Remembering Christmas 2020

 Prompts desperately needed! Thanks to Joyce at This Side of the Pond for providing them. 

1. Tell us about your favorite moment or share one of the bright spots from the year we're leaving behind. 

Thinking about 2020 gives me a headache. Sure, there were a few good days—precious few, and far between. Christmas was the highlight. 

2. What do you wish you'd known at the start of 2020? Elaborate. 

Difficult to answer. I would not have wanted to know one thing about 2020. It was the kind of year that was best unrolled one day at a time. Knowing anything in advance, I may have lived under the bed. 

3. Best book you read this year? If you did not read any books this year, what's the best thing you ate all year? We've all eaten, right? 

I enjoyed reading my Gladys Taber books. I didn't try anything new in culinary delights. 

4. The Pantone Colors of the year for 2021 are ultimate gray and illuminating yellow (a bright shade)...are you a fan? Would we find either of these colors in your home or wardrobe? 

I might be; You might. 

5. If you were/are making a list of 21 things to do/accomplish in 2021 what is one thing that would be on it? 

Death Cleaning/Decluttering...the entire house needs it from basement to attic and the garage could use more, as well.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

    Emmanuel making his first gingerbread house

Anneke's First Christmas

Kirsten, Anneke, and Raccoon

Emmanuel likes to clean

Reminds me of David Engledow and Alice Bee

Adam. Sam, Jake wrapping gifts for their mom on Christmas Eve

Beautiful Laurel...say, what would that app do for me?

Ahhh well, moving right along. ツ

The House

Thanks to Joyce, whom I am linking to, though not participating. 

Thanks for reading. 

Happy 2021!

Love, 

Vee

Christmas Greetings

 Look for Christ and you will find Him. And with Him, everything else.

 

~C.S. Lewis

 It's now or never. This season has been particularly overwhelming for many reasons. My sincere apologies for being silent. Quiet is what I have needed these days.

From my home to yours...a blessed Christmas. 

Love,

Vee

Comments are closed. No one has time for that! ツ

A Blessed Thanksgiving

 

"May not and ought not the children of these fathers rightly say: 'Our fathers were Englishmen which came over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in this wilderness but they cried unto the Lord, and He heard their voice, and looked on their adversity...' Let them therefore praise the Lord, because He is good, and His mercies endure forever. Yea, let them which have been redeemed of the Lord, shew how He hath delivered them from the hand of the oppressor. When they wandered in the desert wilderness out of the way, and found no city to dwell in, both hungry, and thirsty, their soul was overwhelmed in them. Let them confess before the Lord His loving kindness, and His wonderful works before the sons of men. " ~William Bradford

What a heritage! And no better time to ponder it than at this moment in history. 

Though I bequeath you no estate, I leave you in the enjoyment of liberty. ~ William Bradford

Love, 

Vee 

 

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Troubles

Dear Friends, 

I am no longer able to sign in to my blog so that I can leave comments on yours. When I select the "sign in" button, I can get behind the page as I have done to post this. Still, when I return to my home page, I am not signed in nor can I sign in at your blog. Always something. 

So far, I can still read at your blogs, but the way things are going... 

Over and out for now at least...

Vee

Edited to Add Saturday November 21, 2020

My good friend Abby, who is apparently a good computer geek as well, was able to determine what was cranking Blogger—they don't like BRAVE. I do like Brave so will continue to use it for most things on this iPad. It is worth the effort of switching to Safari when visiting blogs. See what I go through just for you?! 😁 If I haven't yet arrived at your place, give me a little more time. I am deep into Thanksgiving cleaning to include shredding old documents and washing up dishes only used at this time of year. You know the drill. And now I know why I dislike Safari...it keeps freezing. Oh well, maybe my patience will return.

Hope to visit soon! 

Tints of Autumn

 So here I am again as promised. Just as I was about to write this post, I heard footsteps on my stairs so went in search of whomever~whatever and found my sister-in-law Mary peeking in the garage window.

That caused her to jump. She was just wondering if I was in the garage working as I have been quite often of late. One thing led to another and pretty soon we were off for lunch. We both opted for hamburgers. They were huge. I couldn't eat all of mine and she couldn't eat all of hers. Nevertheless, lunch out was a pleasant diversion.

🍁🍃🍁

Last Friday, a rainy Friday, Laurel and I took off for our annual Leaf-Peeping Day. We began by eating lunch at one of our favorite places and for the next three hours, I spent a lot of time wondering where I was. Laurel knows a lot more roads than I do.

🍁🍃🍁 

...I see the sunset light flooding the river valley, the western hills stretching to the horizon, overhung with trees gorgeous and glowing with the tints of autumn--a mighty flower garden, blossoming under the spell of the enchanter, Frost...

~John Greenleaf Whittier

The softened light, the veiling haze,

The calm repose of autumn days,

Steal gently o'er the troubled breast,

Soothing life's weary cares 

to rest.

~Phebe A. Holder

As long as you have a window, life is exciting.
~Gladys Taber

And all the way home again where my own view isn't so bad. 

No, that is not a bottle of beer in the window. It's a pumpkin pie soda bottle...truly awful, but the bottle was too cute to leave on the shelf. 

Thank you for your visit, thank you for the kind comments on yesterday's post.

🍁🍃🍁

Thus concludes October foliage posts from my corner, but don't conclude those from your own. I do love foliage reports.

Love,

Vee

Garbage

This is not much of a post, friends, but since some have become accustomed to seeing a post on Tuesdays, I will share the most exciting thing of my week so far.

You may remember that I had given myself the assignment of cleaning up the garage. It really needed it. There were many personal papers of John's that I had to go through piece by piece. When I had done that a few years ago while still cleaning in his barn, I found money and an old coin collection. This was passed on to his daughter to give to the great-grandchildren.  So I was not willing to just toss those bags of papers without going through it. And so far I have found thirty-five cents!

Help arrives!

Even though I didn't meet my deadline of the end of September, I'm calling this task a success. Yes, there's more to do, but what a burden has been lifted.

Tomorrow, I hope to do better. I actually have my annual leaf-peeping drive with Laurel at the ready. Those of you who have had enough of that can be forewarned. I sense that some are growing weary of such posts. 

Thanks for popping by...

Love,

Vee

 

Astonished by October

 

This first photo is an experiment. I am trying to figure out how to have a photo actually show up in the blog profiles. I have grown weary of bl👀👀ger deciding how my blog shows up. I am willing to bend to their standards if I only knew what they were. 

Let us move on to more pleasant things asap.

[Edited to Add: The experiment proved that hoping a small picture would show in blog profiles is not the answer. ]

 

click to see larger
 

Photo taken by my daughter in her corner. This is her friend's home; Laurel is on cat duty this week. That's Sugarloaf in the distance.

I was out a few days ago...I really needed a chauffeur as my head was on a swivel looking at the beautiful foliage. That, in itself, surprised me because we are a week past peak. I kept asking myself how it could be that it all was so glorious and that's when I realized that it was the light. The light was able to reach the deepest reaches of each tree illuminating them from within. Glorious!

Over the house

Along the house

hardy marigolds

daughter's birthday bouquet

one new school picture

Very happy to have Jake's new school picture...last year was a bust. Now I'm waiting on Sam's. 

Have you been astonished by October, too? I hope that you are enjoying this exquisite time of year. Keep sharing!

Love, 

Vee

Who?

 This is a post to introduce my peeps who are most often mentioned on the blog. It's a reference post in actuality. It will be posted on a back page and then will be linked in my sidebar.

John~my second husband who was a large part of this blog for eight plus years~was a contractor and began his experience at A Haven for Vee as the hired help and wound up as Lord of the Manor. There are many photos of him in the pages of this blog and fun stories. The photo below is one of my favorite pictures.

Sam and John

I have two children. My daughter Laurel is two and a half years older than her brother Adam. She appears quite often on the blog. I'll be adding a more recent picture soon.

My son Adam and his wife Michelle...the little girl from next door...literally. ☺

Sam and Jake are Adam and Michelle's sons and my grandsons.

Jake on left and Sam on right a few years ago...

Sam

⬆️And a dozen years ago⬇️

Jakob at John's knee

Jake and Sam School Pictures 2020

Sam Fall Cleanup 2020

Jakob fall cleanup 2020

My sister Kim and her husband Steve

I am almost four years older than my only sibling.

Kim's daughter Kirsten and her family...Joel and Emmanuel

Kim's youngest daughter Keanne with Baby Anneke

Kim and Grands

The "Mountain Climbers"

The End