Happy New Year

 Happy New Year from two old people who stayed home and watched Netflix all night! No, we aren't smokin' something...lol...just celebrating with the blowy things...and wine!

 

Happy Heavenly Birthday, brother

Happy Birthday to my brother Milo in heaven. Miss you so much brother, bet you're still playing that bass guitar and rockin' out up there in the heavens! Love you always.

 

Charcuterie for two

 Charcuterie for two! It's what's for dinner!

 

 

crazy temps here in Illinois

 Yesterday at this time it was 68° and now it's 16°. We knew this extreme change was coming, but Brrrrrr! We spent a lot of time outside yesterday and I'm glad we did, even though it was very windy, it was like a warm summer day! Now.....back to our previously scheduled winter.

The end of the festivities for this year

 We enjoyed a taco party with the Halterman's for our Christmas celebration today. Two of our dear family members are suffering from injuries and could not be with us. We hope they both heal up and get back to normal real soon. The food was delicious and it was nice to see the rest of the family. There was some great stores told of things that happened in the past and in this past year. Enjoyed them so much. This concludes the festivities for this season. Even though we enjoyed every event, we are glad to get back to normal! I hope you have all had a great Christmas season and are looking forward to 2026!

Christmas Day 2025

 What a fun day with some of my family! It was 60° and foggy, but we got in the Christmas spirit anyway! Thanks Darren and Mindy for the fresh flowers, lovely gifts and Christmas goodies! Thanks to my brother, Kent for my new computer and all the laughs. We FaceTimed with brother, Lee and sis-in-law, Sylvia in California and chatted with youngest son, Preston who was in Michigan. We tried to call Shelley, but couldn't get through. Otherwise it was a perfect day.

 

My Gothic tree

 I have normal Christmas decorations, but my favorite is my gothic Christmas display. 

 

Welcome Winter

Winter Solstice! The shortest day of the year....today!

 

Rudolph Me

 Since I have had the ugly old Grinch me on here all month, thought it was time to change to the Rudolph me from about 10 years ago when I was face painting the kiddos at "Breakfast with Santa".

 

Christmas treats

 Spent the morning making some Christmas treats: cosmic fudge, Grinch cookies and sugared pecans for a couple of our friends downtown. Thank you to Kinmundy post office and Johnson's for repairing and maintaining our vehicles. Then I made taco casserole for lunch/dinner. Now....time to do the dishes! Also, thanks for stopping by, (Dave) David Hanks, we enjoyed seeing you!

 

 

A little AI fun

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1HBD49wSrs/

Lunch with my besty, Teresa

 Had a nice long lunch with my good friend Teresa Dalton today! She got me a beautiful Christmas stocking full of cosmetics, perfume, hair products and a beautiful bracelet. I made her this steampunk cat picture. It was a fun day. 

 

The Texas grand boys were really happy to get their Christmas money!

 The Texas grand boys were really happy to get their Christmas money! Love these crazy guys so much!

 

It's Grinch Season

 

Red Hat Ladies Christmas party 2025

 We had our Red Hat Christmas party today and of course we had a great time! We played the "right left game and we each got a gift bag of goodies, including red noses. We couldn't let those go to waste...(see group picture)! Thank you, Debi Champion and Penny Scott for being our hostesses, you did a wonderful job! However, several of our ladies were ill and couldn't be with us..we missed you, Cathy, Kathy, Pat, Betty and Bonnie.Hope you are all feeling better real soon!

 

Throw back Thursday

 It's TBT...here is a picture of me and my mama at a Red Hat Christmas party many years ago(this was actually Christmas in July)..we sure had some great times with our Red Hat sisters! (2009)

 

Voila...fruit salad

 Had a bunch of extra grapes, had clementines that were getting old, had sugared pecans left from the wine tasting, saw the mint plant still growing...voila...fruit salad! I did have to make some dress though.

 

 Another beautiful night sky tonight..

 

Enchilada casserole...yummy

 I made this pioneer woman enchilada casserole today. Their recipes always have a very long list of ingredients! I like the recipes that say:"A complete Christmas dinner using only 4 ingredients".. Anyway, it was really good and made so much I won't have to cook for a week!

 

Annual Martin wine tasting

 Went to the annual wine tasting at the home of Jeff and Lori Phillips Martin last night. We had a great time! Met some new friends, visited with old friends and ate too much food. It is an open house, so many people were coming and going all evening. On the way home we drove by some of the Christmas lights here in town and stopped by the park for our annual picture in the light tunnel, which is always blurry. Our friend, Robbie happened to be out, so we took a picture with him too, wished him Merry Christmas and came home. It was a fun night.

 

Cold Full moon

 Check out this gorgeous super moon! I braved the cold to get a picture of the "Cold moon"..it's 19°, it's cold!

 

 

 

Me on another snowy day

 Most of our pretty snow melted yesterday, but we got more snow today. Just when I decided to take a few pictures and went outside, it nearly stopped. So, I needed a new profile picture anyway.. just know it was still snowing, but you just couldn't see it, so you got me instead..