2021 Christmas tree -

My husband and I discussed which tree to put up and he preferred the big white one.  

So I put it up and did minimal fluffing to it. 

I looked at the 3 tubs of ornaments and assorted doodads.  I got out my 4 mugs, the nativity set I bought 41 years ago and the 2 Santa’s for the grandchildren to play with.  

As I said before,  I just don’t enjoy putting all the ornaments on a tree and this giant tree would need a LOT of ornaments. 

I thought “what would my grandchildren like?”  Well, they like candy so I decided to do a candy cane decorated tree.  

It’s a prelite  tree and the lights can be white or multicolor 

The topper is a Santa hat I’ve had for years.  

Most of the candy canes are traditional peppermint but I got a few specialty ones.

I’ll keep this picture in case any candy cane eaters are trying to choose which cane to eat and wondering what flavor it might be.  

I had fun doing this tree and I think my grands will all be impressed 

But I’m sure it won’t be featured in Pinterest highlights either 😂

❤️🎄 Rhonda 

Pantry clean up and problem, commenting problem and which tree should I do?

Hello everyone,  

I was home all afternoon yesterday and all day today and I made quite a bit of progress on my to do list.

The floors all got cleaned yesterday and did they ever need it! 

The first job I did today was clean  and reorganize our pantry.  

This is before ——

And after 

I made a new batch of taco seasoning - it’s a tried and true recipe and I’ve blogged about it multiple times.  

A triple batch fills a quart jar - I’ve put this in small jars for Christmas gifts and everyone liked it 

Just a caution about pantry filling - I had 2 unopened boxes of Aldi brand “Velveeta”

 They were out of date by a few months (but I don’t rely strictly on dates)

I opened one for a recipe I cooked yesterday and that shelf stable cheese was dry and brown.  

So I opened the second one and it was the same.  

I threw it away.  

when I bought more,  I only bought one and I spent extra for the name brand.  

I don’t know what happened with the Aldi product 

I’m thinking about how to decorate for Christmas.  I looked on my old blog posts to remember what we did other years .

I still haven’t decided. 

This white tree is very tall and I could decorate it like a snowman again or put an assortment of ornaments on it.

Or I could use the short green one.  It’s a nice tree and a small tree would be easier. 

I think my grands would love the tall one though 

   

How do you all vote?  

Also, Blog authors,  if your blog is in my sidebar,  I read your blog.  And I’ve been trying to comment recently but my comments seem to just disappear when I hit publish- with no message about my comment needing to be approved.  

I’m sure it’s a blogger bug and I’m hoping to figure it out.  

But please know I’m not ignoring you all 

❤️ Rhonda 

Let’s get my home back in shape

Good morning Homemakers 

First here is my to do list for the week 

It’s different than how I usually do it.  And I’ll explain.  Because every room in our home needs more than just some vacuuming and dusting,  I listed each room and my plan is tackle each room and then as I get it back right,  I’ll move to another room.  

This is what all the rooms looked like Sunday afternoon 

  

I took all these photos in about 3 minutes and Ducky followed me from room to room.  

The bathrooms and laundry room also need attention, but really, who wants to see a messy bathroom?  

I hope I can get lots done but last week, I was slowed way down with a cranky back.  It’s been feeling fine the last 2 days but I’ll be careful and if it flares up, I’ll have to stop.  

My plan is to do floors, dusting, wash bedding as needed and deal with clutter in every room.  

Anyone else starting  this week after Thanksgiving with a messy house?  😧😧😧

I’ll check back in soon…….

❤️Rhonda 

I think I’m back

Hello everyone, 

I’ve already blogged about things keeping us busy.  And you all know how the pandemic halted most travel plans. 

Well, my husband and I are vaccinated and boosted so we felt it was safe for us go on a Branson vacation we scheduled months ago.  

We celebrated our 40 and 41st anniversary during the “stay at home” days so we tried to make this long awaited vacation as memorable as we could.  

We spent a week in a condo and mostly saw lots of shows.  We ate a meal out everyday and then had light breakfasts and suppers in the condo.  

Outside the patio of our condo were pine tree with long skinny pine cones- they were about 6-8 inches long and I thought about bringing some home but they were full of pine sap and very sticky so all the pine cones stayed in Branson.  

The Duttons 

Steve, Larry and Rudy Gatlin 

Johnson Strings - their costumes light up and changed color 

Hughes Family Christmas 

Clay Cooper 

Jesus at the huge Sight and Sound theater 

We ate some very good meals but I only took a photo of this one 

Loose meat sandwiches at Heroes Tastes and Taps-  so good! 

We saw more shows but I didn’t  take photos at any of them.  

We shopped just a bit but I’m not much in a shopping mood these days.  

Branson is a great town.  It is very busy now as so many people are back vacationing.  

My advice - if you want to travel there- check online reviews for the attractions you’re thinking about, take lots of patience and take a big pile of money 

My husband and me- in the lobby of the Mansion theater where the Gatlins played just one show.  

I plan on blogging regularly now

See you all soon

❤️ Rhonda 

Probably my only November2021 post

Hello everyone 

I have no plans to stop this blog but life has lots of extra things going on that are not leaving me with much time to do homemaking in my home.  And since I usually blog about home things,  no posts have been written this month.  

Possibly toward the end of the November,  things will be normal and I’ll get back to both homemaking and blogging. 

Yesterday was the Marine Corp birthday.  It’s not a big deal to anyone but Marines.  But to Marines,  it’s a very big deal.  

They have formal birthday balls, tell each other Happy Birthday and Semper Fi all day and celebrate a lot.  

No ball for us since retirement but I did bake a cake for my Marine husband and we happily reminisced looking at old photos.  

This ball was in 1984.  I sewed this ball dress and I remember I spent $7 on the fabric.  I wasn’t cheap on purpose but we had $11 in checking and I needed a make a formal.  I used a remnant of velvet for the bodice and the sleeves and skirt were some very cheap Halloween costume fabric. 

I got lots of compliments on it and wore it to several balls.  

My husband had been promoted before this ball so I bought this dress at Dillards.  Look at those crazy lace covered padded shoulders!  I liked that dress then and wore it to several balls too.  But I don’t much like it now.  

And no,  I didn’t color my hair.  We lived in California and I spent most afternoons in our front yard watching my children play.  Just the California sun bleached my brown hair that lighter color.  

I’m fine.  Just busy and I’m hopeful by December,  life will be more normal and routine.  

Hope to see you all soon 

❤️ Rhonda