Here It Comes

It’s been such a nice day. Today was the day my sister and I picked out our poinsettias at a local greenhouse. Even though I already had 2 small ones from our trip to the bigger nursery last weekend, I bought 6 more. Ha ha I’m not keeping all of them, but they are such beautiful plants and there are so many varieties. I also love the original deep red ones, so I just decide not to choose between the different ones. Much. :)  Truly, this is when the holiday season begins for me: when I have poinsettias in my home. 

I also ran some errands and picked up some groceries. I had a gift card to See’s Candies so I stopped by and spent it. My contribution to Thanksgiving dinner is rolls and chocolate!  Next week is my staycation and Monday is my big shopping trip with my sisters. I’ll see if I can’t get most of my presents bought on that day. Plus, I picked up a family from Utah Kids Foundation and I’m getting some gifts for them as well. My sisters are pitching in with that, which is nice of them. I just felt like I needed to do a little more this year. 

I haven’t exactly decided when to put up my tree, and I keep thinking I should just get it out and set it up so at least it’s ready to be decorated. Knowing me, that’s what I’ll be doing at bedtime tonight. 

Now if only it would rain and snow! We’ve got some snow in the mountains but I’d like to have a white Christmas. 

November 15

It’s been unseasonably warm recently, but I’ve been loving the late fall feeling. All the leaves on the ground and dark nights, even if it isn’t terribly cool. Not really sure what I’ve been up to, but I haven’t actually read a new book all the way through yet this month. I’m close to finishing a book, and I’ve done some re-reading, but it just wasn’t a good month for new reads. That’s ok. I’ll be going on a trip in a few weeks and will load up my kindle.

My sister and I got out this weekend and went to our new Trader Joe’s and favorite nursery. We’ll be going to our usual place for poinsettias next weekend as well. We have the primary program tomorrow and then that will be over with too. The year is really winding down. 

Since I turned 50 this year, I knew I wanted to take a big trip but wasn’t sure where to go and was browsing the website of the tour group I used before and found another Christmas market trip to countries I’ve never been to so I signed myself up.So that’s coming up in a few weeks and I’m getting excited. Still a little too early to pack and all that, but I need to start doing a little research for the downtime they give us. I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving. Because of my other trip, I’m not taking the entire week off, but still going to do a girls shopping trip the Monday before. Then my sister, Anna, is hosting this year so she gets to cook the turkey. I volunteered for rolls, no surprise there. About 6 weeks left in 2025 and I’m looking forward to them. My only wish is for a lot of rain and snow. 

One Week Later

I spent this past week in North Carolina. It's nice there this time of year. A bit warmer than we are here and the humidity is manageable. When I looked out my window this morning in the daylight,  I couldn't believe the difference a week makes. My trees are now almost entirely yellow/red and dropping leaves. Only a few green leaves remain. Many trees have dropped all their leaves completely. 

It was a long week; it always is when I travel for work. I ran into a few co-workers Monday evening in the hotel and went to dinner with them, which I rarely do. I prefer to relax after traveling all day. It was fun to catch up with them though. Then as an extra activity, a bunch of us purchased tickets to the musical Six which was playing in downtown (or what they call uptown) Charlotte on Tuesday evening. I had missed it when it came here and I liked it more than I thought I would. I can see myself listening to the soundtrack one of these days when I'm looking for some Broadway musicals to listen to. Then on Thursday we went to Game Show Battle Rooms and had a team activity. I though it was going to be awful and ended up having a good time. And then work and meetings during the days. 

I'm now ready for a slower paced weekend. Family dinner is at my house on Sunday so I'll be praying for patience and itching to clean up after everybody leaves, but that's ok. I bought apples and will be making instant pot applesauce in the next few days. I love it. I think tonight calls for book and cozy blanket. 

Ah, November

November doesn’t get as much love as October, but I do love it. We just had the time change so the evenings will be dark, even as we head to the shortest day of the year. It’s been nice to be home today so I can see how the sun is moving and creating shadows. The time to get cozy and hibernate has come, even as I do try and enjoy the last bit of evening light. Leaves are falling all around. Even my trees are getting a lot more brown/yellow.  Winter is coming, as they say. While I’m not quite ready for the snow, I wouldn’t mind some good rain storms. What a glorious time of year. 

I made soup and homemade rolls for dinner today. My house smells fantastic. I can’t wait to dig in. 

Goodbye October

It's that time of year when even the trees at my house are turning and leaves are falling all over. It's gotten much colder as well. I haven't gotten my coat out yet, but definitely hoodie season. 

Last weekend I had a sleepover for 5 of my nieces and nephews. I believe they had fun. I did keep my cool most of the time. I was very cool during the 2 water spills so I do get some credit. We went bowling first and then I made them a sweet/salty Halloween treat, which one of them promptly turned into art.

Tonight, I will be carving my pumpkin with the twins. I've been wearing all my Halloween-ish shirts to work. I didn't realize I had so many. I have enough for the whole week.  I'm truly starting to feel the urge to hibernate and cozy up for the winter. I love this time of year so much. 

Nice Day for a Walk

I took a very early lunch break this morning and went for a walk. I had to wait for the sun to come out, but it was wonderful. 

The sun was warm and the leaves were making noise. But the flowers are still out as well because it hasn't hit super cold in the morning... just kind of cold. ha ha  There are 2 more weeks until Daylight Savings and I'm trying to take advantage of the light after work as well. 

I listened to a podcast on the history of Halloween and learned about soul cakes, which were handed out to children and poor people going door to door, and which seems to be the origin of trick or treating. So of course, I googled to see if I could find a recipe. 

They turned out pretty good. The recipe called for British mixed spice, which seems to be like the US pumpkin pie spice, but I used my King Arthur Flour yuletide cheer spice instead. And then I didn't have dried currants so I used my dried tart cherries from the farmer's market. It's no chocolate chip cookie, but tasty in their own way. I froze most of them to take to family dinner. 

Again, just trying to take a little time each day to appreciate the season. 

Lovely October

Can't believe we are at the halfway done with October mark. I feel like I'm doing a good job of noticing each day and having a moment to just enjoy it. I have an unplanned weekend coming up and I'm hoping to get out and do a few things and just enjoy being out and about. To that end, I've been getting laundry and other house things done so that I have the chores out of the way. 

It was a lovely drive to work today. Rainy and cloudy and dark. 

So far this month I've read a werewolf romance, a zombie war story, and a gothic book. I feel very good about my reading choices for Halloween month. Coming up, I've got a historical mystery and maybe a little more paranormal romance and some light horror.