The Year in Review Part I

The afterglow of a glorious Christmas still radiates throughout the house. The lights on the Christmas tree continue to twinkle, and there are still foil wrapped Santa chocolates in the candy dish. Tomorrow it all goes away. The candy will either go in the trash (highly doubtful) or hidden in the deep, dark back corner of the pantry where hopefully I will forget about it and the Head Gardener won't find it (a more likely option). Really, who throws away chocolate?

 I love to decorate for the holidays. The house always looks so pretty and sparkles and twinkles with the warm glow of blinking lights. I also like the house put back into order, stripped bare for a few days so that it can get a good cleaning afterwards. I like to wait a while before I put back the decor. I enjoy the bare simpleness of the house--for a while. So tonight I am enjoying the tree one last evening.

I have had fun going through my photo library reliving the year. I thought I'd share some of the highlights of the last twelve months. So here is Part I of 2016:

Each New Year always begins with birthdays: Jacob on the 3rd, Son-in-law Grant on the 4th, and the HG's on the 7th. Jacob turned 13 this year. Though I didn't, I thought about sending his parents a condolence card for the loss of their little boy, but then I said "no" for the teen years are a Rite of Passage for both child and parent and should be embraced. I just sit back and chuckle when I hear mom lamenting the rolling of the eyes, the "I know a lot more than you do" attitude. Jacob is a great kid, straight A student, Boy Scout, sweet, and now a teen-ager.

At the end of 2016 I would have a birthday that I would celebrate the end of one decade and the beginning of another. Oh my. I knew that I would be 70 years old one day, and as I told my brother the night before my birthday, I didn't expect it to be the next day or that it would come so quickly.  So I have spent the year keeping my mind active: searching for a great, great grandmother and reading about the historical queens of England. Here you see the passenger list of a 1842 ship carrying Irish immigrants to Canada. I didn't find my grandmother on this list. I've not found her at all.

We had a new floor laid in the living room, kitchen, entry, and hall. I love the vinyl planking. The floor is easily cared for and I don't have to worry about scratches, dents, or dings.

And we made friends with milk cows, too, and enjoyed their rich, creamy milk. The grand kids got to see exactly where milk came from and even got to help out as the Head Gardener was back up milker for the family who owned the cows. Sadly, the family moved to Nebraska, taking their cows with them. I learned to make my own yogurt that I really did enjoy.

 We lost our water pressure and knew that we had a problems, so we hired this very nice man who had special technology to find the underground leak then we found two very nice men with a big machine and a shovel who found the leak in the water line and fixed it.

We added six new hens to the flock of egg layers. Boone took good care to make sure they were fine. They grew up to be lovely ladies. 

Nathan learned how to make pancakes. He loves helping in the kitchen and was thrilled when he mastered flipping pancakes.

The old 2003 Ford F-250 needed a heart transplant. Runs good. I doubt that we will be replacing it anytime soon now. The HG was quite traumatized to see these photos.

 

The granddaughters hosted a lovely Mother's Day Tea for me. I love that they are learning some of the manners that goes with preparing and serving tea. Grand memories for me, wonderful memories for them.

Next week, we will I review the garden beauties. We had some pretty flowers and tasty fruits and vegetables. 

So now, Happy New Year. We will be traveling to northeastern Colorado to Haxtun to ring in the new year with dear friends. What will you be doing? 

It has been such a pleasure having you visit the Garden Spot, but even more to be able to visit you and to think of you as a "friend," so thank you for sharing your life, offering wisdom, wit, and inspiration through your narratives and the beauty of your images. I look forward to spending another year with you.