December 2022 ...

 

... in all it's glory, with events and people, of course Christmas with its decorations and presents, plus snow and rain-rain-rain!  It's dark and dreary and very wet out there as I wrap up the month today on December 31st -- if we get much more rain, we might float away or we'll be looking for an ark!  I've never seen so much rain.  Jimmy and I are snug indoors, grateful for our warm and cozy home.  We hung a bird feeder on a Dogwood branch a few feet from our dining room window where we can watch the small birds empty it -- the Chickadees, Nuthatches, Juncos and Finches, all stoking in seed.  They need it in this weather.  Inexpensive entertainment for us when it ain't fit to be outside.

Gold Country (as Nevada County is called) got dumped on in mid-December with a heavy, wet snow that took two weeks to slowly melt.  Yup, it was pretty, Christmasy-like, but after a while, you just want it to go away!  It was cold, too!  Jimmy and I managed to get the driveway cleared (twice) before the snow turned to ice, which is impossible to shovel.  But the temps were so frigid that any melting turned to ice every night.  No matter, our friends were able to park in the driveway when we hosted cards at our house on the 14th.  A fun afternoon and a bright spot on a cold winter's day for the four of us!

Nevada City, where we live, has an outdoor Victorian Christmas celebration on Sundays in December.  The first two Sundays were washouts due to bad weather, but the sun shone brightly on the 18th, which was a boon for visitors and vendors alike.  We arranged to meet Matt, Jen, and Evie there.

Oh man, we weren't the only ones to take advantage of the weather!  Can you spot Jimmy in the crowd?  The street was so packed, we decided to leave after only one pass up and down.  The kids followed us home.  I'd made chicken soup earlier, and popped popcorn, so everyone helped themselves, which included chips and the candy dish.  Oh, we bought one small handblown glass ornament there for the 2022 addition to our tree.

A Victorian Christmas tradition.

Somebody could hardly stand to see unopened presents under the tree!  This little miss angled her way into us letting her open one of her presents (from Nannie and Uncle Bubba), which she's examining above.  Prior to this, she and I "made" presents in the den for her Mom and Daddy and Pop-pop (Jimmy), so they could open presents right then, too.  

She got such a "kick" out of this goofy elf slipper that Jimmy found and I put on.  It chased her around the house, much to her little girl screams of delight.

Evie picked up my camera and took this pic of her Mom, our beautiful Jenny.

We do our best to get a decent photo of the family at Christmastime.  Jimmy wishes he had a bigger smile, but everyone else is looking fairly good.  After seeing this, the group was all about taking a silly photo, as you see below.

Typical Nykvist picture.  Hahahaaaaa

We had a grand time together this Sunday before Christmas, nothing fancy, just lots of family fun.  Evie knew (probably as soon as she walked in the front door) that "there's something in your stocking, Gramma."  Oh goodie, I told her.  I'll open it next Sunday.  The house grew real quiet after they went home.  Matt said Evie fell asleep in the car.  

The rest of the week was preparation for the holiday.  Matt, Jen, Evie and Jen's parents, Alice and Tom, would come for Christmas Eve ham dinner at our place, as well as a gift exchange.  I did something different this year, splurging on two hors d'oeuvres dishes from a local catering shop, one was meatballs in a homemade tomato sauce and the other was tiny vegetable quiches, both hits.  I made the rest of the dinner.  More importantly, however, was opening presents ... at least to one little girl!  We enjoyed a lovely afternoon/evening, but I was exhausted at the end of the day.  Tomorrow we'd drive down to the Sacramento area for Christmas Day surf and turf dinner at Matt and Jen's.

I took no photos yesterday and only a few on Christmas Day.  My favorite is one Matt took and sent to me, below.

As you can see, the caption should be, "All I want for Christmas is a new front tooth!"  The one next to the lost tooth is wiggly and she'll be looking for two front teeth soon!

Matt, the almost chef, put on a stellar dinner.  Shrimps and lobsters for those of us who don't eat beef, and steaks for those who do, or any combo in between.

Mrs and Mr Claus!

Evie and I played with her toys, which mainly had to do with Pony's, and generally "horsed" around.  (sorry)  Another terrific day! Jimmy and I agreed that this year's holiday was one of the best.  The evening drive home was uneventful, thank goodness, despite some serious valley fog.  I noticed a throat tickle that felt uncomfortable ....

Long story shortened, that throat tickle morphed into sinusitis that sent me finally to the doctor and a script for generic Penicillin.  I spent the week after Christmas on the couch, shivering from fever and bundled up like Nanook of the North, only hopefully cuter.  I feel a little better today.  Heckuva way to end a year, but I guess it's better than starting a new year that way!

We took down Christmas this morning and put everything away.  The room always look bare for a while after the decorations are gone.  Now I can't find a candle holder -- hard to keep track of everything!  With that done, and 2022 petering out, Jimmy and I can begin preparations to leave a week from today (Saturday) in Tergel, heading south to the warm and possibly sunny Southern California desert for two weeks.  My body is truly looking forward to soaking in a hot spring.  Kinda wish I was there right now!

PS:  It's still raining.  Happy New Year to One and All. 💖 💖

Oh Yay! Family's here: 11/29 - 12/6

 

I know it's December, but when my sister made flight reservations for the first week in December, none of us expected a dreary week of truly cold and rainy weather.  With a dousing of hail and a tad of snow thrown in for good measure.  I think we had one day of halfway-good weather in the entire week.  And Bubba, her hubby, came down with a cold as soon as they arrived at our house.  Then Evie and Matt got sick.  Plans went awry.  Perhaps you've heard the phrase, "Man proposes, God disposes?"  Nevertheless, we made the most of their visit, although we were stuck indoors much of the time.

We pulled all our Christmas stuff from garage shelves, including the Christmas tree in a box, and decorated both the tree and the house, and it was great sport having Nannie help.  Rainy days are good for something!  Bubba was feeling puny and he didn't want to share his cold, so he basically isolated.

On Saturday, the 3rd, we drove to Matt and Jen's in Fair Oaks for the afternoon, dodging raindrops on the way.  A year had vanished since Nannie and Bubba saw "the kids," and they were also eager to see their new house.  We'd planned on playing in Old Town Sac, possibly even donning ice skates, but the weather sucked, and so we stayed in till dinner.

Door Dash delivered lunch sandwiches!  Matt and Bubba (real name:  Scott) in the back, with Evie squeezing between Jimmy and Nannie.  Evie was happy to see Nannie and Bubba again.  Meanwhile, Jen left for a prescheduled hair appointment.

Evie liked the sparkly light-up Christmas necklace I brought.

I think that's a smile!

Five-and-a-half-year-old Evie is losing her baby teeth. 

A big football game was on the TV, which doesn't interest some of us (like me), so Evie, Matt, Nannie and me ended up playing with stuffies on the long couch.  We giggled a lot!  There's nothing better than laughter.

Matt drove to Tahoe Nat'l Forest one day last week with his family and cut down this small tree for Evie.  He isn't sure if he'll return for a larger tree this week, à la Clark Griswold (the hilarious Christmas Vacation movie) or possibly buy an artificial tree.  He and Nannie were setting the base in a pot of water.

I wish we'd been able to get a family group photo, but ... alas, we didn't. 😞

The guys watched football, and Nannie and I played games with Evie (hide and seek, drawing Christmas trees, etc).  All of us enjoyed an early dinner at Carmelita's, with enough food on plates that go-boxes fed us the next day!  Jimmy drove us home before it got too late.  Tomorrow Matt, Jen and Evie are supposed to come to our place, with the hope that the weather will cooperate and allow us to go to Nevada City's Victorian Christmas.

* * * * *

Well, it was not going to happen.  Evie had a 102° fever when she woke up Sunday morning, so the day's festivities were canceled.  Disappointing.  Nannie and Bubba joined us last year at Victorian Christmas, thus no one was interested in being out in the cold rain this year.  We played cards instead.

 Tree's up and decorated.

* * * * *

On Monday, the 5th, we broke out of the house, despite light rain, and headed for Old Town Auburn, a 30-minute drive down the hill, just because we were tired of being inside.  This turned out to be a neat adventure.  Our first stop was Auburn's Historic Courthouse.  Built in 1898, this elegantly-domed building can be seen for a great distance.  The first floor is now a museum; we went in without a hitch.

I wouldn't swear that this is REAL gold, but they say it is and it does look like gold and it's guarded like gold.  Man, these are not small pieces either, and they sure are pretty.  If you enlarge the pic, you should be able to read about it.

Naturally, the courthouse had Christmas decorations up.

In the museum's assay office, you could pretend to be Wanted, Dead or Alive.  Since I was operating the camera, I didn't get my pic taken.  I thought these were hysterical, but you should see the ones that didn't make the cut!

The main part of the museum was closed for the volunteers' Christmas party.  No problem, we appreciated what we saw. 

Here we are in front of the very cool Claude Chana Gold Panner Monument.  "Auburn dentist Ken Fox sculpted the miner at the request of the town. It's made of a rebar and wire mesh framework covered in concrete. Fox sculpted the miner between appointments at his still-operating dental practice on the other side of town."  Claude Chana is considered the founder of Auburn -- he discovered gold near here in May 1848, and the new settlement was given the name 'Auburn' in the Fall of 1849.  A biting, cold wind was blowing and we humans were cold.

* * * * *

We did a bit of shopping in Old Town's quaint shops, but hunger drove us to Awful Annie's for a tasty lunch.  After lunch we thought a trip to the Galleria would be a place where we could walk around without getting wet.  While at lunch, son Matt, called to say he and Evie would meet us there.  And so, you see me and Matt and Nannie, above, at the Galleria's festive tree.  Only three of us, the others didn't want to participate.  We weren't quite ready to pose, but the camera clicked anyway.  So be it, everyone got to say a heartfelt goodbye, with some hugging going on.

There's lots we didn't get to do, but we had fun nevertheless.  Nannie and I always have fun wherever we are.

They packed it up and we drove to SMF (Smurf is what we call Sacramento's Int'l Airport) on Tuesday morning.  Wishing them safe travels, we bid them farewell, thanks for coming to visit, sorry about the weather, please come back soon.  To which my cheeky sister replied, "it's your turn next" [to come see them].  Okay!  Love you!