Holiday Aftermath

These penguins and snowmen are permanently displayed on a bookcase shelf

Happy New Year, once again, Patrick and myself hope that everyone had a holiday season filled with memorable experiences of good times and good food shared with family, friends or both.

As mentioned in a previous post, we were home in Nashua, NH, for both major holidays, Christmas and New Year's and the eves that preceded these days. Our Thanksgiving road trip a few weeks before included visits with most family members who also spent these holidays with their respective families. It's a sure thing that we will be see all of them on 2026 road trips.

We are still enjoying the tree nightly

Our indoor holiday decorations remain in place, including the tree which will remain up for at least another week. We enjoy seeing the multi-color lights in late afternoon and evening. The teddy bear and moose families will also go back into storage.

Georgie and Everest now reside in our apt

This year we added a couple of newcomers to our holiday collection thanks to a 75% off sale at the local CVS store and some discount coupons. Above left is Georgie and right is Everest, and yes we named them both. 

Together now, a snow couple

Georgie is now a companion to Fred the snowman who traveled from our VA home to NH. They make a sweet pair and both will remain in the apt after the decorations are put away in a storage unit. Everest will also be a permanent resident (when not off hiking).

A plush penguin was added to our small collection along with my first jigsaw puzzle and, of course, a penguin theme, a gift from family members. A puzzle mat also accompanied it.

We set up our dining room table and another one as buffets

The day before New Year's Eve we hosted a get together and invited 14 fellow neighbors. We set up two tables in our dining area and arranged everything buffet style and did all the food preparation; a couple of neighbors brought items to share as well. Since everyone lives in the mill apartments, it was very convenient, no driving required, just walking in the hallway.

Plus, there was enough food left over to bring to another get together with fellow neighbors the day of New Year's Eve as we played games of dominoes and rummikub. This week, party leftovers were finished up, aside from candies and some cookies.

The weather for New Year's Eve was gloomy with a dusting of light snow. We heard fireworks at midnight but were already comfortable in bed and falling asleep as 2026 arrived in our dreams.

The first day of 2026 was cold with a snow cover

The first day of 2006 was better as the snow had stopped by early morning; however the temperatures remained in the 20s. Indoors was the best place to stay so we did.

The Wolf Moon was obscured by clouds

A few days ago, we had hoped to see the Wolf Moon. This is the traditional name for the full moon in January. It's so named for the belief that wolves howl more often in cold months to communicate or locate food. We were disappointed because as soon as the moon rose it was enveloped in clouds.However, the lights along the riverwalk and in the nearby river park were beautifully reflecting on the Nashua River.

A couple of days this week was spent sorting through supermarket recipe booklets collected over the past few months and photo reprints, some of which will be framed or put into albums; others will be sent to family and friends.

I also tallied up my 2025 books read (75) to see how it compared with totals in the past the past five years: Last year's tally was a bit less than in 2024 which was 83, and 2023 was a really big reading year with 132. There were 74 reads in 2021 and only 58 in 2020. These totals include audio, e-books and library borrows and both fiction and non-fiction with most in the form of mysteries or historical fiction. 

My 2026 reading count has started with two newly-published books borrowed from the Nashua Public Library:  A Slowly Dying Cause (Elizabeth George) is an Inspector Lynley novel and The Impossible Fortune (Richard Osman) is the latest Thursday Murder Club novel.

We both enjoyed cold weather days between the two holidays indoors with several mugs of hot chocolate (complete with whipped cream) and leftover holiday cookies. As well as a delicious gift box of pears gifted by a fellow neighbor, Peter.

Your Turn — did 2025 end well; if it did or didn't has 2026 started better?