Good times...

 Recently I've received emails from high school classmates reminiscing about the "good old days."  I've also seen similar posts on Facebook with pictures questioning if I remember certain devices and how we used them.  Yes, in case you're wondering, I do know how to use a dial telephone and I know what a 'church key' was for.  However today I realized that there are a lot of things to celebrate about the Good New Days.  For example, this morning my spouse and I chose to stay home and attend church on line.  It was a very cold morning.  The service was lovely, the sermon was excellent, and we even had our choice of wine for communion.  I don't do couch church every Sunday, but it's a nice option to have available.  Later in the day when we had to go out, we enjoyed the luxury of seat heaters in our car.  My father's Chevy never had those, let alone my grandpa's one-horse power surrey.  Can you imagine what a cold ride that must have been?  Just writing this on my laptop I remember the frustration of learning to type using carbon paper to make copies.  There's a reason I never became a secretary.  One more example - on Tuesday evening I will be attending a committee meeting by Zoom.  Now there is an excellent modern invention.  We all agreed it would be more convenient that way.  Yes!  Let's hear it for the good new days.  

tree down...

Here's a picture of our Christmas tree as it looked in all its glory  when we set it up in December.

And here is how it looks this evening after being totally de-constructed.  All branches removed and stored in a large bin, and the top covered with a large trash bag to keep it dust free in the basement until next year.

About half way through the deconstruction process each year (especially when I'm fighting with the lights that have somehow gotten tangled while just being on the tree) is when I start to think that I really should get a new tree.  This one is, after all, over 40 years old.  My kids and grandkids have grown up with this tree.  I could get a nifty, easy to fold away pre-lit tree, possibly less than seven feet tall.  Just unfold it and add some ornaments.  I could do that and I might do that, maybe next year? Or maybe not.  
 

Really???

 Imagine my astonishment when my west coast brother told me that he cooked aebleskivers and bacon for his grandchildren this morning for breakfast.  Who knew that he knew how to prepare such a delectable dish?  I certainly didn't.  But then, to be perfectly honest, I had never even heard of aebleskivers until today.  It's not part of my German heritage.  My west coast brother further assured me that he does indeed have the proper pan for baking aebleskivers.  It seems that his daughter (the mother of the grandchildren for whom he was cooking today) gave him the pan some years ago.  That was rather clever of her I think.  The pan he has can make waffles, pancakes or aebleskivers, but only one at a time.  Hummm??? My wonder spouse is a very good cook. Perhaps I should get him an aebleskivers pan as a belated Christmas gift?  The kind of gift that keeps on giving.  Perhaps I'll sleep on it.  Today is, after all, "Festival of Sleep Day."  I think it's not a coincidence that this comes right after the holidays.  Good night.  Sleep well. Perhaps you'll dream of aebleskivers

What goes up...

 ..must come down. I'm sure you are familiar with that wise old saying.  I first learned the truth of it as a child while tossing a baseball up in the air.  One missed catch smacked me in the nose. 

But now I am confronted with a different kind of coming down. Emotionally, my spouse and I are coming down from the high of holiday entertaining and travel to face the grim reality.   It's time to take down my good old tree.  It is not a throwaway.  We will box it up until next year.  We're making some progress.  We actually hauled up all of the Ornament boxes from their storage space in the basement.  

We were getting a start on the undecorating when my spouse's son stopped by to pick up a dish left behind on Christmas day.  We visited for a while and munched on some leftover Christmas candy, before finally deciding that we really should go out for pizza. That is what you do, after all, when all of the Christmas leftovers have finally been consumed. 

And so we did, and so we shall take down the tree tomorrow.  And if that doesn't work out, there's always Saturday. 

No thank you...

 Well, 2025 is off to a good start for my spouse and myself.  We have enjoyed not going anywhere or doing anything except relaxing.  I did get a few thank you notes written and we both ate more than we should have of gift cookies and rum balls.  What we did not do, however, is take the Polar Plunge.  Many people did.  It looked like a big crowd on TV.  My west coast brother informed me that people in Washington state were also stripping down to their bathing suits and jumping into frigid water.  Evidently the water around here was about 40 degrees.  Burrrrrr!!  One young man being interviewed explained to the well bundled up reporter that it was "fun and exhilarating."  At least I think that's what he said.  His teeth were chattering so much it was hard to tell.  Not only do I not want to take the Polar Plunge, I don't even want to go stand around and watch as others do it.  Not sure if that makes me old, or just sensible.  I can live with either label.