TURNING OVER A NEW YEAR.

It is a marvelous feeling to look back on a year and find good things among the inevitable sorrows. I can say with certainty that good health is a giant totem along with grandchildren who live and learn well that life is what you put into it, brings me great joy. Grandchildren are the frosting to match the silver in my hair. Friends are gold without which life would be tarnished. I can truthfully say my cup runneth over.
I will toast all of you tonight as I hoist a glass with my son and daughter-in-law, even if the end of this year was a bummer and a lesson learned.



I received this packet from the postmaster with ruined Christmas cards and bills ransacked for checks, then tossed on Sheep Ranch Road, found there, and returned to me. It is a federal offense to steal from a postal box and I will contact them this morning. Don't know if they will bother to lift  a print from paper. I'll let you know. What I learned, is never to put checks in my mail box at Christmas time. And, I'm grateful they were found so my friends don't wonder why they didn't hear from me. It took over two hours at the bank to get my account changed. If they hadn't been found, I wouldn't have known and my account information could have been sold to some professionals.

But on to the New Year, may your right hand always be stretched out in friendship, but never in want. (Traditional.)

I love toasts and here are a few fun ones:
As you slide down the bannister of life, may all the splinters point in the wrong direction!

Here is one bottle for the four of us. Thank God there's no more of us.

Bless oh Lord, these delectable vittles
May they go to your head and not to your middles.
Here's to the bottle that holds a store of imprisoned joy and laughter,

Here's to the bottle, many more bottles, and others to follow after. 

(But, don't rack up too many.) 
Happy New Year

2008 in review and Toasts and rhyme to the future-2009

Ah, friends, it is a marvelous feeling to look back on a year and find good things among the inevitable sorrows. I can say with certainty that good health is a giant totem along with meeting a new love; children who live and learn well that life is what you put into it brings me great joy. Grandchildren are the frosting to match the silver in my hair. Friends are gold without which life would be tarnished. I can truthfully say my cup runneth over.


Tonight we celebrate the turn over to a new year in which we determine to look ahead to some things new and wonderful and say, I'm alive and well and happy. I toast all of you tonight as I hoist a glass-

In the New Year, may your right hand always be stretched out in friendship, but never in want. (Traditional.)

Stir the eggnog, lift the toddy, Happy New Year, everybody. ~ Phyllis McGinley

Here's a toast to the future, A toast to the past, And a toast to our friends, far and near. May the future be pleasant; The past a bright dream; May our friends remain faithful and dear. ~ Anonymous

Each age has deemed the new-born year The fittest time for festal cheer. ~ Sir Walter Scott

New Year's Eve

Play a thin tune
on a paper horn
Old is dying
New is born

Scatter confetti
over the floor
Sweep an old year
Out the door

Blow up a wish
in a bright balloon
Whisper dreams
To a midnight moon

Play a loud tune
on a paper horn
Old is dying
New is born

by Myra Cohn Livingson

Hummingbirds, New Years Traditions

The weather is warming, but the previous weeks cold didn't discourage the hummingbirds. We hung a feeder in the grapefruit tree and true to form, they found it even though it is located on the North side of the motorhome, in the shade, without sun. They are pretty and cheering. I do my yoga on a mat on the cement "patio" cushioned by a rug and it feels good to look up at my new little friends.
Doing the internet in the library can be quite irritating because their filter is so judicious. For instance, some days my Van Gogh post will not show because some Van Gogh's are apparently offensive? Hum Bug! It happens more often than you'd think with some of the simplest subjects, none of which I can remember off hand.
I'm taking Amoxicillan for my dental surgery and have opted not to drink. But, I'm making an exception for the New Year. Grandma Moore liked to have fresh cracked crab for the New Year. She and Doug enjoyed it as a favorite. Many people eat black eyed peas for the New Year. Since Jim has no New Year tradition, we are going for the Crab. That, a bit of champagne and good company.How could anyone ask for more?