My Favorite Photo - December 2019

December is a fun and celebratory month for us - we celebrate St. Nicholas Day, St. Lucia Day, Las Posadas, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Sophia's birthday, and New Year's Eve.

In the past, when the girls were younger, I did more for each of those days. As they've gotten older and Sophia is now at college, the holidays were less packed with things to do. Nonetheless, it was a great month to go through and look back upon. There are quite a few photos, so I won't go into detail with each one.

The girls made gingerbread houses together on December 1st.

Later that day, we went to a nearby Christmas tree farm...in a blizzard! Olivia loves the cold weather.

Sophia pulled the tree back to the check-out area.

I'm realizing that the cold weather is more challenging for me as I get older. I'm in the middle with the face mask and clunky winter boots.

We've been having some spectacular sunsets.

I like seeing the bright moon high in the sky. This is looking south from the house towards the barn and back of our farm.

We got the tree up and I put the lights on it. At the time I didn't realize how many strings of lights I put on it. When Olivia took them off at the end of December she told me there were nine strings of lights...significantly more than we've used in the past.

All the stockings wee up by the woodstove. I finally got Danny's and Scooby's names on their stockings.

On the 7th of December, we went to see Sophia at college. She was in a major Christmas performance and played the pedal harp in several pieces.

This was the annual performance that we watched last year when she was a high school senior. It was the major deciding factor in choosing this college. 

This is Sophia by the harp she played. It belongs to the college and she is able to practice and perform on it.

After the concert, the girls said goodbye to one another.

Olivia has been taking Tang Soo Do - a type of karate. She has been doing very well. She tested for the next level of belt and received it during a special ceremony on the day after this photo was taken.

Olivia helped at the Lions annual Christmas breakfast for the community. She and two other teens helped make buttons for people who sat or stood with Santa. I took the photos of the children and families.

The day after Sophia came home from college, she played the harp at the nursing home. The gentleman who is listening to her is 99 years old! He was alert, engaging, and had many stories to share with us. It was a joy to listen to him. 

A few days before Christmas, we took Paige's stepfather to Green Mill near the nursing home he's in. We had a great meal together.

We looked at Christmas lights before bringing him back to the nursing home.

On Christmas Eve, we went to the church service. We had a ham dinner that evening.

On Christmas, the pets wanted to be part of the action.

I made a maple twist coffee cake that my mom used to make for special occasions. It is a recipe that came from family friends of ours.

Olivia made cupcakes for Christmas dinner at my sister's home.

Sophia made a gingerbread tree for Christmas dinner.

When we came home, we opened more of our Christmas gifts. Aspen wanted to watch.

Scooby did too.

Danny and Eenie sat right by Sophia. They've missed her while she's been away.

We put a trail cam up that I got for Christmas. On the day after Christmas, there was a fox in the front west pasture.

We spotted a coyote two days later in the same pasture. This was a surprise. We didn't realize they were so close to the horses or our home.

Olivia has been doing gymnastics and her skills have been continuing to grow this year.

A couple of days after Christmas, Olivia and I walked to the back of our property. We saw lots of evidence of deer in the nature trail area.

For Sophia's birthday, we went to Momo Sushi for lunch. We had to go a day early because it wasn't open on Mondays (her birthday). This was one of the best Japanese and Tibetan restaurant I've ever been to! It was fun trying a new restaurant and tasting some food we've never had before as well as food we enjoy eating, but prepared in a new, fresh way.

I made my grandma's cinnamon rolls on Sophia's birthday. We had a late breakfast and Sophia opened her presents. The presents are all in separate boxes of graduating sizes within the big box. She had fun open a box within a box...within a box...within a box...and so on.

Danny wanted to be involved in the action.

On New Year's Eve during the day it was beautiful with a new snowfall. There were few clouds and bright sunlight. The snow sparkled.

The horses were curious as to what I was doing when I went back and forth to take the disc out of the trail cam and then replaced it later.

On New Year's Eve during the night, a deer walked near the new location where I put the trail cam. She used the same path that Olivia and I saw out in the nature trail area.

And that wraps up December...2019...and the decade. 

Spend the Day with Me - Saturday, September 15th

On Swap-Bot, I am doing a swap called "Spend the Day with Me" in which participants take photos of how they spent a day. So, I brought my camera along to document how I spent Saturday, September 15th.

After doing the normal tasks in the morning - like letting the dogs out; feeding the dogs and cats; eating breakfast; and getting ready - Sophia, Olivia, and I left for a full day of errands and activities.

The first stop was dropping Olivia off at gymnastics. She moved up a level this Fall and her lessons are two hours now.

Then I dropped off Sophia at the YMCA where she could work out and take a shower.

It was time for many quick stops to do errands: the post office (to mail a grant proposal for a quilt retreat/service activities we want to do in February 2019), a bank (to pay the mortgage and to change my mortgage statements from being online to being sent to me), another bank (to withdraw some money for an upcoming trip), the feed store (to get grain for the horses), and the library (to get a book about ceramics and wheel-thrown pottery).

I picked up Sophia and took her to Starbucks where she got a free rewards drink.

We picked up Olivia from gymnastics and then headed to a home that my sister is looking at purchasing. I'm excited because she is only 20 minutes from us now! This home has everything she is looking for in terms of everything being on one floor (except the mechanicals and a bonus walk-out level) and her design/style tastes.

After listening to the inspection report for about 40 minutes with my sister, brother, my sister's Realtor (Sherri), and the girls, we headed to Mall of America to get some clothes and shoes.

Normally, we don't go shopping at the Mall of America. However, there are a limited number of stores in our rural area, so sometimes having a wider variety of stores is necessary.

We parked on a new floor and area and came in through Sears which carries Lands End clothes. Perfect! Because I wear cardigans almost every day and Lands End carries the most comfortable ones, I was able to stock up on them. Got a couple black ones (typically what I wear), a navy one, and - because the girls insisted: lilac.

Onto the other end of the shopping spectrum with a stop at Nordstroms for Sophia. She had to get some items for wearing under her Chinese dress for her senior photos. Talk about service in that department! I was impressed with how the employees work with each of the customers to find exactly what they need.

As we walked by one area, there were people working on sculptures made from cans of food. We found out that it is called Canstruction which is a national nonprofit committed to ending hunger.

This year marked its 13th year at Mall of America; and Canstruction - according to the Mall of America's website - was doing a "unique design/build competition showcasing colossal sculptures built from thousands of ordinary cans of food.

"Highlighting the creativity and compassion of top local architectural and engineering firms, these astounding structures are helping to change the world– by lifting the spirits of those in need, by raising public awareness, and most importantly, by collecting millions of pounds of food for Second Harvest Heartland."

While we were watching them build the sculptures, we could hear the laughter and screams from the rides in the center part of Mall of America.

We stopped for a quick refresher at Orange Julius and then onto Maurice's for a couple more pieces for Sophia's senior photos (a top and jacket) and a pair of jeans for me. The only options were mid- and high-rise jeans.

Having already been through one era of high-rise/Mom jeans, there was no way in the world I was going to try a pair on again.

This is not me...but an example of the dreaded high-rise jeggings. 

(This image came from an insecure website, 

so I'm not going to link to it.)

Where were the low-rise jeans? Apparently they don't carry them anymore. I was shocked...and distraught. What should I do?

I decided I'd try the mid-rise jeans and jeggings. The sales person asked what size I wore. I had no idea. I'm not into shopping or clothes like I used to be. She picked out small and medium for me. What? I thought I once wore extra-large jeans?

To make a long story short, after trying on about a dozen pairs of jeans and jeggings, I settled on  medium/short jeggings. The waistband is tight which - multiple sales people said - has to be tight so they stay up. They loosen up as you wear them, so if they start out loose then they will fall down. Well, we don't want that to happen.

So, although they aren't my ideal style due to the higher waist, I was really happy to see that my size has gone down. When I first started wearing clothes at Maurices many years ago, I was an extra-large. About a year or so ago, I went down to a large. Now, I'm in a medium which is encouraging and reflects a change in eating habits (significantly more vegetables and fruit; less carbohydrates; slightly more protein; and rarely a Diet Coke - compared to 2-4 pops a day at one time).

As a side note: when I came home and looked online, I found out that Maurices still makes low-rise jeans. The Mall of America just doesn't carry them. So, I'm going to return the jeans and get a low-rise pair in the right size.

After that, we made one more stop for shoes at DSW. There are rows upon rows of shoes at discounted prices.

Of course, the girls always enjoy trying on the impractical super-high-heel shoes that they would never wear.

After much looking, Sophia found a pair of black shoes with gold trim for her red Chinese dress. They will look nice with the dress and her headdress.

Olivia found a pair of high-top Converse canvas sneakers to wear instead of her black boots and sandals. She was happy that they had her size (which is a rather small women's size).

By the time we were done, it was well almost 5:20 p.m. By the time we would get home and make dinner, it would be in the 7:00 hour. So, we decided to stop and pick up a pizza and cheese bread for dinner.

We had not eaten a "normal" meal since breakfast (lunch was relatively-healthy snack food we ate in the car), so having a hot dinner was good. We all didn't realize how hungry we were!

After dinner, I walked out to see the delivery that had come while we were gone. It's the siding for the back of the house. This will replace the siding that was warped due to the fire back on May 5th. The window also was delivered and is in the garage.

I noticed that one of the roses has a couple of flowers on it. Despite the heat (92 degrees and humidity in the 70s), it is doing well. Found a Japanese beetle, though, which is not good. It was starting to destroy the leaves on the roses. Had to put an end to that or else it would completely strip all the leaves from the roses and move onto another bush or tree and do the same thing.

After dinner, I helped Sophia type her application for being a 4-H county ambassador. Normally she would do the typing, but she broke her third finger on her right hand on Friday morning.

Her finger got stuck in a metal opening in Bailey (the horse's) halter/lead line, and when the farrier was here and Sophia was holding the line, Bailey jerked her head up abruptly and Sophia's finger twister and the bone broke.

Right now, her finger is "buddy taped" to the fourth finger to provide support until she can see a hand specialist this upcoming week.

This is what her hand looks like - you can see the diagonal line on her third finger - just where the bone is broken.

There is quite a bit of bruising on the third finger. It is at a slight angle too compared to the other finger (though it's not as obvious in the photo below as it is in real life). This may pose an issue since she plays the harp and piano. We'll have to see how the orthopedist can better line up her finger this week.

In the evening, I caught up on reading the paper.

There was an interesting article about how the state parks are collecting prairie seeds with the help of the public. There are quite a few sessions coming up where people can help collect the seeds which are then planted to expand the prairies.

I had the t.v. on for a while, but ended up falling asleep with it on. Woke up around 10:15 and turned it off. Ended up going to bed I was so tired.