reflections on 2022

Amanda snapped this shot of me after our Christmas Day celebration.

I was exhausted but in a good way.

The Hollingsworths would be leaving very early the next morning.

I would be living alone again.

Christmas has always been a bit bittersweet.

I never want it to end, but couldn't possibly keep up the pace for another day.

Erika made a canvas of one of my favorite pictures taken this past summer.

We were at Jupiter Inlet by the ocean.

All walking jauntily along, happy as larks.

Amanda took the pic.

 She is not in the photo.

We had the best time on our family vacation and I was remembering.

2022 was a good year filled with blessings from the Lord.

I moved into my new house in February and spent the whole year

happily unpacking boxes and making it beautiful.

God's plans for me are going perfectly as His will ordains.

I am rich spiritually beyond measure.

I have everything I need for life and godliness.

I have been healthy.

I am surrounded by people who love me and take such good care of me.

I cannot think of one thing I am lacking.

I love Hope Bible Church and the brothers and sisters there I call my friends.

I love God's word.

I am thankful for Jesus and for the sacrifice He made for us on the cross.

Thank You, God.

It's all because of You!

You are faithful and good.

You never leave me.

You will never forsake me.

I'm looking forward to heaven.

I think about it every day.

I long for it!

The fulfillment of all of Your promises!

Hopefully, this will be my last "stupid" mistake of 2022.

These WERE Bubba"s geraniums that I had kept thriving for almost three years.

They were my "pride and joy."

I've shared them here many times.

Last week when we were expecting the deep freeze,

I asked Mark if he would put them in the garage for me to keep them from freezing.

That night,

we had the Christmas Eve ~ Eve party and when it was over,

Jake and Eli and I walked out to the Cleland van to say our final goodbyes.

We then walked back into the house,

 finished cleaning up, 

and at some point went to bed.

The next morning I went to open the back door into the garage and noticed that it was unlocked.

Then I noticed that the garage door was up.

We had slept all night with the house completely open.

It was below 20 degrees in the garage.

The flowers were all dead.

Thankfully,

No one stole the three boxes of Hollingsworth gifts that were out there.

I held back tears and chastised my "stupidity."

This morning I cut all of the wilted greenery off.

I put them back outside because it is Spring again and it was raining.

Dare I hope that they will come back?

I'll be watching them closely.

Will let you know.

 

Christmas Day ~ 2022

My best gift this Christmas was hot water!

I knew very early, 

as soon as I discerned there would be hot water, 

that it was going to be a wonderful day.

🎄

Since Christmas was on Sunday,

we did things a little differently this year.

David was preaching so we couldn't all get together for breakfast and present opening.

It would just be me and the Hollingswoths for the morning session.

We made our sausage and egg casserole the day before.

It was cooking and smelling delicious while the boys opened their gifts.

Jake was awake and ready.

🎁

Eli is not so much of a morning person.

That's okay.

 He got going soon after I took this pic.

Amanda got a mug.

She really loves her morning coffee.

☕

Our Sunday worship time was a highlight.

So good to be together on Christmas Day at church with our dear ones.

⛪

After church,

 we came home,

 grabbed some leftovers, 

and rested for a bit.

Much needed rest!

By the time December 25th actually arrives,

everyone is worn slap out.

😴

The Cleland crew arrived a little after three.

Let the next party begin!

We went in for the first session of opening presents 

and then started preparing Christmas dinner.

I had marinated a juicy, delicious steak for everyone.

David worked his magic at the grill.

Amanda and I had prepared two Hash Brown Potato casseroles the day before,

and they were ready to pop in the oven.

Mark dressed our tasty salad and we had a meal fit for kings ready in a flash.

(Maybe Wise Men?)

👑

After dinner, we moved into our second time of opening gifts.

Some shots of my crazy grandboys waiting their turn.

David and Erika got cracked up over something.

At this point in the evening,

 we started to lose it.

Everything seemed funny, even hilarious.

🤣

This picture of David is quite fuzzy,

 but it is a perfect example of what I meant when I said we start to lose it.

This piece of fur graced one of Amanda's beautifully wrapped gifts.

Soon it was around his head topped by one of the boy's hats

which was seriously too small for his head.

It seems like Walter always gets a Baby Yoda every Christmas.

 Later, when it was dark and freezing outside, we called it a day. 

The magic of Christmas came to an end.

We were all exhausted.

But it was one of the best Christmases ever!

🎄

Christmas ~ 2022!

It was truly a magical time filled with love and laughter.

We are so blessed as a family.

Bubba is missed, but we feel him near.

Thank You, Lord, for these people who You gave me,

this family of souls that do life together.

What joy!

💗💚

 

hot water or freezing cold?

Christmas is a day to be savored.

I got up early, I always do...

Didn't want to miss a minute of our celebration.

No one else was stirring.

My first thought on waking was...

"I wonder if we will have hot water or cold water this morning?"

I waited a while before I turned on the shower.

The whole day we had planned hinged on whether hot water came out of the wall.

I didn't have high expectations.

All I knew was that it was going to be a different day if there was no hot water.

After what seemed like forever I tested and it was slightly warm.

Good sign!

Next test the water was nice and hot just like I like it,

I jumped in and didn't tarry.

Got to save some for everybody else.

All that to say.

Everybody bathed and I left the dishwasher running when we left for church.

When we got home, there was still hot water.

Today is Thursday and it is still going strong.

No more cold showers.

Nobody really knows what happened.

Most likely the freezing weather had something to do with the loss.

I am so thankful that I was not alone to deal with this.

The people that answered the helpline said they were receiving hundreds of calls.

The same thing happened to another family in our church.

Our Christmas Day was perfect.

I'll write about that next.

When it comes to real suffering this event was insignificant.

It was a minor inconvenience.

I was going to rent a hotel room for shower taking 

and put everything kitchen related in boxes in the garage till the hot water returned.

 But it sure was a blessing when I turned on the shower Christmas morning and had hot water.

Thank You, Lord God, for answering my prayer.

There is no one like You!

You are my God!

You know me!

I know You because of what Jesus did on the cross.

His blood paid the price for my sin and reconciled me to You.

Praise and worship are due Your holy name.

Hallelujah!

💗💚

 

Christmas Eve ~ part 2

For this post to make sense

 you should read my previous post from yesterday.

It's now Christmas Eve afternoon.

We are home from the Mexican restaurant.

Mark finally arrives with a new battery in his car.

He is quickly informed of the "no hot water" dilemma.

After lunch and a brief rest, he gets to work in the freezing attic.

Making several more phone calls to the powers that be of tankless water heaters,

he receives new instructions on

 "How to solve the problem of getting hot water to magically appear in my faucets."

He needed things like my hair dryer,

 towels, 

pliers,

 a Philips head screwdriver,

a flashlight.

This endeavor continued late into the afternoon.

Our Christmas Eve service was to begin at 5.

At about 4:15 Mark came down and announced that we had hot water again.

We were ecstatic and called it a Christmas miracle.

I immediately started the dishwasher on a 3-hour hot water cycle.

We made it to church on time.

Our Christmas Eve service was such a blessing.

After the day we had, it was so nice to be with our church family

singing and hearing God's Word.

The story of Jesus' birth never gets old.

What comfort and encouragement to relish in God's indescribable Gift.

Back home we soon realized that the hot water was gone again.

I think the long dishwasher cycle drained it completely.

We went to bed wondering if we would have hot water on Christmas morning.

It would be a big day of cooking and eating and lots of dirty dishes

 and of course, everyone would need a shower.

I put in my prayer to the One who knows all and went to sleep.

*to be continued

 

Christmas Eve and other things

Sometime during the night on Christmas Eve ~ Eve,

when the party was over and we were all snug in our beds,

the temperature plummeted to depths it hasn't been in Savannah in many years.

No snow, no sleet, just freezing temperatures.

I got up early as I always do,

took a nice, long, hot, shower,

and proceeded to enjoy the beginning of Christmas Eve.

As others arose from slumber, they got their showers.

Then it was Amanda's turn.

She was almost done,

just had to rinse the conditioner out of her hair.

At that moment,

the water went from hot to stone cold in an instant.

She was out like a flash with the conditioner still in her hair.

Mark and the boys had left to go do some last-minute Christmas shopping.

I was in the kitchen cooking.

We waited an appropriate amount of time and checked for hot water to no avail

thinking that maybe after all the showers the hot water had just run out.

That wasn't the case.

At some point, we realized there was probably not going to be any more hot water

 at Hope Lane on Christmas Eve.

 Disaster!

At that moment Amanda got a call from Mark that his car wouldn't start.

David gets involved at this time to retrieve Jake and Eli and bring them home.

Mark was stuck waiting for Triple-A in a freezing cold parking lot.

Amanda went over to David's house to get the conditioner out of her hair.

David delivers the boys and makes a call to the Tankless water heater helpline.

They dispatch him some useless information.

It's 11:00 by now.

We were all due to meet at

 Jalapenos Mexican restaurant for our annual Christmas Eve Lunch at 11:30.

We changed the time to a little later.

David kept working on the water heater,

 which consisted of pressing a button on and off every ten seconds until infinity.

At some point, I suggested that we walk away from the problem.

We left for lunch with full confidence 

that the continual button pressing was going to bring our hot water back.

We enjoyed the fun time,

 but the hot water heater fiasco was looming at the back of our minds.

Huge amounts of food prep and clean-up require huge amounts of hot water.

Mark never made it.

He had an inordinately long wait for the Triple-A guy.

The problem was a dead battery.

*to be continued

 

we had ourselves a merry little freezing Christmas

We celebrated Christmas Eve on Christmas Eve ~ Eve.

It was a festive night with food and games and lots of fun.

The deep freeze had not settled in yet.

Amanda and Mark came prepared with a new game.

Each person had to try to roll a water bottle into a section containing various sums of cash.

The top prize was $50.00.

The least you could win was $1.00.

In the picture above the winners are wearing the money they won.

Erika won the top prize.

At first, it looked like nobody would win.

Then they got the hang of it and started to aim their bottles carefully at the right slot.

There was so much hollering and cheering.

Such a fun celebration.

The grazing food filled up the island.

Jake and Eli were in a festive mood singing to Amanda.

Meatballs,

Ham biscuits,

Pigs in blankets,

Sausage cheese balls,

Broccoli salad,

Potato salad,

Hot pecan dip, 

Jalapeno dip,

 All kinds of chips and crackers.

There was a punch bowl full of lime sherbert punch

that was drained at the end of the evening.

Cheese straws and a big bowl of Doritos graced this separate station.

(all of the boys love Doritos)

This table, set off by itself, is their dream come true,

Good thing it only happens once a year.

My great room all dressed up for our party.

The punch bowl table.

My Grandmother Hodie made this tablecloth a long time ago.

I bring it out every Christmas.

Christmas Eve~ Eve on Hope Lane was the start of our Christmas magic.

That special time when you're all together with the people you love the most in the whole world

having fun, laughing, eating.

It just doesn't get any better than that!!!

So, so thankful!

💗

 

Jesus our Saviour is born today

Rejoice that immortal God is born 

so that mortal man may live in eternity.

John Hus

💙

 

wish you were here

Partying tonight.

Been cooking all day.

Lots of goodies and the house smells delightful.

Everything is perfect but you're not here.

Big place in my heart that is empty of everything but precious memories.

 I'm so glad I have those.

I pray that everyone who reads has a wonderful Christmas!

🎄

 

it's magic

My Christmas begins today...

in however long it takes for Amanda and Mark and Jake and Eli to drive from south Florida.

I've worked hard to get to this place.

Christmas magic doesn't just happen, you have to make it happen.

From Thanksgiving until now everything is a frenzy.

Then you can breathe again,

I am almost ready.

People will gather.

There is food to be prepped and cooked.

Tables to be set with my beautiful china.

Candles to be lit.

Last minute details to be seen too.

I still have a few gifts to wrap,

and another trip to the grocery store.

Things like that,

But when you turn on all of the tiny white lights,

you say to yourself,

It's magic!

It's Christmas!

One more time!

💗

Gifts around the tree.

Moma's antique Santa watching all the magic.

🎅

Bubba's tree-watering apparatus is still in place!

 

krispy kream

The Krispy Kream on Skidaway has closed its doors forever.

If you are a native Savannahian this is shocking news.

The place was an absolute icon.

It's been there forever.

It was there when I was a teenager.

Comfort food.

Coffee and doughnuts fresh off the press.

The sign out front in neon lights...

"Hot Doughnuts Now."

I haven't eaten a doughnut in years but Jake and Eli love them.

We made several trips to Krispy Kreme when they were here for Thanksgiving.

The place was in bad shape.

No more indoor service.

The drive-through was ridiculous.

Only one person working.

Long lines.

Angry people.

High prices.

Doughnuts half the size they used to be.

Not surprising that it closed.

There is another Krispy Kream in town but it is on the other side of town.

Jake and Eli will still be able to have their doughnuts,

6 original glazed and six chocolate-covered glazed,

but it won't be the same.

Everything is changing

All the good stuff is going away.

Bubba wouldn't recognize this world we live in.

🍩

 

i needed some help...

...getting my tree skirt under my tree.

Sadly, I am no longer able to contort myself to make that happen.

So, I told the grandkids that if they would come and work for a few minutes,

I would take them to Cici's Pizza for supper.

They readily agreed.

I took them there last Friday night also.

We dined at Cici's before the Christmas music at Veritas Academy.

I can barely tolerate Cici's all-you-can-eat pizza buffet.

but they LOVE it so much.

 I go to watch them.

We sit at the same table every time.

They call it "our table."

They load up their plates with all kinds of weird pizza slices and bowls of pasta.

They even have dessert pizza which Gus grabbed first last night.

He didn't want to miss out in case they ran out.

They love the "drink" station.

They get huge cups and "mix drinks."

Harry concocted a root beer and ginger ale number that he said tasted like cough syrup.

Nobody even looks at the salad bar.

No interest in that.

When we finished there were fifteen red plastic plates piled up in the middle of the table.

Gluttony!

That's what goes on at Cici's all-you-can-eat pizza buffet. 

Anyway,

the tree skirt got placed neatly under the tree.

Lots of "needle shedding," but I expected that.

That's what brooms are for.

And somewhere in the mix of everything,

Walter ended up wearing one of the tree skirts.

It fit him perfectly!

They also made snow fall on my Christmas house scenes.

My warning...

No wild throwing as in a snowball fight.

Like a beautiful, quiet, lovely, gentle snowfall.

They did a perfect job!

They earned their spot at Cici's all-you-can-eat pizza buffet.

I love them!

I have loved decorating my new home for Christmas.

One more time!

God's grace and mercy.

So thankful.

 

Christmas music

Last Friday evening

Veritas Academy

Downtown Savannah

Walter is part of the chorus at his school.

I had the privilege of hearing the most beautiful voices singing Christmas songs.

The kids were all dressed up in their Sunday best.

It's exciting how his music teacher has coaxed this very large group into amazing vocalists.

Lucy drove us to the show.

We sat on the very back row because it was a full house.

David and Erika were not there because they had a wedding.

When Walter and his group sang we were able to stand up because there was no one behind us.

What a joy to watch the first and second graders perform!

This picture was taken when we got back to my house.

I think he had the sweetest look on his face,

Walter is my youngest grandson.

He is a joy!

💗

 

back to thanksgiving

I just looked back on my blog and noticed that all but one of them featured my Christmas tree.

I'm so sorry.

I think I became obsessed with it.

These are some pictures we took on our Walkabout at Isle of Hope on Thanksgiving afternoon.

Bluff Drive on Isle of Hope is quite picturesque.

This is Eli.

He has spotted something in the sky I think.

Me and Amanda.

Mother and daughter.

Pale and tanned.

Old and still relatively young.

Me and the boys.

Nice flag shot.

Bluff Drive ~ Isle of Hope

Spanish Moss

Isle of Hope Marina

Some of the cottages

All of the "cottages" have private docks.

This Private sign was made out of oyster shells.

Clever!

Last but not least,

A most awesome and beautiful tree.

I'll try not to post any more Christmas tree pics,

but I might!

Maybe when I get all the gifts beautifully wrapped and under.

I'm still waiting for them to arrive at my front door.

If only I could get my UPS guy to ring my bell to alert me when they arrive.!

🎁

*I'm completely out of pictures to share.

I need to work on that!

it's done

After two weeks and two rounds of antibiotics for an unrelenting sinus infection,

My tree is done!

Possibly I won't take on a project of this magnitude in the future,

especially when the body is weak,

but you never know.

All that matters is that this year, 2022, my Christmas tree is done.

What do you think?

Too many lights?

I think it is perfect and that's all that matters.

I will say this...

there is a whole lifetime of memories hanging on that tree.

My weakened physical state made me super emotional.

Each ornament retrieval brought me back to a special place and time in my life.

From Vail, Colorado to The Coronado Hotel in California, to Washington, DC.

From the arrival of each one of our babies and grandbabies.

From Bubba and my Mom and Dad, and our favorite pets.

They're all there on that shining Frasier Fir.

Thank You, God, for this wonderful life and the beauty of Christmas.

🎄