storm over Kentucky. Claude treated us to ham and bean soup in an effort to get more of the leftover ham used up. Yum. 

Friday, January 3rd, we took some men's coats to The Gathering Place in Georgetown. This is a men's shelter. They will be sorely needed as the big storm approaches. 

Claude and I worked together to get all the Christmas decorations into the shed. Whew, that felt good. Well, a little bad. I find myself still wanted to touch my toe to the power strip to turn on the Christmas tree lights. Alas, there is no tree, or lights, or power strip. Funny how that little habit is so quickly ingrained. 

With things in order in our home, I curled up to begin reading a book Andie gave to me entitled "West with Giraffes". It is a true story of the first giraffes to cross the United States from the east coast to San Diego to be in a zoo run by the first female Zoo Director. These elephants were actually in a ship that was in a storm at sea and barely made it alive to the United States. Good story. 

Through the afternoon, I sent and received text from Hayden as he road the bus back to Chicago from he quick break home. 

Saturday, January 4th, everyone and everything is abuzz with the winter storm due to hit Kentucky Sunday morning. I decided to get my laundry all done just in case there is a problem. This was the final touch on being prepared for the storm. I contacted my ministering sisters to be sure they were prepared for the storm. Then I sat at my laptop to clean off files so I can do a good backup for the first of the year. 

I will share four of my favorite artist paintings by Thomas Cole. They are titled "The Voyage of Life". They each are about a phase of life. The first is Childhood, the second is Youth, the third is Manhood and the fourth is Old Age. When living in Maryland, we went to the National Museum of Art and I saw the paintings for the first time. The each fill an entire wall. Looking at them like that, you can see much more detail than in these little pictures. I was so smitten with them, I purchased copies of each one and they hang in our living room now over the loveseat. The river represents life flowing along. The boat carries the person at different stages of their life. As you look at the other items in each painting, it gives you a feel for that stage of life. Notice how the current is different. Also look for the angels watching over the person in the boat, eventually, in the Old Age one, those angels are guiding him home to his Father in Heaven. 

Claude and I are both in our mid-70's. We have reached the point where many others our age are leaving this frail existence. I do not say this to be morbid or dark. I see it as a fact and one not to be shunned. It gives me pause to be sure I am making the most of what time I have left here on earth. That is a positive thing. We don't know what our end time on earth will be. I want to have enjoyed all that I can with the time I am given on earth. I have been richly blessed to see a lot of earth and life. I am grateful for this time. For Claude to make this journey with me. As this new year approached, it made me keenly aware of the frailty of life. Our health is at a different place than it was even ten years ago. I want this year to have meaningful things happen, good things. I want to endure well whatever I am called upon to endure. I want to be kind and friendly to all in my life path. I want to live a positive life, no matter what comes. I don't make New Year's resolutions. I am reaffirming how I have lived and want to continue to live this time I am given. It is a good reflection. 

Christmas 2024...

Tuesday, December 24th, we accomplished the final little things to be ready for company. We have a Viking Santa cookie jar that Lynette Drysdale, Claude's sister, gave us a few years ago. I baked chocolate chip cookies to fill it in the morning. Happily, I did all of it until it came time to add the pecans and chocolate chips to the thick dough. My arm could not do that. Claude was sitting at the counter watching me work and he was ready to step in and mix all that together for me. I was very happy my arm did as much as it did. Progress!

Usually we have smoked brisket on Christmas Eve. This year, Claude was just not up do smoking another brisket. We had a delicious pan of homemade lasagna. He did an excellent job. The proof of its goodness was the two small containers of left over he put in the frig were eaten Christmas day my Michael and Andie. 

After dinner, Bailey covered her grandfather up in a lot of blankets. I count at least three. 

We enjoyed a quiet Christmas Eve.

Wednesday, December 25th, we were up and ready to open presents by 9am. How nice it is when the kids get older and you are not up at 5am!! Here are a few pictures of opening presents. 

First the opening of stockings. The Marx family always has stockings however they are now using bags. They also provide Claude and I each a little stocking treat. 1) Bailey, 2) Claude, 3) Andie and Michael and 4) Claude holding up my turtle chips from the Marx's.

Then we opened presents. Bailey pulled them all out from under the tree and carefully made sure we took turns opening gifts. 1) Claude opens ditty bag from Sandi, 2) turtle sandbox ornament from the Marx to Sandi, 3) Claude in cap from Tyler's, 4) Bailey opens LYO ornament from her parents, 5) Andie opens Little Golden Book about the Kelce brothers, 6) Andie and Michael open heating pads from Claude and Sandi, 7) Bailey opens Taylor Swift Mad Libs from her parents, 8) Bailey opens Taylor Swift necklace from Claude and Sandi, and 9) Sandi opens cardinal puzzle from the Tyler's. 

Time for breakfast. We found a video clip on Facebook prior to Christmas about making a cinnamon roll Christmas tree out of canned cinnamon rolls. We had canned cinnamon rolls and canned orange rolls. This would be our breakfast. The problem was that the cinnamon rolls would not unwind. We would have had a much easier time with the orange rolls unwinding. We did the best we could. It was delicious. The video had colored sprinkles and things decorating the cinnamon rolls. We opted to not add that additional sugar and mess. The little cup of icing that comes in the can was plenty. 

At noon, we did an hour long video call with the Tyler's, Jake, Hayden and all of us in Georgetown. It was a delight. Jake kept trying out new backgrounds. Andie found his background and make ours the same. It was good to catch up with family. 

Katelyn sent us pictures of the great grands in the hats with the pump up ears and their books we got them in Solvang that are by Hans Christian Anderson. (Emelia, Kennedi, Raelyn and Joel). How cute are they?!?!

I have posted before about our daily Trivial Pursuit questions. I have been doing three Christmas questions the last half of December. On Christmas Day, Raelyn sent a video of her answering the question "What mode of transportation is the Polar Express?" How fun to have the little ones answer one of the questions.

We would have ham, funeral potatoes, broccoli and bacon salad and rolls for dinner. Claude was not feeling well. He is trying to get his dosage of Ozempic right. He laid down for a bit. At 3pm, I got the ham in the pan and in the oven. Claude woke up and went back to his kitchen duty. He found the oven on FIRE!! It seems the brown sugar glaze packet stuck to the ham. As the juices from the ham filled the baking pan and dripped over, the brown sugar glaze packet fell to the bottom of the oven and landed on the electric coils. The fire was the result. I smelled the drippings in the bottom of the oven and got up to check. My poor hubby was trying to get the fire out. Ironically, the Marx's gave us a blanket to throw over a fire to put it out. Michael went to get it. We have a liner on the bottom of the oven to catch spills. Claude was able to take the meat fork and lift the electric coil up while I pulled the liner with the burning pile of yuck on it out of the bottom of the oven. It all cleaned up fine. Doors were open and ceiling fans were turned on. Thank heavens the temperature outside was 60 degrees!! What is Christmas without a little excitement, right?

In the evening, sweet Jessie Carter called me to wish me a Merry Christmas. She is such a delight. After talking with her, I talked with Laura for a bit. Love this family so very much. 

The cardinal Christmas puzzle was brought out and Andie and Michael helped me get it put together. Alas, there was one piece missing. Ugh. We searched high and low and could not find it. More on that later.

Thursday, December 26th, the Marx family left in the morning. Claude and I put the few things back in order and plopped ourselves back down to watch Psyche while I worked on the Frank Lloyd Write 1000 piece puzzle I bought during the summer. I was a delightfully relaxed day after Christmas.

Friday, December 27th, was another Psyche day. I finished the Frank Lloyd Wright puzzle. It rained off and on all day. A good day to be inside. The Marx family headed to Chicago to visit Hayden and then bring him home on Sunday for a few days. When getting close to the end of this puzzle, I felt a puzzle piece fall to my lap and then to the floor. I reached under the table and found it was the missing piece from the cardinal puzzle!! How in the world that happened, I will never know. But I was very happy it fell and I found it. 

Saturday, December 28th, I awoke early and did my home PT. When Claude got up, I started the laundry. We curled up one more day to watch Psyche. 

Sunday, December 29th, Claude woke up with his stomach growling. He is not sick. We are really sure he needs to go back to the lower dose of Ozempic. He stayed home and went back to bed. I went to church and enjoyed Sacrament meeting and a terrific Relief Society lesson. 

In the evening, we had tickets for our 12th and Final Date of Christmas. We would have dinner at Firehouse Subs. Then head to the Lexington Opera House to enjoy Mannheim Steamroller. It was excellent as usually. We had great seats in the Mezzanine level on the second row from the edge. We really like sitting up a little high and watching from the perspective. I got a kick out of the man playing the harpsicord in sneakers. I am just sure Mozart would have loved playing in sneakers!!

When we got home, I changed into my Christmas gift from Claude. This is one comfy and warm...I'm not sure what to call it! It is like a really long night shirt made out of very soft blanket material. It pulls on like a t-shirt and wraps you in a big hug!

We got a video call from Emelia, which her mother did not know she was doing. It was cute and fun.

Hayden sent up texts to set up us picking him up on Monday afternoon in preparation for our New Year's tradition. 

Now, on to get in 2025!!