New Year's Eve

The last day of 2022 was about what you'd expect from this year, a gloomy sort of downcast day.  The weather was rainy and miserable, but maybe later on in the afternoon there was a bit of sunshine peeking through. 

Maddie spent a good bit of time finishing the latest puzzle, a Winnie the Pooh panting from 100 Acre Wood.  We set up the puzzle in the morning, and the thought was that Maddie and the rest of us would be periodically working on it throughout the rest of the day.  But Maddie was so focused on this that she actually finished the thing before the end of the day, or rather, before the end of the year!  We'll have to start up another one tomorrow, I suppose!

Tonight we had some programming to watch including the second Enola Holmes movie, which everyone enjoyed.  We also watched a few episodes of "The Bad Batch" before soon enough, it was approaching midnight.  The entire time, there was the Peach Bowl going on, a football game of apparently epic proportions, featuring the Georgia Bulldogs and the Ohio State Buckeyes.   I think the first thing to note here is that the Buckeyes have an incredible mascot.  But beyond that, there was obviously the football game itself.  It was the sort of game that Georgia sports teams are usually on the other side of, which is to say, we're usually winning and doing so much better until the very last minute, when some sort of Charlie Brown moment occurs and we lose it all.  That was not the case this year at all, and in fact, it was Ohio State that played the part of Charlie Brown.  Literally, Ohio State was winning the game until the last two minutes.  So there was great celebration in Georgia, and weird enough, the final field goal kick attempt that ended the game happened to be made right at the stroke of midnight when we kicked off the new year.

Our recent grocery shopping adventure had us getting some sparkling apple cider in a bottle, and we had some champagne flutes ready for tonight.  At midnight, we were all sipping from our sparkling apple cider... but after that, we had communion together.  Nana had gone to sleep a few hours earlier, but the three of us barely held on until midnight, so tired but determined to make it until the new year.  We watched a livestream of the celebration at EPCOT, watched the countdown there and joined in as together we celebrated the arrival of 2023.  It's going to be a great year - the sun was rising, and it will be warmer and it will be a better day tomorrow.  We just have to get to bed pretty quickly here - tomorrow is church at the regular time, and we've got to get up for that!

Happy New Year!

Grinch Mad Libs and Minnie Puzzles

One fun tradition that we've renewed this year is a small one.  It helps though, given the family dynamic.  It's Mad Libs.  Yes, this is such a simple little activity, and yet it allows everyone in the house to participate.  We'll have to post one of our crazier end results later, but some of the created sentences have everyone laughing out loud.  Maddie looks forward to these, as do all of us, actually.

We did have time for another board game of Super Mario Land today, that version of LIFE where you collect coins and stars and so forth.  It's somewhat like Mario Party, but a board game, and it's pretty fun.  We had to cut short our second round of the game, as Nana was needing to be entertained, so we plugged in the movie "Enola Holmes," as tomorrow we'll probably watch the sequel.  The first is a good movie, of course paying tribute to Sherlock Holmes while introducing new characters and adventures that follow the themes.

Today's big accomplishment was finishing a Minne Mouse puzzle, one that Maddie has been working on for a good big the last few days.  We had to disassemble this one tonight, and we have another one cued up that I'm pretty excited about.  But Maddie's been enjoying the puzzles this week, and that's nice to see.  She was cleaning up her room, and joining in on the DeSantafication Process, taking down her tree and packing it up.  I took down the outer trees myself, the ones on the front porch, and I also got our Nativity Set packed up and put away.  It's a Nativity Empire, so it took a little bit of time to get all the pieces and bits in their right places.  But carefully stowed away they are, and ready to be pulled out for another year.  Again, I got a good look at some of these pieces.  It's been over twenty years, and I remember seeing this poor man's Fontanini set, thinking it wasn't so far off from some of those more expansive Nativity empires.  Our set has a temple, a tax collector's house, a shepherd's home, a carpenter's shop, a Wise Men's tent area, a chariot, a well, a city gate, a bridge, of course a Nativity stable, plus dozens of pots, jars, rakes, troughs, wheels, donkeys, camels, scrolls, tables, seats, flowers, cows, sheep, shepherds, villagers, Wise Men, Roman soldiers, and the Holy Family.  

Nana and I went off and did some grocery shopping, just to give her something to do.  We needed to do some shopping, of course, especially with the fast coming up soon.  We're starting our yearly fast a little early than the rest of the church, beginning on January 1st, rather than the 8th like everyone else.  The reason for this is that Chinese New Year falls on January 22nd this year, so we'll want to eat Chinese food that day, right after the fast is over with.  I can't believe Chinese New Year is so early this year!

Mom has been working on this wigglemarsh costume a long time, and it's coming along really well at present.  She's been working on frog feet, and she got the Spanish moss for the hair done, attaching it to a pointy hat.  It looks good though!  She was able to get a lot done on that while we were out grocery shopping, as she can't get it done so much while Nana is here.  That's been Mom's dilemma for the last few years, an inability to get anything really accomplished until after Nana goes to bed, or while she's away.  One thing I picked up for tomorrow night was some sparkling apple cider in one of those wine bottles.  We don't have any champagne flutes, but Maddie likes the sparkling apple cider anyway, so that will be fun at midnight. The thing is, this year, we have to go to bed right away - we have to get up for church early the next morning!

It was overcast and gloomy today, just like our week has been somewhat.  We're sort of stuck here, but we've made the best of it, playing games, watching movies and getting a few things done.  Tonight we closed things out by reading from "Interesting Times," and then afterwards, saying our prayers and bedtime.  Tomorrow is the last day of the year, and the rain is setting in, but that's okay.  We're not going anywhere anyway.

Maddie’s pov

We did some mad libs so I’m gonna put one or two down here:

By Decree

To all the Peppermints of Whoville,

Hear ye, boot-scoot ye! This Christmas, I, Mayor Madison, declare that we must make our Christmas  festival 3.1415 times bigger! That means more eggnog to squeeze, and more lights to moonwalk from every house. To prepare for our tree- sleeping ceremony, bring your most stinky ornaments. I will be bringing my favorite ornament, which shows Santa riding a sloth, wearing his signature periwinkle underwear. Weird Christmas to all, and remember: We need everyone’s gumdrop to make this holiday great!

Sincerely,

The frosting of whoville

Rogue One and Paris

Each year we take time to look through the twelve or thirteen pairs of Christmas glasses we have, each one showing a different Christmas theme.  This one says "JOY" wherever there is a Christmas light.  It looks pretty neat, as do all these filters, but JOY is the word of the year really.  We've got a new KidPak ornament that says "JOY," and the word just keeps popping up in bigger ways here and there.  Of course, it's a more common word this time of year to see, but despite all that, we're receiving the message loud and clear.  We will have joy this year!

It's getting warmer, which doesn't take much actually, given that the temperatures have been so cold.  We were out shopping today, going to look for things a wigglemarsh would wear.  Mom is planning on making wigglemarsh feet too, so that should be fun.  Daniel will be our wigglemarsh, and we'll see him for week one of our new adventure in Narnia.  I was proofing the latest devotional on Narnia, and it should be done soon enough.  We'll have our new booklets printed, and a new devotional by Camille, Joey and myself that's all about the seven Chronicles of Narnia.  Should be nice!

Tonight some of us were watching "Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris," which is a very nice movie.  But Maddie was off to her friends' house to watch a movie in their basement theater.  It was a nice time - Maddie writes about it right here:

Maddie’s pov:

So today I just chilled at home for most of the day. I tried to do some of a Minnie Mouse puzzle but it’s actually pretty hard lol. I watched some clone wars and Kickin’ It. Later tonight, I went to Maddie G’s house for a movie night. For about an hour, we just chilled and talked then we went to the basement to a movie theatre styled movie section/room and watched Rogue One. We would make small comments here and there, sometimes pause the movie to say something more, and enjoyed the movie. She really liked it, I think she almost cried at the end of it honestly. It was nice hanging out with Maddie today.

25 Days of Hot Sauces

Maddie and I had a fun little event tonight.  We vowed earlier that we would - once we got to day 25 - actually taste each of these hot sauces all in one sitting.  That meant getting a big batch of French fries, enough for both of us, and enough to sample these hot sauces one at a time.  

Oddly enough, our favorite might have been the one on day one.  The sriracha hot sauce was our favorite, although the smoked chipotle was good too.  We didn't like the green ones as much, and the whiskey one wasn't that good either.  The Thai one tasted like soap to both of us.  The dangerous ones in the mix were labeled "ghost pepper" and "extreme hot sauce."  The ghost pepper one didn't bother Maddie as much, but it came back to haunt my mouth a little later.  Going in, it wasn't so bad.  It had this delayed reaction that sort of messed things up.  The one that got us both was the one that was labeled "extreme."  There was no indication of why it was extreme.  It was just extreme, and that was that.  So we tried it, and both of us had our glasses of milk ready, and oh my goodness did we need them.  This one did not go away, continuing to punish our mouths several minutes afterwards!

Anyway, we got through them all, and yes, by the end it was more difficult.  We were ready to stop torturing our tongues!  But we did make it, and we took a break from hot sauces right after that.  Our favorites are in the refrigerator, and those other ones we tossed.  No more extreme for us, thank you!

The blue birds enjoyed their dining area, and it seems to be keeping that bully robin away for the time being.  Not even the squirrels have figured this simple feeder out yet.  So for now, the family of blue birds is quite content, as we keep filling this up for them.

Speaking of birds, we finished the bird puzzle today!  This was one of Mom's Christmas presents, but we also got a few other puzzles too, so we'll probably be doing some puzzles all week long at the table.  It's sort of a post-Christmas tradition now.

I've been working this week, and I've gotten done the script for this Sunday's Narnia series, for the most part.  I think it should be good, introducing the kids that have entered Narnia, and a few inhabitants, including a wigglemarsh and a fawn.  We'll see how that turns out.

We still had time to play games a bit.  We did some "Grinch" themed mad-libs, and we also played a game of Uno Flip, something Maddie got for Christmas.  Tonight's programming was quite a lot - the movie "Slumberland," plus an episode of the latest National Treasure series, and on top of that some episodes of "The Bad Batch."  

Tonight before bed, we read some from "Interesting Times," so we're reading more about Rincewind again, and it's good to see him again.  We said our prayers, and got to sleep after that.  We get to sleep in all week long, and that's pretty nice.

Therizinosaurus

We had one movie at Christmas under the tree this year - isn't that funny?  It used to be there'd be DVDs or in the old days even VHS tapes under the tree.  But there was one movie now, and here it is, "Jurassic Park Dominion."  We watched it again tonight, and this would be the third time this year actually, including that first theater experience in the summer.  It's a great conclusion to the franchise, although I do think they'll make more dinosaur movies in time, because why not?  Each one includes new dinosaurs, and this one is no different, as it features this terrifying therizinosaurus, which is a mouthful to say.  This dinosaur is not carnivorous, and yet the scene with it creeping through the forest is still pretty thrilling.  By the film's end, of course this dino comes back and plays a big part.  We enjoyed another visit to Jurassic Park tonight, knowing full well everyone would be running for their lives.

Let's see... today we were out shopping for wigglemarsh clothing, and also perhaps a few items for a White Queen.  We kept Nana busy for a bit there, but if you don't keep that plate spinning, she sort of goes into sleep mode and no eat mode.  We've got another appointment coming up on Monday, one where she'll tour this place in Braselton again, and hopefully get some vaccinations with a nurse.  No doubt the nurse will make commentary about her weight - we're trying to get Nana to eat.  Mom makes these nice breakfasts, but Nana is always saying, "No thank you." 

This morning, we had French Toast, and that was really good of course.  I walked off the calories a bit on the treadmill, walking through London at Christmas time.  It was a nice little walk.  We did a few other things today, squeezing in a board game while Nana was napping, and even doing a few mad-libs.  The board game is Super Mario LIFE, and it really doesn't have much to do with a standard flow of a life game.  It's actually pretty fun!

One of the things I got for Christmas is some exercise balls that you sort of swing around a bit to increase muscle strength in the rotator cuff area.  Each night I go to sleep with a strap on, keeping my arm straight and running down attached to my leg.  Day one was yesterday, and day two was today - there are four exercise balls in the kit, each one having increasing weight.  Each one you use for ten days before advancing to the next weight up.  I'm looking forward to having my shoulders work again - Mom got this for me, and I'll be testing it out the next forty days.  We'll see how it works!

Tonight we wrapped up our latest book, "Mort," and I think we'll pick up another Terry Pratchett book tomorrow, one called "Interesting Times."  I read that one last year, and I think Maddie might like it because it features Rincewind, Twoflower, and a few other familiar faces.  And the Luggage.

We made the best of the day, getting some things done for the new series while keeping Nana busy.  Tonight we said our prayers after reading.  Maddie's been listening to this Bible app for the entire year, and she's right there at the end, having gotten through the entire Bible in one year.  We are so super proud of her - she'll wrap it up on New Year's Eve.  

Okay, it's time for bed.  Quiet day today, and we'll get some sleep. 

Boxing Day

Today is Boxing Day, and so this gift seems pretty appropriate for the date, a silver coin that Mom got me, and a pretty funny one too.  It was a day to look at all the gifts, sorting through things, and just largely playing around with what we got.

We got a lot of different blends of coffee this Christmas, and this is the one we elected to start out with, enjoying a couple cups of White Chocolate Peppermint Bark.  You could taste the chocolate and the peppermint, but not in an overwhelming way - just enough to make it fresh and brisk, and sweet too!  

The birds had plenty to eat again too.  you can see a few of our bluebird friends dining on mealworms here, but in the old tray from last year.  We hung up a few new bird feeders, including a new and more sturdy suet feeder, which you can see a woodpecker visiting below:

There was another feeder we hung up too, one that was a lot more friendly to the bluebirds.

We have a robin that's a bully, a territorial bird that doesn't realize it's too early for spring.  Whatever the reason, he has asserted his dominance over the mealworm tray on the back railing there, swooping in and dropping his fat heinie on the place where a bluebird family of five or six will be dining.  And of course if any of them get close, he chases them off, not really there to eat but instead just show off how big and aggressive he is.  I've learned to not like robins as much, all because of this one!  Anyway, the feeder above is one the robin cannot get to at all, so the bluebirds are enjoying it all the more today.

We have a few more feeders that we'll put out soon enough, but all in good time.  It was a day for putting things up, like the new shaving implements.  It was a day for trying out the new rotator cuff exercise kit that I got, something simple for Christmas that could help strengthen my muscles and reduce pain in that area.  Mom got that for me, and I was swinging it around some.  Part of the kit is a strap that forces my arm to a position at night, allowing my shoulder to relax and not re-injure itself.  

Our good friends got us a candle that reads, "CHOOSE JOY," and we have had that lit periodically, along with the fire in the fireplace.  I keep spotting that word JOY all over, written in huge letters across the stage during our Christmas production, and also across our mantle.  The word "JOY" is even our new KidPak ornament - each year we get a new fruit of the spirit ornament, so we have these hung up on the living room tree.  But the "CHOOSE JOY" message is for us, as we just have to keep a positive attitude, something frequently challenging with our current family dynamic.  We set up a puzzle for her, but she just said "Good luck with that one!"

Maddie loves puzzles though.  She and Mom will spend some time on this new one I got for Christmas - it's covered with exotic birds, something Kronk would love.  

You can see Lola here, looking on.  That's a robot pet character from the series "Obi Wan Kenobi."  This new addition to our household was opened yesterday, and the first thing that Maddie thought of was "Don't touch Lola."  Of course, that's the famous quote from Agent Phil Coulson in "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."  And it has nothing to do with Star Wars.  But still, it's fun, and throughout the day we were saying that of course.

It's a busy shopping day, but we weren't going out to do any shopping.  In fact, we've been in our pajamas all day.  We had some delicious tea, and we watched a lot of television tonight, starting with the 30th anniversary special for "Beauty and the Beast," and then some more of "The Bad Batch."  We're having a Bad Batch Marathon the rest of the year - we have about fifteen episodes to go, as last night we started it with four episodes from "The Clone Wars" where the characters were first introduced.  

Tonight we read from "Mort," and we're approaching the end of that one rather quickly.  We said our prayers together, and then I put my rotator cuff strap on, sliding under the warm blankets.  It'll be below freezing again tonight, and we've kept the water dripping and the cabinet doors open under the sink to hopefully keep the pipes from freezing up.  It's been a good day - this used to be one of my favorite days of the year, so relaxing.  But not so much this year with the new family dynamic.  We did a lot of relaxing, but there's a lot of answering of repetitious questions and the old "trying to get someone to eat" game, plus discussions about moving out over and over again and then the answering of the question that gets asked over and over again, "Is there anything special I can do?"  If there is nothing for Nana to do, she either announces that she is going back to bed for the umpteenth time, or she'll sit on the couch and mutter to herself until she repeats the question again.  There's this sort of psychological battle going on - we have to keep her entertained at all times, or there's this guilt that you don't really care.  And some of us are just tired of it, sort of ignoring it or getting coldly indifferent from time to time.  Then the conviction comes and you sort of pep up and do your best to show love, but it just wears you down all day long.  Mom is feeling the monotony of it more than anyone else, of course, and suffering the most.  Tomorrow we'll get a call from Dana (not Zuul), and maybe we'll have hope once again.  We'll see.

I'll close with one remarkable gift that Mom got me for Christmas.  She got me a print from BlackCatTips, a local artist who we began to follow after seeing many of the signs he was posting around our area.  So we've been following him online somewhat, and Mom actually got me a this print that I want to frame and hang up somewhere.  But also, she got me his children's book, one called "Smile a While."  It's a simple message book about smiling and spreading joy just with a smile.  But I was reading out loud to Mom, and it was a good message for both of us.  We gave each other a smile, and we'll keep doing that, putting on our garments of praise and moving forward with JOY.

Christmas 2022

It's Christmas!  Already!  We sort of lose a week or two in December because of the Christmas Production, getting so caught up in all that, but we start earlier in November to compensate.  Still, it sort of feels more than ever that things have snuck up on us.  It doesn't seem real that we're finally here at the end of the holiday season.  Mom and I got up early, and got some wood on the fire, and got all the birdseed out there too for a generous Christmas blessing for our cold little friends.  In fact, we were adding warmer water to the bird bath and the water dishes out there, although they would freeze over again eventually - the weather is below freezing again.  

Maddie slept in again, as is her custom on Christmas morning.  There's none of that "up at 4:30 am" stuff here, or even 7am for that matter.  She woke up as she does each Christmas morning, peeked over the bridge, and saw the presents all underneath the tree.  It would be time to open them all soon enough, although first there had to be tea and drinks.  Stockings were filled last night, and all four of us got to our stockings right away, getting out candy, and even some new coffee flavors that you'll see below.  We stayed in our pajamas because that's what you do on Christmas morning, wearing Christmas socks, slippers, pajamas and Santa hats too.  One at a time we were unwrapping all the different presents under the tree - Maddie played Santa, handing out the presents to everyone in three big stacks.

Mom got a CD that we went on to listen to - in the older days, there would be CDs and DVDs or even Blu-Rays, but this year, there was one jewel case CD beneath the tree, and one Blu-Ray of the latest Jurassic Park movie.  The music was a praise and worship set that Mom has enjoyed listening to on the radio.  Of course, for the morning we had nothing but Christmas music playing, all kinds of varieties of music to keep teh festive atmosphere going.  Nana had some presents to open with new sneakers and lots of British import candies to bring out a smile.  Mom got several things for the birds, some puzzles for later, a few books and even a Wordle boardgames.  There were items from Bath & Bodyworks, and even a smaller sized shofar that we immediately had to try out.  I got some Nightmare Before Christmas themed coffee, some vinyl records, and another collection of Star Wars themed soap, which is amazing, by the way.  We got a few board games, and oh, lots of books.  It was a jólabókafló - a book flood.  Maddie got a few she was wanting, and so did Mom.  As for myself, I got the remaining Terry Pratchett Discworld novels, which means I now have the entire collection of novels.  There are still a few other booklets to pick up from this point on, but I'll certainly be busy with books the rest of the year!  Maddie got a few things too, opening up a few more Pop figures, all with a Ghostbusters theme - except for the Mobius one that she wanted last summer.  She saw that around the time of Forward, and Santa must have been listening.  He was also listening last summer when she saw that Super Mario LIFE boardgame too.  She got a lot of things for Christmas, and a lot of candy, and a make-up and Star Wars items too.  We have new ornaments for the Star Wars tree, and origami, and all kinds of things.  But the biggest surprise came at the end of the morning.  Maddie forgot a few presents under the tree.  There was one for Mom, and then there was this other one that she initially thought was for me, maybe a vinyl record, but then she realized it was for her.  She opened it up once she saw it was for her, and she was quite happy to see it was a Taylor Swift calendar for her wall.  She always gets a new calendar for Christmas.  She started looking through the months, looking at the different pictures, going from January to February to March to April... and then she saw there was something written on April 30th.  She read it slowly, trying to figure what it said - something about the Eras Concert at 6:30 pm.... was that a joke?  Wait, there were specific seats written down there.  She looked up at Mom and I, still sorting it out in her mind, but it was gradually sinking in... did she just get Taylor Swift tickets for Christmas?  Yep, you did Maddie!  In a few moments she had some tears in her eyes, as she was so grateful for this gift - it was a good one.  It was a really great Christmas for her, of course.  

That was the big one, the last of the Christmas presents here.  But soon we were packing up to go over to my parents' house.  We got dressed, went online to do our greetings with a lot of other friends and family, made a few calls, and then did the last-minute wrapping needed to get out the door.

We met up at Ye-Ye and Nana's house, and had a big Christmas feast over there, with Honeybaked Ham and all kinds of other Christmas items, including all the desserts too.  It was such a big meal!  We sat in the living room afterwards, opening presents from one another as we always do, and after all that, it was time for the yearly White Elephant game, where we submit joke gifts, opening them and stealing them from one another.  Maddie wound up with a shark Snuggie, which I believe you can see below with all the other pictures too.

We left there eventually, and when I got home, we realized that Aunt Shain had given us a tremendous gift, one so big that we are having a hard time accepting it.  She sold her home in Gwinnett, and she wanted to help us get a new oven.  It's such a big gift, so we were going back and forth on the phone over that, and yes, we'll have to find a way to repay her for such generosity.  

The rest of Christmas Day was quiet.  We sat and watched a movie, "The Last Holiday," which Mom and I really liked.  Maddie was enjoying some of her new toys, and once Nana went to bed, we sat and watched a few episodes of "The Bad Batch," which has a second season starting in about a week or so.  We'll be having a marathon with that throughout the rest of 2022.  

But soon it was time for bed.  We were very exhausted from such a full day, but we made sure we continued our reading, and we said our prayers too.  It was a very nice Christmas Day.  Here are a few photos from today, pictures to look back on as we remember Christmas 2022.