This is our Christmas and New Years Message, plus a few musings for 2024…And the last post of this year!
I noticed that this year, we did not receive as many Christmas Greeting cards as we normally do.
I don’t know if that is because of higher postal rates and higher prices for greeting cards or if we are so busy with all the hustle and bustle of the Holidays we do not have the time to send cards….plus Christmas did come early this year.
I still send out Christmas cards even though it is almost a lost art these days.
Do you send out Christmas cards?
It seems the only ones to send cards out are us older people. Everyone else just sends a text, my family included. I guess it is another sign of a more modern time.
However, I have always loved checking the mailbox to see the wonderful sentiments awaiting me.
And I love the notes and letters that are sometimes enclosed.
I used to be so organized about Holidays with my decorating and baking and cleaning.
Oh I still have good intentions to get things decorated and cookies baked but I have become lazy.
Maybe lazy isn’t the correct word.
Perhaps I have finally learned in my older age that some things are more important than the dust on top of the fridge or those dust bunnies lurking under the bed.
I find myself thinking about how soon I will have to put all the holiday decor back in boxes…let me add to that…The Captain will then have to put it all back in the attic…. and if I make lots of cookies and candies, we will sit around mindlessly eating it ALL as we watch football and basketball on TV. However, I did make 5 dozen Spritz cookies for the Church Bake Sale with proceeds going to aid Israel….and I only sampled one cookie. LOL
As I write this, I have to confess that it is late at night and my fingers are cheetos-stained and I rationalize that I have come full circle. My thought process is one my kids had growing up …when they said why do we have to make the bed when we are just going to get in it in just a few hours. Actually, that is beginning to make sense these days although I have not stooped to that level.…yet.
In September, the Captain and I drove our motor home to Kansas to visit family and friends and we stayed for 3 months at a KOA and at a nearby lake.
I will add that many of our kids have campers and boats and we have had great times camping (and boating) together. We all park our campers fairly close to each other, and what is good about it, is when one is tired… or tired of the company, we just go back to the privacy of our campers. Sometimes I am left all alone to put out the campfire…what are they trying to tell me? LOL
Speaking of kids, we have 7 grandkids and 6 great-grandkids and one of the ‘greats’ is in his first year of college. I’m still trying to figure out how that happened.
I will say they all seem to be doing well. Sometimes I don’t ask because I might not like what I hear. LOL OR worse yet, I might try to tell them how to do this or that. We finally figured out if they don’t know it by now…they never will and then it is someone else’s problem!! LOL
You know I am just teasing.
I am still just as nutty over my sports teams so I keep watching and hoping for a miracle win here or there. I will keep watching and listening as long as my eyes and hearing aids hold out…and The Captain can stand the TV as loud as a teenager’s car stereo.
I’ve always thought I had a green thumb…well, these days it is mostly black and blue as I bruise easily from the meds I take….but I digress. Anyway, in my Secret Garden is the Pergola that The Captain built for me soon after we moved to Florida. Of course the famous quote from the book was always in my head….”And the Secret Garden bloomed and bloomed and every morning revealed new miracles.” You see, I had envisioned baskets overflowing with beautiful, pink or yellow or white blooms draping from each corner of the Pergola. I wanted the flowers to be dramatic, you know… long, stunning pendulous flowers creating a beautiful and enchanting canopy that would be sure to impress any of my garden visitors and give me a place to sit and dream and reflect on all the beauty around me. Over the years, I have invested not only my time and money but my very soul in this never ending quest for flower perfection in my Secret Garden. Yes, I’ve thought of wisteria with those large drooping clusters of purple….but, all I end up with are those shriveling sticks of once vibrant leaves and petals that have relaxed to a brown infused stem of curled and droopy dying leaves. So after all these years, I am waving the white flag of defeat. I know! I know you thought of me as a “never give up kind of person”, but I also know when to let a sleeping dog lie. You see I ordered cascading faux flowers to fill those hanging pots. No more endless watering and fertilizing! I’ve officially become an older person, although I have not resorted to sticking fake tulips in the Florida sand…Yet.!!!
As for me, God continues to watch over me as my periodic lab work and cat scans are coming back clean. I am reminded daily that the doctor gave me a one percent chance of survival just before the Whipple surgery. I am so Blessed. Our God is amazing.
I used to scold my mother because she seemed to be reading the obituaries all the time. I would say “Mom, that is so depressing. Why do you do that?” And she would answer “because all my friends and relatives are dying”. Suddenly, I am doing the same thing. All my friends and family are dying off. I’m not trying to be flippant. Facts are facts. Actually, I am the matriarch in our immediate family.
I will close my musings and mumblings by reminding us all of the Reason for the Season …Jesus.
May the Lord shower you with His Grace and fill you with His Love and Peace in this coming New Year of 2025!
Kari N’ The Captain
(Oh, A little reminder, don’t forget to put your full name on any correspondence (greeting cards, etc) you send out these days as some of us can’t remember last names!) LOL
If you know us, you know we love movies and I think of the movie “On Golden Pond” where Henry Fonda looks at a wall of old family photos and he says “Who ARE these people?
Hugs and Blessings Always!
Isaiah 9:6
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Dear Kari,
I have been sending e-Christmas cards to all those I have email addresses. There are a few I send regular cards to because they don’t do email. I’m just doing it because of the cost. It’s unbelievable the cost of everything.
Glad you had a good time in Kansas this fall visiting all your family. I haven’t been out much since I had covid. I still have something and can’t rid of it for some reason. Three sets of antibiotics hasn’t touched the cough and thick milky substance in my throat. I’m also having a little chest pain now and then. Had a CT scan yesterday so maybe we’ll get to the bottom of it.
Yes, we need to remember what this season for. Everyone should be thinking of the birth of Jesus Christ and celebrating it.
Stay well my friend and hugs,
Sandy
Sandy please let me know the results of your CT scan…I will be praying for you dear friend. Thank you for stopping by…and Happy New Year!
Merry Christmas Kari, I’m so glad you got to spend time with your family camping out this fall, sounds like so much fun! I agree, the cards have lessened quite a bit, I still send mine and enjoy getting real mail 🙂 I do less these days myself, and that’s ok! I love that you added faux flowers to your garden setting, it’s amazing how faux can look real when surrounded by other things! You are indeed a miracle and such an inspiration~ Cheers to a happy, healthy 2025 🥂!
Jenna
Jenna, when my Bible study group saw the hanging baskets…they wanted to know what kind of flowers they were…they couldn’t believe they were faux. LOL Thanks for stopping by my friend. Hugs
Dear Kari,
Oh how I can relate to this post. Yes we received less Christmas cards this year, some pictorial cards (like Shutterfly) which I prefer over just a signature. Yes to less cleaning and putting away holiday decorations. Last year my husband talked me into leaving our tree up. Actually had fun decorating it for each season. He made it home from the hospital in time for Christmas this year. So tree will remain but it is probably collecting dust. Yes to volume. It was agonizing watching KU yesterday. Congrats to Rita’s Mountaineers! They came to the Phog to play and win. I heard of a grandmother who when putting away her nativity set always put baby Jesus on the kitchen shelf, so he could keep watch over her in the new year. I’m going to start that as a new tradition. May our Lord watch over all of us. Happy New Year!
Jan, I’m going to share something that may surprise you. Especially coming from a gal who used to put up 12 nine foot Christmas trees and one 12 foot one and decorated every room in the house. I haven’t done that since my illness but the Captain has put up one of the 9 foot trees and the last two years we have left the ornaments off and it has been just as pretty with just the lights. OK, so I have been eyeing those pop-up pre-lit and decorated trees! What a shocker for me and when I mentioned it to my daughter all she could do was laugh. LOL but think how simple it is to put it up in about 5 minutes and take it down in the same easy way. Badda Boom and it’s in the flat box. (easier storage too.) I’m still considering it, I’ll let you know if I decide to be lazy next year. LOL (I have a friend who leaves her tree up all year long…and she doesn’t change the decorations and she loves it)
Yes, so disappointed the Jayhawks lost. …Especially since the AP ranked them #1 and a cinch to win it all just a few weeks ago. I don’t like when they do that so early in the season. We still have time left to get our act together…and not using it as an excuse but we had not played since the 22 of December. Perhaps too much time off between games. Of course the Chiefs played 3 games in 11 days…so if a team is on top of their game, it should’t matter.
Blessings and prayers dear friend.
Kari, I love reading your musings. They resonate with me. You are truly a miracle! I live with one who is also a miracle. God is so good and I want to be faithful to give Him thanks and praise!
You are a blessing and I am so blessed to call you friend. Wishing you health and an abundance of His blessings in 2025!
With love,
Pam
Thanks Pam…I know God has blessed you and I know the miracles you have had in your life. What a wonderful and amazing Father we have.
One of my favorite hymns is
“Holy, Holy Holy…is what the angels sing, And I expect to help them make
The courts of Heaven ring;……….
So, although I’m not an angel,
Yet I know that over there
I will join a blessèd chorus
That the angels cannot share;
I will sing about my Savior,
Who upon dark Calvary
Freely pardoned my transgressions,
Died to set a sinner free.”
Luv you sweet sister in Christ.
Happy New Year, Kari. Your.musings are resonating with me. It’s been a year, for sure. Having the pleasure of young Jacqueline’s presence will keep me young (at heart, anyway), and I treasure that. Any gardener knows the blood, sweat and tears you speak of. For now, my excitement is cautiously enthusiastic, trying not to create more work than I can handle. Moving a sister from SC to WV late fall was like moving a mountain, yet her adult kids cant seem to get past a grain of sand in reconciling their relationship with her. I thank God for my siblings’ love, yet being the youngest doesn’t bode well for reading those obituaries. A sister-in-law just passed right before Christmas, todaybwouldve been her birthday. I often think of your life as a miracle testament to God’s will and our calls to Him in prayer. May you continue to be blessed, and to bless us with your gift of gab in your blog.
Oh, and wasn’t going to, but since you brought it up, how loud were you screaming at your TV yesterday while our Mountaineers took the win for the first time since what, 1991, from the Jayhawks???
Finally, I ended 2024 with my first case of covid, a gift my family seemed to pass around on Christmas Eve. 9 of 32 of us got it! Mild, but still an ever-prsent danger…..
New year blessings! XO
I think I am just now recovering from the Jayhawks loss yesterday Rita….Oddsmakers gave us over 80 percent chance of winning and I don’t like when that happens because that seems to be when we check out. LOL (Especially since your mountaineers beat us last time we met). But alas, we lost a season opener, for the first time in 33 years. That hurts but Your team wanted it more and we didn’t even start playing until the last half….but it was still not enough. Kudos to WV with star players sidelined.
Yes, so many close to us have physical ailments. So sorry to hear of your sister. I’m sure you feel better having her in WV and I do not understand how family can just turn away. Unfortunately that happens more than we know.
Covid has a way of showing it’s ugly face these days. I had the shots (doctor’s orders) but in hindsight, I’m not so sure I would do it again. Take care of yourself and enjoy Jacqueline…these days are precious.
Thank you my friend for your prayers…you and yours are in mine. 🙏🏻
Happy New Year, my friend!
I send Happy New Year cards instead of Christmas cards because it is less stressful for me. And I concur. We had fewer cards this year because the cost of postage stamps has skyrocketed.
I, too, use some faux flowers and plants in some places. They do look real from afar.
Happy New Year, my friend. I always enjoy reading your posts, and I look forward to lots more in 2025!
Thanks Nancy….and good to hear about New Year cards….I will look into those. I guess we have to realize times change and like trick or treating other things take their place. Thanks for stopping by my friend. Happy New Year.