My new Gratitude Journal for 2024

This is a customer review of one of my Christmas gifts--a narrow line journal I can use all year, and I hope I'll love it as much as she does.

 "Pen + Gear Leatherette Jumbo Journal in a beautiful blue color and embossed with a botanical design that i just love ! It measures a large 7.375 x 10.25 x 0.75 and has 192 pages that are lined. There is a ribbon that can mark your place. Along the top of the pages are 3 letter abbreviations for months Jan - Dec and numbered 1-31. This is fantastic when journaling, just circle the month, then circle the day! The leatherette cover feels so soft, it feels like real leather. It is just beautiful...and extremely well made. Love it ! " 

I keep a daily gratitude journal with 6 categories, and most "journals" just don't work for me. I found one in 2021, and never found another one. If I like this on Jan. 2 or 3, I may order one for 2025.

Christmas Eve dinner

I was setting the table for Christmas Eve dinner using the hand painted gingerbread boy plates and thought the silver looked really dark, so I flipped to my blog for my silver cleaner recipe, which I'd forgotten (only 2 ingredients). I came across this blog from 2010 written at the Lake.

"At our summer home on Lake Erie in Lakeside, Ohio, we wash and dry the dishes together. At home we have a dishwasher. This is such a pleasant, companionable task we often say we'll do it in Columbus, but we never do. And as he washes, and I dry, my husband says the same thing every evening, "How can two people create all these dirty dishes and silverware?" So, I go through it piece by piece--this fork was used for cat food, this spoon was for the Cool Whip, this spoon served the main dish, this one the vegetables. It's like talking to a toddler who asks "why," you explain, and he then says, "but why?" "

Our menu tonight:

bratwurst

potato salad

cauliflower soup

corn, frozen fresh in summer 2023

fresh fruit--green grapes, cantaloupe, blueberries, strawberries

Christmas cards on a snowy day

What could be better? I opened 11 Christmas cards and it's snowing outside! I love them all, but really enjoy the notes and letters. It's a big project--opening, cutting off labels, taping them inside the card, and cutting off the cancelled stamps hoping I'll find someone who wants them.

The stamp bonanza was on an envelope from a non-profit. Someone must have sent their donation in stamps. 

1993 .29 Hank Williams; 

2016 .05 grapes, 

2022 .04 blueberries; 

2 1987 .10 Red Cloud ; 

2 1957 .03 stamps of NEA honoring teachers  

2 1957 .03 stamps of 200th anniversary of LaFayette; 

1985 .22 Special Olympics; 

1988 .25 Carousel horse (Cedar Point, OH). 

I remember when 3 cents was the first class postage rate.

 
Rather than wait in a line that went to the door at the only USPS branch around here, today I purchased my stamps at the machine. First time.

Ten Things that made me happy today

1.  I wore my new Christmas sweater

2. in a cheery royal blue

3. to a Conestoga Party

4. at a lovely venue I've never been to

5. with a dinner prepared by Schmidt's Sausage Haus

6. our Friday date-night spot of 40 years ago

7. enjoying Bahama Mamas and German potato salad

8, with cream puffs for dessert

9. sitting with our neighbors Joan and Jerry

10. while renewing old friendships.