Everyone was saying the same thing...how can it be Christmas already?! Where did the year go?! 2025 was a beast! And yet, gratefully, Christmas came again. I say gratefully, because honestly, I am seeing each day with new eyes, and feeling it with an open heart. I am grateful for each day, milestone, and holiday. Had I hoped that we wouldn't be doing any work on the holiday? Yes. And did we work on the holiday? Also yes.
The looming work, and with the kids grown, it makes it harder for me to find the magick that Christmas once held. That magick of children at the holidays (not just Christmas) is just something that can't be replaced with, or by, anything else. So, I think I've gotten to the point where I place those memories on the shelf, view them when I feel emotionally strong enough to, and continue with all of the other things that I enjoy. Of course, this is no way to live, to live without the magick; so I've got ideas to create magick for us in this new stage of life and once we move to the land. It will be Olde World Magick for sure.
I find cranberries magickal, I can't be the only one? Little orbs of luxurious color that, when cooked long enough, pop open and become jammy. There is something about the color of them that mesmerizes me, links me to life. Woodchuck really, really wanted me to make my annual horseradish cranberry spread for Christmas. And it sits now in the fridge, a couple of weeks into the new year, partially eaten because he keeps forgetting about it. Most likely we were just going through the movements, but in 2026 and beyond, I want to do everything with intention, make each movement a ritual.
Christmas Eve dinner was downsized this year to be our homemade Pierogi and some lemon pepper salmon. It was small and yummy!
We walked dinner over to our oldest sons house, and got to see the lanterns left out so that Santa could find his way! See what I mean about the magick of children and the holiday?
Once we got home, it was time to wrap gifts. My heart just wasn't in it this year, but I pushed through to keep things consistent for everyone. Even Pierogi the cat got a gift of a submarine (and a very large bag of organic catnip!)😂
Christmas morning pagach and tea in a mug a friend got me!
I picked out all of my own gifts again. Makes for getting what you really need/want, but takes even more magick out of the day. I picked a metal rolling pin, metal measuring cups, a long hand-made metal spoon, and a long and thin spatula. Not shown is the hand cream I ask for every year.
I also decided on seat covers from Weather-Tech! After cleaning the upholstery myself, and seeing how dirty the water was, and how stained the seats still were (not to mention, stinky), we had been relying on sheets to cover them up. That was cumbersome to adjust each time you got in and out of the car. These covers are fantastic so far! I'm glad I got them, though I probably won't enjoy the back color in the Summer sun 😂🫠
I got a bar of this chocolate for each of the boys. If it doesn't work for anxiety, hey, it's chocolate and that's yummy.
I can't say that she loves it, but once I am able to move better, I will make this into some play-time fun!
We had no white Christmas again. We headed to the land shortly after the holiday on a wet, drizzly day. I don't mind those, it makes things seem so much more ethereal, and you can feel the life that the water gives to everything. Sometimes we humans need a shower to feel more human and wake up, why wouldn't other things?
We took down some trees that will be too close to the house. We didn't get to finish, and I did utilize as many of the branches as I could in the time we had allotted.
We went for a walk and marveled at the flooding. It is on my list to research ways to remedy this with water loving plants/foliage.
I added the branches to my wildlife shelter, while Woodchuck used the tractor to take the larger pieces over the edge of the prairie, which will also be utilized as shelter by wildlife.
I hate to take trees down, but man the smell is amazing! We actually came out here today to meet the contractor that will be doing the septic. They need to shoot elevations in the ditch from the plotted septic field to make sure we could do a perimeter drain. They forgot about the appointment, but we had to stuff to do anyway, so no hard feelings.
My hand-made wreath blends in with the scenery. As it should. The wreath is grapevine, but it matches the oak leaves behind it 😍
While going for walks, we are always dodging things that wants to poke us. These are the thorns on an Autumn Olive (non-native/invasive)
In my efforts to reduce refined sugar intake, I am doing a smoothie a day, or close to it. I find that if I have one mid-day, I crave less sugar in the evenings. It also helps me to get in some vitamins and supplements in liquid and powders forms that I wouldn't normally take, because I can add them right in with all other ingredients.
A cute pair of hedgehog ad mushie socks a friend got me
And finally, towards the end of Woodchucks vacation, we got in a day date. We stopped at the health food store first since they recently opened and I missed the grand opening event. Not far away from their door was the largest squirrel we have ever seen! Happily munching away on some nuts left out for it by residents, this friend was the size of a large chihuahua.
Leery enough of humans to take a couple of side steps, but not scared enough to run away.
After stopping in the health food store, which didn't really have anything I needed, we stopped to warm up with a cup of coffee at a place we hadn't been to before. It was a very cold day! Won't go back to this place, but it was nice to try.
Then we walked to get lunch as Mucho Mas, which is one of my favorite places to get Nachos! We passed by a public space that had gingko trees! Woodchuck has a hard in time in the restaurant because it's dark and with his eyesight, he needs lots of lighting.
This is a half order of Nacho's, which is still the size of a large dinner plate! I had enough to left to take home for two more meals.
Then we stopped in a new store that opened called The Witchy Cauldron. I also missed the grand opening for this shoppe as well, and was on pins and needles with excitement to get in there! So many wonderful things, fairly priced, and she had it all set up so beautifully! I have a small list of things to get the next time I go back in!
I loved this hat, but didn't get it. I did get a glycerite cleanse and some incense. Had it been warmer, we would have gone for a walk at a county park, but the wind was just too much for us.
That was the end of our fun, and it was back to work again at the boys house! Nothing like a torrential downpour/thunderstorm/flood during the Winter!
Spring, is that you?
For the first time ever, I got to FaceTime! I've accidently butt-dialed people on FaceTime, but this was on purpose and we got to open Christmas gifts with my sister and her family! It was so nice to see them, but it also made me want to see them in person even more 😂 My sister is a very intuitive gift-giver. She didn't know that the cookbook was one I had checked out from the library and loved, even took some copies of recipes. I love everything!
The "My Book House" notebook? That nearly brought me to tears. I have the whole collection of books from when I was little, and would spend HOURS reading them, looking at the pictures, and taking in the smell. She found someone who makes notebooks from heavily damaged books, and the lady had one from that collection! Some of the story pages survived and were put into the notebook as well. It is one of the most personal and significant gifts I've ever received! 😍
Back at the sons house, and moving on to mud and primer! It is going very close to the time that he can finally shower in his own home again!
Then it is back to the land on an absolutely freezing day! The plan was to be out there to meet the septic company so they could get those elevation numbers, and then we would work on the truck. The turn signals don't shut off automatically because something is broken inside, so we (Woodchuck) were going to take care of that.
It was so cold though, that I couldn't handle it. I had on my thickest socks, work boots, one-piece coverall (we call them Monkey Suits), hat, etc. But my finger tips and toes were frozen and hurting, so I bailed and went and sat in my car with the heat on, lol. Once the septic guy was done, we decided to leave (Woodchuck didn't have the part he needed to fix the truck anyway) and head over to the auction house not too far away from where we currently live. They had a coffee and two end table set listed that we wanted to bid on, but we like to look at things first. This car caught our eye when we were parking! I'm not a Ford girl, but I like the looks of the car!
This auction was FULL of antiques and I thoroughly enjoyed walking through the whole thing just so I could see everything until we got to the one item I wanted to bid on, lol. Which we didn't win, BTW.
Back to the sons house for the second time in one day to get the second coat of primer on
I took a little time to work on fixing a bag/backpack for a friend. The magnetic closure ripped off, but the rest of the bag was like new. I've gotten a little farther along than this, in fact, it's almost done now. I need to get updated pictures. I also wanted to have it delivered before my surgery, but she ended up with the flu and I don't want that, so I told her it will have to be once I am more mobile and can drive myself, and some of the crud has cleared out of society.
Back to the sons to start painting. The paint was decided on on a trip with just the guys. The story changes, but I guess the boy picked a darker blue, Woodchuck voiced concern about the space being too small for that dark of color (I wish people would stop saying that), and another color was picked. Myself? I don't like the color at all, but the son seems to be okay with it and that's all that matters. Once the whole bathroom is done in the color, it might be a bit too much, but it's too late now.
Back to the sons house for the final coat of paint!
And done! Yes, there is still the header to build, and still the rest of the bathroom to demo and remodel, but at least he can shower now. Or can he? Another snafu to come.
And that, my friends, ends 2025. With Woodchuck being on vacation during New Years for the first time since the boys were little (that I can remember), we debated on attending a new years eve bash and found a couple of things to decide between. But, we don't drink anymore, the food wasn't something either of us would eat, we didn't want to catch any illnesses so close to my surgery, and we didn't want to pay that much money. So we decided to stay in, where he fell asleep in his recliner for most of the evening while Pierogi and I watched the things that he didn't want to. It was cozy and peaceful, while the weather outside was icy and cold (and of course was the year the oldest decided that he want to go out for the holiday and then we were worried about him traveling, lol). But we made it to the new year, and not everyone was that fortunate! Yes, we had some major bumps in the road, but things worked out, and life went back to our normal the second half of the year. Now to prepare for surgery in about a weeks time from New Years, and start getting a plan together for every other big thing waiting for us! Thank you for being here with us!
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