New Year - and New Energy to Get Back to Blogging!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 

It's a new year and time to look forward. I know that I've been slack on the blog ever since we kind of wound up our fall camping in November. We've kinda been thru "some stuff" and it's time to get back on track.

We spent New Years Eve sitting by our fireplace and watching some traveling YouTubes.  Sipping on mugs of Tom and Jerry's is a peaceful way to pass the evening. For those who don't know, Tom and Jerry is a eggnog type batter hot drink that you top off with a sprinkling of nutmeg and add a shot of brandy if you wish!

We kind of dozed off before midnight, but I woke up again about 10 minutes to midnight. I was able to roll over a snoozing Steve during the countdown of the last few seconds. One good "smack" at midnight and it was time to go back to sleep.

We woke up to some beautiful snowflakes floating down. It was absolutely gorgeous. I'm going to try to insert a little video clip here : 

We had some unusually warm weather last week which melted all the snow that we had on the ground. It's nice to see things covered again with fresh white new snow. Covers up all the dreary browns and grays.

I left off on my last blog with a couple links of our fall camping. We had finished our big US2 trip by heading east across the rest of the Upper Peninsula and then looping down around Lake Michigan. We added some leveling jacks down in White Pigeon Michigan at Bigfoot. 

 After we arrived home, there was still some nice weather to continue some camping in and around the North woods of Wisconsin. Here is one of our last trips out:

And the very last camping trip of the season was in mid November! 

It was at Morgan Park on Timm's Lake in Marinette County. I'm still working on the YouTube for that....

If you are interested in any of my YouTubes, I had started a new channel this year that's dedicated just to our traveling. It's called RVing: What-A-View on YouTube and here is the link if you care to like and subscribe:

RVing: What-A-View @What-A-View-ml2uq

Don't worry, it's non monetized and non-sponsored. Just like my regular old YouTube channel of KarenInTheWoods where I put everything else for the last 17 years: 

https://youtube.com/@kareninthewoods111?si=oyWVpSilY-LtyQnv

I did add a video on that older channel recently of the two of us decorating the exterior of the house. It's in fast forward motion and kind of funny....

But we got it done and it lit up that night. I think it's just beautiful. 

Perfect to get in the mood for the holiday season.

Inside of the house, we had some grandkids come over on Black Friday while their parents were busy doing other Christmasy things. They took care of hauling in all of our boxes and totes from the garage and decorating our home. Full of squeals of delight and of course extra sugar and pizza, they put out all of the decorations. It's cute to hear them remember and reminisce over each one. Building their memories to carry on to their families someday.  I cherish these times when they come over to visit with us. It's great to have them at this age where they still want to do stuff with Grandma and Grandpa. Awwwww.

As we got closer to Christmas, we had our traditional "Cookie Day" together with the grandkids. It's such a special day to me because I get all of the grandkids to myself, without any other outside distractions like presents, other parents, traveling from place to place, and big family celebrations. The cookie day event is just for me and only me. I feel kind of selfish, but I also get all of these cookies decorated and they all go home with a big tote full of their creations. To me, it's more special than Christmas itself. I get a lot of one-on-one with them, plus I also get to hear them interact with each other and joke around and build more memories. 

Ahead of time, I baked 18 dozen plus sugar cutout cookies. I get the baking done ahead of time because it takes quite a while. And that way when the kids come it's only the fun stuff of spreading on all the decorations and having a giggling good time during the entire process. We fill them full of pizza for supper and then get to doing all of the cookies....

It is such a special day for me and I'm glad that they still will pose all together for a photo. Missing are two grandchildren of the bunch, but as many come as they can. Even the oldest, Jameson, who is now 16.

They are all wearing handknit hats that I made for them.

Afterwards, we drive them all through the Winter Wonderland that is set up at our local campground in our city. It's all lit up at night sponsored by various businesses and organizations and private displays. It's quite an event to drive through ---- and we lay down the back seats of our SUV so the kids can roll around and romp in the back end. Its just like we did when we were kids in the back of a station wagon in the 1960's!  Once we are done driving through the display, we stop under a street light and put all the seats back in the upright positions. Then everybody is seat belted back in correctly. But it's just kind of fun to break the rules for a few minutes while we drive slowly through the park. 

Our little town also has two roundabouts. I always make sure that we drive around them in a complete circle loop-de-loop every time on the way there and the way back. It creates a lot of giggles and I hope it's also creating memories.


As for Christmas Eve, we don't like to make demands on the family members to all gather on the exact holiday. Instead we set aside the following Saturday for everyone to meet up at our oldest daughter Erin and husband Waylen's cabin in the woods.

That means Steve and I have a peaceful quiet Christmas Eve alone at home. We put on some soft music and Steve fires up the outdoor propane burner set up with the big kettle and a huge steaming basket. We steamed up snow crab legs for our special Christmas Eve dinner.

Snuggling up by our fireplace, next to the lit up tree, with Christmas carols playing... This is peaceful. We are thankful for everything that we have gone through this year and we are reflecting on our memories. We are also making plans for the future year and what we would like to accomplish.

By the weekend, it was time to load up the SUV and head on up to the kids' cabin. Because the roads are covered with salt and snow and slush we do not drive the motorhome up there. It's best to keep it clean and dry and in the yard waiting for an escape in the future. The cabin is only 45 miles away, so it's a short jaunt over the river and through the woods...

Shrieks of delight 

and laughter 

and fun 

and gifts 

and wrapping paper 

and food 

and presents 

and decorations 

etc etc etc 

This is what a Family Christmas is all about.

Poor Jameson was feeling ill and opted to not spread his germs among the rest of us. We kept in contact with him through the miracle of the internet, and sent him photos and texts throughout the evening so he would feel included.

Grandma got regalated over to the kids table... And I sure didn't mind because they were full of silliness and jokes and memories and talking about fun stuff. They were also sneaking treats to all three of the dogs! 

The grownups sat at the bar, and we had a feast of all the wonderful food that everybody brought. Topped off with a homemade cheesecake by granddaughter Whitney. 

Here is Chef Whitney, my mini mini me, along with our youngest daughter Heather who is my mini me. Lol!

The kids decorate up their cute little cabin in the woods, and host all of us now every year. It's becoming quite a tradition. They have a lot more room than we have in our little house. It's great to gather up there in the northwoods and build more family memories.

We headed on home with smiles on our faces, and love in our hearts. 

Christmas was good this year. At home, my special present was a three-piece camera case. I have gotten a new Panasonic Lumix digital SLR camera for my birthday, and this case will allow me to carry that along with our two GoPros and all the gear and even the laptop for processing as well as the tripod. It can come apart into three pieces and be used separately or put it all together and use it as a backpack. For our upcoming travels this summer, it's going to be very handy! 

Here's a link on Amazon if you are interested: 

https://a.co/d/ffeqAwr

The other big thing that I've been working on this year has been a special quilt to put in our motorhome. I collected the fabrics to make this quilt last year from a tiny little quilt shop in Canada called The Buttons Quality Fabric and Yarn Shop just east of Sault ste Marie Canada:

https://buttonsqualityfabricandyarn.com/

The woodsy themes and natural prints of these fabrics are carefully picked out from the Stonehenge line by Northcott. The name of the quilt pattern is called Winter Solstice. 

Ironically, I finished sewing the quilt on December 21st which WAS the Winter Solstice! That was not planned at all--- here it is out on the bed in the motorhome along with the two little throw pillows that I made to go with it.

The most important part was the tag! My friend Connie has an embroidery machine and made this tag for me. If you read closely, you will see what our upcoming summer travel plans are:

YUP! 

WE ARE PLANNING 

A 3 TO 4 MONTH LONG TRIP TO 

ALASKA!!!

We are still in the planning stages, but we figure it's on our bucket list and we better get it done before it's too late. I did have a bit of a cancer scare this last few months but things are looking good and all contained within the margins from surgical removal. I don't go back for six more months so that should give me the clearance to go and leave for Alaska by May.  

If we don't take the time to do this for ourselves now, when will we ever do it? 

We are watching a lot of YouTubes of different RVers who are traveling throughout Canada and into Alaska. We are taking copious notes and adding a lot of interesting boondocking spots to our maps. We have The Milepost book for planning from 2024. We will buy the newest version in 2025 as soon as it's available in print.

We hope you all follow along and I want to try to blog every night while we are traveling. Because we have the Starlink, we should have internet access wherever we go. They may be short blogs, they may be long blogs. Who knows? But I will also follow up with videos on the YouTube channel that I made specifically for traveling. 

Please join us for this upcoming adventure??

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the meantime, while we are still at home, we are getting a few things done around the house.  We spend the majority of our time down here in this addition room called The She Shed. It really was an attached garage and mud room to our old farmhouse. Steve and I made it this way to contain all of my weaving, quilting, sewing and knitting stuff. 

I have about 10 of these handwoven sample panels of shaft switching and twill weaving from classes that I took from Jason Collingwood over the years. Steve asked what was I going to do with them? I used to have them hanging on the walls in our last few homes, but never got around to hanging any in this one.

Out came the ladder and the laser level. In no time at all, he had four of them hung up on the wall in my She Shed.

What a guy. He sure makes me smile.

We are not sure about taking any trips this winter. We still have doctor appointments and a dentist appointment to finish up during the month of January. Then of course, the dreaded property taxes are due. Once these things are all taken care of, maybe we can see our way clear to taking off in February and March to go south somewhere warmer.

But we are not sure, maybe we will just save our pennies and stay home.

Nicholas thinks staying home on the couch in the She Shed is not such a bad idea either...

Stay tuned, and maybe you will see what we figure out what to do next???

Thanks for sticking with us. 

It's Cookie Decorating Day!

Oh my, oh my--- it's my favorite day of the year. It's Grandkid Cookie Decorating Day. This is the day that I get a pile of the grandchildren all to myself to decorate Christmas cookies! They were already off school for the holiday and looking for something to do. We collected four of the little stinkers and brought them back to our house. Jameson, the oldest, opted to stay with his dad and go workout at the gym. So we had these four helpers were all ready and eager to come over to Grandma and Grandpa's house and spend the entire day.

We started out with a little breakfast buffet. I found that if I put out a variety of breakfast items on the island they can choose what they like and then there's no arguing or leftover wasted food. They have choices of fruit, applesauce, a variety of juices and eggnog, cereal, and toast with my special Trader Joe's cookie butter! I love that they are all set up on my little table in the sunshine. Laughing and giggling and talking to each other. That's the best part of this day: listening to them talk and relate to each other.  The Christmas Excitement is high, and they are just chock full of energy and joy that the season brings.

While the younger ones went off to play in the playroom, Chelsea and I were making frosting in the kitchen. Once we mixed up the big bowls of white frosting, we split it up into smaller containers where she could add food coloring to each one.

The two little girls came out to get their aprons. A long time ago when I started this tradition I made a whole bunch of kid aprons in all different sizes. It's amazing though, these kids are growing up so fast that only the biggest aprons fit. I think it's time to sew some more for the next decade. Then we will have large enough aprons to fit everybody.

Clayton started getting the table set up for the decorating. He had the table covered up with a vinyl tablecloth spread out and all of the cookie cooling racks. He brought in the variety of sprinkles and sugar shakers and set them out across the table too. Now they were in reach for everyone on each side of the table. Chelsea brought in the colored frostings and we were ready to begin.

Grandpa ran around with the camera and took pictures of us all set up at the table before we were ready to start.  The music was playing, the stuff was ready, and the kids were more than eager to start. 

Chelsea and I spread the frosting on each of the cookies and then we would pass them down on plates to the other three--- who were ready with all of the sprinkles and decorations and candies.

 

We had 169 cookies to decorate. 

Claire and Whitney first started out kind of just tossing on as much as they could and moving on to the next cookie. After a little while, they started slowing down and making more detailed cookies and carefully placing the decorations on each one.

As each one would finish up four or five cookies on their plate, then Grandpa would take them off to space them out carefully on the drying racks. From there he would take each rack into the kitchen and spread them out on the counters. That way the frosting could get hard and firm. Later they could be stacked up between layers of wax paper in containers. Each family was going to go home with about 5 dozen cookies, with the rest remaining here for us!

We had Christmas music playing and the kids were very, very silly. But it was fun talking and hearing about their excitement. With the upcoming holiday, and knowing Santa was keeping track of things, they were on their very best behavior. They talked more about what they were GIVING to other people, and very little about GETTING things. I like that.

  

  

We only had one mishap, my butter knife full of green frosting landed smack dab down on the oriental carpet underneath my feet. I was able to quickly clean it up before the food coloring set in. Even the littlest girls were very careful and didn't make a mess.

Everyone worked so well together and cooperated.

Here's a little video clip 

that we shot during a quick break 

when I went to wash my hands:

Here are the results of our wonderful morning. We decorated all of the 169 cookies. A couple of them broke during the decoration process and were quickly consumed by the eager little Busy Bee workers. Maybe a few got broke on purpose? LOL

We cleaned up quickly and put things away. The kids all helped. Then while we were preheating the oven and getting ready to make lunch, these three decided that the chairs in the dining room would make an excellent airplane! Whitney in the middle decided she was the gate attendant and she collected passports from everybody. Clayton was the pilot up in the front and they all went for a ride. I'm not sure exactly where they went, but it kept them busy while we got things ready in the kitchen to make lunch.

Quite the Airplane Pilot.

The cell phone on his feet is part of his control panel

in the cockpit. 

It is fun to still be 9 years old and indulge in creative imagination play.

Then the kids ended up playing in the new office room, and decided that Whitney would be the teacher while both Clayton and Claire were the students. They hauled out some school supplies and she taught the lessons. I eavesdropped a bit, and Whitney sure sounded like a teacher! 

I see so much of Whitney's mother, Heather, in her play and in her speech at that same age. I love it that she is confidant and although younger than Clayton, she can be the leader.  She has such creative ideas and led her classroom easily.

The oldest, Chelsea, and I were in the kitchen getting things ready to make mini pizzas for lunch. We recently discovered these cute little mini pizza kits at Aldi. There are three crusts and three little packages of sauce in a pack. We add bowls of pepperonis and the cheese to the island set up.  We don't bother with other ingredients, because this is all the kids ever want. Cheese n Pepperoni.  We write their names on the parchment paper on the tray, so each one knows which finished pizza will be theirs. 

(Because once you bake them, they all look alike anyhow)

They do enjoy the process of putting together their own little pizza and putting on the cheese and sauce and pepperonis. It's kind of cute that each one has their own style or technique.

They had to get them "just right"  

and use up all of the cheese by the time they were finished.

We popped them in the oven to bake while the kids got the table set and ready for lunch. We had Christmas carols playing and the house was smelling so good with their baking pizzas.

Again, they clustered around the table in the kitchen to enjoy their treats. It started to cloud up outside so we didn't have the sunshine that we had in the morning. I love having them all around the table. Grandma and Grandpa both opted to make sandwiches and pass on the pizzas.

I think these little grins and pizza smeared faces tell the story. They were really having fun. Plus they've got to essentially make their own lunch.

  

  

After lunch we let them run around and play for awhile. It was too cold to go outside. The windchills were in the single digits. But the day was stretching on and soon it was time to sort out the cookies and make up the boxes to be sent home. The kids took turns choosing out their favorite cookies from the assortment on the kitchen counters. Whatever was left over is what this grandma and grandpa get to keep at their own house.

  

One more special thing we did before they left was to give each child a package. We are not getting together with all of the family until New Year's Day. So this was a special little "pre-present" before the holidays that they could open up now and take home.

Each child opened up their package. On top was a special ornament that they could hang on their tree. It's not so fun to get an ornament on New Year's Day....  it's much better to get it BEFORE Christmas and hang it on your tree. Then deeper inside each of their red bags were the Christmas village houses that I make for them each year.

Each year, I spend hours upon hours painting up these little village ceramic houses for each child. I think of them as I paint and I smile fondly at the memories from the previous years. I've been doing this for many years for the grandkids and they love setting up their little Christmas Villages at their homes. I think this is the first year that the two youngest girls actually realized that each year I actually painted them. Other years they just remember that they got a house. So this year we talked about my painting them and how long it takes and how I smile and make them with love and creativity. 

Claire got a Roadside Hotel,

 and Whitney got a little General Store

 

Clayton got a railroad station 

and Chelsea got a little coffee shop

  

Well, our day was coming to an end. It was time to take one more picture of all of us together on the couch. Grandpa took the shot for us. Actually he took about 15 shots until we could find one where everybody was looking forward at the same time.

They didn't want to go home, and we had groans and protests. We bundled up all of the kids into their gear, packed up their cookies and hauled them all home. We got huge spontaineous hugs in appreciation.  

It was a long delightful day --- but boy oh boy this Grandma and Grandpa were tired. We need a nap. And of course, when we woke up we had to nibble on a couple Christmas cookies.