HAPPY 2023

Happy New Year everyone. Today is the first day of 2023 and I am excited for a new beginning as I am every year. I will admit, however, that my expectations of making great improvements in my life have much diminished the last number of years, but I am happier for it. I now take one day at a time. The days leading up to this new beginning were mostly determined by the weather which kept me close to home as snow and ice prevented me from going anywhere. For example, the doors on my truck were iced shut for four days. Several times I managed to get the doors open only to have them frozen solid again three hours later.

I need to keep the truck at the bottom of the driveway or I will be stranded without a vehicle.

At first I could open the doors but eventually the ice became too dense.

The driveway is much steeper than photos show

I retired in 2005 and up to that time, thankfully, as I had to leave for work every day, the icing we get these days seldom occurred those days to the extent it does now. Although walking in and out of here during the winter has been going on for many years at least I could get into my vehicle. The final days before Christmas I attend various events. Latah participated in her first school Winter program where she played the flute. Even that day the weather was so bad many people did not attend so the band teacher had to improvise with just a few students.

Teagan is full on into basketball now but because of the weather I have attend only one game so far. Teagan’s family from the east coast were here for Christmas so they attend the game as well. Teagan loves basketball and is doing very well.

Latah’s first band concert

The first of Teagan’s games that I attend

I am happy with my Christmas tree this year. I took the easy route, I purchased one. Generally I build my tree by tying together five or six wimpy trees from my woods that need thinning. That’s getting hard to do as my trees are getting too big, or, are still too small to make it work.

Last year’s tree made from six trees tied together This year’s tree purchased for 50 dollars

Another change I made this year is that instead of pies I made Tiramisu as my featured Christmas dessert. I was first introduced to Tiramisu several years ago when Judy and I were on a tour of California. Since then I have been going to make it but never have until this year. It was quite the undertaking with the recipe being over two pages long and requiring nearly every cooking bowl in my house. I very much enjoyed the project and was not disappointed with the outcome. I am going to make it again soon as it will go much smoother the second time around, I am thinking.

The dessert must be kept cold or it will mush up. Once I kept it colder it cut into beautiful pieces.

Dennis Lindseth is not able to walk to my house with the ice so we opened Christmas gifts at his house. We had a good time. Jeannette was the photographer so I don’t have a photo of her.

With the roads dangerous or closed, we pretty much stayed home playing cards, games, watching TV, working on art projects, reading our books and so forth. Actually, a very low key and enjoyable Christmas.

Sam spent a lot of time with his new Gravatrax game building different designs.

Sam served us waffles for breakfast one morning.

Sophie’s latest interest is drawing. She drew this as one of her first attempts.

On a Somewhat Different Note. There were two setbacks to Christmas. We were not able to attend Christmas Mass because of the road conditions, the main celebration Christmas is about. The best I could do was watch Christmas Mass on TV, which I did coming from Toronto, Canada. That was my preferred Mass to watch during covid. The second setback was that Jason accidentally dropped his iPad, which the corner landed right on his toe breaking it. Just one of those freak things.