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?

Falling for Autumn

It's the first of September today, which meant that it was time for the autumn decorations to re-appear outside our apartment entry. (I was tired of looking at summer ones about now.)

All of these decos were purchased over the past several years from the local Dollar Tree store back when they actually cost $1. Today, of course, these would cost a bit more at $1.25. The scarecrows, pumpkins wall hangings will stay around with the permanent penguin and frog until holiday and snowman decos appear in future months.

At the rate this year seems to be rushing by, that won't be too long. Here's an eye-opener: 

From today, Sept 1 to Dec 31— there's 122  days or 17 weeks, 3 days left in 2023.

We're thankful that several blogger FL friends and family were safe during the recent storm; but sad to read about those who did fare as well, especially in GA. Also, our condolences to the family of a friend who passed away from that sinister disease beginning with the letter "C."

This weekend, we're off on a new adventure that is not a road trip. Accordingly, blog reading and posting will be on hiatus for  a short time.

Enjoy Your Weekend, Everyone

Hug those close to you  &  ♥️ them; life is short

Decorating is Done

Posting has been somewhat less often during the holiday season. Like many others, we've been busy at home. This year we put up fewer decorations (even if it doesn't seem that way) and the holiday village wasn't set up. That because it's an undertaking to be started before Thanksgiving. Since we were away for that holiday, it didn't happen but perhaps next year. (Here's a look at Christmas 2018 when it was set up.)

The exterior decorations went up right after Thanksgiving, not a day before. These are outside our apartment entry as we obviously can't have actual outside ones like we did when years ago in NJ and VA when we were homeowners. The upside is there's no worries about the weather.

This Santa door wreath was homemade this year using craft supplies leftover from the past couple of years. Once the holidays are over, it will be replaced with the winter wreath, also new this year. These were no cost as I had several shoeboxes of craft supplies leftover from a couple years of making wreaths during the pandemic.

These German-made wooden nutcrackers are nearly 50 years old. They were bought at a small gift shop, which is long gone, in my hometown of Plainfield, NJ. Both were originally given as gifts to my late mother who, it turns out, wasn't that fond of them and rarely put them on display. They now stand guard in our home every holiday season.

These wooden Santas also make an annual appearance. Both were bought at a flea market several years ago. The one on the right appears to have been hand made, a big plus for me.

Here's a couple of hand made trees that I did a couple of years ago, also during the pandemic when everyone was staying in and not going anywhere.

More favorites are again making their annual appearances. For the past 11 months, most of these have been in storage container hibernation. The lone exceptions are the reindeer and snowman pair which hang around our apt year round. We finally removed the battery from the snowman as it would repeatedly say Welcome to anyone who walked by usually ourselves.

These bear figures are colorfully decked out in holiday colors and have also been part of our holiday collection for years. The largest bear was a gift from my brother at least 10 years ago. That red wagon was bought at a Hallmark store many years ago and are no longer sold in the stores, like many other things no longer available.

Once again, the Peanuts Gang (Peppermint Patty, Linus, Snoopy, Charlie Brown and Lucy) are seated on the window sill. Charlie's tree needs a repair, so it's not on display this year. The gang has been joined by our colony of well-dressed penguins and this year they are hanging out at the penguin lodge, a recent purchase.

We have an assortment of snowman figures displayed on bookshelves. Several of these hold special memories as they were gifts from departed friends. 

This Nativity has special significance as well. Most of the figures are a set that formerly belonged to my late mother, except for the enclosure which is from a former set of mine. The sheep and lambs were bought many years ago, again at a Hallmark store, and are also no longer available.  

This is a close-up of the framed artwork at the far right of the above Nativity set. It's from an annual Santa painting by fellow blogger Linda, a talented artist, who blogs at Linda's Life Journal. She orders holiday cards of her Santa paintings. I was fortunate to receive this one a couple of years ago and it's become one of my favorite holiday images.

Of course, the highlight of our decorations is the Christmas tree. A couple of years ago, we were planning to get a live tree, until management here outlawed them due to insurance regulations and possible fire concerns. We were at a Michael's store when we read the message and bought this pre-lit tree. 

This year we added decorative ribbon (first time) and liked the result. Coincidentally, the ribbon plaid matched the tree skirt, which has been in use for at least 20 years. Since we don't have a fireplace, stockings are hung on the entertainment cabinet, which holds our collection of holiday DVDs. We've been watching one every night since after Thanksgiving.

This week I've been busy writing holiday greetings with a personal note in each. Despite my plans to cut down the list, that hasn't happened. To date, I've completed and mailed some 75 cards. There's still another 20 to go and these will be hand delivered to fellow residents in the mill apartments, so no postage needed (whew). Next comes cookie baking and Grenville has happily agreed to be the chief sampler of all baked treats—he's nice that way😉.

How about you?—holiday 🎄decorating, card 📨 writing, cookie 🍪 baking—any or all?

Thanks for all your comments on our grandson Bobby's birthday. He is the oldest grandchild and the youngest, granddaughter Lilliana, also has a December coming up next week.

Fall is Here at Home

It's Fall —at our home, at least as the weather here in Nashua, NH, finally is starting to feel and look more autumnal. By the way, that word (autumnal) was in a recent issue of Yankee Magazine, about fall in New England. So, a perfect choice to use here.

Fall decos🎃🌻 went up outside our apt a couple weeks ago before the recent Labor Day weekend, traditionally considered the end of summer. Summer temps were unusually high for New England this year, so thinking cooler was definitely on my mind. Here's the 10-day forecast for Nashua, NH. Maybe wishful thinking helped just a little ?

Temps were still in the high 80s and near 90 when theses all came out of hibernation from a tub in the storage unit, after all, isn't that where seasonal decos go? At least that's where happens here. Thankfully, the storage unit is on the same floor as our apt, just a walk down the hallway. There's no garage storage in the underground parking area.

Of course, regular readers of this blog may already have seen most of these decos in autumn posts for several years. There have been some slight yearly variations, but not many.

My decorating plan was to replace most of these with new decos from the local Dollar Tree, where nearly all were purchased over the years. When, I found out that the taller scarecrows were still being sold, only now cost $1.25 each, the old ones would do just fine, once again. Some of the smaller scarecrows were not even available this year.

So, the old saying, If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It worked for my decorating plans, once again.

Curious about the origin of that ↑ phrase, I did some online sleuthing and found out this idiom has only been documented since 1977, although many believe that it's much older than that.

Pres. Carter & Bert Lance

It's said to have originated in the USA in the 20th century attributed to Thomas Bertram Lance, known as Bert Lance, a close adviser to President Jimmy Carter during his 1976 campaign. Lance was director of the Office of Management and the Budget in Carter's cabinet. In May 1977, he was quoted using the phrase in the newsletter of the US Chamber of Commerce.

While Lance certainly popularized the phrase, it's believed to have originated as a colloquial phrase in southern states years before his celebrated use. However, it began, within a few short years, if it ain't broke, don't fix it became so established as a part of the language that it's become a cliché.

So now you and I, once again know, the rest of the story; you're welcome too.

Your turn—ready for cooler weather in your area?

(If you live in CA and nearby states, hopefully the dual issues of extreme heat and rolling blackouts will be improving soon.)