time off to recoup...

me with daughter and grand daughter

It's 2 days after Christmas and DH and I are taking time off to recoup. You might wonder why we need to take time off since we're retired, but that's the great part: We can! 

And it's a good system as while everyone else (meaning my kids and their spouses) have to hurry back to their respective homes in order to be at work the next day, we (of the older generation who have already put in all those years of work) can take as much time off as needed to recoup from weeks of cleaning, cooking, and Christmas shopping... which is all great fun and worth the effort to have the family home again for Christmas.

However, we do find that we now need at least a week to rest and recoup - sitting by the fire, reading, finishing up Christmas goodies, etc. before even thinking about 'putting away Christmas'. We will keep all our Christmas decor up with the candles and fires burning through New Year's day.  

We don't party on New Year's Eve. We used to go out to dinner that evening, but since the weather is almost always awful, we stopped doing that. Now we simply make my mother-in-law's wonderful home-made eggnog and either sit by the fire-place and/or watch the crystal ball on TV come down (and that's if we can stay awake that long). 

New Year's day I always cook the traditional pork roast, cabbage, and black eyed peas!  Then, once 2018 is officially here, we will start taking down Christmas.

I also have a cute little Christmas story to tell involving our outside feral cats. Actually, it's cute but tragic and magical all at the same time. We have a mama cat that brought her 2 kittens to our yard a few weeks ago. These kittens weren't tiny, but maybe about 8 weeks of age when they appeared with her. 

We were amazed at how good a mother she was as she watched these 2 rambunctious kittens like a hawk... went after them if they ever ventured too far from her and had them by her side each night under the heat lamp.

Well... about a week ago, we found her howling one morning and carrying on and no kittens in sight. She carried on this way for days, searching up and down the front, back, and sides of the house, even going off by the creek in the back. We felt so bad for her... worrying that the worst had happened (there are coyotes about).  But she continued to search. I secretly prayed that she would find them as it broke my heart to see her so distraught.

Well, lo and behold... but on Christmas morning she returned to our backyard with one in tow! We were amazed and overjoyed. She spent the day cleaning and caring for this precious kitten (whom we assume was one of hers... unless she found herself another while searching for her own???) Whatever the case, both mama and baby are extremely happy. DH and I call it our Christmas miracle.

That's my bit for the week. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas (and most did from the blogs I've read).  I'm going to close now with a few pics of Christmas at our house.  There was so much going on that I forgot to take a family pic... but did get a few shots here and there.

Oldest grand daughter with DH

Youngest  grand daugher!

Wishing everyone a very Safe Happy 2018!