The 2 weeks of Christmas and New Year’s were quite busy for us all.

We started out the weekend before Christmas with my daughter and granddaughter coming up so we could visit Old St. Charles Main St., where it looks like a Hallmark movie complete with people dressing up in costumes for all the Santas, Grinches and careless from around the world. Adults had adult hot chocolate, while Miss T had regular hot chocolate. 

The next day, we went and saw Moana 2 at the movie theater with the comfy reclining seats. We each brought our own cozy blanket, and with our popcorn and sodas, we were quite content. We were surprised by how many little kids were there, as we barely heard them during the movie and there was no crying, no doubt those seats made them feel at home.

We made #theperfectcupofcocoa complete with peppermint whipped cream and peppermint candy dust. Yes, the adults had adult hot chocolates!

The next day, we packed up to head down to my daughter’s (3 hours away) to spend Christmas, where we cooked up a feast not only for our family but also to feed the twins’ (now 17!) significant others. This was a first for us, and the teenagers spent their time traveling to multiple homes to get fed. She has the bigger tree that she has carefully decorated, plus the old one that holds decorations the kids made when they were little.

My daughter may have a slight gnome addiction… these are most of her Christmas gnomes.

We came back up to the city the day after Christmas, as Miss T had her tests to do at the Children’s Hospital for long-term post-cancer care. It’s been 11 years since her last chemo and radiation treatment. So far the blood tests have come back normal. Waiting on the results for the heart and lung testing.

We tried to make the gingerbread cookie house kit we had bought at Trader Joe’s, but I don’t have a hand mixer to beat the egg whites stiff for the glue/frosting mix to be added, and the stores we checked in were all sold out, so we’ll do it down at my daughter’s. Mom went back down on Sunday, leaving me and Miss T to hang out.

Miss T and I did a pottery piece for Mother’s Day and we put up a blanket fort for her. The clay needs to dry slowly and once dry I give it to my friend Bernadette, the chicken lady, to glaze and fire in her kiln. (Bernadette raises free range chickens and gives eggs for veterans, it’s her community project. I have a couple of people who have their churches saving egg cartons for her, and I pick them up to deliver to her.) I won’t tell you what we made, it’s a surprise for Mom!

We visited the skating ring, where Miss T had fun and I watched her.

We did our New Year’s countdown under the kitchen table and ate our 12 green grapes in the last minute of 2024!

We came back a day earlier than planned so I could avoid driving in the incoming snowstorm on Sunday.

This photo popped up in my memory feed from Facebook from when I lived in Santa Fe, NM. On Christmas Eve, the local Scouting troops help set up the luminaria (paper bags filled with some sand as ballast and a candle), these are placed all along the walls and roof lines of the houses and art galleries on Canyon Road. It’s quite enchanting.

Hope your holidays were fun and festive! Happy 2025!

 ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Blessings!
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Tamara

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