I was up at the crack of dawn, ready to continue putting away Christmas.  Mary was already up as her medications had her wide awake.

We called Colleen to see how the snow situation is going, and they expect 4-6 inches of the white stuff this evening—the first real snow of the year.

We worked in the office until 9:30 am, and then I took a little trip to the Thrift Store to drop off several boxes of goodies we no longer needed.  From there, I went to Harbor Sales and got some needed tools.

After that, a quick trip to Home Depot was required to pick up some compost and other gardening necessities, including 60w equivalent LED lights.

Decorations seem to grow overnight!

Stack them up and call my son; that is my plan!!

Five of twenty-five completed!

Mary helped me pack delicate items like ceramic houses.  She also disassembled Christmas pyramids.  We worked until it got dark, and then Mary went to watch her movies, and I worked in the office.  We watched movies together, including “Doc Hollywood” and “Teen Werwolf” starring Michael J. Fox.

We walked to Colleen for a while.  I put a new link on the homepage and used a family icon.  When clicked, you go to the collection of gang events I started in 2008.  I restarted it in 2024 now that COVID is pretty much done, and we are back to “normal.”

We crashed, splat.

This icon takes you to our “Friends Site” that began in 2008!

I was trying to help!

Mary has been horizontal for three days, but things are improving.   I wandered into the master bedroom and offered to find her a movie or change the TV channel, and I got yelled at for using a candy bar; she must be feeling better.

I have three thermometers around the house.  Alexa says Orange is 43 degrees, our garden remote sensing device says it is 39 degrees, and the house thermostat says it is 45 degrees.  We settle on 40 degrees!  COLD!

We strolled the garden in our jammies and robes, drinking coffee!

Slurp!

The veggies are growing up through the straw with impunity!  The straw keeps the roots relatively warm.

I was getting ready to make a salad.

The Swiss chard is coming along nicely.  Swiss chard grows well in both cool and warm environments.  For Swiss chards to thrive, 6-8 hours of sunlight daily is needed.  A 10-foot row of Swiss chard can produce roughly 12 pounds of produce.  Like other leafy greens, Swiss chard is high in vitamins A and K, calcium, potassium, and fiber.

They are a marvelous substitute for spinach!

Our lettuce is impressive, and Mary is already out there clipping the little leaves for our salads.  We have to keep after them as they grow too large; we see some visits to our neighbors in the future.

There are six different kinds of lettuce in the garden this year.

It’s always nice to remember our loved ones, especially our parents who hold a special place in our hearts. During this time of year, I find myself thinking about Mom and Dad often.

I found a photo that brought back memories.  Mom passed in 1990, and my memories are vivid; I expect her to walk in the door any time.    It was a picture of our mother taken in the 1970s at my house in La Mirada.

She was visiting me in La Mirada!

This is a message to many people, especially my kid, who we are no longer communicating with.  It’s sad when people get into this mental state, but everyone is different.  I am so happy I am perfect.

Amen!

We went to the Elks Lodge for lunch as part of “Girls Night Out,” we were pleased to have Sudney and her father join us.  Bill and George joined us.

Sydney and Bob are catching up.

Mike A was supposed to be with us on New Year’s Eve, and he had an accident and went headfirst into a wall, much like I did when I had low blood pressure.  So, being very creative, Mary suggested he needed bubble wrap!

BTW, A survey conducted by Sealed Air Foundation found that one minute spent popping Bubble Wrap relieves as much stress as a 33-minute massage.  Next time you open a package, pop some of that bubble! (p.s. We just ordered 200 square yards of bubblewrap).

The package arrived, and I notified Mike!

Arrival at Mike’s!

So, a few minutes later, we got a note from Mike about how to begin the wrapping activity before he walked around the house.

He looks very stylish and well-dressed.

We had to ask, what was Mike holding?

How It Works: Shake well. Spritz 3-5 sprays into the toilet bowl on the water’s surface. Proceed to do your thing. Poo-Pourri traps bathroom odor under the water’s surface, so it never enters the air.

Mary spent the day in bed to rest her back while I put away Christmas decorations.  I worked for hours while Mary watched TV.

In Work!

After completing the boxes, I stacked them for Joe to wheel into the garage.  My grandsons will store them in the garage attic.

They were packed away for the upcoming year, with only twenty more to go!

When it got late, I could not find many boxes I needed to continue my packing activities, so I came inside and watched TV with Mary (after fixing her popcorn for her movie-watching!)

Sometimes, I would go to the computer and work on my “Friends’ Site,” a collection of activities that began in 2008.

It is Monday, and it is a new year, so I am going to try something different.  This year, I plan to put one of my favorite songs on the site every Monday!  Will it date me? You bet!  But I am heading for 80 and still tapping my toe and humming the music!

Mary is not feeling well and has been spending her time in her bedroom while I have been in my office organizing my shelves. I went through my collection of books, which mainly consisted of Time Magazine books. I decided to give away about 37 of them, which took up around 24 inches of space. Additionally, I threw away many computer books as they were outdated, and I can easily access the information online.

Robin called, and when she found out Mary was Out Of Commission ,she hopped by with Nick and brought us “Hoppin’ John,” a traditional Southern good luck dish! This classic Southern dish, a one-pot meal of black-eyed peas, ham hock, and rice, is believed by many to ensure wealth and bring good luck in the upcoming.

She also brought cut-up fruit and three dark bread rolls, which, when slathered in Irish butter, made for a perfect dessert!

This pix is not Robin’s because Robin’s was so good it disappeared within minutes!

We watched TV on and off all day, and I made progress in the office.  I departed the house for about 30 minutes to go to Albertsons for some necessary supplies, but other than that, we were homebodies.

I spent several hours on the website and got a new counter and a new guestbook up and running.  The old code was just too far out of date, and my head no longer works well when coding in PHP.  To return to this page, just look for the  BACK button at the bottom of the page.

Sign Our Guestbook | View Guestbook

I hate passwords and PINs and the security nonsense.

I now have to write everything down!

We finally crashed about 9:00 pm and I went out like a light because the night before I was up almost the entire night.

Just us!