The Rest of Christmas and a Family Treasure

I pooped out the other night while writing my blog. I only got up to writing about Friday and Saturday of our Christmas celebrations.  I was too tired to finish... so now I will try to catch up.

Sometimes I feel this blog is kinda like a diary of my own thoughts and family happenings, but other times it amazes me on how many people read my blog.  Did you know already today I have over 3,000 people looking at my blog?  And yesterday it was almost up to 3,000? It just totally boggles my mind for sure!

I wholeheartedly thank each and every one of you for coming here to see what I have to say, enjoy my photos, and leave comments about what I write.  I try to add a lot of motorhome renovations and projects around the house, and not gum it up too much with baby pics and doggie stuff!

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OH well, on to Christmas!  For Christmas Eve, Steve and I planned a quiet evening at home. On our way back from Oconto, we popped into Festival Foods to get some of their fresh snow crab legs for our evening feast.  Yummmmm  Steveio steamed them up in our propane burner unit outside with the big steaming kettle. That keeps the smells and the excess moisture out of the house.

With soft Christmas Carols playing in the background, we sat down to a great meal with glasses of wine, good food, and wishes and plans for the upcoming year. Our conversation wandered from projects to do, places to see, working out the retirement budget, and of course how great our meal was together. It was great to sit back and unwind a bit after two days with our silly kids and energetic grandkids.  We did some pretty good damage to 3.5 pounds of crab legs for sure!

Christmas morning was exciting for the dogs, so things were not too quiet.  They unwrapped their own presents and little Binney had to tell us ALL about what Santa brought her.  Toys and doggie treats is all they wished for.  And they got it.  LOL

About 11 a.m. the patriarch of the Pfundtner Clan came over. Steve's dad drove over from Waupaca to spend some time with us and exchange presents.  It was so pleasant spending the morning with him and his companion, Millie, the springer spaniel he has trained for therapy dog visits to nursing homes.  We then hopped into his truck and drove on down to Belgium to take part in the Pfundtner Family Gathering at Steve's sister's house.

Wonderful food, family laughter, presents and fun stories...  it was a great way to finish off the Christmas holiday.  Dangnabbit I set down my phone when we came in and never took a single pic! We drove on back home as the weather was changing from rain to sleet!  Nervous about sending Steve's dad on home that last 45 miles or so to Waupaca... but he said he would be fine and call us when he arrived home safe and sound. He did and we slept peacefully that night.


I wanted to mention a Pfundtner Family Treasure that was recently bestowed on Steve.  If you remember, I was bestowed a special family heirloom a while back by Steve's dad:

http://kareninthewoods-kareninthewoods.blogspot.com/2016/11/family-treasures.html

Now it was Steve's turn!

When he was a child, his parents had this little cast iron match holder device hanging by their fireplace in a couple of their homes, over the years. It moved from house to house with them. Steve always liked it. Recently, Steve noticed it laying out on the bench in the garage at this current home his dad has. It hadn't been mounted because they didn't have a fireplace.  It was just laying out on the bench in the garage.

His dad mentioned about having some guys come to work on his garage and do some tool organizing and storage solutions. Steve asked his father if he was ever going to need this little match holder, or plan to use it, or was it going to be tossed?  His dad gladly gave it to Steve!   

It was in need of a bit of rusty surface cleaning and a new coat of paint..... 

It is called a ''Venus and Cupid Match holder''

The new wooden matches go in the bottom compartment

and the spent used ones go in the top trough. 

Steve got to work on it yesterday.  He ground off the rust gently with a steel brush on his drill.... and he also took care of some of the rust on a rotating disk for my old Sunbeam stand mixer. Since he was going to be painting, I asked him to add a coat of paint to that, too.

We didn't want to drill holes into the lovely tiles around our fireplace. So we bought a roll of black super heavy duty exterior 3M double stick tape. It is made to adhere mail boxes to brick, so I think it will work for this.  It is rated to hold 25 pounds!  At $7.39 a roll, it better!

He measured carefully and used a level to get it just right..... 

ahhhhhhh looks great! 

We put wooden safety matches in it, just for looks. We really do not need the matches in it except maybe to light candles on the mantle. Our fireplace is gas log with electric igniter. I even burned some of the matches to put in the top trough to be even more realistic! 

Ahhhhh another Pfundtner Family Treasure 

to adorn ''Our Old House'' 

Tomorrow, technically, is Steve's last day of work!  He has been burning up vacation days since the 22nd until now. He said he is not retired yet, just on vacation!  hahahahhaaaaaaa

We will see what he calls himself after 4 p.m. tomorrow?

9,880 Days

Nine Thousand, Eight Hundred, and Eighty Days

Day in, Day out. 

Five days a week.

Week in, week out.

Fifty two weeks a year. 

Year in, year out.

Thirty eight years. 

5:30 alarm.

Up and at em.

Usually to plow things out, 

fix things up, 

make things work

 and deal with the bureaucratic junk 

of working for the government.

For the years of crazy, tumultuous, stressful,

mostly unappreciated work for the State of Wisconsin at UWGB.

Not to say it was ALL bad, but he suffered through 

many years of very low wages, huge budget cuts, 

and big deductions from paychecks that should have never happened---

due to broken contracts by our governor.

(but the last four years at High Cliff were the BEST!)

Yup..... that is what Steveio accomplished to earn this retirement.  Minus, of course, his earned vacation days.  It was time to let it all go. Time to retire.

He really gambled on chance this morning. You see, last night he didn't set his alarm clock!  Oh gasp!  I asked: ''What if you oversleep?''
He replied:  ''What is my boss gonna do? Fire me?''   bwahaahaaaa~~~~

Today I kissed him goodbye. He picked up his lunchbox for the last time and headed out the door to work.  Yup, for the last time.

The guys sure seemed to break a lot of things for him to fix on his last day. I think they wanted to make him feel like he needed to stay!  They busted the passenger mirror off the snowplow. They also plowed over the plug covering a valve (with a big rock he put on top to make sure nobody plowed over it). He even fixed a broken screen on the sliding customer service window for the drive-up at the office. That will be good for next spring. He had a full day.

Coworker Ranger Jeff surprised Steve with a very thoughtful gift!  A Stormy Kromer hat!!!  Anyone who knows anything about woolen winter headgear in Wisconsin knows about Stormy Kromers!

https://www.stormykromer.com/

and here is the 

History of the Stormy Kromer Cap

He modeled it for the office staff.

The Stormy Kromer cap is a wool hat manufactured by Stormy Kromer Mercantile.^[1] The hat is popular in the Midwestregion of the United States and with hunters and outdoorsmen.^[2][3] It is named for George "Stormy" Kromer (1876-1970),^[4] a semi-professional baseball player who later worked as a railroad engineer. Kromer lost many hats to the wind while working on trains, and in 1903 he asked his wife Ida (1877-1960) to make him a warm hat that would stay on more securely. She modified a baseball cap^[5] into what became the Stormy Kromer cap by sewing on a pair of ear flaps.^[2] A summer version, made from pillow ticking,^[6] remains in use among modern American train engineers, and variants with red or blue polka dots were formerly popular in the early 20th century.^[7]

Statue of a Stormy Kromer cap located near the factory in Ironwood, Michigan

Due to popularity with other employees of the railroad, the Kromers formed the Kromer Cap Company in 1903 to produce the caps.^[2][8] In 1919, due to ever increasing demand, the Kromers opened a factory in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.^[3]George Kromer sold the company in 1965 to Richard Grossman.^[9] In 2001, the Kromer Cap Company planned to cease production of Stormy Kromer caps.^[2][10]The rights to the caps were purchased by Bob Jacquart, owner of Jacquart Fabric Products, and production moved to Ironwood, Michigan.^[1] Stormy Kromer Mercantile was formed, increasing production to over 50,000 caps annually from the previous 3000-6000 caps.^[1][2]

The president of the Friends of High Cliff Organization, Char, stopped by with a lovely box of homemade caramels and chocolates.  One of his favorite volunteers, Ben, stopped by with a jar of homemade honey!  So many folks made time to stop and talk to him and wish him well, give him cards and say encouraging words.  It was quite a day for him. After the two surprise parties on Friday and now this. He was humbled.

After his normal 8 hour day, Steve drove on home to hang up his jacket and take off his state work shirt for the last time. He threw out his lunch box into the trash and said ''Honey, I'm Home'' for the last time.

I think the dogs knew something was up.  I hugged him tight and kissed him good and told him to get busy and start retiring now.  LOL... He hopped in the shower and we settled down with a good meal.  We cooked steaks on the grill to celebrate, and we opened a bottle of wine and toasted to the new chapter in our lives.

Not sure what we will do next. We usually eeked out a quick winter getaway vacation down south or out west while he was still working. But we are considering to stay put this winter and save the pennies. Then, come springtime, we can really leave and go west to places we have not been able to go to during the summer months. He was always needed at work so much during the summer, that the winter months were about the only time he could use up any vacation hours.

Maybe we can go see places like:

Looping around Lake Superior again - like we did on our honeymoon. 

Or maybe see the Rockies.  

Or Yellowstone.

 Or Glacier National Park.  

Or up into Canada to Banff and Lake Louise. 

Or Alaska.  

Who knows? 

But for now, I think my guy just needs to RELAX!