Slowing Down….

Christmas is Saturday! How can that be? And New Years? How can that be a week from Saturday? Doesn’t it feel like it should be far away still? Like…..there is no way this year has passed this quickly?

I tackled a bunch of mundane stuff yesterday and it was nice just going through the motions..not thinking too hard, just doing the next thing on the list. Winding down to enjoy the holiday.

Jason and Kim are coming late Thursday night when they get off work. We’ll have three whole days! Not sure what we are going to do, but I asked Jason via facebook if he had any requests for special meals he’s missed. His reply? “Do NOT spend 8 hours cooking for a meal that takes 15 minutes to eat!” Thank you son!

We hit the grocery store last night…..picked up a spiral ham. The leftovers will be great for sandwiches or fried up for breakfast. Used in soups, casseroles…I just can’t do two TURKEY holidays close together, and Christmas means ham for me!

I want to do SOME easy baking…..so we wandered down the baking supplies aisle, and there was NOT A SINGLE package of BROWN SUGAR to be found in the store! The whole of High Point, NC must be baking at present! It’s okay…I’ll hit somewhere else today, there are a few other things I need.

Last Friday Dad and I rented a car and drove out to Hoover Dam! You can see by this pic that it was very overcast and a bit rainy. But here we are coming over the rise and seeing the beginnings of the lake! By this time on Friday I was READY to get out of the strip area, and we had a great time doing this….just driving and looking at scenery. It is so very very different than the surroundings I have here in NC. I think of pioneers and others that crossed this vast wasteland, and I just can’t imagine what it was like 100 years ago!

Dad on the path way up to the new bridge…

Me at the Welcome to Nevada Sign! At this point we had crossed into Arizona!

We were so SO SO high up on this bridge! And here I am..it’s raining, and my hands are cold, and I’m trying to get a picture…and I nearly NEARLY dropped my phone over the railing!! I felt it slip, and slammed my hand down on the railing, pinning my phone between my hand and the rail….it NEARLY took a nose dive over the edge. I could see it now…bye bye phone! My heart was pounding to think I saved it from such a fate…but from that point on..I let DAD take all the pics!

This is just the most amazing site!

It worked well to get the rental car on Friday, because we used it to return ourselves to the airport on Saturday morning, dropping off the car, and catching the shuttle to the terminal. Great planning, Dad!

I’ve got a lunch date today with two of my favorite quilters – Lisa and Karen! And I’d really like to snuggle in later this afternoon, a fire in the woodstove –and spend the rest of the time I have home through the holidays just hand quilting away on the Pink & Brown DJ. It’s been at a standstill for a while again, too many other irons in the fire…but I don’t fly out anywhere until something like Jan 9…..and I plan to lay low and slow til then!