I had a Moon Dog off my back deck in December! It only lasted a few seconds but occurred just as I opened the dining room curtain early in the day with my iPhone13 in hand. What a great gift at the end of the year!
"A moon dog (or moondog) or mock moon, also called a paraselene...in meteorology, is an atmospheric optical phenomenon that consists of a bright spot to one or both sides of the Moon. They are exactly analogous to sun dogs...Moon dogs are rarer than sun dogs because the Moon must be bright, about quarter moon or more, for the moon dogs to be observed. Moon dogs show little color to the unaided human eye because their light is not bright enough to activate the eye's cone cells." ~Wikipedia
Moon Dog
Chris, Sarah, Kayleen, Keith, Beti, Jacob, Cora, missing was
Lilly who was at her mother's.
This was a special Thanksgiving with Family at our home and I cooked enough for the whole family(17) that included my daughter's in-laws who couldn't make it so I sent a big sack home with her and Keith and I had leftovers to freeze for a week! I was so happy that Jacob and Cora drove to Missouri from South Carolina! They had a week off and they drove two days each way. Wished they could have stayed longer but both have demanding jobs and they just bought a new home this year.
The winter months are the time for personal projects that I enjoy doing when I stay inside from the cold weather. This year I have completed digitizing old photos up to 1990 so far. I had completed up to 1989 from last winter. I also make a slideshow of each year. I hope to have up to 2006 digitized in 2024 as all the photos after 2006 were originally taken digitally. I just have to put them in the same format.
So much fun seeing all the old photos again and I stay motivated to do all this work in case my memory leaves me someday then I will have all this to enjoy!
1989 daughter Sarah (age 7) with Santa and her Sears Christmas Catalog marked up with all her Christmas wishes.
2023 Granddaughter Kayleen (age 6) with Santa and her Amazon Christmas Catalog marked up with all her Christmas wishes.
Gizmo and Kayleen at the Mills Ranch near Buffalo, Missouri
When Gizmo was born he had a twin. The mother only wanted his brother so Gizmo came to live in their Springfield backyard where he was bottle-fed and raised for a couple months before taken back to the ranch. Kayleen helped out with the bottle feeding every day and now Gizmo will come to her when she calls.
It has almost been a year that my daughter and her husband bought 40 acres from Chris's grandfather about halfway between where they live in Springfield and where we live in Hermitage, Missouri. They have developed it to raise cattle and now have a box-beef business to sell variety boxes of beef cuts to local customers. They have worked very hard and will profit from it soon. Check out their website for more info and pictures. Mills Ranch.
Maybe in the future they will have their products available by mail. Right now they deliver to customers in several counties and have a new truck with their logo.
Early in December we have an evening Christmas Parade in Hermitage. I don't think I have missed one since we moved here in 1978! I especially like it because the floats are lit up and decorated as the days become shorter. This is about 5:30 pm on the Hickory County Square.
Another Christmas Parade we enjoy is in the next town of Urbana, MO. It is a smaller town but has a bigger parade and wonderfully organized events inside the local church. I liked this float because it has a Kansas City Chiefs football team theme and I caught the excitement just right! The blond in the middle was dressed up like Taylor Swift (singer/songwriter) who has a "thing" with Travis Kelsey (tight end) and everyone loves the romantic drama!
Inside the nearby church after the parade was a nice dinner of chili or bean soup with desserts all by donation. Santa and Mrs. Claus were there for the kids. There were crafts for sale and free raffles that gave away many bicycles, scooters, toys, and hams. I think about everyone gets something. Last year when Kayleen was with us, she won a scooter and Keith and I each got a ham! The year before Kayleen got a toy and I got a turkey! We didn't have her with us this year and Keith and I didn't win anything as she must have brought all the luck!
There was awesome live music played in the church by servicemen from the nearby military base. They were also in the parade.
Even though Keith and I didn't have Kayleen with us this year, we enjoyed all the many children around us! Louie is the St. Louis Cardinal mascot which is a local baseball team everyone loves.
December 17th was the dawn of a new decade for me as I turned 70 years old! This is the view from our front yard. It was a Sunday and what better way to celebrate than attending Mass with our new Church Family at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Bolivar, MO.
This is a year that I especially appreciate Old World sculptures and art. Keith and I will be celebrating our 50th Wedding Anniversary in 2024 and have made plans and booked a trip to Rome and Florence, Italy. There is so much art to see and I am learning something new each day in preparation for the trip. I am two months into an online Babbel course to learn Italian. More on that trip later so check back on this blog by summer. For now I see and enjoy the art around me.
The Sacred Heart Church was founded around 1900 by Bohemian immigrants. My parents came from Czechoslovakia in the 1930s. It feels like home.
The patron saint is St. Wenceslaus.
This is St. Michael the Archangel. The church I grew up in and went to 8 years of parochial school in Annandale, Virginia was named after St. Michael so this prayer is very familiar.
This statue of St. Wenceslaus is from the original Catholic Church that burned down years ago and I think was from the original members about 1900. How appropriate for me to pose in front of on my 70th birthday wearing my mother's 100 year old rosary!
This sculpture is now out of a dark garage attic after 30 years and in my home with an interesting history to tell. It is a bronze work of art by Faure De Brousse (1876-1908) named Raffaella. My mother inherited it from her uncle when he died in Washington, DC in the 1950s. I have just begun restoring it. When I am done, I will write a blog post about it. I hope to have it done in 2024.
My 70th birthday ended with an enhanced drive through Damsite Park on Pomme de Terre Lake. I think this is the third year that local businesses put together this event and it has really grown! It has about all the campsites on this peninsula full of Christmas lights and it can be seen from the top of the dam. Awesome!
Our house was decorated for Christmas and Keith and I had a quiet week alone the week before with Bobi Kitty. I made my first batch of Kolachy keeping half for us and the rest to be taken to dinner with our Church Family on Christmas Day. We had plenty of goodies at home and great weather to find time to walk the river trail below the dam most days.
On the 26th we were expecting to have our granddaughter stay overnight until the 30th. At 6 years old, she still believes in Santa Clause so I texted her mother on Christmas Day that a large bag with a red bow that looked like a present was left outside under Bobi Kitty's window with Kayleen's name on it and that it said it was from Santa. It would be inside for her to open when she got here the day after Christmas.
One of the presents Kayleen had asked Santa for was a gum ball machine and she did not get one at her house in Springfield. Guess what she found in the bag? The gum ball machine and a box of candy canes! Of course, she had a bunch of presents from her Babi and Grandpa! She wasted no time to open them all as soon as she got to our house.
So for the next few days, she stayed in her pajamas all day at her request as the weather got really cold outside...so why not? She did want a nice hot shower or tub each night before bedtime. Breakfast in the morning included her favorite shows on Netflix and also her Wizard of Oz movie she enjoys anytime as I purchased it a couple years ago. She stayed up past her 8 pm bedtime to watch her favorite Christmas movies including Polar Express, The Santa Chronicles 1&2, and some of the classic animations. I think routines and schedules became very relaxed.
I made a second batch of Kolachy with her help. The plan was to send what was left home to her family when we took her back on Saturday. This year I made both the traditional Slovak walnut filled crescents and the round Czech ones I call 'thumbprints' filled with homemade wild plum preserves. There are many versions of the recipe and spellings of the name! This is my family tradition.
I was told repeatedly "No Pictures!" so I told her I was only taking pictures of things we were doing and she was just in them. I couldn't take as many as I wanted or she would be upset.
So many games were played throughout the day including a new card game called "Red Light Green Light 1 2 3," a couple board games - "Sorry" and kid's "Monopoly" and last year's gift of "Mouse Trap." She lets her imagination go with "Pineapple Polly Pocket" and several other character toys. Of course, we always have a new puzzle or two that we all work on together or alone now and then. This year the big hit was a 500 piece puzzle called "Butts on Things" that Keith found.
Butts on Things Puzzle
As it got colder every day, we were hoping the messy rain would turn to snow. On Friday it did if only for a couple hours first thing in the morning! Kayleen ran out and made her first snowball and snowman this season and I got her sled and pulled her around the front and back yard...then it melted. She was glad I took pictures then!
Saturday came soon enough and we met her mom and dad in Buffalo as they were spending the rest of the day at the ranch. It was an opportunity for Keith and I to see their new truck which is big enough to pull their trailer with tractor easily.
Back to a much quieter house...but then it was time to take Keith out for a nice 75th Birthday dinner at Pomme De Rita's Tex-Mex Restaurant at Carsons Corner a few miles from our home. It was great that Keith got a special birthday phone call from our son, Jacob!
The late afternoon was spent by both of us taking advantage of the quiet house and a full stomach by taking a nap. Then in the evening we took turns enjoying our Hydro-Spa Tub before bedtime. What a great way to end the day!
The last day of the year - 123123 - was a Sunday Church Day celebrating The Family. Perfect. At home Keith cooked a good pasta & crab with wine sauce meal using one of the crab seafood items our son and daughter-in-law recently gave us for Christmas. Finishing up the afternoon writing this last blog post of the year while watching the Kansas City Chiefs and Cincinnati Bengals football game. Chiefs win 25 to 17!!!! What a rough month for them!
Wishing everyone a Happy New Year and this simple prayer....
