Happy New Year Sunday!

[Ivy]

Happy New Year Sunday, Villagers and Happy Advent to those of us who recognize and celebrate it, too.

Twins, Did DH click on the link in the UPS-looking email? Did anything bad happen? So many times, suspicious emails look so business-like, true, and real! The "bad guys" can really take advantage of innocent folks. I hope nothing bad happened to your computer and all is well.

MysteryWoman, Have fun at DD's hockey game. I'm glad you're feeling better and hope you continue to get better all the way soon. Hope DD doesn't get it.

Blessed, You're busy. Sorry about the headache though.

Harriet, So HRH comes to being eccentric by blood. My DH gets it from his Dmom.

OKay, I'm sorry LO was nauseous. I'm glad he's fine this a.m. Sorry to hear about DGS15. I'm glad you talked a lot to him yesterday.

Kathryn, Enjoy Advent Sunday there!



Ta Da:
- Scrubbed 3 toilets.
- Fixed weekly meds.
- Did my on-line calendar reminders.
- Did emails.
- Browsed crochet patterns on-line.
- DH vacuumed.
- Set Dawn Simulator.
- Ate healthy all day Saturday!
- Wrote DH's Costco list for this week.
- Turned calendars around to December.
- Hung up 2013 calendars behind the 2012 calendars.
- Hung up 2 nightgowns and 1 loungers.
- Put clean laundry away.
- Read 1 chapter in 2 books.
- Read my Novena, Devotion, said prayers, and wrote in my journal.
- Addressed a card for Debbie Macomber to thank her for the cookbook I won for my recipe chosen by her.

Everyone, Have a terrific day!

[MysteryWoman]

Back from church! Had a "duh" moment when I saw the opening hymn -- "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel." Um, yeah, that'd be another Advent hymn, wouldn't it? Closing hymn was one I'd never heard before & now can't remember the title.

The agenda for the day looks a bit busier than I'd like -- Evening Prayer tonight; "Saint Nicholas" will be there to collect Giving Tree gifts, and, as usual, our girls grabbed tags off the tree, and we haven't gotten the gifts yet. (It doesn't help that most years, the gifts are due back to the church before I've even started Christmas shopping.) So we have to get to the store, which means going further than I'd care to today -- there's not much decent retail around here. There's also a fundraiser for the PTO at our former school which we could go to -- the more I think about it, the more I think we won't, even though it's barely a block from our house. DH also has a Scout troop committee meeting to go to. Not sure what to do for dinner or when.

Good luck with that meeting, Twins. These sorts of things are never easy.

I keep meaning to congratulate you, Ivy! You must be over the moon! Now, does your recipe being published mean you can't share it with us here? (She writes, drooling.)

Going to figure out dinner & try to get the mantel cleaned off to set up the crèche put up.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Mystery: The traditional Advent hymns I know are Come O Come Emmanuel and Come though long Expected Jesus (1 and 2 in our hymn book) and we sang neither of them this morning. We have about 35 Advent hymns in our main hymn book and several others in the other two books. Instead of #1 (a tradition in our churches) we sang Rejoice the Lord is King (which is a Reign of Christ hymn and RoC was last week.) We also sang 2 of the more modern advent hymns, one of which I absolutely hate because it is so simplistic and saccharine (but it is sung to one of the Away in the Manger tunes.) We had communion so sang a traditional communion hymn as well. The anthem was Christmasy but that's because it is for tonight and we were taking it easy on ourselves and singing it this morning for practice and to avoid having to learn an extra anthem during Advent.

The first church was dressed up to the rafters for Christmas including the full nativity set (Mary, Baby and Joseph in place.) Sigh....

The second (our) church was plain except for the poinsettias. There will be a small tree on the organ next week and maybe more greenery. But fairly low key. On the other hand, after church the children put up and decorated the Christmas tree in the hall.

Between services I visited my senior friend. She was to ill to join us at the second service but was glad of a 20 minute visit and a chance to show me all the decorating she did yesterday. She gave me her nativity scene. She was going to give it to Goodwill because none of her children wanted it for their homes (strange since one dil is the daughter of an Anglican priest) but I spoke up and said I collected them and would love it.

Since coming home at 1 p.m. I've baked a pan of shortbread and a pan of lemon squares plus heated up some pizza for my lunch. Had to have some Dr. P to have the energy to get through the baking. Did up the baking dishes while the squares were in the oven so the kitchen is tidy. Dinner is ready to go into the oven and dh will take care of that while I rest. Ds is back resting.

I'm off to bed now.

[Emptynester]

Our choir director is a former opera singer. He has a wonderful voice and a degree in music. Today at the end of service he sang O Come, O Come Emanuel. No piano - no organ just him standing in the middle of the church singing. There wasn't a dry eye in the house.

He is the one that has been suffering from lymphoma all summer. He got the word a couple weeks ago that it is in remission. He said it was the best Christmas present he's gotten in a long time.

We are going to a concert this afternoon of the Wickenburg Community Chorus. It should be good as this is a retirement town and people come from all over to join the Chorus.

I also need to erase many, many footsteps as we will have company arrive tomorrow for several days. Don't know how long they will stay but they will bring their own "house" with them and stay in our yard. They are good friends so we won't have to entertain too much. They also have a lot of friends in the park to see.

[helia]

Making a new beef stew recipe for dinner tonight. Dd14 is making a cake b/c today is R's bday! He told us en route from church to lunch.

Day has been great so far - church, helped out with 5th6th grade class, lunch with dh, dd17, R, visiting missionary (Afghanistan - a very hard place to be; the family is now in the US for a while), and dear friends, a family from church - our skiing friends of Chinese/Taiwanese background; he is in the same general Univ. dept. as dh but in CS; their dd16 is dd17's best friend. We had to leave early to pick up dd14 from her girls small group meeting. Then, I relaxed with a sudoku puzzle, fell asleep, walked with dh to WF for ingredients for tonight, helped dh put the stew together.

Dh has decided to go visit his father between Cmas and New Years; this news made his Dad very happy.

S and R should be here for supper in about 30 minutes. I'm going to load the dw and tend the stew.

Have a great evening everyone!

[Twins' Mom]

Home from meeting and then dinner out with rabbi and others. Very nice meeting, well attended, and things went very, very well. I feel great about the way I was able to handle it - almost light-headed now.

I am going to read before bed a bit and turn in. In the morning need to do some clean up for dcleaning lady.

[ellyphant]

Happy Sunday, everyone!

Just got back from Sunday night service at church. We had an angel theme going with our songs tonight: Angels from the Realms of Glory, Angels We Have Heard on High, and Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. Also heard a beautiful solo: In the Bleak Mid-Winter. Had to smile that temps are very mild right now for this time of year.

Trash is at the curb. Christmas cards were mailed on the way to church tonight. Tomorrow's supper is planned. Monday should start on a good note! It is especially good to know that whatever happens the rest of December, the folks I converse with once or twice a year have been properly greeted.

Helia, my DH made his Dad very happy today, also, by telling him that he plans a visit before Christmas.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Back from the ecumenical Community Christmas concert. It was a rousing success (and we were the best performers there!) Each of the 3 denominations did 2 'things', a reading, choir (in our case, 2 anthems) or small group of 2 or 3 musicians. The evening was opened and closed with 3 pieces of music from the Ottawa Valley Men's chorus and there was lots of Christmas carols, sung by all, between performances. Then a wonderful dessert buffet and fellowship.

I had napped for a solid 45 minutes and was down for 90 so I made it through the night quite well except I was too hot. I sent dh back to the car before things started to get my water bottle 'from my purse' but he missed the last half and, when he didn't see water in the car (we took our back-up bottles out now that it is winter) he drove home to get me my mug filled with hot water (which is what I usually drink when performing.) He made it back before the concert started but by then I was really hot and only had hot water to drink.

I had cold water after the concert and then didn't do up my coat as I walked back to the car. Our house is cool so I'm slowly returning to regular body temperature now.

Ds was running a fever of 101 when I left but it is in the 98's now. We've switched to advil to help combat the extreme sore throat and I gave him a decongestant to help with post nasal drip. For a while when we were gone he had energy to come downstairs for a bit so something worked. I also had him gargle. He's down for the night now with the assorted drugs by his bed.

[Ivy]

Talked to Dson about Ddil. She's home, on antibiotics for 1 more month for blood infection. I'll post more on J & C's.

Ta Da:
Wrote thank you letter to Debbie Macomber for her autographed free copy of Cedar Cove Cookbook for my winning recipe.
Wrote 2 other letters.
Got out a.m. clothes.
Set dawn simulator.
Wrote a.m. to do list.
Listened to music.
Planned out calendar for the week.
Filled out acceptance contract for a short story.

Have a nice evening, Everyone!

TTFN!

[Harriet]

Spent the evening creatively, making gift tags.

Ivy, I know your ddil is grateful to be out of the hospital.

Emptynester, wonderful to hear of your choir director's remission.