On the 18th Day of Christmas

On the 18th day of Christmas (aka Sunday), I decided to un-deck the halls. This was part of my Winter Self-Care. I was noticing what was thriving (lower left on chart). Granted, we have an artificial tree. But still I figured it was time or I'd end up delaying it until Super Bowl weekend or something!

There's such a difference in decking the halls with enthusiasm during Advent. Preparing and anticipating Christmas.

Now I have the tree down and decorations put away and all we have to anticipate is... maybe 3-4 more months of winter! Hey, that's reality in Wisconsin.

I'm sure a lot of us are in the same boat, er ice shack or whatever. Take some ideas from the Winter Self-Care chart and try to keep some optimism.

It you'll try it, I will, too. We got this!

The Countdown Begins

Hello, December! Advent is here and we are officially counting down to Christmas. 

That's the only nice thing I can say about today. Since it was cold and the snow was back. Just not a ton of it this time.

And well, it's Monday. After 5 days away from my work desk, let's just say I had digging out to do – unrelated to the weather.

Did have a nice adjustment at the chiropractor after work. And now I am going to quickly catch up on the last two weeks of The Voice before tonight's live-ish episode. 

And I'll have to be sure I have snow brush in the car and maybe emergency snacks for the morning commute! 

Have a good week and a thoughtful Advent season, everyone!

Full Strength Gratitude

Happy Thanksgiving! Well this sums it up nicely. Now I don't have to have a super-long blog. I can just say I am grateful for everything. And every person in my life, too.

Grateful this morning that I got the tree up and decorated. And that Aunt Janice's Grape Salad recipe was a yummy success. We definitely use the word "salad" loosely in the Midwest. But hey, it does have healthy fruit – even though it looks like a trifle wannabe.

Grateful this afternoon and evening that Carter and Mamie made it home and joined us at sister-in-law Sherry's house. Great food and amazing entertainment via our great-niece and great-nephew! I wish I had an ounce of their energy!

Our is staying for the weekend so I might get to all the Cranberry classic games if I can spend time with them! Plus there's something silly like a big ol' snowstorm. Gah.

Be careful out there! Hope you all found moments of gratitude today! 

De-decked Empty Nest

Since we were too sick last weekend to do much, today I had to de-deck the halls. And the house looks so naked right now! No wonder people can't keep up with their de-cluttering New Year's resolutions – there's suddenly space to fill!

That was pretty much my only accomplishment today.

Still, we rewarded ourselves with a little night out. Our friends' band The Antonettes was playing at Mickey's Tip-Up down the road. So we listened to them with some other friends for their first set.

They're so good and I probably yelled too much singing along. I realized I better get my voice back since I've got choir in the morning and Jim has to read at his church. So we're home and we're going to see if the Lions play as well as they did against our Vikings – and your Packers.

Tomorrow starts the CHILL. Bundle up and be careful out there!

Oh, Christmas Trees... and More Trees

If I was lacking in holiday spirit in any way, that's no longer the truth. My oldest sister Rayna came for a visit yesterday and today and we fa-la-la'd to our hearts' content.

On Friday afternoon we went to the Shriners Fez-tival of Trees (where Carter and I went last week).

And, yes, we got to hang out with Santa again. I think we convinced him we've been good girls this year so maybe we'll get what we asked for come Christmas.

If you haven't made it there, there's still one day left to view the gorgeous trees and wreaths and enter for your chance to win. I runs from 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday at the Masonic Center near the Firefighters' Memorial Park and boat landing on 2nd Avenue.

For dinner, the three of us went to The Ridges for fish fries. They just happened to have R decorations so the R sisters had to take a selfie. It's what we do!

After that, we went home and watched the Merry Gentlemen movie on Netflix (ooh-la-la) and then let Jim beat us in two games of 3-to-13. We couldn't hog all the weekend fun to ourselves!

This morning, he set his alarm and we went to the Cookie Walk at St. Lawrence Church. If you've never done one, you put whatever you want in your container and then pay for it by the pound. Can you believe this is exactly one pound? That's all it takes. No wonder I put on so many over the holidays!

After that, I went to a funeral visitation for one our church members whose son and daughter (and granddaughters) I've also befriended and known for quite some time. Since Roger was one of the few Vikings fans in my church, I made sure to wear purple in his honor. 💜💛💜

When I got home, Rayna and I headed back into town to check out the 8th Annual Christmas Tree Walk at our South Wood County Historical Museum. I've attended this many times and when I posted pictures of it last year, she definitely wanted to see it in person.

It's an amazing display. Every room in the museum has multiple themed trees and decorations that volunteers provide. They're all so different and so beautiful. Enjoy just a few...

Creative use of dried fruit!

The island themed decorators made each of these Hawaiian shirt ornaments from paper, too. So tempted to try that! Cool.

The blue Starry Night room was fantastic!!

Like I said, so many different types of themes! 

An upside down tree. Why not?

Part of the Veterans' tree.

Ideas for homemade ornaments.

God, bless us, everyone!

Oh and this event runs from noon-4 p.m. Sunday and Monday, then 5-8 p.m. December 13, and noon-4 p.m. December 14 and 15. Free will offering. So worth the visit!

Rayna hit the road after that. And, since it was in the high 40s out I (and everyone else in town) thought today would be a good day for a car wash! Lines everywhere. But my car needed it since we had that one day of crappy snow and, thus, salt.

Late this afternoon, Jim and I wrapped up our holiday weekend with a Christmas concert by the  Wisconsin Rapids Area Community Choir. It's about 60 members and I knew about 10 – including several from my church choir. Excellent show for a full house! 

Now that we're home at a decent time, there may be a chance for more spirit a la Hallmark! 🎄🎅

Hope you're all finding ways to enjoy the season as well! 

We're Deckin'

Stay-cation Day 2 meant some deckin' the halls, er hall-idays!

It's still so weird to just trim the tree by myself. It was a traditional with my little boy and me. Now, as hubby pointed out, I seem to get it done in record time. That doesn't mean there's any less sentiment. 

Mainly just means I had today off and could do it by myself on behalf of the family. 

After the deckin' the halls was done, I did some Christmas shopping over in Plover and Stevens Point. Then tonight had some Lady Royals hoops to shoot. They were so dominate in their first home game versus Edgar, I'm not sure I could capture photos to do the game justice. Since I'm on vacation, I might just wait until tomorrow to look at my pictures and see.

So, keep deckin' the halls or just have a happy Tuesday or Wednesday! 

Lucky Are We

Feeling fortunate as we end the week. A full but good Thursday and Friday.

After work, our Marketing Department got to have a little gathering at SentryWorld to celebrate 100% by our team in the recent United Way campaign. It looked like a gorgeous fall day to be out golfing. Unfortunately, the course is closed for the season. And double-unfortunately, I didn't have my clubs in the car anyway.

I was lucky, though, when it came to door prizes. Keeping my winning streak alive and got my name drawn. I picked out a little travel fan since I need "white noise" in order to sleep and I have a big trip coming up.

From there, I headed to Assumption High School for the volleyball "Pink Out" night to raise money for a 9-year-old boy named Braxton. He inspired us all to meet diversity head on and still smile.

Since the Volley for a Cause covered any type of cancer, I put my friend Jeannie's name on one ribbon (Praying for you, girl!!).

And my cousin Jeff's name on another. He just died of cancer and was laid to rest in northern Minnesota today. 

There was a lot of support and a great crowd. And opportunities to "donate" through bake sale purchases and raffle baskets.

Guess who won another basket? Yup, this lucky girl! Another one I can take up to the benefit.

And to cap off our luck, we got to see the glorious Northern Lights again from our front yard. It went from pink and green to definite red and green tones. Guessing it's a sign I should watch some Hallmark Christmas movies this weekend!

Today, I was lucky to have a half day off. Mainly because this tree outside my office window was coming down – not sure why other than it's ugly – and there was going to be a lot of noise.

Here is the tree removal tree-oh figuring out the lift situation.

Good neighbor Mike went up the lift since he is the best chain-sawer. And apparently isn't afraid of heights.

Notice he is safely strapped into the bucket.

Just too high for me!

Jim and other helper would pile up limbs as they fell. They had a good system so that no one got hurt.

I was concerned at this stage though. I came outside and hoped they measured correctly so the final trunk wouldn't fall and hit hubby.

Timber!!

Whew! Lucky! Why would I doubt them?! Thanks for all the help and hard work, guys! Glad I could celebrate with an hour-long deep-tissue massage this afternoon. Hey, it was previously planned before I knew anything about sweating lumberjacks in the front yard.

This eveing, we headed to the Homecoming football game. We lost by a ton to Auburndale. But there was a great halftime show with all the bands and even choir members leading grade school kids in some ribbon dancing to Jimmy Buffet's Cheeseburger in Paradise. Fun.

Hoping our luck continues as we head into Saturday with a cross country meet and, you guessed it, a golf scramble! I'll keep you posted.

Have fun this weekend and appreciate your good fortune!

Pretty in Pink

Every May there's about 2 weeks when 50 shades of pink burst onto the scene in Wisconsin Rapids. Whether they call them Hopa trees, crab apple blossoms, or some random bloom, it's always sooo pretty. Today on the way to baseball, I stopped to smell (and photograph) the flowers. Enjoy...

Not kidding. There are several areas in town when they line the streets!

Too bad it's such a short-lived season. It's just so pretty. It would be great if they could even last the whole month. Good reminder to enjoy beauty when you see it.