Hi ladies,


Wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas. Hope you have a good time surrounded by friends and family or just relaxing and doing whatever makes you happy. We will have a quiet day, just us like usual. It's funny that my sister who for years got stuck hosting the family get togethers just longs for a quiet day with just her family and Momma and I who have exactly that wouldn't mind a holiday get together because I haven't had one since we moved in 2004. But then again if I had one, I'd probably be reminded why I don't want one


We will have a nice dinner of crusted filet mignon. I went to the store and stopped a minute to look at cheeses and got to the meat counter just behind another lady. She was buying up the tenderloins - the exact size of fillets I wanted and she was going to CUT THEM UP into chunks !!! Sacrilege! And then she started getting fussy and complaining that this one had a blood line in it (well it IS Meat after all lady) and that had a fat chunk and she wasn't paying for fat chunks. When it was my turn I selected 2 fillets from the leftovers - they aren't as thick as DH would like so he will not be getting his medium rare tenderloin that he'd like. I am making roasted potatoes, roasted brussel sprouts for me (yum) and for dessert an almond pound cake with a dark cherry amaretto sauce that sounds fabulous. Tomorrow I am making a small ham and potato salad per DH's request. I decorated a bit but did not put up a tree. I did buy some fresh flowers - white mums and red carnations that I have in 3 vases. Darn Bimmy is sitting on the floor looking up at the flowers wondering how she can get to them. I'm sure she'd chew them to pieces. But I have hollered at her. We have a male cardinal who keeps banging our upper trapezoid window in the front of the house - he sees his reflection and thinks he is chasing off an intruder. I have to turn the ceiling lights on and wave my sweater in the air like a flag on the inside to chase him off. I am glad to have 4 days to myself at home. We have gotten a touch of snow - just enough to say we had a white Christmas. As usual, we are going to get lambasted for New Years. We are supposed to get 3 to 5 inches on Thursday - bingo night. It always seems to have bad weather on Thursday. The bingo jackpot will be well over $1,000 so people will be making their way in no matter what the weather.


Ceejay - CBD oil is a byproduct of hemp oil - marijuana but without THC - that's the thing in pot that gets you high. It is coming into it's own now for relief of anxiety and inflammation. I started taking it a few months ago - didn't think it really was doing anything so I stopped it. 2 days after I stopped it I felt like I had been hit by a truck. I was hurting from head to toe. So I guess it was doing some good. It is expensive and you have to make sure you are getting it from a reliable source because now everyone and their brother is jumping on the band wagon and manufacturing it. The trick too is to figure out the right dose for you. Everyone is different. There is no way you can overdose on it unless you take a whole bottle at once - they said if you are getting more than you need, it will just make you tired. I am taking almost the recommended maximum dose - 750 mg per pill and I take it twice a day - morning and night. I find it works better for me this way. I did notice a difference in ease of walking with my bad knee. It doesn't take the pain away completely but it's the difference between crippled and tolerable. Sorry I didn't answer you earlier. I often start to do a post and then the phone rings or DH comes down and starts talking to me about his latest project or he decides he is ready to go to the store NOW and I have to up and leave. I'm glad you and your sister are speaking - sounds like she's a fire and oil type - highly volatile and you being the quieter one have to decide how much you want to deal with to keep the peace. I hope she's in a good mood and you can enjoy your get together. Hopefully they won't need you on jury duty.


Laura - you'll have to let me know how you like your griddle. I agree, if I wanted to simmer a large stock pot on the stove, the center burner would work nicely as my high BTU burners are too hot to simmer (even on low) but I need the build up of heat to get the thing boiling in the first place. I love how they make the racks across the entire stove stop instead of the old cast iron burners - fits all sorts of different sized pans nicely, especially if you are cooking BIG. How nice to be off until the 1st. The Senior Center decided to close from Friday through Tuesday in a rare opportunity to give people and extended holiday. While shopping yesterday I chatted with the owner of the Steak House here in town, she said she also decided to be closed for Christmas to give her staff a chance to be with their families too. I think that's nice. We laughed about if people really wanted to go out to eat, it's guaranteed that the ONLY place open in town is the Chinese Restaurant, just like in the movie - The Christmas Story I hope you have a nice time at home and get some relaxing time for yourself.


Susie - hope you are enjoying your time off. Make the most of it. My mouth is sensitive like yours too. I don't think they believe us when we say that. I am fine now, just a few days of discomfort but thanks for asking. Look forward to hearing about your Christmas celebrations. You have been posting some really nice pictures on FB of you and DH doing things.


Annie - I hope now that you are home you have some way of keeping connected with us. Enjoy the holidays - snuggle up with the boys and have a nice, family cozy Christmas. Things WILL get better in the new year, I really hope so but I have my concerns too. That's a later worry.


Shad - see you are home now. Really enjoyed the pictures. Are you seeing family for your traditional Christmas brunch?


Hello Dee.


Sorry I didn't get cards out - I am looking at them right now as well as the Christmas postage stamps I made DH go out on a special trip to buy. I am off to make my garlic dressing for the salad, pop my pound cake in the oven and whip up that cherry sauce so it can cool and let the flavors blend.


Hope you all have a Merry Christmas - I have to work the whole day at the Senior Center on Wednesday so not sure if I will get in here the next couple of days.

Merry Christmas everyone. Sorry to be MIA yet again. When I get home from todays festivities I will write a decent post. Meantime for most of you over there shivering in the cold and waiting for the sleigh to land on your roof, I am off for a family barbeque where the temperature will be kind today and be a high twenty something probably around 85F and we are like the Italians. 20 will sit down to brunch, eat too much, all talk at once and no-one listens.
They are my family, bless them for all their lurks and quirks.

Meantime, early bed for you lot. Tomorrow I hope you all have a lot of fun, family, friends and food.

Love from me over here in the tropics.

Merry Christmas Chickies!

We had a full day today, we met a friend in Miamisburg for brunch and then went to see the movie."The Mule" with Clint Eastwood and Bradley Cooper. It was very good and it was based on a true story.

We stopped at our favorite local store and go some sandwiches made..they are deli sandwiches amazing bread and mine was a red rosted hummas..also picked up some pasta salad and big dill pickles as well as some Spranglers rootbeer and that was our dinner for this evening.

We went to visit DH's dad and gave him his gifts as tomorrow he will go to his daughters house. We go to our friends house in Sabina, the same friends we do Thanksgiving with. Their son and grandchildren will be there

Our menu tomorrow will be beef and noodles, candied sweet potatoes, baked sprial ham, mashed potatoes, corn, baked beans, rolls, deviled, or as Annie calls them, angled eggs and yeast rolls , for dessert we will have snickerdoodle cookies, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and a bananna ceam pie.

We do the ham, the rolls, the eggs, the cookies.

We eat, open gifts, watch movies, eat again and watch more movies and then have dessert.

I need to get back in the kitchen and finish up some things so we can get to be and open gifts before we go to our friends to eat at 1.

I will do personals next time.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Just a quick hello. Whooped from hosting the family yesterday, but everything went pretty well. Not easy to host a sit-down for 10 in our small house, but the other 364 days of the year it's fine, lol.

Chilling out today, and a rare nap is in order.

Enjoy your Christmas, and Shad enjoy your Boxing Day.

Hello Everyone. I hope you all had a nice Christmas. We had a very nice and relaxing Christmas and received very nice things.

I admit I overindulged in the evening with the goodies so this morning I made myself get up and get that workout in. It makes me feel happy and strong when I workout.

I am not waiting until Jan 1 to start back my journey to feeling good about myself....and it starts with keeping promises I make to myself. My first promise is to not comfort myself with food; when I do this I feel out of control and weak and I don't like myself afterwards. I want to feel in control of me, strong and confident and happy with myself. I promise to do the things that make me feel in control of me, strong, confident and happy with myself.

Laura: hosting takes a lot of energy and work! I hope you get some rest and relaxation time in today.

Have a great day everyone!

Think I'm in a food stupor. Too many heavy foods.
Things have settled down between sis and me. She mentioned that we had been in a tiff last week while we were playing Scrabble last night with my nephew and his wife. I said politely do not to go there in a stern voice and she didn't . She was still a bit sensitive with me around, but she/we tolerated each other. Over all it was a good Christmas.
My goals for 2019 will be my over all health. I don't really care any more what I weigh. It is who I am. My main goal will be determined after my doctor's visit on January 9th. I've been working on getting my good cholesterol level up. The bad has been in a good range.
May look at another couple of gyms tomorrow to see if they use will use my Silver Sneakers card to cover the cost of membership. I may be changing gyms although PF does have a lot of amenities.

Susie
I'm with you. I've got to get back to my exercise. I'll ride my bike later on this afternoon. Too lazy to go to the gym.

Happy
Thanks for the explanation of the CBD oil.

Laura
You deserve some R & R after hosting Christmas.

Shad
I envy you being in the tropics. I do think of the Domincan Republic often and all that warm sunshine.

Good morning girls,

I'm with you on the food stuff - it didn't take very long at all before I was over and done with Christmas cookies (about 2 days). I'm glad I didn't bake and I have no qualms about dumping the cookies I bought at the Cookie Walk because the point of that was a fundraiser - no one says I have to eat them. I worked at the Senior Center and ate lunch there yesterday - pork roast, brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes. Now that they are trying to save money the food is not as good as it used to be. I think it's less homemade stuff, more canned and frozen. When I got home I wasn't that hungry so I made DH a chicken Kiev and served leftover potatoes and some cold fresh veggies for him. I ate a half a ham sandwich later with 2 spoons of my homemade potato salad. It just gave me indigestion at 9:30. Everything seems to bother my stomach lately. Back to clean eating again which means I need to shop on a regular basis to make sure I have fresh fruits and vegetables.

I'm home today. We were supposed to get a bad snowstorm and they decided to cancel and close everything and then the storm petered out. We got a couple of inches of snow and rain on top of it. It's barely above freezing so this will probably freeze into a rutted mess tonight. And then we are hitting the deep freeze again. I think it's only supposed to be a high of negative 1 degree (F) for New Year's Eve. Glad we don't go out. I did get awakened at 6:30am today when they decided to close things. I updated Facebook and the Website and called all the folks scheduled to take the Senior Bus for transport around town. Only had one funny incident of a guy who said I woke him up at 8:15 and he didn't have his hearing aids in so I yelled what I needed too - I'm still not sure he knew what I was saying But I am glad to have the day to myself. The whole weekend actually. I am sorting through some pictures a few people took at our Christmas party. I thought I was bad with pictures because I can't really see my screen very well but at least I asked them to pose and smile. Most of the pictures are terrible. Our official site "photographer" did the worst pictures of all. The only one that is good is of him and his girlfriend - and the site is flooded with their pictures - you'd think they are the only ones who attend the place. The other person's pictures aren't much better than that - lots of people with shut eyes or goofy faces and I won't post pictures like that if the other people aren't looking good.

Sounds like you all had a nice Christmas. Ours was the typical quiet non-Christmas we usually have. DH came from a dysfunctional family. He does not particularly like holiday gatherings. When we'd go to my Mom's at Christmas shortly after we'd eat he'd come down with some mysterious illness or headache and we'd have to leave early. It always upset me. I think he was glad when we moved away and it was too difficult to come back home. He hasn't spoken to his brothers and sister pretty much since his father died in 2003. His Mom was the glue that held the fractured family together and when she died in 1979 things fell apart. Christmas is pretty much a non event for me now and I'm mostly ok with it. We won't really do anything for new year's either - I will buy another bottle of wine I won't feel like opening. We are getting some live lobsters. I am not keen and won't be anywhere near when they go in the pot. That is DH's thing.

Ceejay - I get the food stupor. Glad your sister behaved over the holidays and you took the high road. I think it's wise to just focus on developing healthy habits and other things will fall into place.

Susie - smart of you to get back to good habits now. I'm glad you are enjoying your well deserved time off at home.

Laura - glad you survived the family get together. When you don't have one of these open floor plan mega mansions it can be challenging to host more than 6 people I think about my Mom's tiny little bungalow where we often crammed 30 people into the house because everyone came to visit my grandmother who lived upstairs. Just makes it cozy! And a challenge in the kitchen to get everything warmed and done on time. But now it's over and hopefully next year someone else's worry!

Shad - I am sitting here freezing and watching it snow hard outside (it just started) and sure am wishing I had a bit of your heat and sunshine. I loved your brunch description of everyone talking, no one listening. Happens at the Senior Center every day - they compete to talk over each other.

Hello Annie I hope you will have a way to stay in touch with us because we'd miss you otherwise.

Going to post this now and tackle some chores.

Happy
Sometimes quiet holidays are the best especially if you've been working. I'm glad that you will eat brussel sprouts.
----------------------------

Thinking about staying home for New Years eve. There is nothing special going on at church and no need to spend the night at sis's. I would feel obligated to do as she wants. I'm ready to get back on track with my own schedule.

Morning all,
Finally got some time to myself. I'm not sure what I am going to do with it. I'm off to Adelaide on the 5th January to have a belated Christmas with Son, DIL, and little miss S. They should be back from NZ today or tomorrow.
I'm about to start tiling in the laundry. My nephew was supposed to do it, but he's either forgotten, not interested or procrastinating - something I am good at too. It's not a big job, but I will get some of it done today and some tomorrow. Hope to be finished by next year.
Other than that, I have been looking at things to do for next year since I have to stop being a hermit and get my brain back into gear. I have enrolled in the U3A and will be taking French lessons for the first part of the year. I also intend to do some cooking (for one) classes and maybe some yoga or tai chi to try for some fitness. My Dietician was very pleased with me when I went back to her on the 19th December. I have lost 3kgs since the last visit. Must admit most of that came from the good eating and walking across, up and down mountains in Tasmania. I have walked a couple of times since I got back but nowhere near as far or as uphill as we were doing. Some of those streets in Launceston were as bad if not worse than San Francisco. Anyway, I am trying to take care of the eating and small portions are getting to be a habit. I'll never be thin again, but I can be better than I am. I'm also doing some weights at home to try to tone up these wobbly arms. Christmas breakfast was fine, lots of noise, heaps of wrapping paper scattered everywhere, some happy kids. The two nieces will be coming here to do some cooking and gardening and go out somewhere probably after I come back from Adelaide.

Happy - Sorry to hear the food at the Seniors Centre is not so good any more. I fail to see where savings are made using tinned and frozen food. Sure fresh can be expensive but at least you are eating in season and that has to be better for you. Who knows what goes into the processed stuff.
Sounds like your weather is being horrible but it is good that they cancelled things in case it got out of hand. Safety first.
We usually have breakfast. Very little alcohol is available. Usually a bottle of sparkly stuff, and whatever you want to put in there if anything. None of us are big drinkers anymore. The two girls enjoy an orange juice (large) with a dash of prosecco or sparkling wine. They think they are very grown up with that. It's nice to have a quiet day once in a while tho' and not do too much at all. The family here is not always the same, some are away or going away, some make the time, others join in from time to time. Never can quite predict how many there are. Phones ring with family far away and the noise makes your ears ring. Turn off the hearing aids

Ceejay - sorry about the problems you have had with your sister. You are right - best to concentrate on doing things for yourself and looking after yourself. You have been catering to the family ever since you retired.

Laura - I know the feeling of having too many people in your house. Fortunately here it is warm and sunny mostly so we can shove the kids and some of the more juvenile adults outside to see if Santa has dropped anything in his haste to leave things at the house. We can also eat outside on the patio. Just have to make sure none of the littlies get close to the barbeque. Then there is the cleaning up and inevitably the drop into a chair for a well earned rest.

Susie - Glad you have had a good Christmas. Always so much fun with family and friends. I'm glad you are starting back with the exercising and eating well. It so helps - especially the eating bit. Maybe we should all take up a challenge to do one good thing for our bodies for the entire month of January, then another for February but keep up the January one.

Annie - where are you? I'm sorry that that company was so rude as to not let you know that you didn't get the job. I think that companies today are completely devoid of moral or compassionate grounds. I don't think I would want to work for them anyway. Hope the family are all doing well and that you haven't descended into the **** of depression. Come back to us and let us know how you are.

Our weather is pleasant at the moment, not too much heat and not too much humidity, but that can change in an instant. We've had some humdinger storms and there was a big one while I was away which caused some damage in the State. From drought to bush fires to torrential rain, mud slides (because the fires burnt off the vegetation and there was nothing to stop the soil moving). It has been very hot around the rest of the country with South Australia hitting the 40+ C mark - that's 110F and more unless you are being pedantic and tell me it is only 108+F which it probably is. Mother Nature is really ticked off at us this year. Fires, floods, droughts, murders, drownings, clearing of bush to make way for more boxes for people to live in - which will exacerbate the feuds and thefts and assaults as peoples space disappears around them and of course our wonky politicians who are not out for the good of the country, nor in many cases out for the good of their respective parties - but only looking to number one. We need more women in Parliament however the old boys network is so strong and so entrenched over here that they come and they go in rapid succession. Even the newspapers are declaring that the next vacant seat must be filled by a woman. Okay, I'm off my soapbox. I'd better get on to the next thing on my list. See you all soon. And if I don't happen to get back here before New Years Eve, have a happy, enjoyable one with safe travels and lots of love.

Can't think of much else happening here.

So 2018 is on it's way out and we are about to enter 2019. Happy New Year to you all. Thanks for your friendship, help and support, and everything that has come to pass in our little group. May the coming year bring us all health and wealth and weight loss as required along with the ability to swing with the highs and lows.

Love you all.

As the year comes to a close, I wanted to stop in and wish a Happy New Year to this lovely group! It's great that you have stuck around here for so long, keeping this thread going, forming such wonderful lasting friendships.

May 2019 bring you all health and happiness!

Good morning ladies,


Happy New Year Shad as you have already welcomed it in and this point most likely are cozy in your bed dreaming of pleasant things.


Thank you Carol for your kind words. Yes it is hard to believe that some of us have been together for going on 18 years. I took a look around last week and I'm not sure the site is as active as it once used to be. It's hard - new people come on and it's never been the case that people flock to one person - more likely you have to find a group and join up with it. I hope people can connect - we are proof positive that it's not always about weightloss that brings people together. A happy and healthy new year to you also.


At this moment both DH and I are trying to fight off some sort of cold bug. Him being a guy of course he is more near death's door than me I just have a really bad headache - like congestion but no stuffy nose. Do have a scratchy throat and my tummy feels rolling at times. He is the same more or less. We ordered live lobsters which we need to go pick up at the store. I am not crazy about cooking them and I find a whole lobster quite too much work for the end result truth be told but DH wanted it. Also we found out last week that our favorite restaurant is having financial issues and having a rough go at it. They bought a building which might have been a bargain but that's because it was a money pit in hiding and needed tons of costly repairs. They have sunk so much money into it and while their business is good, they can't make enough to overcome the repair debt. As the new year rolls in, our town gets really REALLY quiet. Hunting season is over so all you get is the ice fisherman and the snowmobilers both of which tend to like to sit in bars and drink their calories. They are not the kind to put out lots of money in nice restaurants so many of the places around here shut down for 3 or 4 months over the winter to give themselves a much deserved rest from the summer hustle and frankly there isn't enough business to make it work staying open for many. So, our favorite restaurant - the one we were excited to have her because we could count on a special meal for birthdays (Feb & April) and our wedding anniversary (March) will not be closed like most everything else here. Tonight will be their last night open until April or so. Even though we went there for dinner this past Friday, I convinced DH to make one last trek there tonight to stoke up on our favorites. But with the way he's acting, I'm thinking he will try and bow out of that. The lobsters will spend their last night in my refrigerator tonight if we went out. He went back to bed for a while so I'm hoping that will give him some energy.


We have nothing special planned to ring in the new year. I don't even watch TV anymore. The NYE shows are filled with "celebrities" I have no idea who they are. We only see the new year roll in via the ball drop in New York City - that's an hour before it's actually midnight here and they have absolutely nothing in the midwest to mark the passing of the hour. After New York it switches to the west coast - once again, they forget the whole middle of the country. I don't think I will have to worry about appetizers no matter what we do tonight. Might pop open a bottle of wine, probably not as I never feel quite like drinking it come 9pm or so. I did print out some planning guides and things. Like many others, I would like to set some good habits in gear starting tomorrow. But that's about it. Most of this upcoming week will be quiet and I'm happy for that.


Shad - it sounds as if you have some interesting plans also. French? do you have someone to practice with? It's a good thing for the brain to learn a new language. I have always found cooking classes to be fun. The people who used to do them here have gone on to other ventures in their respective lives so I miss not having that opportunity. Congratulations on the hard work paying off with the pounds down. Tai Chi is good for balance and fitness and after you noticed a bit more effort required to do all that walking, Tai Chi would help with that. And it's (maybe) easier to follow than Zumba dancing Glad to hear you had an nice Christmas. Not so nice to hear that you are also suffering the effects of global warming much like we are here. I would just like to pop on the nose those misinformed people who believe the b.s. bestowed by those who favor corporate profits over saving this planet - there is no global warming. You don't have to think much to see that it's getting worse. LIke DH says - glad we are on the "downside" of our lives. I do wonder if we will see the end of this earth in my lifetime...


Ceejay - yes indeed pop in at your sisters, wish everyone a good new year and then go home and make your plans to have one yourself. No need to start the new year with your sister's drama.


Laura, Annie, Susie - hope you are all home enjoying some peacefulness and making plans to be a better you starting tonight. As Shad said - thank you for your love, support and friendship. Hope we all have a happy, healthy and successful 2019.One of my intentions is to make it in here more regularly. Happy New Year and love to you all. ♥

Happy New Year to all of you!! I hope 2019 is the best year ever for all of you!

Happy New Year. I'm planning a quiet day at home. My weight is back to where I started last year. But I'm not to concerned about it. Exercise is going to be my goal this year.

Happy New Year!

I love the excitment of the new year and new goals or renewed goals.

Today is a lazy day at home. We are watching the Rose Bowel Parade and will watch the Rose Bowel game at 5.... and rooting our Ohio State Buckeyes to a victory!

Sometime I need to get my workout in.

Shad: have you ever taken french lessons before? In High School I took Spanish for 4 yrs and I would love to resurrect it again and become more fluent. The question is do I want to actually put in the time.

Happy: sorry to hear one of your resturants will be closing for a bit. Living in a small town, other than a few local restaurants we only have fast food. That is why we go out of town on the weekends when meeting friends for dinner.

Laura: When does your deep stretching classes start. Are you excited to get started?

Ceejay:I had a net gain for the 2018 yr. I haven't put all my weightloss back on but I have left 20 lbs back on and so my focus is getting that back off. Exercise helps me a lot.

Annie and Dee: we miss you! Hope to see you all soon!