The Waterfront

We have been waking up to clear blue skies and frosty mornings for the past week but I don't mind.  It's good to see the sunshine. Days on end of gray skies and rain can get a bit tedious.  

We bundled up a couple of days ago and met up with some friends for a nice walk around the Everett Harbor.  There are lots of changes taking place including this hotel which opened a while back. To the right, construction is going on to create a new area which will be filled with shops and restaurants.

Happily, there are still quiet areas to be enjoyed.

In the distance you can see Mount Baker, our third highest mountain in the state and the second most thermally active volcano.  It's covered in glacier year round but at times if you live close enough you can see a steam vent rising up where melted snow gets down into its magma system.   While there has not been an eruption since the 1800's,  scientists still keep a close eye on it. In fact, in 1975 it started rumbling a bit and everyone around the base of the mountain was evacuated.  Then, of course, five years later Mount Saint Helen exploded, and that area is still recovering from the destruction.  

 We enjoyed lunch on the waterfront following our stroll.  You would think that after a long frosty walk I would have looked forward to a hot cup of tea, but I opted for this lovely tall glass of cranberry lemonade instead. It's hard for me to resist anything with cranberry in it. yum!

On a sadder note, I had to go comfort my mom this week after the loss of her little kitty to cancer.  She was a sweet thing, very shy around strangers but a great comfort to my mom. It's always so hard to lose a beloved family pet.

In a few days my sister-in-law is flying out to take my mom back to Wisconsin for a family visit.  Hopefully that is giving her something to look forward to.  On the home front, things are still going along rather quietly. I am not complaining. Blessings to all who stop by.

Adieu!
 

Ordinary Life

 While it's always wonderful and exciting to celebrate the holidays and special events of my life, it also feels good to get back to ordinary life.  My home is slowly getting back to normal.  All the holiday decor is packed away for another year. I have been dusting and polishing and setting up the bits and pieces that bring me pleasure as they are settled back into their appointed places.

I have a new favorite piece..this lovely picture which was a gift from our daughter. It makes an attractive grouping in our entry hall, as well as an expressive symbol of our faith.

I enjoyed the last pumpkin muffin from the freezer with a cup of coffee this week.  No more pumpkin baking until next fall.

I have also been taking it easy with a couple of old favorite books.  

Things are already beginning to heat up again and will get even busier in the weeks ahead, but for now I am enjoying these moments of ordinary life.  I hope you are too.

Adieu!

Catching Up

 What a difference a year can make!  This time last year my mother was in the hospital and I was just recovering after we both had  suffered from a terrible bout of Influenza.  We hadn't even celebrated Christmas yet. It was a long winter where I cared for my mother in our home as she slowly recovered and when she was finally able to go home in late March there was the anxiety of making sure she was strong and safe enough to be on her own.  Now here we are, and she has recovered much of her strength and was able to have my niece take her back to North Carolina to spend Christmas with her family.

I however, seem to be in a bit of slump.  It seems since our trip to Europe that I have been peddling as fast as I can and still not keeping up.  It seems like it has been a merry-go-round of  watching over my mom, taking care of grandchildren, hosting a church life group, spending time on an intense Bible study for my precepts group and still trying to make the perfect Thanksgiving and Christmas for everyone.  Things are quiet now for the moment, and it is time to reflect on how to bring back some balance.  I love the Lord. I love my family and I have missed my blogging,  So, I will figure it out and I will be back with joy in my heart and a spring in my step. On that note may I wish you all a wonderful new year filled with many happy adventures.

Now that I have gotten that off my chest here are a few (well maybe more than as few) photos from our holiday season which, in spite of some exhaustion, was really quite lovely.

We started out with two feasts on Thanksgiving Day.  My youngest son and his wife cooked their first Turkey which turned out perfectly.

After an early dinner with them we went over to our older son's home where I cooked a second meal for his family as our daughter-in-law had just had a baby a couple of weeks before and still needed to rest.  I had made most of the side dishes the day before, so it was just a matter of putting a turkey breast into the oven. My mother, bless her, baked the pies.

A few days after Thanksgiving we had a 92nd birthday and early Christmas celebration with my mother.  She left for North Carolina a week later.

We went to our granddaughter's Christmas program at her school.  She had the part of Mother Mary.

Our younger son and DIL took us out for an evening to look at the Christmas lights.  We started out at the arboretum in Everett and ended up at the light festival outside the Tulalip Casino.  It was wet and cold but still quite beautiful.

The girls came over to bake Christmas cookies.  They did a wonderful job rolling out and cutting the cookies all by themselves.

There was also lots of good cooking and hours spent decorating the house for Christmas Day which we celebrated with family and friends. 

Then on the Sunday after Christmas, our grandson was baptized, and we returned to our son's house to celebrate after church.

There are no pictures for New Years because we stayed home alone with our feet up. We stayed up long enough to see the New Year Space Needle Fireworks celebration at midnight.  Then we slept in until 10;00 the next morning! Whew! It was a whirlwind season.

Now that we are all caught up, and as this new year begins, it is my hope that I will be able to stay in touch a little more. Until next time, "May God bless us each and every one!"

Adieu!