LOST POST!!??!! HOLIDAY HAPPENINGS...

JPE pulled out the holiday puzzles - we completed only 2 of 5 favorite puzzles. Ummm... mindless escape!

Baked 15 dozen holiday cookies before leaving town. Didn't decorate them until Christmas Day after brunch... but that didn't keep the "cookie snatchers" from eating a few before our traditional "Christmas meal" - cheese enchiladas, rice, beans & salad"....  Yummy!!!

 


Spent four days w/JPE's side of the family in Big Bear... read, slept, took walks, went sledding & feasted (kudos to the cooks for such tasty meals)!! Incredible weather (clear, frosty w/a dusting of snow one night); watched a racoon crawl under the deck; and played Eucher (card game) 














 

CHECKING THE LIST!

One task down! 

Spent the day finishing the E-E Holiday Newsletter! 
I'm buzzing with too much coffee... It's almost dinner (grilled cheese sandwiches) & I'm still in my "jammies" - time for a quick shower before going to see the movie, "Blind Side" w/JPE. 

Ohhh! I love the holidays....

HO! HO! HO!

Unpacking my Santa collection, is like visiting "old friends".... it's comforting watching them emerge from the wrinkly, worn tissue... the fat Santa with the red glass belly... the Santa heads with the long skinny beards... the roly-poly Santa that looks like it was rolled in coarse white sugar... small wooden ornaments purchased in Rottenberg, Germany... the wooden head of Santa that's "very scary" (a descriptive phrase used by Lydia, my granddaughter). Some of my Santa's are 30+ years old... But - I must confess, I don't know how large my "Santa Family" is?? Perhaps I'll count them as I tuck them away on January 1st??? SLE or ACE (the daughter's initials who "gifted" the Santa) & the year are written on the bottom. Santa's that were gifts from friends are also labeled -   becoming part of the family!! Like friends & children - you try not to have "favorites" but several are "front & center" year after year!

A WEEK OF CELEBRATION!!

So - now you know! I'm beginning a NEW decade!

Actually, the celebration began last Saturday with a "Family GALA" at my mom's. Food! Family! Fun! JPE made a DVD to preserve some photo memories of the past 60 years.

This is a "festive time" to be born... with all the holiday parties + work parties + girlfriend dinners + guests for dinner.... wheww! I'll need a breather before Christmas arrives.

I was "gifted" with a brother on my 1st birthday... Happy Bday to "us"....

 Woooo-whooo!

Entering a NEW Decade!

I LOVE journaling, unique fonts, the feel of my pens on good paper, writing chatty letters & cards and spend time reading BLOGS... 

I'll be entering a new decade (more about that in a later post), so JPE (my husband) encouraged me to journal in a new way ~ so I've created a blog, "Silver Linings 4 Me."  Hopefully, this blog will reach a wide range of family & friends, will save time (always an issue!), be more eco-friendly, but most importantly, keep the "creative ideas" flowing.

The most difficult part of creating this blog was selecting a name. I've poured through my quote resources (btw, I collect quotes) thinking I would find a title that jumped out at me. No such luck! In fact, I had almost decided to drop the idea of blogging... This morning after our 45 minute walk (well, JPE actually runs, I walk fast), I mentioned to JPE that the blog idea was fizzling... he said, "Don't you remember what you told me this morning?" Of course, I was half-asleep... I didn't even know I spoke in my sleep?? He said, "You wanted to call your blog, Silver Linings." Ummm... I don't know where that came from?? but, I've decided to take the leap... I hope you enjoy reading, "Silver Linings 4 Me."