Our New Years Week

Happy New Year, my friends!!  Today is 1/2/21.  Thought that was kind of fun!

As many of you saw on Facebook, I got a spur of the moment idea to make gingerbread men on Thursday.  I had all the ingredients, so I mixed up a batch, wrapped the dough in plastic, and put it in the fridge to chill.  THEN I discovered that my cookie cutters were completely missing!!  I searched every drawer and cupboard in my kitchen, even the compartments of the toy kitchen set!  No luck.  GRRRR.  I made a post on FB about it, simply to share another one of my predicaments that people seem to enjoy so much.  One of my friends, Jenny Summers, replied that her hubby was about to go to Walmart and she could send her cookie cutters with him if I would want to meet him.  So that's what we did!  Except we decided to meet in front of Barnes and Noble, since it would be easier to find each other.  He pulled in right beside me, I rolled down my passenger window, and he put that container of cookie cutters right on the seat.  Woohoo!!!  Smooth as a drug deal, hahaha!

I came home, cut them out, baked them, and got to decorating.  I had just red and green decorating icing, and one tube that I thought was white, but turned out to be bright blue.  Ugh!  And a few little red, white, and green round things.  I'm not a talented or experienced decorator, but I sure had fun!  You might get a few giggles if you look closely.  Sorry about the one in front without legs.  His legs were already in my mouth when I took the picture.

Dick and I had realized earlier in the week that we had not been to Manheim after dark any time this Christmas season.  Their Christmas lights on the square are our favorite ones from as long as either of us can remember.  So we headed to Manheim after I finished the gingerbread men.

My sister Mary Ellen met us there, and we had fun walking, chatting, and picture-taking around the square. 

This house needed TLC for so many years, and I would look at it and dream what we could do with it and how well it would fit our big family.   A few years ago Kami and Ben Deppen, friends of our kids, bought it for her Big Dream Creative Arts Studio, and then they moved their big family into it also.   I have had so much fun seeing her Facebook pictures of what they have done with it.  Isn't it so beautiful???

Of course we were hungry by then, and thankfully our favorite place on the square, A&M Pizza, was open for take-out.  We ordered subs.  Their rolls are the BEST!

We said our goodbyes to Mary Ellen and headed back toward home.  On the way we stopped at Sam's place to give them some gingerbread people.  

They had set up two tents in the back yard and had all kinds of fun things inside - a big battery that ran a little heater, their tablets, and of course lots and lots of blankets and sleeping bags.

Sammy wanted me to take a picture of this old cabin in the back yard, because it made it look like they were really at a campground, haha!

They also had a huge fire going.  I would not have thought it was fun, but they did!  Sam loves to do crazy, adventurous things with his kids, and they will have lots of memories and stories!   He told me the next day that they went inside at 3 am.   I was glad to hear they had not frozen to death, haha!  

We were back home by 10 pm.  Dick was ready for bed, but I wanted to stay up to watch the ball drop in NYC.   Probably the first time I've done that by myself.  I decided it was a good time to look through the notes in my "good things" jar that I had started in January.  I've never done that before, and I'm so glad I decided to do it this past year.  It would be so easy to look back and just remember all the losses and disappointments of 2020.  But here I had concrete, dated proof of the answers to prayer, the accomplishments, and the things that made me happy.  I'm definitely doing it again in 2021.

I was trying to get a picture of the ball dropping, but I guess I missed it, haha!

Destiny and I had a long FaceTime call on New Years Day.  She told me about Elizer's doctor appointment for shots on Wednesday.  He was so happy and content when they arrived,  but really cried for a while after the shots.  It broke her heart.  He had a fever the next day, so she put a cold washcloth on his head and he liked it. (bottom right photo)

I was telling her about my missing cookie cutters.  She said, "Did you check the Play-Doh?"  I had not even thought of that!!  So I went to the guest room closet where I have always kept it, but I had done a lot of cleaning out and organizing in there and I could not find it.  Would I really have thrown out the Play-Doh??   Then I found it in a dresser drawer - the big ziplock bag of Play-Doh and cookie cutters!!  Destiny and I got a good laugh out of that!!  She said, "You should have called me yesterday!"  

I did make pork and sauerkraut and mashed potatoes on New Years Day, and it was so very delicious.  We tried to go very light on the mashed potatoes.

Here's a collage of our family I made this morning.  If you would like to have one in physical form, let me know.  

Again, Happy New Year!