LOST AND FOUND

When we first bought this house, I thought it was pretty cool that we had these great storage cabinets above the two closets in our bedroom.

Then I realized that they couldn't be reached with our indoor step stool. Nooo, you have to haul in that big fella, from out in the garage. Which, as it turns out, means that you go so long without ever opening those cabinets, you can totally forget what's up there! I did remember that there was one big red crate up there, which meant it probably held something Christmasy. Lights maybe? Or garland? No! Something much, much better.

 I found this guy...

and all of his little friends! When our kids were young, and we lived in houses with indoor staircases, they took great pleasure in arranging them, one on each step. But, with our only staircase being outside at this house, I had to settle for grouping them on my grandmother's cedar chest.

Which works out pretty well, since Hubby has been much better lately about not tossing his belongings there at the end of each day.

Know what else I found in that cabinet? I found these lovely little candle rings which go on my dining room chandelier...

this wonderful basket which hangs on my front door, instead of a wreath...

and all of the festive florals and greenery I used to rotate in and out of it, according to the season!

You have no idea the angst I felt, when I thought all of these cherished things had been lost in the last move or tossed out. But now, all is right with the world!

Happy Holidays, Y'all!

 

THE MAGIC SLEEPOVER SOLUTION

As soon as we got back from our little Thanksgiving trip, we invited grandson Calvin over for a sleepover, hinting at a special "Christmas Adventure" we had planned for him. We picked him up in Austin, stopped for lunch at "the orange stripey place", aka Whataburger, then took him straight to one of his favorite playgrounds at a church near or home. He got about a five-minute nap going from there to our house, then spent the rest of the afternoon running from room to room, pulling out and playing with every single toy he could find. Then it was time for dinner and our surprise adventure -- his first trip to the Wimberley Trail of Lights at the Emily Ann Theater!

Turns out, that kid just looooooves face holes! He insisted that both he and I stick our faces in every one we passed, so Papa could take photos. Who knew there could be so many?

The biggest surprise was when this kid -- the one who wanted nothing to do with the mall Santa, both last year and this -- hollered for me to stop so he could go talk to Santa!

And, it wasn't even as if Goobs had a long list of "wants" to give him. When he was asked what he wanted Santa to bring him, he just smiled sweetly and said "A toy." Santa, a bit taken aback, asked "That's it?", then chuckled and replied "Well, yeah, I think I can handle that!"

As for the title of this post, we discovered something amazing this year. You see, ever since Goobs got too big for a baby bed, keeping him in any sort of bed at our house has been difficult.  We tried sleeping three in a king bed together, which was a bit of a disaster, since that kid changes positions at least 50 times per night. Then I offered to go sleep with him in the guest room downstairs, which worked pretty well, except for the fact that he wanted me to go to sleep when he did, at 7:30 or 8, and kept sneaking out of bed every five minutes, to tell me it was time for me to come to bed!

So, this time, I had a brainstorm. Between the time running around at the park, the time running around at our house as he pulled out every toy, and the time running around at the Trail of Lights, I knew he would be one pooped pitootie by the time we got home. I managed to keep him awake in the car, then, while I got him ready for bed, Papa opened up the sofa bed in the living room and cued up the new version of The Grinch on the TV. We all snuggled under a cozy blanket together in the sofa bed, and five minutes into the movie that boy was sawing logs. Seriously! And, he stayed there for ten hours straight, while Papa and I managed to tiptoe back to our bedroom, and both got a good night's sleep in our own bed for once. It's a miracle!

Now all I have to do is figure out other ways to absolutely wear him to a frazzle, once the Trail of Lights shuts down for the season.

FRIENDSGIVING: PART II

Wednesday afternoon, after we finished our tour of the Georgetown square, the guys headed off to check out Zodi'x Cigar Lounge , which was right near our hotel. It has a members-only room hidden behind a bookcase, but they let these out-of-towners in with the purchase of 25-dollars-worth of cigars, and gave them a free beer. Talk about happy boys! Meanwhile, Paula and I opted to check out the hike & bike trail behind our hotel.

Feeling self-righteous about all the steps we had got in that day, we then treated ourselves to afternoon tea, and a little sumthin' sweet to share, back at the hotel. Yummy!

One reason this adventure morphed from a day trip into an overnighter was that, not only would all the fun shops be closed on Thursday,  the main restaurant we wanted to try there would be too. If you live anywhere near the Texas Hill Country, you are probably familiar with Monument Cafe in Georgetown (the peach fried pies!), but did you know they've also opened a Mexican restaurant called El Monumento? So that's where we headed for dinner.

I had an amazing Torta Cubana (not Mexican, I know) but after seeing, and hearing, Paula's reaction to the Chile Relleno she'd read rave reviews about, I wished I'd said...

"I'll have what she's having!"

Back at the hotel we enjoyed spending some time around the patio fire pit, reminiscing about the many fun adventures we've had together in the last 40-some-odd years, before heading off to bed.

On Thanksgiving day we had reservations at Gumbo's, in a gorgeous old building on the town square.

 

There were several different main course options, but we all went with the beef tenderloin. Good choice!

Goat Cheese Salad and Melt-In-Your-Mouth Rolls

The Cajun Cornbread Dressing Was To Die For

We ended our Friendsgiving adventure at the movie theater, also right next to our hotel, seeing a really fun movie (one of our favorite things to do together) called Knives Out. Does it get any better?

Why yes, it does! Ordinarily I'm pretty sad when we part, knowing it could be months before we see each other in person again, although the daily texting really helps. This time, however, I had something special to look forward to --  Little Goobs coming over for a sleepover and a Mimi-Papa-Christmas Adventure. Yes, he did head straight for his "Explorer" outfit as soon as he heard me say that word, but this time I managed to convince him that it wasn't really necessary...

FRIENDSGIVING: PART I

Our BFFs have one son, and he always spends Thanksgiving day with his wife's big family, then has a second celebration with Paula and Tim a day or two later. Last year, since both our kids were going to be with their in-laws as well, we decided to meet the Sanford's for lunch at the beautiful Hyatt Lost Pines Resort in Bastrop, which is just about midway between our home and theirs. We had so much fun that we decided to do the same thing again this year. 

 
But then, just a couple of days before Thanksgiving, my hubby casually commented "You know, Georgetown is also midway between us and the Sanfords." Next thing we knew, not only did we have reservations for Thanksgiving lunch in Georgetown, we also had rooms at the lovely Sheraton conference center, and plans to head up there a day ahead, when all the fun shops on the square would actually be open. Turns out, conference centers don't have any conferences going on during the holidays, so not only were we offered a great rate for our rooms, we practically had the place to ourselves!

We met them just in time for lunch at 600 Degrees Pizzaria, then the guys and gals split up to wander the square.  We'd only been in one or two shops when we came upon this place.

Craft Beer and Outfitters in one location? Weird, huh? No, brilliant! When I peered through the window, guess what I found?

Our hubbies! Happy as could be, and in no hurry for us to finish up our shopping.

Can you imagine a better place than this...

in which to watch your all-time favorite Christmas movie every year?

Apparently poppies are a big deal in Georgetown, since we saw them mentioned everywhere, and on everything.

It seems they host a poppy festival here every year, so that must mean there are poppy fields around here somewhere, right? I was so sad that we were never in France when the poppies were in bloom. Wouldn't it be a hoot to discover they've been blooming right here, in my own backyard, all this time?

to be continued...

WARP SPEED AHEAD

Time goes so slowly here in Texas during the hot months. You start to think they will never end. But then you get your first cold weather, sometime in late October, and suddenly it's warp speed ahead! When I started having doctor appointments and stuff I needed to keep track of spilling into the new year, I realized it was time to high-tail it to Target to get a new agenda for 2020. On our way there we stopped at Costco to pick up a few things, and that's where I spotted this.

I gave it a quick flip through. saw that there was actually room in there to do some sketching and journaling alongside the calendar stuff, and thought "Hey! Maybe this will help me get back into those daily sunrise habits that led me to blogging in the first place -- the ones that have kind of fizzled away over the years. Plus, it will save me a trip to Target!" So I bought it.

It wasn't until I got it home, and gave it a closer look, that I realized it was actually a "mindfulness" journal, all about learning to be present in the moment, instead of constantly focusing on what's ahead -- something else I used to be much better at.

In order to help us along the path of learning to stay present in the moment, they have a rotating set of tools, such as coloring exercises...

breathing exercises...

 art exercises...

 journaling exercises...

and more!

It got me to thinkin', maybe this little journal and I were meant to find each other.