New Year's Eve Sunday--9:45pm

 Happy New Year!

This week went by quickly.  When Keanna came to clean on Tuesday even she was shocked to see the hallway!  LOL!  I haven't seen this hallway since I moved in.  Had two bookcases on the right hand side and later another short bookcase, too, under the coat hooks.

As suspected, Allie is a bit freaked out and unhappy, but she just paws more at the boxes in the living room.  

A few things ended up in the studio closet which had been completely empty.  But not much.

The U-Haul wall is about full.  But I am about done pre-packing, anyways.  

I am down to this one full box to purge from the hallway (filled with small empty containers) and the hall closet (which I have already more than half emptied.  Small stuff that I do not feel badly about procrastinating on for a while.  I am a tad bit exhausted.  :)

This was the last load of donations in the pantry that went to the garage.

Was warmer briefly--enough to melt a lot of the ice.  Critter Cafe was busy.

The ice storms over Christmas were awful.  We got a thin bit of snow covering all that ice.

The plows scraped away as much of the ice as they could.

Allie watching mealtimes at the Critter Cafe every day.  One of her favorite pastimes.

Wednesday Dagan and the boys brought me over to the West Fargo Clinic to have my annual checkup with Dr. Kessler.  He accidentally came half and hour early and the appointment started half an hour late, so it was a long afternoon but a good one.  Was nice to see her and fill her in on what happened over my cancer adventure.  She had me stop at the lab so they could check my vitamin D levels because they had been so high a while back and were never checked again.  (Results came back and now they are fine.)

Thursday morning Dagan and the boys picked me up.  I stayed with the boys so Dagan could go to a retirement luncheon for a lady at work.  Liam played a video game.  (Minecraft, I think.)  Ian and I sat at the table and he showed me the new math for multiplication.  He had work to finish--making up 4 numbers multiplied by 3 numbers.  Completely new way of doing it--that I wish we had when I was learning!  I liked it!

I noticed a visitor in the tree outside!  A hawk had landed to consume whatever it had caught for lunch.  

It was one very hungry hawk!  Barely took a breath between ripping off another hunk to chow down.

There was nothing under the tree when it left.  Not a feather or fur--so we don't know what it was eating.  Tried hard to see.  Ian got his binoculars but couldn't tell, either.

I got as close as my camera would zoom--and we could not say what the hawk was eating but it was very happy.

Liam was more interested in his game--lol!

When Dagan got back they gave me a ride home.  I had packages being delivered and we were going to do Christmas after Leah got off work...just too long for me to stay at one time.  (I get very stiff and sore sitting in other chairs--and I was already sore from the clinic the day before.)

I have some pictures from Leah this week.  Making Christmas cookies...

...and decorating.  The boys love helping make the cookies.

I always love their outside trees they decorate every year.  

Here's a random video with the boys and Leah singing Row, Row, Row Your Boat in the car.

The boys wrote out these letters to Santa (forms).  

Ian.

Liam.

Liam and Santa.

Daddy and the boys.

The boys on the Merry-Go-Round.

Liam by a fire pit.

The boys outside the Red River Zoo.

Their Christmas tree at home.

Leah showed me these wooden snowflake ornaments. 

I thought--yes, they are very pretty.  But she and Dagan said to look closer.  Can you see one says Liam and one says Ian!  Dagan and Leah each have one, too.  Leah asked me if I would like one for next year.  Her sister Michal got them each one for Christmas and Leah knows where she ordered them.  Uncommon Goods.  (I've never heard of that place, but these are cool and I would like one--yes!)

Oh, and Gramma is VERY HAPPY to learn that Ian is learning cursive at Montessori!

We have had so much fog!  One day it lasted all day long.  Leah got this picture on her way to work.

The boys in Christmas chaos--lol!

Here's how thick the ice was in that storm!  Looks half an inch or so!

Their willow tree sagging under the weight of the ice.

After the ice had melted.

Huge branch was lost.  :(

Half the tree top is gone.

Leah called Baker Nursery where she used to work to ask them what to do.  She wrapped it.  Supposed to remove it in the spring.  Poor tree!

The storm was so bad that we actually had a branch curb pickup around town.  Branches only, it said.  No roots or trunks.  I don't ever remember getting an ice storm for Christmas.  It was so bad the sanding trucks couldn't make it up some of the hills.  Plus, with all the rain instead of snow we had flooding for the very first time ever recorded in December on the Red River.  Times they are a changing, eh?

Anyways, Leah picked me up after work Thursday.  We had dinner and afterwards the boys opened their presents from me.  This year it was puzzles and books.  Oh, and if you watch the video--Liam did not punch a hole in the puzzle box.  I must have missed it or possibly Allie stepped on it when it was on the floor for a while.  (She is a chucky lady.)  Just wanted to make that clear.  Maybe Gramma's eyes are getting as bad as her ears?!

Remember Leah asked me if I wanted to have a stocking for next year because she was ordering new ones for them from an Etsy shop?  Well, they came in time for Ian and Liam to use them this year.

Next year there will be stockings up for all of us--and the two cats!  lol!

Honestly--I have pretty much collapsed since then.  Did do some baking and some laundry.  But I have mostly caught up on some new seasons, new episodes, and even some Christmas specials of shows I really like and am behind on.  Vera, Death in Paradise, Shetland, The Gilded Age, Fargo, Midsommer Murders, Sister Boniface--and I am now on Only Murders in the Building.  Got my new Bullet journal set up for 2024 and January is all ready to go.

Today is 12/31/23.  Funny--I didn't notice until I read about it online.  123123.

I am writing a day early.  Just excited for the new year.  My New Year's Eve ceremony stuff is packed away.  (Thought I would have been moved by now.)  I still haven't come up with a word or a phrase for 2024.  Might not.  But I might at least write up a goal list.  I haven't done that for years.  I haven't felt near myself for a couple of years to plan ahead at all.  But I am feeling more functional and have some spoons again most days.  Getting closer to how it used to be with just the fibro and arthritis long ago--lol!  My how everything is relative, eh?  :)

I basically did finish almost all of the packing and purging of my apartment this year.  Only some smaller things to tweak and fiddle with.  Nothing big anymore.  Nothing I would feel guilty about procrastinating--ROFL!  I have a long quiet winter ahead where I can catch up on shows, write letters with more regularity, work on sets of cards, get out my art journals, make mandalas...whatever!  Cancer is behind me.  (knock on wood) The move is ahead of me.  Ahhhh!

My wish is for everyone to have a better year or at least a good year.  For the world to progress in a positive way or at least as positive as it can possibly manage.  Spread the love, people!  The world needs more and more of it so badly.  Be kind to each person you meet.  Hug more.  Smile more.  Tell people what they mean to you.  Overflow with gratitude.  All we have is right now...this precious moment in time.  I am really blessed to be here to greet this new year...this new crazy year...for all the good and the bad of it...we are all lucky to be here.  So very glad you are here.  Sending love and hugs from freezing Fargo--lol!  Till next year!  :)