Christmas shopping and so on

 Today is going to be a busy one.  Bob is doing laundry ( yes, I know... husbands don't usually do the laundry). I will fold and put away.

Then he is headed off to the metal recycling place. He has been dismantling electronic equipment and the steel cases need to go!  Plus we have aluminum pans leftover from Robb's wake. Doubt whether the steel will make him any money. The aluminum might... but getting all of that out of the basement will be a good thing.

Then he is going Christmas shopping... and I am not allowed along.

So... what should I be doing??  I have finished my online bear show page so all set for it to open Friday,

Later....Laundry is done for another week or so.  Bob went off on his errands.... made a little money at the metal recycling place which he promptly put in the Salvation Army Red Kettle at his next stop!! Helped some "little old lady" at the self-checkout.... and then came home!!

Things are starting

Of course last night was Thanksgiving leftover night... still some more left !!

This morning I dragged down the storage box of outdoor lights  and the one that has cards, table runners, tree skirt and the like. That one also has the Santa hat. Do I want to have Bob ( or one of my daughters) take a picture of me  in the hat with  the much longer covid hair?

more later...

The deck has had all the leaves that got stuck behind things bagged up.  Looks like people could actually sit outside if the weather continues to be good!  I also put up lights along the railings!! I love seeing them from the kitchen window .

Bob brought down our tree from the attic and set it up in the bay window of our living room. It already has lights  so a timer has the tree lit automatically from 4.30 pm to 11.30 pm. Nice.... I will bring down the box of ornaments shortly.

So decorating is coming along... slowly but surely.

Thanksgiving leftovers... again

busy busy busy

It has been a busy week... started the annual making of huge amounts of home made Chex mix. My family has been waiting... patiently. I was surprised to see that mixed nuts from both Aldi and Wal-Mart had pistachios . I don't think that happened last year.

Then it was the Thanksgiving apple pie ... stuffing ... and so on

One daughter brought home made cranberry sauce and cranberry breakfast bars. She came into the house alone with mask on!

The other daughter made smashed potatoes,  yeast rolls and corn casserole.

So you can see we all ate well... but separately.

I love hazelnuts.... and am waiting with "hope in my heart" that Aldi will have them again this holiday season!!

Our area is surging with covid  so have re-started online curbside grocery pick up again. We went this morning to pick up an order.....some things didn't make the list. Was it too much to expect over Thanksgiving??

Also did a drop off of "stuff" at  Goodwill. I have been filling a large black plastic leaf bag for some time. The bag just became a hazard to walk around. Goodwill has an outside socially distanced drop off.

I am almost set for my next online bear show... so maybe some Kindle reading time is in order. Thank goodness for Kindle... our libraries are all closed with curbside ordering and drop off.

Scam phone call

 We received one of those scam phone calls!!  It was supposedly our grand daughter . The caller said she had been in an accident and had been arrested. Bob listened and then asked the person if she had called her parents.... At that point the person hung up.

We called our daughter and she called our grand daughter.... Our grand daughter was at her home lying on the couch during her lunch break. She told her Mother that she was too busy with her two jobs to get arrested!

Glad Bob was too full of questions for the caller to do the usual ask for bail money! Of course our immediate reaction was one of distress and worry for our granddaughter but then reality set in!

can't find a thing..

 Bob has been rearranging the garage... not that we can keep a car in it. All his tools and wood working things are in it instead. Went to find the heavy duty stapler so that I could start putting up Christmas stuff  outside and low and behold I can't find anything!!

He found one but no staples... off to the hardware store.

Christmas lights and trees

 We went out after dark last night to pick up a curbside dinner ( delish by the way!)... when we noticed that many of the houses in our subdivision already had their Christmas lights up and lit.... and trees in their living room windows.

Usually the lights are put up after Thanksgiving.... but the way things are, it is nice to see them now!

The weather is supposed to get warm again next week... so I may have to start nagging Bob to get ours up!

My grandson's school district with be returning to total virtual schooling for high school and middle school students after Thanksgiving. He has been only "in school" for band doing the rest virtually.  Our area is spiking... this is the reason for the change.

My grand daughter works for Americorps doing preschool tutoring ( currently virtual) and loves it. She also works for Applebee's ( a chain restaurant) as a server. She told me that the restaurant has been informed that new covid guidelines are on their way.

BTW Lili has just learned how to do assessments for her little preschoolers.   This is turning out to be a gap year for her and working with the preschoolers has increased her desire to be an art teacher... off to college next fall.

Quarantine over

 My daughters and their family have been on quarantine for the last week plus. Now they are done!!My elder daughter can return to work and her nephew, my grandson, who is doing virtual learning plus band can go back to school for his daily band class.  He's been missing it.

My younger daughter teaches virtually ... so not much has been different for her other than no getting out to shop etc. But being able to does take some of the boredom out of life !!

I spent the weekend reading things about the election results etc. and watching the online bear show I was part of. Then it was doing the PayPal paper work and boxing up sold bears up for mailing.  hooray!!

There's another  online bear show next month and then I will start on Stella's sweater. I bought yarn and needles already!! One ball will be enough for either a newborn or 6 month size sweater.

We had another warm windy day... clouds came and went."They" say we will wake up to rain and colder weather tomorrow.  Maybe that will mean the end to leaves falling...

Hooray !!!

 The Biden/Harrris  ticket  has won!! 

There are huge crowds celebrating... but we are not part of any!  No super spreader crowds for us! We are celebrating at home by ourselves and online with others.

It's another gorgeous day ... definitely not a normal November one. We have had days in the low 70's with lots of sun and nice breezes. Just right for "walks in the park"!!   I have no idea how long this will last but enjoying it while it does.

We have had very little leaf color this year... just trees going brown. Some trees have no leaves on them but the oaks are holding on. Some oaks are still green!

This is a strange fall.... 

I will go to Michael's tomorrow and look at yarn for Stella's sweater.  I have been told that dusty pink is an acceptable color... good since I had been thinking along those lines..

Stella's blanket

 

I have finished Stella's blanket. I even had Bob check out whether I had gotten all the yarn tails woven in! I am pleased with it.

When I put the blanket down on the carpet to take a picture, Tigger decided he just had to be part of things ! After I took the picture I picked up the blanket and made sure it wasn't going to become Tigger's new sleeping space.

I have found a "merchant" on etsy that designs wonderful baby sweaters... and sells the patterns in a pdf file.  I will pick one soon and after the bear shows end for the year, start on a sweater for Stella.

still too many

 426 emails today....

We actually went to Wal-Mart today.  Not our idea but our daughter and her family are still quaranty-ing after the super spreader funeral  ... and her husband's pills were ready for pick-up in the pharmacy.  Plus her husband asked another favor.... while we were there could we get him a container of orange sherbert.

So off we went.... and as usual when one is in Wal-Mart, there's always someone one just has to have. Like the nuts for Christmas baking !!

We wore our masks... kept our distance and we hit the store when it wasn't busy. A win all around.

keeping busy

 our weather has done the usual Missouri thing ... going from snow to sunny 70's. Something we all like. 

Friday would have been our son's 52nd birthday....

Here's he is  as  a two year old playing football with his Uncle Terry!

We ... husband and daughters and I ... had plans for a get together.  But my younger daughter had been to a family funeral ( husband's family -  super spreader with no masks etc !) and was quarantining herself and her family. So we changed our plans . We will get together at another time.

So far two of husband's family have tested positive...

We spent our evening talking  and decorating Halloween cookies..... which was fun and delicious!

Halloween was fun... we took out a table from our deck... made a sign saying "trick or treat ... help yourself". We had no idea how many kids would come or even if any would come. For years our neighborhood had no kids and hence no trick or treaters. But houses are being sold and younger families are moving in.

We ran out of candy!!!  Had to turn off our lights and close down!! Lots and lots of little kids all wearing costumes with parents in the street watching!

The kids were safe... outside ... no close contact with adults giving out candy !! And they had a fun time !! And with Missouri weather being warm again.... it was great!! This pair of 75 plus people had fun too!!