Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

 

May the true meaning of this beautiful season

fill your hearts and homes with many blessings.

Love, Cheryl

(comments are closed)

A Wonderful Time of the Year

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...at my house.  I put up 2 trees, one in the LR and one in the dining area of my kitchen.  This year I bought a new pre-lit tree for the LR.  I had new ornaments bought on clearance last year.  Several of my old favorite ornaments such as the one above were used to decorate the new tree.  The ornament above was bought at SDC in Branson several years ago.  It is supposed to be carved from the wood of an olive tree in Bethlehem.

As I mentioned in my last post, I didn't get out my entire collections of Santas and Snowmen but I did have to have a few for the entertainment center.  This little trio always makes me smile when I unwrap them each year.  

This is one end of my daughter's fireplace mantle.  She borrowed a few of my snowmen to add to her collection.  Her house is beautifully decorated and I hope to get some more photos taken soon.

This tree is in the guest bedroom.  She has a tree in every room.  I helped her make some chocolate dipped pretzels this morning.  They had a bake sale at work to raise money for some new tricycles for the younguns.  She had already made several goodies the night before such as dipped oreos and rice crispy treats.  

This is the tree in her LR.  Neither one of us has all of our gifts wrapped so I didn't try to get a full shot of her tree or mine yet.  

I hope to get the wrapping done by the end of the day.  I need to get a couple more things and I'll be finished with the shopping.  

Monday I went to the doctor for a follow-up visit.  I don't mean to bore you with my health issues, but I write these things more for my sake as this blog is a journal.  So please bear with me.  You'd be surprised what I have looked up here in the last 9 years I've blogged because I'd forgotten things. 

Anyway, the visit went pretty well.   I had to have another EKG because she thought my heart rate was much too fast for me and I wasn't the least bit nervous.  

Actually, I might have been smiling because the nurse told me I sure didn't look my age and that is always good to hear!  Plus I've lost more weight since giving up sugar and white bread.  Excuse me while I brag on myself, but do you know how hard it was to give up my beloved sweet iced tea and Pepsi?  And sandwiches?  I love my bread!  Shh, don't tell the doctor but I still indulge in a roll now and then.

The EKG came back fine and I'm still awaiting to hear from the lab work.  She thought my thyroid needed to be checked.  My cough is much improved which is such a relief.  It's surprising how much that can wear one out.  She put me on a probiotic as the flora in my system is a bit out of whack.  Unless something else turns up, I don't have to go back until February for my diabetes follow-up visit. 

BG gets Christmas cards from the DAV and I loved the ones they sent this year.  I've only sent out a few Christmas cards to those friends and relatives far away.  Most people seem to have given up on mailing cards these days.  That's one tradition that I miss and that I think FB and email has ruined for us.  Well, maybe the price of postage has a little to do with it too.  :)  

We have less than a week left to get everything done.  Are you ready?  I love Christmas and the reason we celebrate this special holiday.  It's a most wonderful time of the year!

Happy Wednesday to you!
xo Cheryl

A Tree, Kitties, and Me

The days are going by much too fast for me, but then they seem to do that the older I get.  I'm slowly getting everything ready for Christmas.  Are you ready?

The trees were finished yesterday and there are a few things that will be tweaked as the days go by.  Things added and maybe a few eliminated too.  I'm finding that less is more this year.  

I didn't put out my entire Santa and Snowmen collections, just a few were put on top of the entertainment center.  I need to find a new tree skirt to complete the tree.  The one I had last year was no where to be found.

I love Christmas music and have been enjoying listening to a few favorite CD's.  My sugar-free hot chocolate supply is about gone so that needs to be put on my shopping list.

My daughter has been busy decorating her house and has had a little audience as she works in the kitchen.  See the trio at the door?  They are part of a group of 5 kittens that were moved by their mother to her house in the spring.  The one in the background is Orphan, so named because her mother more or less abandoned her and she took up with the 5 kittens. 

Uncle CT is still around helping take care of them although the kittens are nearly grown by now.  That is Uncle CT in the middle.  Lil Stormy is in front and Orphan is in the back.

I knew this would happen.  Kim fell in love with them all, but Lil Stormy wormed his way into her heart and was the first one she could pet after many weeks, maybe months, of coaxing.  I told her that Lil Stormy would be wanting to come into the house and she said no, not gonna happen.  

Well, guess what?  How can you say no to that sweet little face?  I couldn't either.  We are both soft touches when it comes to our fur babies.  He comes in to visit when she's home in the evenings and weekends, but goes outside the rest of the time. 

As for me, I am still coughing some but otherwise am doing better.  I had to go to the eye clinic Monday for another shot in my eye for macular degeneration.

That isn't much fun but the worst part is getting my eyes dilated and it's hard to see for quite awhile.  I managed to drive to the mall and stopped in at Barnes and Noble and the Cafe Court to wait until I could see better.  The selfie was just me goofing around.  I'd thought to take a pic of my sad looking eye, but it didn't turn out.

You might as well laugh at yourself and have fun when you can.  I  made the gal that took the eye x-rays laugh.  She told me to put my chin on the bar and I said, "which one?"  She then proceeded to talk about the joys of getting older and having everything start to sag, although I'm sure she was much younger than I am.  I didn't tell her that it only gets better, haha!

Then the doctor came in with the same old joke he tells me every time I see him.  Something about telling my husband that I needed to give up vacuuming, that it wasn't good for my health.  The man needs a new joke book for Christmas!

What are you asking Santa for Christmas?  Anything special?  We have told our children that we need to downsize and don't need a thing.  Really, we don't.  I realize more everyday that I need to stop accumulating stuff.  I love dishes for instance, but I have more than enough now.  Now books are maybe the one thing that I can't stop bringing home.  But I do donate many that I've read and won't read again.

I'll hope to visit soon!  Being under the weather for so long put me way behind on things.  I still need to finish my shopping and wrapping.  Maybe a trip to the Amish country will be made to purchase some of their delicious candies and breads.   All those yummy things that I'm not supposed to eat!  

Happy Wednesday to you!
xo Cheryl

Catching Up

It's been a while since my last post and although I strive to be upbeat, I also believe in keeping it real.  So I'll begin with saying the past few weeks haven't exactly been my finest, healthwise.  I've struggled with vertigo, a bad cough which is still lingering and various other ailments.

I even had to go to the Emergency Room this past Saturday night.  You know how it is, something always seems to happen over the weekend or at night when there aren't any doctors available.

I think I'm on the upswing now even though some things still need to improve.  At least there were a few good days here and there the past few weeks and we took advantage of them and went to Branson.  

Silver Dollar City at Branson is a must-see for me during the Christmas season which begins the first weekend in November.  They had added 1.5 million lights to the already 4 million this year and it was just fabulous.  I love Christmas lights and I was like a kid again gazing in awe at everything. 

There were several archways covered in lights like the photo above.
 

As I wasn't feeling the best, I didn't try to walk down the hills toward the back of the park as in years past, but I think I saw most of the new lights as they seemed to be mainly in the mid-park section.   Do you see the suspended tree in the photo above?

I can't begin to describe the beauty of SDC decked out for Christmas and if you ever go, be sure to stay after dark as it is indeed a sight to behold!

Our condo already had a tree up and decorated.  The weather was nice during the time we were there and just chilly enough at night to have a fire going in the fireplace.
 

One morning the fog was still hanging over the lake and it made a pretty sight.  I love fog if I don't have to drive in it!  
 

Here's a photo taken from inside of the fog on the lake.  I think this was the morning we were leaving to go back home.  You can see by the shadows on the deck that the sun was breaking through the fog.
 

I love Branson but it's always good to get home and back with our sweet fur-kids.  Stormy missed us and she has been keeping close to me when she knows I don't feel good.  

My Christmas trees are still in the boxes just waiting to be opened and put together and decorated and I'm behind on shopping too.  It will get done even if a bit late this year.  Our daughter wants to have Christmas dinner at her house this year.  We'll have our gift exchange on Christmas eve here. 

Hopefully I'll get back to visiting and posting more regular soon.  I do hope all of you are staying well and having fun getting ready for the holidays.

Happy Tuesday to you!
xo Cheryl