Last Half 2022 – December

Good Morning ALL! How are you this morning? We, I am doing well. So used to saying “we”……. I will say that I thought that I would sleep better if not getting up at all hours of the night but that has not been the case. Likely will improve in a few days. Report from my daughter that Alvin is doing well and adjusting to the new surroundings. They do not have an upstairs which is great for him. Will give him a reprieve from climbing up and down the stairs. I do miss my partner in crime and all things called “life.”

I do not remember if I reported the countdown to Christmas yesterday or not but today is Monday, December 5th and that leaves “19” sleeps until Christmas Eve.

My hands are cracked from all of the hand washing done over the past couple of days when I was baking. Baking done. 10 dozen or 120 chocolate chip cookies, 155 pieces of fudge and 215 iced sugar cookies for a total of 490 pieces of baking. That should do it. I actually ended up with more than I originally thought. So grateful that it is all done and ready to be packaged and delivered to some families and then rest is for Christmas parties and home.

Last night after the sugar cookies were iced, the fudge was cut into pieces and I had cleaned up my mess, I hauled up the wrapping paper and bags and tissue paper from the basement, brought down from upstairs all of the gifts that I had bought. Including were all of the items from my gift drawers. The things that I purchase extra when on sale – just to ensure that I have something for all of the people on my list. So the table is filled with items awaiting to be reviewed and wrapped if needed. Once I am finished this post, I am going to have a shower, get dressed and head downstairs. I will make some coffee and then start wrapping. I am excited to see Mr. Alvin open his gifts. He does such an amazing job of opening presents and he loves it so much. I have enough time today to do all of my wrapping.

This afternoon at 2:00 p.m. I will be attending the online streaming of my neighbour’s son. Hopefully most of the wrapping will be completed before the funeral. I have a few other things on my TO DO LIST for the rest of the day. Tomorrow is back to work and I am working from home for Tuesday and Wednesday and then to the office for Thursday and Friday. Lots going on this week.

Well time to head to the shower, I need some coffee this morning. Hopefully tonight is a better sleep as I get into a routine without my boy. I miss him but I do believe that it is good for both of us. Amanda said that they are loving having him with them. That does help.

Happy Monday.

Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding, gratitude, focus, possibilities and coffee.

Always, Carol & Alvin (he is with me in spirit and I when I close my eyes I can see him lying on the carpet outside the office door)…..

Last Half 2022 – December

Good Morning ALL! It has been a strange almost 24 hours. Yesterday morning I awoke with Alvin next to me and my daughter sleeping in the spare bedroom. This morning I awake to myself. Just me. It has been years since I have been alone in the house. Feels odd, strange and lonely. Yesterday at the stroke of NOON, Alvin left with my daughter for three weeks or so and will be home on Christmas EVE. Yesterday it was hard to see him go and I did shed some tears for my boy and then I got busy. I have lots to do and that was part of the point to get some things done and to have some downtime. Packing him up to go was akin to packing up a child to go away. There was his favourite blanket, I sent a bed for the car and in case he wanted his although Amanda said they have more beds than pups at home. I packed his food for three weeks which seemed like a lot but not really, his meds, his dishes, his toothbrush, toothpaste, ear cleaner and toys. Oh, his sweater, harness and leash. Although he did wear his harness in the car and was strapped in safely in the back seat while sitting on his favourite blanket and his bed so he was comfy although I am not sure he thought so. I think that I forgot something, oh and the pumpkin. There was food and pumpkin that was open in dishes in the fridge that was packed and went. They made it to Alberta Beach and Amanda reported that he is doing great. He did pant on the drive out but did not drool which is a step up for him. For the guy that seldom sets a paw into the motor vehicle. I am both pleased and very relieved. I wonder how last night went. I went to bed at 9:30 and read for a few minutes before lights out but did not fall asleep for a long time. How long I do not know as I did not get up to check the time. I woke up a couple of times during the night to go to the bathroom. I was laying thing trying to convince myself that I should get up and when I checked the clock it was 6:30 so I stayed in bed until just after 7:30. Yes, I should have likely got my butt out of bed but just to lay there with no one wanting me to move and do anything was great. I have all day to get things done.

Just after Amanda and Alvin left yesterday, I went to put something in the hall closet likely my jacket and before I knew it, I was cleaning it out. It was done at the end of fall but needed it again. Reorganized and cleaned the floor and proudly displayed my new winter boots. Following that I sat down and did some things on my phone before starting to bake.

Yesterday I made four batches of fudge which I am not sure how many pieces that will make, I am going out on a limb and guess around 100 pieces and then I baked 10 dozen chocolate chip cookies. I had supper in between the 5 dozen cookies mark.

I think it was about 7:30 or so when I finished cleaning up. So I enjoyed some Christmas movies while snuggling under our favourite red blanket.

Today’s schedule or agenda is SUGAR COOKIES. I am thinking about four batches but will see how many individual cookies I make. Each cookie will need to be iced and then there is laundry. I have already changed bedding, towels, gathered laundry and reorganized my bedroom clothes closet. Just will finish this post and do some online banking before heading downstairs where I will make some coffee and make the first batch of sugar cookies so they can be chilling while I start laundry. Whew.

I am glad that I booked tomorrow off as a vacation day. Tomorrow afternoon is also the funeral of our neighbour’s son. The service will be streamed so I will be able to attend via online. I also have to run and pick up toothpaste and movoflex for Alvin as Amanda will stop by on Wednesday after work to pick up. Going to be a busy week.

Have a wonderful day.

I just received a text from Amanda. Mr. Alvin was up at 4:30 to pee and then back to sleep until a bit ago and has just finished breakfast (8:20 a.m.). WOW. All is well.

Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding, gratitude, focus, possibilities and coffee.

Always, Carol & Alvin (even though he is not here at the moment, he is always with me in my mind, heart and soul.)

Last Half 2022 – November

Good Morning ALL! How are you this morning? I am more relaxed this morning than yesterday and had a bit more sleep than the previous night. I reached out to one of my friends and to my daughter and both did not reach the same conclusions that I had about the piece of something that I found on my kitchen floor. So I am going with their conclusions and am resting a bit easy.

Another cold morning and it is snowing. I am going to the office today and our neighbour will come and check on Mr. Alvin. Would be nice when the temperatures were cold that we could just stay home. But not the case. Oh well. Snuggling with Alvin is much more appealing than going outside.

Two more days and I start the Christmas baking. Getting prepared and a schedule worked out in my mind. I will start on Friday night and have done early on Monday. The list of items contains Sugar Cookies, Fudge and Chocolate Chip Cookies. I also picked up ready made tart shells and a jar of mincemeat to make some tarts. Not really baking as the work is already done but I am making them for us for Christmas. I may make Raisin Cookies should time allow. But definitely the first three items will be done this weekend. There is also organizing of all my storage containers for the cookies as I will need to freeze them for a bit before handing them out to friends and neighbours. Some are required for different Christmas parties and for Christmas time. I am excited. Will be busy but fun.

Can you believe that tomorrow is December 1st, 2022! Where has the time gone. Soon we shall be in the countdown to Christmas Eve / Day and the New Year. 2023 that is just unbelievable.

Well I suppose I should head back downstairs. I need to go outside and pick up the poop from earlier. Finishing touches on things to take to work. Snuggles with Mr. Alvin. That is the most important thing that I need to do between now and when my ride arrives.

I hope that you have an awesome day. Keep warm and stay safe.

Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding, gratitude, focus, possibilities and coffee.

I am looking forward to coffee this morning. Thinking that I should make my own and take to work.

Always, Carol & Alvin

2021

Good Morning ALL! Hard to believe we are now at FIVE sleeps until Christmas EVE. I am starting to get SUPER excited for Christmas. Later this afternoon our little neighbour Cookie is coming over to spend the next two weeks with us. We are preparing for her arrival. I got most of the laundry done yesterday. Spare room bedding all washed and changed, should someone other than my kids spend the night. I made a double batch of fudge as somehow we ran out of fudge and we cannot have that. I had to make a bit of change to it as I was short of chocolate chips so I added a bit of peanut butter. So will see how that goes over. I sure hope that no one has any allergies to peanut butter. It is the only item made with peanuts. I did my last shopping which included gifts for Mr. Alvin, Aspen, Milo and Cookie. That took two hours and I will say quite a lot of money, things should have increased over the past year or so. I am grateful that I did in fact have the money to pay for them although I was a bit disappointed that Shoppers did not honour the President’s Choice Gift Card that I received from my Employer. Oh well.

Last night I wrapped the gifts for the pups and one extra item that I picked up for my son-in-law’s stocking. Alvin was sniffing around the table where I was wrapping as he did smell in the shopping bag some little peanut butter treats that I picked up along with their main gifts. I added ribbon and secured the treats for the pups and put them into the fridge. Once the gifts were wrapped I debated about putting them under the tree as we know what happened last year. I had them on the kitchen counter and then thought that would be four more gifts under the tree which would look nice so I went to put them under the tree and guess who was in there like a dirty shirt? You got it, Mr. Alvin. So back to the counter they went. Last year I was in the kitchen working and I heard this rustling in the living room so I quickly went to check things out only to find someone had found his gift amongst all the presents under the tree and was starting to open it. OMG. I did not wish a replay of last year. So the gifts will remain on the counter in the kitchen.

This morning I will vacuum, dust and clean the bathrooms and the floors. Hoping to get out for a little walk with Mr. Alvin before our company arrives. It is to be minus 12 celsius this afternoon which is the warmest temperature according to the long range forecast for awhile. So we shall see. I have shovelling to do because it snowed more overnight. Thank you to our neighbour Steve for shovelling the front walk decreasing the amount that I have to do. There is snow in the forecast so I will have to stay on top of it. The sun is shining which energizes me. The coffee has perked so time for a coffee break. Lots to do before 4:00 p.m. and luckily there is pizza left from Friday for more leftovers tonight. Planned that right, yes, I did.

Happy Birthday to my great nephew LEVI who turns THREE today. I cannot believe you are three. We wish you a wonderful day and year to come.

Have an awesome day everyone!

Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding and gratitude.

Always, Carol & Alvin

2021

Good Morning ALL! How are you this morning? Well it is pretty chilly out there. I haven’t dared check out the temperature but I could see my breath for sure. The sun is starting to rise slowly as it becomes light outside. Yesterday was a productive Saturday. I did several loads of laundry, chipped and cleaned all of the ice from the public sidewalk out front of our house, washed all of the containers for Christmas baking, made three batches of fudge, watched a Fifth Avenue Jewelry LIVE, had a nice chat with a friend on the phone, did some cleaning and feels like I am missing something as I was busy from the time that I got up until bedtime. Anyway, lots to do at this time of year. What were you doing yesterday?

I am going to pop into the shower to get refreshed after this post and then put on the coffee and pull out all of the baking supplies to make the SUGAR COOKIES. I have already put away all of the laundry that was drying in the basement and brought up the towels out of the dryer. I made the bed. Do you make your bed everyday? That always seems to be something that people differ on along with the toilet paper roll up or down. But if we agreed on everything it would be a pretty boring world. I plan to bake all of the sugar cookies today and then ice them tomorrow. Likely make 3 or 4 batches which translates to about 216 – 288 cookies. If time allows, I may make more. I have decided this year to make individual packages for the people on my baking distribution list. Oh, that sounds pretty formal. I mean the folks that I give Christmas baking to each year. I usually add people to the list. I have some of the food wrap you know the cello stuff, and ribbon so just have to figure out how large the square has to be. That will likely be the hardest part, lol. I will wrap as I give them away. Not sure if it is feasible to do them all at once. Will see how time allows.

The Fifth Avenue Jewelry LIVES on FB have been fun. Who would have thought two years ago that we would not be having home parties and that everything could be more easily done on the computer on FACEBOOK, of all places. You never know where life is going to take us!

Oh, we had some snow sometime between bed and 3:00 a.m. – just enough to give things a nice little blanket and help cover any ice that was left. Grateful for that bit of snow.

Well time to fly and get some things done. Sometimes I am very good at procrastinating. Very good at it. When it is cold outside – I like to snuggle with Mr. Alvin under our favourite red blanket on the sofa sipping on a mug of coffee and watching “our” favourite Christmas show or movie. Maybe tonight, if I get those cookies all baked in time. We have the last Fifth Avenue Jewelry Live this afternoon at 4 p.m. Mountain time or 5 p.m. for you my sister in Saskatchewan.

Continuing to live this life with kindness, respect, compassion, patience, love, laughter, understanding and gratitude. So much gratitude for this life and each and every day of it.

Always, Carol & Alvin

P.S. last night we were or rather I was waiting for the LIVE to begin when I heard a crash. I was temporarily frozen on the sofa. Finally after a few seconds, I got up to investigate. Guess what I found? The broom and dustpan had fallen over onto the floor from his spot in between the pantry and wall by the back door. OMG, scared the hair right off my head. It did. Even Alvin jumped.

Welcome to December 2020

Good Morning All. How are you doing today? Well we are in the countdown mode now. Can you believe “19” sleeps until Christmas EVE Day. WOW. I guess that means that I better get cracking with my Christmas Baking to ensure it is done and delivered before the big day. My list is bigger than I initially had decided upon. So I will be baking several batches of the following: Sugar Cookies with my special icing, Fudge, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Unbaked Chocolate Macaroons, and Raisin Cookies. So countless of dozens of delectable treats to be enjoyed by my kids, neighbours and friends and Alvin’s Dr. and her staff. I am so excited. I think that I am ahead of my usual curve than other years. Now that is a phrase we have heard this year but in reverse. Anyway, today, tomorrow and Monday are baking days. I even took Monday off as a vacation day so that I would have lots of time. In between the baking, I am hosting a online Fifth Avenue Collection jewelry party for which I only have to show up to the LIVES (whew), laundry, cleaning, my daughter is stopping by today with groceries and for a visit and a friend from work is stopping by to pick up her tea order. The baking and jewelry party is all weekend. My Jeweler Friend does lives at different times over the weekend. There was one last night, two today and one tomorrow. Looking out the office window the sunrise is beautiful once again. Last night after work Alvin and I joined my friend Pauline and her grandpup Georgie for a walk. The sun was setting already when we left the house at 4:30 and was gorgeous. Someone had even pulled their car over to the side of the road and was taking photos. It was very pretty. Alvin and I had two good walks yesterday one at noon which was about 25-30 and then a 45 minute one after work. So if we do not make it out today we will not be behind, thank goodness. The battle of the midsection has definitely been HUGE this year but in all honesty I think it has been a carryover from last year and the year before. I cannot blame it on COVID19. Okay, perhaps just a little.

What are your plans for the weekend? Do you bake goodies for your family and friends? One thing I am excited about is that this year I have nice boxes made just for cookies and other treats and I am so grateful to my friend for picking them up. You know my personal shopper friend, as I like to call her. She is amazing. Not just because of that – she is a kind, loving, generous person and we love her.

Okay, I guess I had better get this train back on the tracks. Throw on a Christmas movie, put on the coffee, go to the basement and put on a load of laundry and change the furnace filter (very important to keep that changed) and then have some toast and coffee and then START BAKING. I would like to have some things done before my daughter arrives. I am excited to have company. Only one at a time.

I wish you a wonderful Saturday. Remember to do something nice for someone other than yourself. It is easy to treat yourself but hey so much more rewarding to treat others. You won’t regret it. Be nice. Shovel a walk, bake a pie for your elderly neighbours, bake something and give it away. The vacuuming can wait. Maybe you have neighbours who cannot leave the house and have a dog …. take the dog for a walk? That would be nice.

Happy Saturday ALL.

See you tomorrow.

Living with kindness, respect and compassion for all.

Always, Carol & Alvin

Welcome December 2020

Good Morning ALL. Well it is Thursday morning December 3, 2020. Another gorgeous day on its’ way to us living here in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. This day is forecasted to be +5 degrees celsius. Our normal temperature is -4 for this time of year. We are to have about another week of these temperatures. I will say that when we were out for our noon day walk that Alvin and I wanted to keep on walking – well I did anyway. There were a couple of times that he wanted to turn around and head for home – not quite sure why but I was able to convince him to keep on trucking. The air was so warm and soothing as it touched my face. The sun was shining brightly in the perfect blue sky. I am so grateful for these days. So grateful.

What is on your “plate” for today. Well another workday for me. Tonight I will almost finish my Christmas project which is very exciting for me. Just about there. I also have to double check my recipes and ensure that I know what I am going to bake and that I have the right amount of ingredients. I know that I have more than enough flour and sugar and butter. More than enough. Somehow in the beginning it seemed like a good idea to buy 10 kgs of flour and I think it is the same in sugar and four pounds of butter. The butter might be more close but the flour and sugar will keep. If anyone needs a cup or five of them, I will have some for that. You never know. I did work on the Christmas project last night. I had to use this strong glue so opening the windows and then I placed the project under the fan for the stove (which had it sitting on top of the stove). Yikes. Not a nice smell and not good for one to breathe in – that is why I opened the windows and turned on the fan.

How are you doing these days? Are you okay? I know that this year or almost year has been so off the charts strange for everyone. Strange is putting it lightly of course. People are either working from home, laid off and receiving government relief benefits or out on the front lines working through this pandemic. For the majority of people having to remain at home and away from large groups of family and friends or even travelling has been difficult. Although I will say there are people travelling and that scares the “crap” out of me. What will they bring back with them? Travelling should be ban until this is over unless you are in the military or some health care professionals. Allowing folks to travelling especially out of the country is absolutely ludicrous at this time. How can you ban people from getting together with family at Christmas and allow families to travel outside of Canada. Does not make sense to me? I do agree that we have to buckle down and stop the crazy increase of this virus and if that means wearing a mask and social distancing until who knows when, well this girl is in. What will happen if we do not adhere to the new “rules.” I do not even want to go there.

I am sorry for the dark message so early in the morning but sometimes I just have to get things off my chest.

Okay how about Christmas? Do you have your tree up? I have heard that tree sales are up and that most people already have their trees up and decorated much earlier than normal. I have also heard that flour and sugar and other baking items are beginning to fly off the shelves. So I guess that I am not the only one that is baking. Isn’t it funny that no matter what I am talking about it all comes back to that darn virus. Anyway. I am excited to get some serious Christmas baking done this weekend. Sugar cookies, fudge, chocolate chip cookies, unbaked chocolate macaroons, raisin cookies and who knows what else. Will depend on time and energy and supplies. I even have some delightful boxes to place the baked goods in to deliver to friends and family. So excited. Thanks to my “personal shopper” and you know who you are. I am the most blessed person on the planet. I know this to be for certain.

Well time to head on downstairs. Put on the coffee and get to work.

If we all continue to live our lives with kindness, respect and compassion – what a wonderful world this will be.

Always, Carol & Alvin

Living … One day at a time.

Good Monday Morning.

Despite my non-intentional attempts to throw a wrench into my weekend, the weekend turned out to be success.

Now mind you I was not able to give Mr. Alvin a haircut or a bath.

I was not able to wrap the few gifts that I am exchanging.

I WAS ABLE TO FINISH THE CHRISTMAS BAKING IN ONE WEEKEND.

The Mincemeat tarts (don’t really count them) will do closer to Christmas or really anytime.

Just open the tart shell box and the jar of mincemeat and bake.

Does not get much easier than that.

I could not make the mincemeat for the price of the jar from the store.

Well for some reason I was off my game this weekend and forgot to take photos of all the baking.

It would not have fit on the table.

The missing item was the CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES.

FUDGE = 76 bite size pieces

SUGAR COOKIES = 18 dozen – (5 of which were earmarked for the girls, the young friends) = 13 dozen for home and work.

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES = 10 dozen

= TIRED and SO HAPPY it is done.

 

We managed to get some walks in over the weekend which was good.

I spent pretty much all of my waking hours this weekend on my feet.

Between baking, laundry, baking and walking.

No time to sit around.

But OMG so happy to have it done.

I believe that Mr. Alvin is happy as well.

He spent most of the weekend going in and out to the back yard.

He could feel that I was not going to have time for time.

I didn’t have time for me.

So grateful that I can do what I love.

I do love to baking.

Not always in these quantities but I love to bake.

 

Well, okay time to stop writing.

Time to go downstairs and finish getting ready.

Pick up the poop from earlier this morning in the backyard.

I like to keep it done.

No surprises in the spring when it melts.

That can be down right nasty.

 

I hole that you had a great weekend.

This weekend deliver a few cards to friends in the neighbour along with some treats.

Wrap presents.

Hopefully will be able to pick up the blade for Alvin’s clipper this weekend so that he can have his long overdue haircut on Saturday.

That will be enough.

Oh, tonight place a NORWEX order.

 

Happy Monday.

With kindness and respect I shall get through another year.

2019 has been quite the year.

 

Always, Carol & Alvin

 

 

Living … One day at a time.

Good Morning and Welcome to Crazy Day #2 of Baking.

OMG, what a day I had yesterday.

Got up but perhaps not quite as early as I had wished.

Anyway popped in a load of laundry.

Made coffee and had breakfast.

Then prepared for Alvin’s hair cut.

I placed the cover on the counter and pulled out the clipper set.

I sipped on my coffee and pulled out the clipper but did not see the blade?

What?

I picked up the attachments and looked under everything to no avail.

I looked under the sink, three times no actually four.

I looked in every kitchen drawer a handful of times or more.

In the pantries.

Under the sink again.

Then I had the gut wrenching thought that I had thrown it out when I had recently cleaned under the sink.

I think that I had cleaned it and placed it on a lid so it would dry.

When I cleaned under the sink – just thought it was the old one.

Not sure why that was but anyway – it was gone.

So there went my plan to give Mr. Alvin a haircut and bath.

Next step bake cookies.

So I started with the fudge as that is the way that I roll.

Figured something easy and less stressful.

As clearly my morning was not going to plan.

ARGH, I said, ARGH.

Well not really and surprisingly enough I did not have a meltdown.

I was proud of how I just moved on.

I think that Alvin was SHOCKED as well.

I made a double batch of fudge.

Checked on the laundry.

Then started on the SUGAR COOKIES.

I had to bake a batch of them for my girl friends.

The love them and besides they gave me the ingredients.

Cannot say NO to that.

I was late starting the cookies, I would say about 1:00 p.m. so about 3:30-4:00 the baking was done.

The cookies were cooling on the table.

We had to get out for a walk.

So we did.

On our way I heard this alarm going off in a house across the street from where we were walking.

Not too far from us.

I immediately thought smoke detector.

It was hard to tell.

I was just going to ask someone to help when the garage door beside me opened up.

I yelled in …. Can you help me?

A young man came out and I explained.

We crossed the street as we were right across from his house.

He rang the doorbell with no response.

He did not think it was the smoke alarm but thought it was perhaps the house alarm.

It stopped at one point.

He said that it sounded exactly like the garage alarm at his work.

I was still concerned but went on our way.

On the way home I stopped and at first did not heard it but then it started again.

There was no signs of anything wrong.

I was so relieved.

But also happy that I did not hear a fire truck later on ….

Then home to feed Alvin and make my supper.

Somewhere in there my friends dropped off their cookie tins.

One of the girls stayed and we chatted for a bit.

Nice break.

Followed by icing the several dozen SUGAR COOKIES and still working on laundry.

Did massive amounts of dishes throughout the day.

My hands are so dry this morning.

Packed up the cookies about 8:00 PM or so and delivered one parcel of them to one of the girls.

The other said she will pick them up today along with fudge for her boys.

They love my fudge so I always make sure they get some ….

After I returned home I spent the next few hours baking CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES.

I made SEVEN batches which is about 10 dozen give or take.

So time to get this show on the road.

Time to have breakfast and COFFEE, OMG, I need that brown/black liquid.

Energy do not fail me now.

Two batches of Sugar Cookies and ice them.

One double batch of Fudge.

Retrieve the dried laundry from the basement.

Go for a walk.

Prepare for work.

Write out a couple of cards for people in the neighbourhood.

Not sure what else at this point.

Will be happy to be done baking.

The mince tarts will wait until closer to Christmas.

I took the lazy way out.

Bought tart shells and a jar of mincemeat.

Done.

 

Okay, I have to run.

I hope that you have an awesome Sunday.

I think we will have a great one.

 

Thought for the day ….

Good Morning and Welcome to Friday the 21st day of December, 2018.

Woke up to tiny white snow balls covering the ground with more following.

The crunchy ones.

At least it will cover the ice and give us some traction when walking.

We will finally be able to go for walks with no worries of salt or falling on the ice.

YAY, so happy for that.

 

Our move into our new work space went well.

I am unpacked and received my first phone call at 9:20 a.m. yesterday.

We only work until noon today and then the office is closed to the public until January 3, 2019 (staff goes back on January 2, 2019).

After the office is closed we will have a catered Christmas lunch and then we go home.

I was so pleased to hear that I scored two storage cabinets from our old office.

We had a cherry wood furniture and it will not be used once the building has been renovated so we had an opportunity to bid on pieces that we wanted.

We had these stand up storage cabinets with doors (like an armoire) and five shelves.

Very solidly built.

I got them for a very good price and one of my co-workers is going to bring them home with me after work today.

So grateful for him.

He is one of those guys that gives 365 days a year.

He is kind and funny.

J, picked up one for his wife for their kitchen as well.

Last night I cleaned off the IKEA shelving unit that I had by the back door to ready for the new one.

It will be wonderful to have storage with doors.

Keep dust away.

The IKEA one is in the kitchen.

It works.

The second one will eventually make it from the garage to the basement where it will house all of the jewellery supplies and perhaps some crafting items.

So, so excited for these.

 

Tonight is going to be a busy night with final preparations for the Christmas party at my house tomorrow night.

Another batch of fudge for the party.

Some laundry.

Charging camera and tablet batteries.

I think we may even squeeze in a walk this evening.

We can always stay up late.

After work and the cabinet is placed – will head to the grocery store for final items.

 

I am so excited to have the next 11 days off.

Time to relax, have fun, rejuvenate and enjoy.

 

Well almost time to leave for work.

Grateful to have another ride today and grateful to be employed.

I am grateful for this life, I call “mine.”

Grateful for all of the people who have entered and exited my life.

Grateful for the kind words and for the lesser ones.

Grateful for the wind and the rain.

Grateful for the sun and the snow.

Grateful for all the creatures that have crossed my path.

Grateful for me, Alvin.

So grateful for YOU.

Day of a gratitude.

Thank you.

 

Special Hello to: all those folks who take the time out of their busy schedules to read my blog, means a lot to me.

Wishing you all a wonderful day.

Always, Carol & Alvin