Monthly Nine Link Up

December is such a busy month and hubby added the flu to his list of things to do!  Set us both back a little.  We did not go to see the kids so we had to get gifts ready to mail in time for them to get to them.  Here is how it went-

Nourish- 

We did the same thing for Christmas this year as last and had invited a group of 'orphans'; friends of ours who weren't getting together with family on Christmas over to eat dinner with us.  The flu bug ravaged our area recently and so we were just 5 of us but we had a wonderful time of visiting and laughing and eating.  We had ham and scalloped potatoes and a lovely salad and herbed rolls with herbs that all came from the garden!  We had 3 kinds of pie and 2 kinds of cookies and fudge!  I agree with Linda - you can never have too many desserts!

Prepare- We have finally gotten enough meat in the new freezer that  we could survive a blizzard/power outage/emergency of some sort for awhile.  There of course are also veggies and stuff but the meat was taking time and money and had to be done a little here and there.

Reduce- We just don't generate that much trash between the two of us these days.  I will share our winter toilet paper roll using - in the winter when we have the wood stove going all the time, it hardly goes out but when it does  (or when we need to clean out the ashes and restart) hubby takes some newspaper, rolls up pine needles inside like a burrito and puts them inside the toilet paper rolls that are empty that we save all year.  Pine needles are great tinder items and hubby rolls up a bunch of these and we have them in a Rubbermaid bucket near the wood so they are made and handy.  This is especially nice to have handy in the morning when it is 48 degrees in the house and hubby wants to run out and stoke the fire and run back to the bed!

Green- I don't know if it counts if our motives are not pure - we reuse Christmas bags!  It started when the kids were in grade school and we started buying gift bags instead of wrapping paper, then it became a joke to get the gift bag back with a new tag and then it became a contest to see who could get the most gifting out of the bags.  There are bags that have assumed legendary status as they were given first by family members no longer with us. We now have bags that have been 'in circulation' for nearly 20 years.  That is reusing!!!

Grow- Since it is the middle of winter and it is cold and I view this as my season to sit and craft to my hearts content we are trying to not grow! 

Create- 

I got all the kids gifts made this month and wrapped and in the box for the last day to mail for guaranteed delivery and realized I had forgotten to take photos!  So I will list - 2 shutterfly projects, 2 pairs of pj pants (suitable for wearing to Walmart), 1 pj pants and 2 little shirts for the grand-baby, crocheted hair scrunchies, a warm vest to wear under shirts at work outdoors, and a kilt.  (that last was a special request and the oldest kid will probably wear it!)  I will also re-share my 'grandma afghan' from my last post cuz I'm just so darn proud of it.  The story that goes with it is in last post listed.


Discover- Sigh... the first seed catalog came in this December, many happy hours of searching out the next years garden are in the offing.

Enhance- We were able to take food to several of our housebound, sick friends - the sort of ring the bell and set it inside the door so as to avoid germs thing, hubby made his famous chili and we had cookies to go along.

Enjoy-  My dear friend Anita took our Bible study group to a Saturday matinee of a local theater group that the rest of us didn't even know was there and we had a huge amount of fun.  The play was fun and the actors were great and the company was of course terrific!

I am hoping that next year we will go to see the kids (ok the grand kid!) for Christmas but this year we had to be content with photos.

At least Miss Lily enjoyed what we sent, even if not quite the way we anticipated!  Ain't that just the way it goes - you buy 'em gifts and they play with the boxes!





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