Annual week of winter

Winter decided to put in an appearance this week, with temps bottoming out in the upper teens and moisture streaming in off the gulf that made for a bit of snow and sleet. Our local school kids enjoyed a day off from classes, but that was it. By the next afternoon, our lovely dusting of snow had disappeared and temps were already rebounding to normal for this time of year. Our forecast is calling for highs in the mid 70s by Friday. We're working our way through to springtime as we ride the crazy Fahrenheit roller coaster, unsure whether it's gonna be a coat or short sleeves sorta day. Some days you get both!

Old man winter is roaring

I'm getting some exercise in the new year, lugging my succulents back and forth from the pool pavilion to the garage to keep our on-and-off freezing temperatures from killing them. With more arctic air arriving overnight, the dogs decided to be my snuggle buddies. The wind was blowing so fiercely that I had to remove my sweet little snowmen from the front door to keep them from chipping up the finish. 

My favorite thing to do when it's bitterly cold is use the hair dryer to warm up our flannel sheets before bedtime. The husband and dogs seem to sincerely appreciate my efforts to make the bed toasty warm. And y'all know cold weather means it's time for more soup. Tomorrow I'll be defrosting one of the tubs of chicken noodle soup I made last month and froze, adding some grilled cheese sandwiches to it for supper. I'm not doing any serious cooking since we're headed out of town in a few days. I pray everyone stays warm out there, and maybe try that hair dryer trick on your sheets, too!

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.