JUST DROPPING BY

 

I didn't want any of you to think I had disappeared.  I am still here and doing well.  It is that time of year when little things happen that are not expected and it makes your schedule go out the window.  After this many years on this earth, I have learned not to have a 'set' schedule for the month of December and the first half of January.  

So, what has been happening?  Monday I spent the day trying to catch up on a couple of my shows that were recorded.  Hubby has stopped watching "The Good Doctor" and "Bull".  I still enjoy them so when he leaves the house I watch them.  Monday was his day to go and get his allergy injections.  He also got our water bottles filled for our water cooler.  He also went to Sam's Club and got our Christmas ham and delivered it to our son's house.  (They host all the holiday meals and we buy the meat for all of them)  There will only be a total of 8 of us this year.  Another small family gathering for this holiday.  Hopefully, next year we can have a large family gathering.  (That would be between 15 and 20)

Our daughter came over Monday night for dinner too.  I was glad to see her as it had been almost a month since we had been face to face.  I had some Pampered Chef for her (She had it delivered to my house as it is a Christmas gift for her hubby) and some other yummy goodies I had made for her and her hubby.  Unfortunately, my hubby did not get to spend time with her as he had to go to church and do one of the Bible readings.  That's ok, we got to have girl time.

Tuesday I had an appointment for blood work.  When I got there I was informed they did not have my faxed order.  I called the Dr's office and asked them to refax it to them.  They got the fax but all that was on it was my name.  Called the office again and asked them to refax AGAIN!  BOOM!  They got it this time and then said I needed to be fasting for the tests.  I had to inform them I had NEVER fasted for the tests in the 20 years I had been having my blood work done for this Dr.  (I do not have blood sugar problems or cholesterol problems).  The blood work is to make sure my RA is under control and my body is responding well to the medication I take.  So, my 15 minute appointment took an hour.

From there I went to Hobby Lobby to look at Christmas Trees.  (We need a new one and are just trying to get an idea of what is out there).  HL was a zoo as usual.  I did, however, pick up a couple of embroidery hoops.  I left there and went across the street to At Home to look at their trees.  That store did not have hardly any customers!  They also did not have any trees that really spoke to me.  OK, I take that back, they did have one I liked but it was out of stock and the price was WAY more than we want to spend on a tree.  I am sure we will look harder after Christmas, when everyone has theirs on sale.

Tuesday evening, I finally finished my Reyna Shawl.  Come back on Sunday for the photos of it.  SO that meant I needed to find another WIP to pick up and work on.  I decided to get back to work on my "It Really Fits" cardigan.  There is no reason this has not been completed.  Well, it might be because I keep finding pretty shiny patterns that keep calling my name.

While working on my Cardi, Tuesday evening, my BFF called and wanted to know if we wanted to get together on Saturday and have a tamale making party.  Heck yes!  We have been talking about doing this for a couple of months now.  Have either of us ever made tamales?  NOPE!  But we have been watching YouTube videos and have found recipes.  We figured even though we are novices, we will be proficient by the time we have made almost 100 tamales.

Wednesday was a crazy day.  I was planning on just kicking back and working on my cardi as well as doing some decluttering.  That didn't happen.  It was "Go and get tamale making supplies" day.  Hubby was kind enough to go with me as the two stores we needed to go to gear towards the Hispanic community.  Since he speaks Spanish, it sometimes helps so he can explain what I am looking for.  We were able to get everything needed in just over an hours time.

Here is the steamer pot I got to cook the tamales in.

Yup, that is a 40 quart pot.  Since it takes an hour to steam/cook the tamales, I decided I did not want to do it in small batches.  This should hold all the tamales we are going to make.

Since my BFF and myself are newbies at this, I decided it might be smart to get masa spreaders to help us get the masa onto the corn husks evenly.  She and I are very excited to do this.  She is making red chili pork and chicken.  I am making green chili corn.  I will let you know on Sunday how it went.

When we got home, I got busy and blocked my shawl, got food vacuum sealed, put the dogs chicken breasts in the crockpot and finally collapsed.  Good thing I had plenty of leftovers from Monday's dinner.  Made it much easier that night.

I am so happy we went to the store yesterday.  We have been having rain most of the day today.  We have not had any rain here in 110 days!  Needless to say, the rain is a blessing.  I went through my recipes today and culled out the ones we have tried and did not plan on having again.  I must have gotten rid of over 50 recipes.  It sure helped slim down my notebook.  (Does that count on decluttering? LOL)  Since I did not sleep well last night I did take a little 30 minute nap this afternoon.  There was a load of laundry completed, the dishwasher emptied and we finished up the leftovers for dinner tonight.

In about an hour we will be heading to Church for our hour of adoration at our Cancer Shrine.  I look forward to that hour of complete quiet all week.

Tomorrow, hubby is going to clean the last part of the house and I am going to do some baking and finish up the laundry.  The rain has left which means I can take a little walk tomorrow and enjoy the fresh crisp air too.  Just walking without a mask on will be a joy.  I will take one with me incase I do come upon other people, but from what I have seen, not too many people are taking walks in my neighborhood.  

How are you handling the upcoming Holiday season (Christmas & New Years).

Until next time........................................................