Feeling Hopeful

Good morning, dear reader. I hope your holiday was everything you needed it to be. As for me, I am breathing a sigh of relief that it is now December 26th. We had two busy days of celebrating, and it was delightful. Christmas Eve was spent with many of my favorite people. Jenna, who usually joins our celebration, attended her church celebration in the evening, so she made time for us during the day. Our dear friend, Janet, stopped and gave me the most wonderful handmade gift, and we spent some time together. GramBarb was here, Pook-A-Dook was here, and of course, The Bibbed Wonder and The Bean. We feasted on steak, shrimp, and crab legs with Christmas cookies for dessert. Our evening was spent playing board and card games, laughing, and enjoying time together.

Christmas day on the farm is pretty low-key. We opened our gifts, enjoyed homemade cinnamon rolls, and spent the day together relaxing. I had to walk my canine bestie, or he would bounce off the walls. By ten o'clock, the Christmas festivities were wrapped up, the house was cleaned up, gifts were put away, and we were reading and watching holiday movies. No one was hungry, but I cooked a small ham with pineapple sauce, made homemade scalloped potatoes, and called it good. It was a lovely holiday spent with the people I adore.

Now, I am ready to take down all the Christmas decorations, organize and redecorate my kitchen, and start the new projects for our small business. I am looking forward to 2025, and I am hopeful it will be a glorious year. For the first time in a long time, I am moving into the new year feeling really good, both physically and mentally. My energy level is high, my mental clarity is good, and my creative muse has been camping out with me for quite some time. I love feeling this good, and I hope it lasts.

The New Year symbolizes fresh starts and new beginnings. I am enthusiastically looking forward to 2025 and face it with great hope. I believe this year will be a year of growth, prosperity, and creativity. I can't wait to start and feel like a child waiting for a big event. I am embracing this new sense of hope and pray it is catching. Mostly, I pray The Bibbed Wonder catches my enthusiasm and supports all my latest ideas. As is par for the course with me, I have notebooks filled with lists, goals, ideas, and doodles of my ideas. Sometimes, it's fun to be me! I make a habit of writing down my ideas as they come. However, I often need to prioritize my ideas by time and effort of execution, importance, and expense. Unfortunately, not all my great ideas are feasible when they come to me. This doesn't mean they can't or won't happen; it just means there are many steps to take to get there. However, I remain hopeful we will indeed get there.

On this day after Christmas, my wish is that you, too, face the upcoming new year with hope, excitement, and anticipation. It's going to be a good one; I can feel it. I pray you have hope, good health, contentment, and joy-filled days, and do something that excites and fulfills you. I also hope you had a wonderful holiday with time to recover from the festivities. In this last week of 2024, stay safe, be smart, be hopeful and excited, and keep washing your hands.

Tuesday Spotlight: Sweet Anjou Pear

Merry Christmas Eve, dear reader. Today, the spotlight shines upon Sweet Anjou Pear soap and moisturizer. If you love fruity scents, you will enjoy our sweetly scented Sweet Anjou Pear soap and moisturizer. It smells exactly like a fresh, sun-ripened pear. The scent is simple, clean, and mildly sweet. I like this scent because it reminds me of the lone pear tree that stands in the middle of our upper field. It's a lovely tree.

This week, save 25% on Sweet Anjou Pear soap and moisturizer. No promo code is needed; the savings will be applied at checkout. Although time has run out for last-minute Christmas gifts, it is a wonderful time to save on a favorite, try something new for the upcoming New Year, or purchase an affordable hostess gift for your New Year's Eve celebration.

On this chilly Christmas Eve, stay safe, be smart, enjoy the savings, have a very Merry Christmas, and keep washing your hands.

The Day Before The Night Before

The Bean and our "too short" artificial tree

Well, dear reader, it is the day before Christmas Eve. My weekend was a blur of activity. The artificial tree is up, decorated, and annoyingly symmetrical; it's too perfect. The wreath is on the door. The stockings are hung by the chimney with a bit of hostility and a let's get this done attitude. The gifts are wrapped and under the tree. Santa Amazon will deliver The Bean's "Santa" gifts on Tuesday. The steaks, shrimp, and crab legs have been purchased and are ready for our Christmas Eve feast. Christmas movies have been viewed. The tree has been slept under. Everything is completed and prepared for the half hour it will take to open the gifts at 5:00 a.m. on Christmas morning. Sigh.

Online orders have slowed to a trickle. The flood that began in late October has now slowed to a manageable stream The Bibbed Wonder can handle alone. I have been running around like a mad woman for the past week, making holiday preparations. We are a good team. He holds down the fort with the animals and the studio while I make a strong effort to prepare everything not farm and business-related for the holidays. We have decided we are greatly looking forward to December 26th. On December 26th, all the hubbub and chaos will be over, things will be blissfully quiet, and we can bask in the glory of the holiday season that is now behind us. It is definitely something to look forward to.

Don't get me wrong—I am not feeling particularly Scroog-y this year. There has been a lot of hustle and bustle for a very short celebration. Amongst all the holiday preparations, I have been able to wrangle The Bean into cleaning her room and helping me clean the house. I giggle and tell her, "Teamwork makes the dream work, baby!" She doesn't find me funny at all. We get a lot done when she is forced to put her phone on the charger on a floor different from the one we are working on. However, asking her to separate herself from her phone is like asking her to amputate a limb. Sigh.

Overall, we have prepared for the holiday to the best of our ability through teamwork and some aggression. Now, it is a waiting game, as in waiting for it to end. For me, the actual holiday will be December 26th. No cooking, no cleaning, no shopping, no wrapping, no stress, just blissfully sleeping in, eating leftovers in a clean house, and not obsessing about anything I forgot to do. On December 26th, I think I will build a fire in the fireplace, make myself a cup of hot cocoa, and read a book. Now, that, dear reader, sounds like my kind of celebration!

On this day before the night before Christmas, stay safe, be smart, look forward to the little things, be as prepared as possible without spoiling the day, and don't obsess about little details; it only steals your joy, it's okay to look forward to the day after Christmas, and keep washing your hands.