It’s been fun showing you our Christmas in black and white photos, today we’ll finish up by showing you the rest of our morning/early afternoon. Let’s set the scene, shall we?

Yes, I did hang ornaments from the light fixture. Bill often works at the table and I wanted to make sure he had every opportunity to get glitter all over himself, on his things, and to wear it around as often as possible. You know, just to remind him of the joy and shine of the season. He loves glitter, and at no point did he ask if we could stop getting objects with glitter. Not that I can easily recollect anyhow.

Yes, this is butterbeer!! One of my gifts from Bill, it takes us back to the memory of sitting at Two Beater’s Pub at Wizardfest this past November. It is pretty tasty, and I may have added some Captain Morgan to it, which is super tasty. Does this seem indicative of what game we played?

We played a card game called Yaniv. It is a Nepalese game that is popular in Israel. Avery learned this game when she stayed with her friend that went to Miami, but lives in California, and her parents were from Israel. This is an easy game to learn, fun to play, and we always play when Avery is home, Brooke even played on vacation with us, after we begged her to.

If you ever play cards with these two, Bill and Avery, be forewarned. They are card sharks, and I am not convinced they don’t cheat. They both swear they don’t but their rapidly firing brains are probably counting cards…although Avery declared no card cheating before we started. I think this just confirms my thoughts!

While we were playing cards, Brooke finally got to rest. How she can contort and squeeze her long limbs in to such a tiny little roll is beyond me. I am just glad she got some quiet rest time, and so cozy! Lol.

Thank you for joining us on our Christmas morning! We had such a wonderful morning and time, it was a great day of good food, great company, lots of laughs and many memories made. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas too, and that you have very happy New Year’s Eve!

Welcome back! Yesterday, we quenched our Christmas thirst with a tasty mimosa. Today, we open some gifts, share some laughs, maybe a scowl or two, and the dogs make an appearance. Let’s see some of what was found under the tree this year!

Every year, Brooke gets Bill a mug with a cheeky message. This makes me laugh and delights me, as this is a family tradition of sorts. My dad always got his grandma cheeky gifts, and unsurprisingly, Brooke is following in Pappaw’s foot steps. I blurred the message out, but if you want to know, just ask Bill the next time you see him! Oh, and look at his face, he found to be pretty funny!

You have been a good guest so far, tomorrow let’s let our hair down and play a game. What do you think it will be? Tune in tomorrow to find out and to wrap up our Christmas, 2022.

Yesterday, you saw the beginning of our morning, the sleepy happiness, the togetherness, the coffee, the dogs! We started our morning relaxed and happy, cozy by the fire, awaiting our breakfast casserole to finish baking, and while waiting, we shared a beverage. Normally, I like my mimosa with apple juice instead of orange juice, but the orange juice was a good pairing for the casserole ingredients, I already had it on hand, so it was a win all around! Let’s watch while Bill serves up this tasty drink!

Here we go! Now, keep in mind, everyone likes their mimosa proportions different than the next person, so Bill will be doing a custom pour for each of us.

See, no two are the same. Brooke is not having a mimosa, pour on Bill! Here, he is working on Avery’s drink, a lower champagne to oj ratio. Can you figure out whose glass is on the left, above??

I like pouring the champagne in the glasses first, and then letting the oj pour do the blending. Yes these are white wine glasses, but we are not formal here, so just enjoy the incorporation captured!

Obviously this is Bill’s, as was the left glass above. When Avery and I have wine, I ask, do you want a normal pour, or a mom pour? She is sophisticated and says normal, I remind her we are at home, might as well save a trip to the fridge and do a double. Bill says go big or go home!

The whole purpose of capturing our drinks, is to remind us of the sharing of drink, sharing of conversation, and sharing of good memories. While mom and dad are capturing drink service, this gives Avery and Brooke time to hang together, having their own conversations, sharing their own laughs too. Our bonds, our memories, our shared special times together are what will carry us forward as a family. Meeting each other where we are, in our own places of adulthood, age, and personal growth is what matters most. Mutual respect seems to be something we all crave from each other, and work diligently to deliver on. Avery and Brooke are our kids, yes, but also they are their own individuals, their own person, adults. Love grows and prospers where it is watered, where it is honored and where it is respected. I guess fancy, real champagne can make you feel elevated after all.

Tune in tomorrow for a peek into the gift portion of our Christmas Day!

This year, I decided to document our Christmas morning with photos, in black and white. We had decided the night before that we would have a very relaxed Christmas morning. We, or 3 of us, slept until 7:15, 2 had coffee, one had a camera. Two of the dogs were not too keen on the camera, one couldn’t get enough. Bill and I made up a tasty breakfast casserole, which I did not take photos of, but we did eat before opening gifts. Here are the photos of coffee time, waiting for Brooke’s arrival downstairs, and before we ate our morning casserole. I hope you get some good laughs, I know we did!

Tune in tomorrow for part 2, and some mimosas!

I am signing off for a couple of days to bask in the Christmas season. I am wishing you all a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Joyful Tidings to you all!

Is this a Christmas movie, or not?

It is all about the holidays…

What about Die Hard 2? Please drop me a line and let me know, this way I can keep you around in 2023, or say…

Here we are, it’s the first day of winter! Do you have some winter plans, some things you want to get done, or places you want to go in this season? I will do some indoor projects, really focus in on studio work for photography, and I will probably cook, read, and clean a lot! Drop me a line, let me know what the season is gearing up for in your world, I would love to know!

I started my day off making orange cranberry bread, washed and prepped my fruit for Christmas Day, made chicken noodle soup, and finished with lime coconut chicken and coconut rice. While I didn’t take a picture of my whole day, I will show you what pictures I did take.

Hit me up if you want any of these recipes, all from Pinterest! Tomorrow is cleaning mode, Thursday is dog washing, then time to relax and enjoy the Christmas holiday! Are you ready, or do you have a final push of things to accomplish before festivities? Drop me a line and let me know!

I have not been able to do yoga for months. MONTHS. While you don’t quite realize how bad a shape you are in before an exercise program, you sure as hell know how bad you can get when you aren’t doing one. I have tried to do yoga a few times the last few months, to no avail, all because of the vertigo, but in the last week my body has been screaming at me to do something to help my tight muscles and rigid joints. So, this weekend, I made a plan, and started today.

This is the video I did. I really like how slow Brittney goes, her voice isn’t annoying, and it is a good place for me to start this first week back. While I did get dizzy 3 times, the first two were easy to navigate, and the third was at the end. I consider this a major win!!! I plan on doing a flow Monday, Wednesday & Friday, adding yin 2 other days in the week. Or at least something like that. I may need to adjust based on my vertigo limitations, but I am just so overjoyed with relief, happiness and an easiness in my body that was missing.

I’ll keep you posted on how it goes! Tell me, what are you not doing for your lungs/muscles/body that you could or should be? And can you meet yourself in that to feel better(best) in 2023? Drop me a line and let me know!

Last night, at our beautiful Majestic Theatre, we saw Kavan perform 4 Shades of Elvis. To say that I saw Elvis in real time, is not an understatement. While I was taken to a different era, or two, the ladies in the audience were definitely transported back to a different time, their younger years, and they were living a dream through the mighty talented, and fun, Kavan with the accompaniment of some super talented vocalists and musicians.

This video is a snippet of the show, not the most exciting part, and not the most awesome part, because holy leather! Kavan has such high energy, such amazing vocals, and moves, moves, moves! I would highly recommend seeing his show, take a fan, and maybe a lady that loves Elvis, you won’t regret it! A great night of entertainment at my favorite local theatre, with my favorite people!