Get up and get busy volunteering

We kicked off a new year of Chicktime activities with karaoke last weekend. We hadn't seen the girls since November and there were several new faces, but many of our "regulars" gone. It's sad for us to make connections and then return to our next meeting to realize they've left. But the flip side of this is the wonderful news that a girl has either been placed with family or is in a foster family setting. Since our usual crowd was cut by more than half for January's activity, I opted to make fruit kebabs and swing through a favorite local donut shop for a dozen of their finest. I'm already plotting February's meeting, where I'm pulling out all of the stops for a repeat of last year's valentine charcuterie board. 

I received an email with this cool flipboard highlighting all of the bright spots with volunteers spending time with the girls last year. That charcuterie board, my very first, was quite the hit with them. Then I noticed they also had a page for a Christmas dinner hosted by Valero where I volunteered with the husband. It's heartening to see companies step in to shine a light and try to make a difference, too.

What the furry crew's up to

If the CPA daughter's chorkie wasn't a leg hiker, we'd actually miss him a lot more after his visits! He and our younger cairn Finn have become frenemies as Finn has matured from puppyhood. They're definitely backyard buddies now anytime chorkie comes to stay when his parents are traveling. 

Per snaps the older daughter sends me, the chorkie's favorite place at his parent's house is the same place where he lounges when he's staying with us. Thankfully it's the husband in his recliner that's chorkie's favorite lap when he's here visiting. I honestly think chorkie enjoys spending a bit of time here at our country estate, a respite from his big city digs, lol. Chorkie can be a bit of a snark, but he's smart enough to seek out a nice and cozy blanket covered lap to lounge on chilly evenings no matter where he's residing. 

That classic, "The Wizard of Oz", was televised recently and our own doggos got a charge out of it. Finn in particular paid rapt attention when he spied everybody's favorite cairn terrier Toto on screen. Our sweet Pepper truly is Toto's kinda pudgy screen double. 

In the meantime, our younger law student daughter is readjusting to dealing with a cat. Her med school boyfriend J has a furry tabby child named Molly that has slowly warmed up to our daughter since she and J started dating. I enjoy hearing about the cat's antics whenever she's over visiting at J's apartment.

 

Brrrrr

I figured if I complained enough about the warmer than usual holiday temps, that we'd be thrown into the deep freeze in the new year. Sure enough, I've been enjoying some hibernation time this week with the husband back at his office. Our two doggos are no longer lounging on the back porch, soaking up the warmth of the sun heated limestone. Every surface outside is cold as a well digger's backside (that's an old saying my granny always used), and the blustery wind has made it feel downright frigid at times. I whipped up a pot of chili for me and the husband yesterday. Meanwhile, he put a small heater back to work in the well's pump house, while turning the pool onto emergency freeze mode so the bubblers and waterfall will kick on as the temps drop overnight. For some reason, I keep forgetting to crank up our gas fireplace, but I plan to remedy that later today. I hope y'all are staying warm out there as life has reset after the holidays. 

California dreamin' for spring break

Last spring break I enjoyed a hop across the pond to Holland in order to visit one of my oldest friends. This spring break I'm sticking stateside, heading out to the west coast for a bit of fun in the California sun with my sister. I was happy to wrangle us a reservation at San Diego's historic Hotel Del Coronado right there on the water. The older Victorian structure was fully booked, so we'll have to make do with an ocean view suite at the more modern adjacent beach village resort on the property. We're already dreaming of sunset cocktails with our toes in the sand, enjoying the fabulous views. 

Bowling into the new year

We closed out another year by attending the local Alamo Bowl last weekend. With Colorado paired off against BYU, we decided to sit behind the Colorado bench because we thought it might be more entertaining. Turns out the Buffs didn't give the Coogs much of a contest on the field, so it was rather disappointing. But it was still nice to get a closer look at the famous Coach Prime, his player sons, and Colorado's newly minted Heisman trophy winner Travis Hunter.

It was pretty cool that Colorado brought along their buffalo mascot Ralphie to make an appearance before the game started. Though Coach Prime (Deion Sanders) is known for being flashy at times, I was touched that he made the time to put a hand on the head and/or shoulders of each of his players as they ran onto the field and appeared to kneel in prayer in their end zone. It's wonderful when any coach who has the opportunity to be an influence on young men chooses to take a stand for the Lord by introducing Him to the next generation.

Congratulations, Valero, on another great bowl game. We always enjoy the spectacle of college football, their great rivalries and dedicated athleticism displayed by the players every year, even when it's not one of "our" teams.

Christmas 2024

Another lovely Christmas season is in the books. We hosted thirteen at our home for Christmas Eve, and there were twelve of us at the brother-in-law's house on Christmas Day. I was so busy hostessing and enjoying the company that I didn't snap one picture of the family and friends in attendance. Alas, I did end up with a few of the food prep and dogs, which cracks me up. Pictures are nice, but these sweet memories will live on in my heart and mind even if I didn't document them on social media. 

Yesterday I put in many hours getting all of my Christmas decor stored for another year, and the house put back to rights so I can relax in the run up to a lazy new year. It has been four months since the pumpkins went up to replace my usual decor, and so it's always nice to rediscover my shelves of travel display keepsakes as I put everything back where it belongs. 

I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday spent creating precious memories with family and friends, and that you also remembered the real reason we celebrate December 25, the precious gift of God incarnate come to walk amongst His creation. This year I made my annual December effort to appreciate God's great love for us in the form of Jesus sent to mankind for our salvation, and really enjoyed my two advent devotionals. It's the gift that keeps on giving to each successive generation when we share His good news with those in our sphere. The Lord can't grow believers if we aren't doing our part to plant the seeds of belief for Him. Go tell it on the mountain, indeed. I'll see y'all in 2025 - be safe out there!

 

A little seasonal basketball

We haven't attended an NBA match-up in a few years, so decided to take our girls and their significant others to a recent game. I wanted to see the new Spurs phenom player Wenbanyama from France that's really young, and seems to tower over the other skyscrapers who play professional basketball alongside him. After checking him out in person I think Wemby appears so tall because he's skinny and has really long limbs. We had a pretty good time, but I've gotta say the entertainment we've enjoyed at Spurs games near Christmas in years past made it much more fun because it engaged the fans in the stands.  

The Spurs coyote mascot made an appearance near our seats to pose for pics with some kiddos, which I thought was really sweet. I've gotta admit the fans waving sets of those inflatable white baton things behind the opponent's goal were busy bees in the second half, trying to keep Atlanta from scoring. The Spurs pulled out a win in the end, but it was a tight game all evening long.