Today was the day to wrap all the presents. Lori and I spent a couple of fun hours hiding each in a cocoon of season’s paper. Now they add a lovely touch sitting beneath the new tree.

Tomorrow, our Daughter’s children will venture from next door and destroy the paper we lovingly used to hide their gifts. We are fortunate the trash cans are empty—for the moment.

Yesterday, we had Christmas present exchange with our Son’s family in the early afternoon. Later, my Daughter and family joined us for dinner and an evening chatting around the firepits. It was a beautiful night spent remembering the year with hot chocolate and burnt marshmallows.

This year has been unlike any year we remembered. The first few months were passing as usual, and then C’OVID disrupted the rest of it. Months in a full lockdown, then a start to return to normal before another lockdown.

We don’t know what the rest of the year will be like or what next year will bring but look forward to it.

Thank you for visiting, and we wish you and yours a safe, healthy holiday.

If you like, you can use the comment form to share your holiday with us.

Are you familiar with Cricut? I wasn’t until this time last year.

Learning Cricut

My wife and the internet educated me about Cricuts after we learned my granddaughter wanted one. I learned it is a multipurpose machine that can duplicate designs in a variety of materials.

My granddaughter received the Cricut Explore Air 2 for Christmas. She found it challenging to use until my wife offered to learn with her. I remember the day they sat with it on our kitchen table. The two, grandmother and granddaughter, watched videos on the internet and puzzled duplicating them. The “yeah” moment finally came.

First Projects

The door opened to customized water bottles, insulated cups, shirts, and window decals. Several stores enjoyed the two shopping for vinyl, cardstock, and shirts, and more for their projects. The Cricut traveled between houses as each found a need for it.

Then one day, I bought my wife a Cricut Maker. We converted the smallest bedroom into her hobby space. We added a large table, a multidrawer rolling cabinet, a Cricut iron, and an embossing machine.

The Manor

Her most ambitious project to date was a Halloween manor made from cardstock. She planned it as a centerpiece on the Monday before Halloween for the Seniors Bowling League. She made cupcakes for the bowlers and the manor sat between the cupcake holders.

Current & Upcoming Projects

She is working on several projects. Potholders my grandchildren can sell at a fund raiser, Christmas cards and ornaments, and I don’t know what else. Won’t know until I asked if I want to go to Michaels, A.C. Moore, JoAnn, Dollar Store, or another source of materials.

What is your hobby? Share using the comment form.

We are in the last hours of Christmas Day. A week from today we will start a new year, 2019. How quickly the year has passed.

In January, I retired for the second time. The first time was from the United States Navy. The second was from contractor service to a military program. I spent twenty-five years with each. It was a bitter-sweet time, but I haven’t regretted the decision one time.

My wife and I spent Easter with family in Ohio. This was a branch of my wife’s family tree we had recently discovered. The visit was a great time, and many memories created.

I suffered a tear in my left knee’s meniscus chasing a soccer ball at the girl’s team training. In June, I had it repaired, and now the only pain is because of arthritis. (Sucks getting old.)

We spent almost three weeks with my wife’s cousins in Texas. We took our RV and two grandkids on the trip. While there, we visited the gravesites of my wife’s parents and brother. A great time with some sad moments.

I spent another week on a whirlwind trip to visit my cousin in Illinois. We overnighted in Ohio where we spent time with my wife’s cousin, Jennifer. It was a great time with Crystal’s family.

The fall soccer season started in August with training and tournaments taking evenings and weekends. The winter season is underway, and the team trains two nights a week outdoors. We are on break Christmas week.

Bowling leagues started in August also. I made it five sessions before suffering a minor tear in my bowling shoulder. Four weeks rest was the recommendation. I returned to competition using a lighter bowling ball and finally getting back to form. We are on Christmas break this week also.

In my spare time, usually late in the evening, I am writing a novel. I have completed the third revision. It has a long ways to go, but I have time–after all I am retired

So, here we are nearing bedtime on my first Christmas Day after retiring. They asked me at my retirement party how I would spend my time retired. “I’ll find something to keep me busy,” I said. 

Looking back on the year, I succeeded.

How was your year? Tell me something interesting using the comment form.

‘Tis the countdown to Christmas and the panic is subsiding, or is it?

Make a list, check it twice

The list made, and names checked off as the gifts hidden waiting to be wrapped. Such a relief to know there is no need for another hectic shopping trip or jaunt online to find a gift.

What kind of gift? Is the person a child, family or friends? An adult friend? An acquaintance or co-worker? The relationship is paramount to the next phase of gift procurement.

You review the list again. Terror strikes the heart. You remembered a name that should be on the list. Oh drat, another gift needed.

Children’s gift

When it is a child, there is someone to guide the gift selection. Call, email, or text the parents and place the burden on them. Demand they tell what the child or adult wants or needs. Require them to give multiple options to ensure you can locate a gift that will be appreciated.

Adult’s gifts

Adult family members, friends, or co-workers require fewer mental gymnastics. Think hard, and an acceptable gift idea will creep out of the mental spider webs.

In case the spider is still weaving, what makes a perfect gift? Gift cards! A gift card to a favorite restaurant, to a store where they shop, to a dinner theater or movie, or a cash card.

Once you have the gift, you can cross the name on the list off. Your heartbeat can slow, the sweat on the brow can be wiped away, and the nerves calmed until another name comes to mind.

I hope that you won’t experience a mental faux pas and wake up Christmas morning remembering you forgot someone. Review your list while there is still time to find that perfect present.

Have you experienced forgetting a person you should had a present for? The comment form is the perfect place to tell me about your experience. Look forward to hearing from you.

Tis Christmas Eve and it resembles a cold fall day at our home. The weather is clear and warmest it has been in days. Miles north, it has been cold with freezing rain or inches of snow. A wintry mixture is worthy of the season.

We are fortunate our travel to spend the holiday with family is short. Our Son’s family, who we will visit with today lives a short forty minute drive away. We will load the presents and other goodies soon. Tomorrow we will share the day with our Daughters family who lives next door. God blessed us with hale and heathy children, son-in-law and daughter-in-law, four granddaughters, and three grandsons. That we have our health to enjoy them is another great blessing.

This summer we bought a SUNSEEKER recreational vehicle. It is a mobile home-on-wheels which we took on an excursion to Texas. The test drive proved its worth, and we look forward to many trips starting when the weather is fit. Until that day, it sits faithfully beside our house ready at an instant. Spring will come soon enough.

Our trip planning will no longer have to be scheduled around my work vacation since I retire in January. After over 17 years in the same job, a long time for a contractor to the government, we will be free to go anytime. This life change is exciting to anticipate.

It is time for my wife and me to load the presents in the four wheel sleigh and be off to play Santa on Christmas Eve.

Time passed.

We played Santa and had a wonderful time. We are back in our nest waiting for the morrow when we get to be Santa once more.

Before we go, Lori and I wish everyone a wonderful Christmas day. Be safe during this and the coming days. And remember that I enjoy hearing from you.

December 13^th is a day I likely will never forget. It is the day I sent my first writing to a short story contest. February 28, 2018, is the next date to never be forgotten. The day they announce the winners. What is the likelihood that my story will win or even place? I have read others describing the anxiety caused by the wait. Push me good wishes.

Perhaps someone would like to know how I came up with the short short story. Actually, it wasn’t that difficult to create 1500 word story if you have scraps left from a draft. My story was built from several hundred words excised from the draft written last November. It caused problems with the draft’s timeline. Pulling it removed this burr in the story line.

I read that material removed during editing should be kept. I kept it, and it became a story fit for a short short story contest. How fit will be known February 28.

Today is day 39 until 26 January 2018. 39 days until I become unemployed, voluntarily. 39 days until I don’t have a paying job. 18,686 days since I joined the Navy. 9,462 between my retirement from the Navy and my retirement from working as a contractor. Some day, my children might calculate the number days between this retirement and my internment. Hopefully, it will be a sufficiently large number allowing me plenty of enjoyment after my second retirement.

An aside, the Pipeline 2008 Boys Red team lost its indoor match this week. I missed the game but the head coach said the boys played a good game.  Technical development during the winter session is the goal. Winning is secondary since this is not a league or tournament.

This is the snowy time of year, this year in Maryland. There is a possibility of a white Christmas. Do you celebrate Christmas? If you do, have you completed preparations? Are the gifts bought, wrapped, and ready for delivery? Have you decided on the meal for the day? Tell me how you will spend the day.

Traditions — Christmas Day is upon us. Are you ready? For once we, my wife and I, are ready! We have the presents purchased and wrapped. They sit under the tree waiting for the package distributor to pick one and call out a name. If tradition holds, whoever the present is for will be offered help in opening it. Then comes the cries of “Show us what it is. Hold it up.” Cameras will flash and it will be time for the next one.

Our Christmases around the world

I was sitting here thinking how Christmas Day events have changed for my family over the years. My wife and I spent our first Christmas (1974) as a married couple in Keflavik, Iceland. The second was in Iceland also. Our third was in San Vito, Italy in an apartment above our Italian landlords. We were two and a half. My wife was pregnant.

My son joined us for the fourth and fifth (1977-1978) in San Vito. The sixth and seventh were in Pensacola, Florida. The Eighth (1981) was my daughter’s first as she grew us to a family of four.  The next two were in Coco Solo, Panama. We have been in Maryland for all of them since 1984.

Christmas traditions at our house

My wife and I bought a big artificial tree in Iceland and used it for forty years. It was always a challenge to find room in the government housing we lived in for the tree.  Some piece of furniture would hide in the bedroom or utility room while the tree decorated the space vacated.  Over several days before each Christmas, wrapped presents found their way under the tree. It was magic to the kids. It was late night wrapping that made the magic.

It became traditional for the kids to open one present on Christmas Eve. The rest waited for Christmas morning. Santa had to make a stop after all. Santa’s presents were the big items that required assembly. Santa’s helper had to pull tools and stay up late doing Santa’s work.  Christmas morning was hectic as the mounds of wrapping paper grew. The kids enjoyed their presents while we made dinner.

Today, the children are grown and have children of their own. They are creating their family traditions regarding Christmas *and other holidays*. Our traditions have changed to permit them to have theirs. We remember, in moments of nostalgia, past Christmases.

One of our traditions remains. Our smaller tree requires relegating a piece of furniture to another room. The tradition most missed is not being present when the sun comes up and watching the grandchildren discover what lies under their tree. We do get to watch them with the presents we bring with our visit.

Empty nesters, we accept the role of supporting cast ready for whatever role Santa needs filled. Has Christmas traditions changed for you? Use the comment to share your traditions.

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