2022

Happy 2022!  It's a new year, and looking back on this blog, the list of years that I've been entering just keeps getting longer and longer!  There are over 4,500 daily entries in this, an ongoing story of sorts, a record of things done and seen throughout the years.  Although there weren't that many things done or seen in 2021, hopefully 2022 will be a bit different.

We started out the day with breakfast and the Rose Bowl Parade, which was nice to come back to.  The float above was pretty cool, the start of a segment that was fantastic to see:  actual band conductors from all fifty states, all lined up with instruments playing "76 Trombones," of course.  What was nice is how long we got to see that segment, as the band was huge and the whole idea of it was really great.  These were band teachers from all over, and it was great seeing them get honored in such a way.  There were a lot of bands and some nice floats, and the crowd appeared to be pretty big too - it was nice to see everything back again.

While that was going on, we were really starting our DeSantafication Process, cleaning out the piano room, and even taking that tree down.  The new year is here, and it's time to start removing the Christmas decorations.  We still have a few trees to go, of course, but that's the soonest we've taken down a tree.  The small trees on the porch are gone, as are all the Nativity sets in that one room.  It's a glum feeling taking it all down, and January 2nd is usually a gloomy sort of day, no matter what kind of weather is out there.  But this year really didn't feel like Christmas so much, and in fact this last week has been a daily struggle.  So I'm okay with moving on to the next thing.  

New Year's Day is traditionally not much beyond the sleeping in and maybe watching the parade.  We used to go over to Ye-Ye and Nana's house for a meal, but this year we spent time trying to keep certain people in the house busy so they wouldn't pace around and cry all the time.  Such has been our entire week.  To that extent, Mom and Nana were working on the garage, cleaning it out - I brought a whole lot of things downstairs today, and after that, the two of them were out in the back yard, cleaning out the gulley that runs down there.  Occasionally garbage runs along the streamline there and gets caught up in the gulley.  Mom and Nana had a few trash bags down there, picking up what they could.  

Maddie and I were continuing our board game week with a game of LIFE themed to "Minions."  We played this a few times, adjusting the rules somewhat to make the game last longer, but it was still a lot of fun. We've done board games every day this week, nearly, and it's been great returning to these classics.

I was working on a skit for tomorrow for a short time, so there was a little bit of work to be done.  Tomorrow is Sunday, and there's a KidPak service of course.  It should be fun.

Our bird feeders are a hit on the back deck.  We've seen all kinds of birds, including woodpeckers now, these larger birds enjoying the suet feeders now hung up.  Also visiting were Mom's favorite birds, the blue birds, who seem to also like the suet feeders as well.  

Tonight we continued the "Spider-thon" with "Into the Spider-verse," the animated masterpiece that introduced the cinematic superhero world to the multi-verse.  Now we're in a lot deeper with the latest movie, and that's not a bad thing.

We concluded the first day of the year by reading from another chapter from "Kingdom Keepers," and prayer, and getting to bed a little earlier.  We've got to get up earlier tomorrow for church, and start getting back to a normal routine again.  It'll be good to see everyone again tomorrow morning!