Happy Belated New Year (again!)

I was reading thru some old blog posts and my first post of 2021 was January 18!  

2021 wasn't a good blogging year anyway with a whopping 9 posts - let's hope 2022 is better!

Actually, I saw a post from the A to Z Blogging Challenge peeps and I was thinking of checking out some other blogs to get ideas for this year and their website is down...?  WTF!  At least the FB page is still going, so I'm sure they'll update us once they get it back up & running.

So the beginning of December was pretty quiet.  I wasn't motivated to decorate much, since we didn't get any of the Halloween stuff put away until *after* Christmas!  Usually when we put the skeletons away (in the back corner of the garage) we pull the Christmas totes out and put the Halloween stuff away first, so when I'm ready to get into the red & green totes - they're handy!  Not this year.  

Normally I'd have the blowmolds staged, clean & lights all checked.  

Nope.

But I did eventually get them out.  

And since the skeletons we all still out on the patio, one made it to the front yard! 

This is one of my favorite Christmas displays!

It's along the route to my sister's house and I always look for it. 

I found these lights in with the Halloween stuff, but they might be the ones we got last year for the big tree....

which was my dilemma this year!  Last year we had the baby gate around the tree since BabyBoy wasn't too mobile.  This year, the gate is up to keep him (mostly - he knows how to climb over it!) contained in the living room so he doesn't bother the Spouse, who is still working from home.  I didn't know where to put the tree!  I ended up dragging out the small tree from a couple years ago and put it outside of the Boy containment zone on top of a coffee table. 

And then I couldn't find the ornament hooks!  So all of the ornaments are ones that came with ribbon loops.  Couldn't find the garland, either!  I thought it was in the tote with the tree last year, but it wasn't.  So I grabbed some quality garland from the dollar store. It's green so it kinda fills in the tree a bit. 

My Mom got him a sled - it's a big hit!

4 generations!

On Christmas Day, we went up to Frankenmuth for dinner, which seems to be trying to become a tradition.  The Spouse and I stopped by to pick up Sis1 since she's along our way.  Afterward, she and I went out to the barn to get some pics of the critters.   We had some good laughs! 

Kisses looking mildly concerned with this thing hanging off her ear.

Ghost looks quite handsome with the hat & scarf. 

He was are concerned with the beard!

I tried to get a good pic of them all, but this is the best I could get!

The Spouse left for Arkansas on the 27th, to stay for the whole month of January again.  

Sigh - 2 more weeks without him!

On New Years Eve, the Spawn asked if I wanted to go with her little fam to a kid friendly NYE ball drop.  

The "Mitten Drop" happened at 6:30 pm so I was able to be home and getting my pjs on by 8!  She managed to talk me into keeping BabyBoy so her & babydaddy (with BabyGirl since she's still nursing) could go over to some friends'.  That was fine - he's usually in bed way before 10 and sleeps thru the night, so he's a good NYE date. 

On January 2, besides BabyBoy's 2nd birthday, I went to the VFW district awards banquet for the Teacher of the Year / Voice of Democracy / Patriots Pen.  It was a nice ceremony, even if I didn't really know anyone.  When I got home from that, we'd asked my mom if she wanted to go out to dinner with the birthday boy.  So we just went to this little diner by her house. 

I really liked how all the flags were lined up. 

When I got home, this is what I found.

There's a baby under all of those Legos!

Last weekend I went with the sisters to see a Bon Jovi Tribute Band in concert.  

It was pretty comical to watch, with wig and costume changes, but they did sound really good.  And they played for a solid 3 hours!

"80's Jon"

Us with "90s Jon"

Us with "Richie"

Chuck the skeleton went with us and I'm holding him behind my back here. 

It was pretty fun and in a couple weeks, we're going back to the same bar to see a Journey Tribute band, who we've heard is really good, too. 

We - thankfully - haven't had any more call-out with the search & rescue team since July.  We've been asked for assistance with evidence searches here & there, tho.  Basically those are recovery searches, since they no longer expect to find a living person.  And we're always training.  We had a drill yesterday - in single digit degree temps.  At least the sun was out and we were mostly in the woods at a campground.  it's good to have drills like that so you know what kind of gear you need when an actual call out in winter happens.  

So that's all the excitement around here. 

It's getting late and the alarm happens pretty early!

In the words of Gregisms (look him up on Facebook, he's hilarious!)

Find Your Joy! 

Smooches!