Leafing around

It's fall and the leaves are dropping. I actually blew all these leaves off our yard and into a pile along the road. Our city ha a service that will vacuum them up in a few days.

Roxy wants me to share.

Don't be alarmed. This was just a flair up when cooking on the grill outside. Nothing was harmed, including the burgers. hahaha

As we move through the holidays we have had power outages. Here I am, using a battery neck light to work on crocheting during such an outage. 

Then it was time to decorate for the holiday. Last year I dropped and broke this snowman that I got from my folks' estate, many years ago. My husband put him all back together and gave him a fresh coat of paint. I added new buttons and hat decor. It meant a lot to me to have him fixed up again. He holds a lot of sentimental value to me.

The bird feeders have been hung out and the cardinals are frequent visitors. I always remember Mom at these times because she loved loved loved when cardinals visited her feeders back in Minnesota.

I am not eating as healthy as I should but it tis the time of indulgences. I made all this for Christmas feasting. Most of it is gone now as the new year approaches.

We had snow just before Christmas and afterwards, bitter cold. Many people had pipes burst and one of the universities had a pipe not only break but it flooded their gymnasium and totally ruined their wooden floor.

We did not have trouble. We did have a slow drip drip leaking from a faucet. It will need to be fixed when the weather is better. It's made an impressive ice display for now though!

Mom made Christmas so special for us. She also taught me to knit. I miss her a LOT during this time of year. I have attempted to relearn knitting, several times. This year, I am making progress. Thanks Mom!

It's always an up and down time for me this time of year. All the holidays, all the birthdays, all the memories ebb and flow around me. Abby offered to help me through it all but so far I haven't taken her up on her offer. Perhaps after today, with the promises of the new year ahead, she'll come back for a visit.

I hope all of you are surviving and thriving.

I know I am trying to, too.