I hope everyone had a great time over the holidays! Susanne and I celebrated quietly, quite frankly we didn’t have the energy for much more, we have been stressed out for far too long trying to get settled here. We spent Christmas eve and Christmas Day at Susanne’s parents house. They put up a little tree, first one in years, I guess. I liked the fact that it had edible ornaments on it, can’t go wrong there! Then we spent time at people who live next to Susanne’s parents and the parent’s house. It was a nice evening, I stuffed myself, first with potato salad and then with 2 heaping bowls of spicy chili and bread. At midnight we went out with all the other people on the street and blew off fireworks, the real ones, not the kind you get in American supermarkets. That for me it is the best part of the holidays, seeing and hearing the entire city lighting off their fireworks at the same time. It was snowing too which made it all the better!
So back to work, I made my first birthday card, I had to get the new years card off the home page! Boy, I’ll tell you that is a lot of work trying to keep up with the upcoming holidays, Valentine’s day is right around the corner and I have to get them ready fairly soon. Coming up with ideas isn’t easy sometimes either, I have creative crashes, can’t think of a damn thing to create for a card. Maybe I should go for a walk, but it is cold out there and there is snow. Today I wore my shorts for half the day, I got tired of wearing so many cloths. It felt good to have my legs free! The cold is nice, it feels refreshing to get out in it, but at the same time I feel encased, encapsulated, engulfed in cloths. Being fresh out of Florida, I need extra layers, a hat and heavy duty thermal hunting socks. That’s right- heavy duty thermal hunting socks! Keeps the feet TOASTY! The hat I mention because it seems that nobody here needs to wear one, they must have super heated heads or something, even when it is 10 degrees here they have no hats on! And not just a few people, I mean nearly everyone! Guess they’re used to it. I was at one time too, back in upstate NY, I remember running around in 20 degree weather in a tee shirt and a hooded sweat shirt! I did have my hat on though. I have grown soft now, the body likes to be warm when it can, it performs better, less bone creaking and aching muscles. Lord, I’m getting old!
And what is with people sitting outside in the cold drinking coffee? I don’t care if there is a blanket, the coffee won’t stay warm long, and neither will I. Another thing that amazes me is that some people leave their windows open all day long, no matter what the temperature is. We open ours for a while to air out the house, but there is a point where it starts getting cold in the apartment. Plus there is the heating bill to think about. I see some apartments witht the windows cracked all day long. It must be freezing in their apartment and they must either have lots of money to throw at the power company or they don’t use any heating at all. Amazing! My father would have killed me if I dared to open a window in the middle of winter. Mind you the winters back in upstate NY used to be a lot colder with lots of snow and ice, here it is alot milder. All in all I am managing to stay warm for the most part. We will see when late Jan. and Feb. roll around just how well I’ll manage then. I have the thermal pants ready just in case and the apoteke around the corner sells threma care, pads I just slap one of those bad boys on my lower back an I am toasty for 8 hours!
Okay winter, bring it on, show me what you got!
Oops,I probably shouldn’t have said that!