The Week That Was

 Rather than writing several posts I'm gathering my thoughts and writing one on what transpired in the week that just finished.

You've already read about our Thanksgiving meal.  If not see Older Posts below.

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A Gift

Tuesday Dan and I attended the local Aging in Place group for a discussion of downsizing.  We shared our experience with an online auction MaxSold.com in 2016 when we sold The Lodge and moved to an apartment in a retirement community.  Others shared their experiences hiring people to help sort or just going on their own to sort and give away with the goal of avoiding the landfill.

One of the participants has slowly tackled closets in her home. In one she came across a framed photograph someone gave to her thinking it had been left behind when her mother moved out of our house.  Yes, the house we presently own.  Her mother bought the house in 1970 and lived here for 11 years. After the meeting the woman went to her car for the photograph to give to us.  We learned a lot about the house from her: it had a coal stove in the front room, one bedroom, stairs to the attic space where the photo was found, and tin ceilings. The renovations to the house happened in the 1990s by the owner we purchased from.

Here's the photograph.  More on this later this week.

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The Tree and Decorating

As you saw earlier in November I had the tree up but not decorated. I got a chance to do it this week. I went with colored lights instead of white ones and a 58 foot strand did the trick. When the girls were young they would help with this but now it's my responsibility.  If I go first I doubt that Dan would even bother with a tree.

And in answer to John of The AC is On, in winter time the slider door is not used. Snow piles on the deck making it impassable.

More on the decorations another time.

But the rest of the decorating is not happening until the kitchen redo project is complete. The cabinet and door fronts and new oak veneer are to be installed the week of December 4th.  This means that everything has to come out.  I started the task this week.

I consolidated these shelves to make space to move items there.  But every level surface will eventually be used so no further Christmas decorations until the project is done.

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Christmas Shopping

Packages have been arriving as I finished most of the Christmas shopping this week.

I even put items in Christmas stockings so I know who gets what.  I still have a few of those items to find but it's one last thing to tackle as the last month of the year comes on Friday.

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I'll leave you with a photo of my desk which is a mess!

Batteries to fill candles for the windows, a magnet from Spain that needs gluing, a book to pass on to Emily or the free library, notes, receipts.  I didn't show the stack of Christmas cards to address and sign.

A busy time of year.