We Had a Very Laid-Back Christmas

Christmas this year was very laid back, which was nice.  We left on Saturday to go to my sister’s (Gabby) and her girlfriend (Amy) house.  It was mostly just the four of us.  Amy’s brother, Jason, came over on Christmas Day.  It was the first time we met him, and he was very nice.  He’s a pet person, too. 

We left a little later than we originally planned to on Saturday morning.  Our friends Cathey and John have been dealing with a lot.  He has Alzheimer’s and recently went into a care facility.  Unfortunately, he was in the hospital with COVID and pneumonia over Christmas.  Cathey was exposed, so was in quarantine.  We stopped to get Cathey some flowers and a little grocery store care package (orange juice, Christmas cupcakes, hot chocolate mix, tea, and some canned soup) and dropped it all off on her porch.  The good news is that John recovered well from COVID and pneumonia, and Cathey didn’t get sick.

Despite leaving a little later than we planned, traffic on the way to Gabby and Amy’s wasn’t bad.  We took a different route this year due to road construction, and it was a good choice. 

Gabby likes to cook as much as I do, so we had tons of food.  She made a chocolate and strawberry cake for Nick’s birthday on Christmas Eve.  She also made cookies, several different kinds of soup, pistachio cake, and cheese grits.  We ate well!  I forgot to take any food pictures, though. 

We got to pet six of their eight cats.  Their cat Severus slept with us two of the three nights we were there.  Doesn’t he look like such a distinguished gentleman in this picture? 

Severus is a relatively calm cat, so they’re able to put hats on them.  I think he’s adorable in his hat.

Here’s a picture of Binx enjoying the couch I crocheted.

This is Kreacher.  He’s normally a little stand-offish with us, but we both got to pet him quite a bit on this trip.

The four of us agreed early this year that we wouldn’t do birthday or Christmas presents for each other this year.  We’ve all been dealing with pets having a lot of health issues, which has been expensive and stressful.  So, we decided it would be much easier if we all skipped presents for each other this year.  It definitely helped with the laid-back vibe. We did watch Arthur Christmas as usual.  It’s just such a happy movie. 

Nick and I were talking about it on the drive there.  We both like that some years there are so many presents, some years we skip them entirely, and some years are somewhere in between.  I’m not sure that any of those would be great every year, but I like that we get to do them all, depending on the year.  I guess that’s one good thing about growing up not celebrating any holidays; I’m not locked into a lot of traditions.

Speaking of traditions, though, I did get to fulfill a life-long wish.  I loved Barbies when I was a kid.  They were my absolute favorite toys, and I especially loved the ones in the fancy ballgowns.  I always wanted the holiday Barbies but was never allowed to have them since they were for the holidays.  I didn’t know the ornaments existed, but I absolutely loved the gowns the holiday Barbies had and was always disappointed that I couldn’t have one.  I kind of forgot about the holiday Barbies by the time I grew up and started celebrating Christmas. 

Amy was never into Barbies, but her great-aunt gave her a holiday Barbie ornament every year until she passed away in the early 2000s.  The ornaments are special to Amy because they came from her great-aunt.  This is also Amy’s busy time of year at work, so she never got around to putting the Barbie ornaments up.  They had a little tree in the living room that was going to be the Barbie tree.

The Barbie ornaments still weren’t up by Christmas Eve, but Amy knew that Jason would be happy to see them when he came over on Christmas.  So Gabby and Amy decided that I could be in charge of the Barbie tree.  I had so much fun!  As Gabby put it, I was in the corner with the little Christmas tree, living my best life with lots of Barbie ornaments.  I kind of feel like I did get a Christmas present.

Isn’t the Barbie tree cute? 

Here are a few of the ones I really liked.

I ordered the 2023 Holiday Barbie ornament that night.  I’m planning to get the Barbie ornament every year now.

Our wonderful neighbors took care of the cats for us while we were gone.  It’s so nice that they take care of them because they don’t just feed them and give them their medicine.  They spend time petting them and playing with them, and they always send us pictures. 

Caroline

Charlie

Frankie

How was your Christmas?  Were there lots of activities, or was this a more laid-back year for you? 

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays

I’ve loved that so many bloggers have been sharing their Christmas and holiday trees and decorations this week, so I thought I would join in.

Let’s start outside and work our way in.

First up is our inflatable sloth in a Christmas sweater.  Nick loves sloths, so we’ve added some sloths to our Christmas decorations.  This one is named Stuart.  Apparently, not everyone immediately recognizes Stuart as a sloth.  When I posted his picture on Facebook, my aunt messaged me asking if we really had a drunk raccoon inflatable.  No drunk raccoons here.

I know inflatables can be somewhat polarizing; people seem to love them or hate them, with no middle ground.  I love them.  I think they’re fun and cheery. 

Next up is the Christmas flag.

Then, the wreaths, matching wreaths on the front door and carport door.

Inside the house, we have the Christmas tree with lots of ornaments. 

The house we were renting when we bought the tree had a huge living room, so it’s a little big for our much smaller living room here.  I really don’t care.  It’s the only Christmas tree I’ve ever had, and I love it.

Nick loves sloths, so we added a sloth ornament this year.

We bought this ornament at an antique store when we were first looking for a house.

I’m a huge Friends fan, so we have some Friends ornaments. 

I put off buying a dumpster fire ornament until this year, but after a few dumpster fire years, I gave in and bought one.  It’s not year-specific, so it will work for any dumpster fire year.

Nick’s mom, Susan, gave me this book lover’s ornament last year.  I love it.

This one is self-explanatory.

Since we met on E-harmony, I was happy when I found this.

Nick gave me this butterfly ornament our first Christmas together.  It was also my first Christmas ornament.  It’s one of my favorites.

I love this cute little gingerbread house ornament.

Our friend Martha gave us this ornament the first Christmas after we were married. 

Our friend Alex gave us this one.  I call it the Thanksgiving ornament, so you know I like it.

The tree skirt has sloths.

Before we move on from the tree, 2023 isn’t the year Caroline stops climbing the Christmas tree.  

It’s a good thing she’s cute!

Moving on from the tree, we have a Winter Solstice candle this year.

And a Yule log candle holder.

One more winter candle holder.

I think this pink gingerbread house is adorable.  (The shelf isn’t dusty; I promise it’s glitter!)

I found this little winter house on Etsy and thought it was so cute.

Finally, we have the Christmas decoration my old coworker EJ gave me for Secret Santa several years ago.  The skiers move down the slope.  It was a great Secret Santa present.

I hope all of you have a very Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and a joy-filled time in whatever your chosen celebrations are.  

A Few More Things

First, I think this picture of Mortimer is just too cute and must be shared. 

He has decided that this particular chair is his spot and spends most of his resting time in it.  He definitely doesn’t have a couch potato personality, so he still spends plenty of time running around, playing, and getting into things. 

Since there were some questions about the Bethlem journey experience from my last post, here’s a little more information about it:

The church that holds it is huge.  When you go inside, there’s a little foyer where they find out how many people are in your group, and you’re given tickets (it’s entirely donation-based) with a family name.  Then you go into the main part of the church.  This year, it was crowded, so everyone sat in pews.  They had someone playing Christmas music, and there was a big screen at the front where the family names came up.  When your family name comes up, you go to the back of the church, and they take you down an elevator.  Someone in modern clothes greets you, gives a brief spiel about what to expect, and encourages you to open your heart to the experience.  Then you walk down a hallway, and that’s when the Bethlehem experience begins.

You’re greeted at the city gate by a census taker and a Roman guard and asked how many people are in your family.  Then you go into the city and walk through it.  There are various market stalls, and you stop at each one.  They also have real herbs and spices, so it smells incredible!  There are also a couple of beggars along the way, which is where you can make a donation to the fundraiser.  Each stall is a little different; some of them talk about how crowded the city is because of the census, some of them talk about prophesies and strange things happening, a few mention seeing a young couple and that the woman was heavily pregnant (as you walk through, you learn that she had the baby the night before), and some are really funny with couples bickering or someone being determined to make a sale.  When it’s time to move on to the next one, either a Roman guard comes and yells to move along and clear the street, or the person at that stall says you have to see what the next person has.  The props and costumes are incredible.  Almost at the very end, you stop at the inn, where they tell you that they can only offer you food and drink because all of their rooms are full, and that they even have a couple who had a baby in their stable.  The last stop is the stable, where there’s a couple with a baby, and they tell you a little about Jesus.  After that, there’s one person collecting alms for the poor (one final opportunity to donate), and then you exit to outside. 

It's a lot of fun.  I absolutely love doing traditional Christmas activities since I didn’t get to do them growing up.  Nick’s family went almost every year when he was a child, so there are a lot of good memories associated with it for him.  I can’t imagine the time and effort that goes into making it all happen.  Nick looked it up online, and there are hundreds of volunteers, usually about 15 families with a baby up to three months old (I’m no baby expert, but I’m assuming at that age, dressed in a plain white outfit, they can probably use boy or girl babies), and various farms that bring animals.  It seems very appropriate for Christmas time that so many people work so hard to make it happen and that so many people give generously to the fundraiser. 

Finally, in case you’re wondering about the chickens, since I haven’t posted about them in a while, they’re still getting their snacks from me.  They’re eating more now that it’s cold (not just snacks; our neighbor said they’re going through a lot more chicken food since it has been cold). 

The free-range chickens are very persistent in making sure I remember their snack every day.  Here’s a video of them enjoying some tortillas.  

Some More Catching Up

I’m still working on catching up from my blogging break, so here are a few more recent happenings.

Let’s get the not-so-good news out of the way first.  Frankie is having some health problems.  At 14, he’s an older kitty, so it’s concerning.  He had an abdominal ultrasound in January due to some unexplained vomiting.  It showed some minor thickening of his intestinal lining, which could be indicative of lymphoma.  After talking with Dr. D, we chose not to pursue exploratory surgery and biopsies; the outlook for treating cats with lymphoma isn’t great, and we’d rather give Frankie a good quality of life.  Dr. D put him on some different medication, and the vomiting stopped. 

Last month, the excessive vomiting started again, so we took Frankie back to the vet.  Dr. D did some x-rays and a lot of bloodwork and determined that Frankie is in the early stages of kidney disease, lymphoma is still a real possibility, and he also has thyroid disease.  Out of all of those, thyroid disease is the easiest/least invasive to treat, so Frankie is now on thyroid medication.  Dr. D also adjusted his dose of some other medications, and the vomiting has stopped.  Frankie goes back on the 27^th to have his thyroid levels checked again.

He has lost some weight, but he’s eating and seems to be happy.  Frankie still plays and likes to get into things, so as long as he’s happy and has a good quality of life, we’re happy.  We’ll continue to treat his thyroid issues and go from there when he has his appointment later this month.  With any luck, he still has quite a few good years ahead of him.

In other news, it has been cold and insanely windy here.  Everyone at work has been running space heaters, and this morning, there were lots of trashcans blown over when I was leaving for work. 

One of the local animal shelters has been asking for extra blankets since it has been so cold.  It has been nice to see people step up and drop off and/or ship blankets.  It just shows how much people working together can do.

Our local sheriff’s office did a women’s self-defense class last week.  It was a great class!  They did it at a community center, and several female deputies taught it.  It was a good mix of teaching situational awareness and teaching and practicing specific self-defense techniques.  I definitely learned some things. 

One of my coworkers is retiring this month, and we had his going away party last week.  We did a potluck and ended up with tons of food.  I brought macaroni and cheese. 

We’ve also managed to squeeze in some Christmas fun.  One of the churches does a fundraiser event that’s a journey to Bethlehem.  They have people in costume, live animals, and tons of props to recreate walking through Bethlehem.  Nick’s family used to go every year.  I went for the first time last year.  This year, our neighbors went with us.  It was a lot more crowded this year, but we got to listen to Christmas music (which I love) while we waited for our turn.  It was fun going through with a bigger group this time.  We also drove around and looked at Christmas lights.  There’s a subdivision where almost everyone goes all out on the lights and decorations, and it’s so fun to drive through it.  This is a Pixabay picture since I don’t think I’d be able to get good pictures from the car.

Finally, I’ll leave you with this funny picture of Charlie.  He seems to have no concept of his size, and yesterday, he spent quite a while trying to stuff himself into this box.  I don’t think he ever figured out why he couldn’t get in the box.  He definitely looked cute trying!  

Ornaments

I know talking about ornaments in April seems a little bit weird, but I never seem to post much around the holidays and the closest thing I seem to have for a theme for the A to Z Challenge this year is “things I meant to post about but haven’t.”  That brings us to ornaments.

Thanksgiving is definitely my favorite holiday, but Christmas is a pretty close second.  And I love Christmas ornaments!  My parents don’t celebrate any holidays, so as an adult, I tend to be a bit enthusiastic about them.  Or like a child in an adult’s body.

I got my first Christmas ornaments when I was 25, and my first Christmas tree when I was 26.  I had moved out and started exchanging Christmas gifts with co-workers and friends before then, but never got a Christmas tree when I lived alone.  It didn’t seem worth it, and I wasn’t even entirely sure how one went about getting and decorating a Christmas tree.  I think that’s one of those things most people learn as kids and take for granted as adults. 

I’ve loved ornaments ever since Nick gave me my first one.  I think the butterfly is so pretty.

My boss, Ginger, gave me this cupcake ornament when I left my job in SC to take a job in NC. 

Nick’s mom gave me this one in 2018, so I got a hippopotamus for Christmas.  Is the song stuck in your head now?

Not technically an ornament, but Nick’s mom also gave me hippopotamus lights for Christmas.  And they’re pink, which makes me ridiculously happy.

Our friend Martha gave us this one the first Christmas after we were married.  She started looking for it right after our wedding to find one with the right dress and tux. 

Our friend Alex gave us this one.  I call it the Thanksgiving ornament.  That means I really like it.

Of course, we have lots of firefighter-themed ornaments since Nick volunteered with the fire department for so long.

This isn’t technically an ornament, but it is a Christmas decoration.  My old coworker EJ gave this to me for Secret Santa several years ago.  Some people thought it was weird, but I love it. 

We usually try to get an ornament on our yearly vacation.  Except for 2016.  We weren’t planning to get an ornament that year anyway, since it’s a year we both want zero reminders of.  Leaving vacation early as part of a hurricane evacuation sealed the deal on not getting an ornament that year.

This one is from when we went to Atlanta in 2012.  It’s from Coca-Cola World.

Quite a few of ours are beach and/or South Carolina-themed.  We do love going to Folly Beach for vacation.

I love getting ornaments.  I love picking them out, and I love when other people give them to us.  It makes me happy to think of the stories that go with them every year when we hang them up.  I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of being given special ornaments.  I don’t have ornaments or decorations from childhood, so I appreciate being given them now.  The stories that go with them may not be old stories, but they’re part of my holiday story. 

What are your favorite ornaments?