Daily Ooos: Monday, December 27

[tanteva]

Good morning, O'Family! Here's an attempt to step into the faery shoes, and start our daily chatter. As you see, I drink my morning coffee about 5 hrs before Chris, hence the thread is up a bit earlier. I'm no way near as good as Chris at this. Gee, that woman knows the name of your dog's cousin's half brother from Venezuela, while I hardly know everyone's real name. Urban thinks I'm so funny, cuz my friends have names like Wombat, BCgal, Bright Eyes, and so on. But, I'll do my very best.

So ... Christmas is over. I hope you all had a good time. We did barely nothing ... other than eating. Urban has been sitting by his puter most of the time, and I by the telly. I found that one of the channels had 9 seasons of the British game show Taskmaster, so I've been binge watching those. It's silly & crazy, and I absolutely love it. Also got a few layouts done. And as I always do, I started knitting on a new project on Christmas eve: a sweater. Haven't gotten far on it, cuz ... I downloaded a game, and got obsessed. Silly little coloring book game called Happy Color. Really relaxing to sit and "paint" on the tablet, while watching/listening to the TV.

Today, Urban's back at work. This is the first time in years, that he hasn't been taking out vacation days between Christmas & New Year's. He's going to take a few days first week in January instead. OH, I've forgotten to tell: our boss asked me if I wanted to work more in 2022, so I'm back at work on Jan 20, and will work Thursdays for a couple of weeks. Great to get the extra money. Urban was looking through the finances yesterday, and it really has made a difference, that I've been working. I'm not getting rich, but it's great to earn some money.

So ... has anyone come up with a New Year's resolution? Or a theme word for the next year? Or maybe you do something else?

I decided on my New Year's resolution a couple of weeks ago: I will not buy any yarn in 2022
(with the exeptions: if someone wants me to knit/crochet something special and I don't have any yarn in my stash to do it & if I've started a project and I need another skein to finish it & if the yarn store will have an advent calendar for knitters next year as they did this year - I'm going to buy that in December 2022. Loved the one I bought this year.)

Been thinking about a theme word, but I'm not sure. Have a few more days to think about it.

Now I'm gonna try and do personals. I suck at those LOL

 

[tanteva]

First of all: @faerywings HUGS!!!!!!!!!! To you, and to Scott, and to everyone. (Maybe not the spider!) I think we all are upset about what's happened. I wish there was a way to make Scott understand that this will pass, that the pain will subside and that life will be good. The double betrayal must be so devastating! And on Christmas! It's wrong on so many levels! She's been a part of your family for so long - this must be so hard on all of you. We're all sending hugs and good vibes your way!

@LSlycord I hope everything will work out with the trip. This virus need to give up and get away now. About the tree: In Sweden the tradition is to keep the tree until Jan 13. Then there's a party "Christmas Tree Plunder", where the tree is taken down and kids got to eat what's in the tree. Nowadays, we have mainly ordinary ornaments, but back in the days, the tree was often decorated with candy, gingerbread cookies, and stuff like that. Nowadays, I have cats - hence no tree. LOL

@Susan - s3js Peppermint mocha coffee! Sounds divine. Is that store bought, or do you do it yourself? Flavoured coffee really isn't a thing in Sweden.

@bcgal00 I thought turkey was for Thanksgiving dinner, but you eat it at Christmas as well? Or maybe this is a Canadian thing only? And you eat something else on Thanksgiving? And good luck with the booster. I've had different side effects all three times, so weird!

@BrightEyes I think I told you already, but we watched War & Remembrance a while back. Bought the complete DVD set (with Winds of War as well). I really liked it. When it was aired on TV here, I was in my late teens, and it was great then. Now I thought it was even better, cuz I better enjoyed the history part of it. Haven't read the books, not sure I will bother. Have you read the books?

 

[LSlycord]

Well @tanteva may I say that you have done an outstanding job with opening the O's today!! We all miss @faerywings and are anxious for her to be back but she sure doesn't need to worry with you at the helm. You are doing a marvelous job!

Yesterday was a catch up day for me. It is funny that I came back to the O only a month ago! I feel like I'm pretty much back in the swing of things. Easier since I'm not working so when I go back to work it will be harder but hopefully I have my processes in place by then and it will be easier to just get it done!

I have been thinking a great deal about the word for the year. I think that I'm going with a phrase this year. I think "Let it Go" is my phrase. I am straight up Type A! And I don't understand when everyone around me is not Type A---husband and son are definitely not Type A. But even worse, daughter is Type A and two Type A's don't always see eye to eye. LOL

What I do know is that as I age (I turn 65 in October), there will be more things that I just can't control. How I wish my mom were here so that we could talk about this. I spent a lot of time with my parents and so I watched them age. But I still have questions and wish I could just talk to them. I always thought that they were full of wisdom---they really were my heroes---and I still miss that wisdom today. Maybe I need to do a page with some journaling. LOL

Definitely need a "Let it Go" page.

 

[LSlycord]

@tanteva again, great job on kicking off the Daily O's today. Thanks for stepping up! And I love the tradition with the Christmas tree. Christmas Tree Plunder is just the greatest title...you need a layout! And congratulations on the additional work. That sounds just right to me!

@faerywings if you take a look at this today, please know that our hearts are breaking for Scott and for you. As mom's, we want to fix everything for our kids. And if it seems hard when they are younger, it is nothing compared to now. A betrayal by both his girlfriend and his best friend announced on Christmas. I just can't imagine what went through their minds that made them think this was ok. So, so sorry!

 

[faerywings]

Hi everyone, thank you so much, @tanteva for doing this for me and the O-Fam.
I am trying so hard not to cry. I am just sick. Heartbroken. I can't help him other than be there and he is so appreciative of that, he has thanked Gary and me, Cait and Tom, for being there. But there is nothing else I can do.
I wish I could take down the tree today. I want all of it gone. I know that doesn't make sense, but it feels like nothing makes sense. It is really more than "just a breakup." She was his life and his "friend" knew that.

Thank you for understanding that.

Thank you so much for the hugs and good thoughts. I am sure I will pop in a little every day but I don't have it in me to do personals. Just know I love you all xoxo

 

[BrightEyes]

Morning, gals. @tanteva You have got this off to a good start. So glad you were willing to step in and give Chris the time she needs to recover. Oh, I like the name Christmas Tree Plunder... and glad to know how it came about. So nice that the Boss wants you to work more hours and that means more money. Have to LOL over you 'no yarn buying in 2022... unless..... etc, etc, etc! I used to make the same vow about buying fabric - alas, there was always a sale and I was weak! Since I don't have the Winds of War DVD, I will be re-reading the book... if I can find it. I have it in the book inventory but not sure where it is at the moment. We changed houses since I make the inventory so not sure where it got put. Think it may be on one of the shelves out in the garage. Have some boxes from the attic in front of the shelves that will need to be moved before I can get on the stepstool to check if it is there. Most of the books are on the upper 2 shelves and are in double rows. Was LOL as I found my copy of War and Remembrance - mine is a 2 book set and it was in the bookcase in the family room. I found it when I was looking for Winds of War. So I will take the other copy back to the library and put it on the freebie cart again. BTW, if you still have the DVDs of War and Remembrance I would recommend watching the Bonus DVD all about the making of W&R. WOW... what a powerful undertaking and the lengths they went to to keep it authentic.

@faerywings just know that we are all aching for the pain Scott and the family are going through right now. I understand why you want to take the Christmas tree down... it is just a sad reminder of when the breakup happened. Talk to the family and see if they are ready to help pack it away now or if they want to follow tradition about when to do that. Sometimes it is good to get things back to 'normal' as Scott and the family begin the healing from this tragic event.

@LSlycord it feels like you have been back here at the O for much longer than a month! I like your "Let It Go" for the new year. Good luck on sticking with it in the new year. Another dear friend here is using that as her motto for the new year. She is purging her house of many things so as she says 'the kids won't have to do it later'.

 

[tjscraps]

It is really freaking cold where I’m at:


and our furnace stopped working overnight, it was a very chilly wake up. Keeping warm with some space heaters and hoping to get a plumber here soon, or the gas company if we can’t find a plumber (no heat is an emergency when the temps are this low, the gas company will send someone within 24 hours for free to see if they can diagnose it and make sure the gas isn’t leaking)

@tanteva we do turkey at Christmas too! And at Easter - Any excuse for turkey!

 

[LSlycord]

@LSlycord it feels like you have been back here at the O for much longer than a month! I like your "Let It Go" for the new year. Good luck on sticking with it in the new year. Another dear friend here is using that as her motto for the new year. She is purging her house of many things so as she says 'the kids won't have to do it later'.

I have been working (very slowly) on purging for the same reason as your friend. I still have many things that I got from when Dad died and I just kept everything. I don't want to leave my kids in that position. I don't think that it is anything that will happen soon, but still better to do it now when it isn't so sad!

 

[LSlycord]

@tjscraps oh my goodness...that is awful! That is really cold! Hoping that you can get that fixed quickly. We have lost heat before in the middle of cold nights (certainly not in Florida) and wake up and think why is it so cold.

 

[bcgal00]

Good afternoon ladies. It's been a busy morning of puttering, playing with the dogs, going outside to throw an ice covered ball, take photos of the birds in the trees, reading my book, drinking tons of coffee and ordered some vegan cookbooks and a selfie standing/ring light on amazon. The day is flying by but its a good day.

My daughter is feeling really sick but it sounds more like the flu than anything COVID but she is going to look into what she needs to do. We feel fine but will stay home for a few days while she gets tested just in case we have it but are showing no symptoms.

Fingers crossed.

Remi is barking at me to go out (again) to play in the snow. Off I go...

 

[Susan - s3js]

I have been working (very slowly) on purging for the same reason as your friend. I still have many things that I got from when Dad died and I just kept everything. I don't want to leave my kids in that position. I don't think that it is anything that will happen soon, but still better to do it now when it isn't so sad!

I've been doing this, too. I come from very long-lived stock - one great grand aunt lived to 104 and another to 102 in the very early 20th century when medicine was awful! - so I don't expect to go soon, but I'll be 68 in October so you never know, do you? My boys have a nice stock of things to set up housekeeping on their own from their grandmother's small estate, so they are set for that. It's the basics but will cut down on the expense of setting up housekeeping until they are better settled and able to get other things they like. Cast iron skillets and things like that are expensive so that inheritance is very nice! I'm putting together the same for a young many that lives with us. He's Jason's friend (my youngest, Justin is oldest) and needed to make a quick escape from a bad home situation. I just could not let him be on the streets. He's like a son to me, so we are good for now. His brother will be coming back here in the not too distant future and I suspect they will get a place together but I have more than enough to set their kitchen up and plan on making at least a couple of quilts apiece for my three boys and for Brandon's brother. I have already given each of them the furniture they will get and they can take most of it with them then if they wish.

Now, when I win big in the lottery, I will set up a trust fund for each of them, then one for myself, all with a trustee that I know but is not family. My trust will take care of everything else when I go and distribute everything as I instruct, even pay the taxes on it so they don't have to worry about it at all. LOL! It's a beautiful dream and fun. I would definitely retire to Costa Rica and take them all on an around the world cruise, just moving from ship to ship as we needed to go where we want. Ah, no worries!

I still might do the trust, though. I don't have a lot, but then there are no headaches.

 

[Cherylndesigns]

Hello all. I'll catch up tomorrow. Still have company and have been very busy. Chris @faerywings I'm thinking about you. I KNOW what you mean about taking down the tree. I can't wait to get mine down! Hugs to all and I'll be back tomorrow.