New Years Eve....

It is New Year's Eve and I am all alone. That is okay. Watching the ball drop and drinking my calypso colada. Just one. Then at midnight if I make it that long off to bed I will go.

Tomorrow I am fixing lunch for 8. The menu is pork chops, mashed potatoes, stove top stuffing, cabbage and black eye peas with rolls. Dessert is cupcakes and brownies.

I done  a little bit of after Christmas shopping today. I went to the mall and to Big Lots and Walgreens, Jo Ann's. Most places had 70% off on Christmas stuff. I buy some every year. It is always nice when I get my Christmas decorations down from the attic every year to see what I bought and forgot about. I found some good bargains. I have always wanted the Nutcrackers. I got one. I always get my Christmas cards on sale and wrapping paper. I will never run out of wrapping paper.

At Wal Mart I got a password book for all my passwords. Coca Cola too. I found a journal that was Coca Cola too. I am going to try and write in it every day. I already did for today.

I hope the year 2016 is  a better year for all of us. Tomorrow I take down my Christmas tree ornaments. Everything else is already put up in the attic. My house is clean for the New Year. I will write my resolutions I never seem to keep. But this might be the year to keep them. One never knows. Happy New Year!

Christmas is Over.....New Year Beginning

Christmas is over once again. I am always sad when it is over on Christmas night. I really don't know why. I guess because of the anticipation of that day. Months of shopping trying to find the perfect gift for each person on your list. So loud that day with excited kids playing with toys. Big dinner. Then I go home and it is so quiet. Just a letdown.

There are a lot of things I can do to get prepared for next year. Seems like I didn't have time to do everything I planned on doing. One sad thing. I sent  a card to a pen pal that I have written too for the last twenty years. We have the same birthday and same age. Her card I sent came back saying deceased on it. I have no way of knowing what happened. She had kids but none knew me.. This happened last year too but the lady had lived with her sister and her sister wrote me back telling me. That is happening way to often.

The last few days I have spent cleaning. Today I deep cleaned my master bath and bedroom. Took me most of the day. Tomorrow it will be the living room and dining and kitchen. I want to get it all cleaned before the new year. I usually cook lunch on New Years for a few of the kids. Got to have black eye peas and sauerkraut.

Maybe on New Years Eve I will have a drink. Just one. The last twenty years I had grape juice. I thought I couldn't drink alcohol. But I do drink a wine cooler now and then. That is the extent of it. But it is kind of relaxing.

So I am working on getting my house in order. Working on New Year resolutions I never keep. Maybe this year I will, Who knows?

I Am Thru Shopping........The Stockings Are Hung

I went shopping tonight with Jana and Kaylee. I got thru .....I am so glad. It wasn't too bad. A lot of shelf's were empty. I wanted a large pecan pie and there were none. I usually make my own but thought I would get  one already made since I have to work tomorrow. I will look again tomorrow and see if they have any but other than that I am done.

I was hunting a basket to put an assortment of stuff in and Jana finally found one behind some stuff. It was really cute. Purple. We went up to the check out and I seen Kaylee didn't have it anymore. About that time we seen a little girl about 3 with a basket of stuff and the basket was in her stuff. Jana told Kaylee she wasn't supposed to give it to her. Kaylee said she didn't so I guess the little girl took it from her. lol The little girls grandma heard us and told her to give it to us. She said, "Did you take that away from the little girl?" It was kind of funny. Reminded me of some of the movies where everyone wants the same thing and everyone is trying to get it.

I had to stop at one more store to find Vasile a gift card. They didn't have very many left at Wal Mart. Walgreen's has a lot of  different ones so I went there. And then I was done.

This is the first time in years I have been done shopping before Christmas Eve. I used too always still be shopping when they were closing the doors. I am real proud of myself for getting thru. I have to work tomorrow so I didn't have a lot of time tomorrow. Just have to see if they have a pecan pie.

I got home and I decided I wanted a wine cooler and relax after all of that. I don't often drink. It was nice and relaxing and now I am off to bed. Santa will be coming tomorrow night. So I hope you all have got all your shopping done.

Bad Week but It Will Get Better.......

I have always thought I wanted to have a room mate and be like the Golden Girls. I tried that but that was not what I wanted at all. A friend once told me if you let a friend move in with you that dissolves your friendship. She was so right. I guess it don't always work that way but this time it did.

I guess I was used to my privacy. I like my alone time. Just not all the time. This person was talking 24-7. I stayed in my room  a lot to get away. Soon as I came out there she was. When I was in my room talking on the phone I would come out and she would have her chair against my bedroom wall. I said this cannot happen. This is my house. I felt bad for her but I just couldn't handle that.

Then the hot water heater went out. Great! We done without hot water for a few days. Made me think back to when I used to stay at my Granny's. She just had cold water. They had to heat water for everything. I would not want to do that. We have so many luxuries now. When I was a child living in Longworth we had a well we had to draw water out of. Imagine how bad that water was for you. Now we all drink bottled water.

Next I had to go to a ENT specialist this week. My ear was so stopped. I can hear lots better now but he hurt me! I have very small ear canals. He had to use small metal instruments I did not like. The first few days after that my own voice sounded so loud. I am finally getting used to it. But I can hear!

Then today I went Christmas shopping. Got most of the presents bought. Shopped a lot on Amazon. That is so much easier than fighting the crowds. I did shop some at Target and Wal Mart. Every aisle I went down someone would be in the middle of the aisle and didn't pay any attention to someone needing by.. Grrrr! I have always said the buggies need a horn.  Thank goodness I am almost thru. I will be done by Thursday. Merry Christmas!

Elf on A shelf.........Julie Lynn

I had always wanted an elf on a shelf. Last year in November in Sweetwater Guy got me one. Things are never as good as they seem. I got it and it didn't move from place to place. I had to move it myself every day. I did name her after my two daughters in heaven, Julie Christine and Paula Lynn. Hence the name Julie Lynn.

I came back to Fort Worth a few weeks after I got it. I brought Julie Lynn with me. I decided to give it to the grandkids. They would love it. It is fun seeing what that elf will do next and I don't have to move it around.

Jana calls it Snickerdoodle. The funniest thing out of the mouth of kids of course is when Jana put it  on the wall with a group of pictures.. She made mustaches and horns on a group of pictures on the wall. She put the Elf on one of the pictures. Kaylee who is 4 got very upset. She started crying when she seen what that silly elf had done. She said , "Bad elf." When I went over she was showing it to me and she would make the weirdest faces at the elf. It was so funny.

The next morning I was reading in the Star Telegram paper that people could send in pictures or videos of the elf in peculiar places and write a 200 word or less story about it. Being the  writer I am I will do that. Seems like that elf on the pictures was just meant to be wrote about.