New Years Eve

 We had year-end dinner with friends tonight,

 a tradition since about 2017,

then home to read 

Early dinner means pretty sunset view

and watch movies until midnight

(ha! I’ll make it to midnight - himself might see 10:30. 😂)

I asked hubby if we could take the restaurant ceiling home but he said no. ☹️

Farewell, 2024, not going to miss you, although you had some great highlights. Best wishes to all for a happy, healthy 2025!

Outtake: making the best of the eye situation. Can’t get new glasses until my eye(s) are fixed, so the doctor removed one lens from my glasses. It’s my new party trick. 😂😂

Last of Christmas

Took a drive to visit Garrett and Breanne’s family on Saturday, our last event for Christmas 2024. 

Travis, 13, and Isaac, 8

It’s always fun to hangout with their boys, especially when we come bearing presents and baked goods - they are big fans of my MIL’s zucchini bread and fudge, my mom’s peanut butter fudge and my chocolate chip cake. So much so, that we’ve made plans to go back in January and show Travis  and Breanne how to make the recipes for a few… or most… of the items. Continuing family traditions with the next generation makes me so happy. 

Christmas Photo Shoot

One of the best parts of Christmas - aside from the joy, presents and food - is getting new pics of (almost) the entire family. Merry Christmas and happy Hanukkah, y’all! 

The annual ‘she still fits, so she still sits’ photo. Leia, and occasionally Jaclyn, are the only ones still willing to sit on my lap. Hope they never stop!

We don’t usually do stockings for the grandkids, but the treats Pop bought - Sees Candy coins, leather bracelets and polished rock slices from a local rock hound - were a huge hit.

Donovan insisted on including his Minecraft axe/Nerf gun in all the pictures. Pretty sure it was his favorite gift out of everything today.

Gary and Cheyenne 

Matt, Donovan, Mary and Leia

Leo, Scott, Jaclyn and Marie (and Whipped Cream, the seal)

Giggly Jackie is my favorite Jackie.

The annual boys picture

From Colorado, Cyrus, John and Rachel.

Rachel hid Cyrus’s presents in a hunting locker so they couldn’t see what was under the tree. I really admire that level of deviousness.

Me and he, 50 years and counting.

Marie made this and now I can’t get that d*mn tune out of my head. Sing it with me…🎶🎶

Done(ish) For Christmas!

Remember the snow globe quilt wall hanging (here)?

I’ve been working fairly steadily on it since the 14th, when I pulled it out of the SAP (Sad And Forgotten Projects) pile.

Border choices…

So yesterday - on Christmas Eve eve - I decided that I could FINISH IT and HANG IT by Christmas!

It only needed the second set of borders…

Spray basting on the ping pong table

and trimming, sandwiching, basting,

Quilting curves with the walking foot

and quilting. No big deal, right?

Halfway quilted…

My back hates me but I did it! 

Squaring up with construction tools

Finished the quilting at 3 am, then talked hubby into helping me trim and square it up that afternoon (we had to break out the serious squaring up tools.) 

There’s no binding yet - did I mention my back is really, really mad? - but it’s hanging for Christmas! I’m so happy. Merry Christmas and happy Hanukkah to all who celebrate!

Traditions

Showed Leia how to make my mom’s peanut butter fudge recipe,

Leia and Padme, who did not help us cook

which just happens to be one of her dad’s favorite things. 

It was delicious.

Passing on family traditions one recipe, and grandchild, at a time. 💕

Bats And Birds

Gary and Cheyenne gave me a bird feeder camera for my birthday. We got it hooked up (to wifi) and nailed up this afternoon. 

Now we wait for the first visitor. Wonder how long it will take the local birds - or squirrels - to discover the new source of free treats?

Jackie view ⬆️

Travis and his mom were in town for a baseball tournament, so we hung out with them for a game. Auntie Breanne spent most of the time teaching Jac some new (non-electronic!) games. Not sure which one was having more fun…

No pics of the star player (he was busy helping his team win 17-0…), but hopefully Breanne will send me some shots and I’ll add them tomorrow. 

Tradition!

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is packing up the grandkids for the annual photo with Santa. 

Sometimes they go willingly…. sometimes there are tears (only beforehand this year; Donovan was *very* annoyed I wouldn’t let him fill up on candy before we left)… and sometimes it’s all down to finding the perfect bribe. 

This year? The Mrs. Field’s cookie store in The Oaks made a fortune off us as bribe-of-choice. (Wow, prices have gone wayyyyyy up…)

But look at those smiling faces! Worth it!

More Snippets

Jackie, “I’m the tallest!!” Only on a ladder, kid….

The tree is a bit more decorated, still waiting for Donovan to feel better and come hang his ornaments. Crossing fingers we can do Santa pics Thursday as planned…

Leia discovered my new computer and promptly started playing her favorite game…

which just happens to be Jac’s favorite too. Jac was thrilled to learn a few new moves and shortcuts.

They were hanging out with me while I repaired one of Jac’s stuffies. Why orange thread, you say? Because I can see it! A combination of ladder stitch and fuzzy fabric will hide most of it anyway. Stuffie was fixed in time to help hang ornaments, so all is well. 

Jac wouldn’t believe me that her homework answer was wrong, so we agreed to let the teacher settle it. 😂 

Good thing the teacher has a sense of humor and knows me fairly well since she also taught Leia and Leo (and I volunteered in both classrooms.)

Vickie, Rachel, and Addy

Addy found another example of the strong genes in Pop’s family. I’m loving this so much. 

Snippets

The baby aloe Cheyenne gave me from her mama plant is blooming for the first time. I don’t think I knew they bloomed? And Marie says I need to get fertilizer foam for it. Didn’t know they made that either…

Had a birthday lunch with the CA branch and only took 2 pictures. Bad, grandma. 

But at least they were of the important things? (Hubby and ice cream candles.)

How we kept warm in The Great Power Outage of ‘24. Get under the covers, fully dressed, with Jaclyn ’The Human Heater’ in the middle. (She’s very proud that she runs hot, just like her daddy. Comes in handy when the power is off for 13+ hours…)

Addy is fascinated by genetics and the history albums I’ve been making into print-on-demand books for the family. (I’m THRILLED!)

First it was the nose she shares with hubby’s Welsh great-grandmother. (From the pictures we have, it looks like only Addy got this particular trait.)

And today she spotted the resemblance between hubby’s sister, Vickie; her mom, Rachel; and herself at about the same age. And hubby looks just like Matt and Donovan when they were this age. So cool!