Merry Christmas and Happy New Year One and ALL

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My favorite Symbol in Winter

I guess it's time for a Christmas letter. Where does the time go. I told my oldest daughter that if I died today, I would be happy. I am so stressed and it's the only way I will get any peace.  Or maybe not, after writing all those blogs about how disappointed I am in God. He will never let me rest now; even when I die.
Since I wasn't thankful at Thanksgiving; what can I be thankful for at Christmas. Brights colorful lights; definitely Snowmen and the fresh air with all those negative ions. Generally speaking, negative ions increase the flow of oxygen to the brain; resulting in higher alertness, decreased drowsiness, and more mental energy.
We are all finally healthy without any aches or pains.
Kristine did have some back pain last month and missed some of her culinary classes. When she had to do double time to catch up, she was not impressed with the savory classes; so she switched to the baking program: Le Cordon-Bleu Patisserie and Baking Program. When she bakes she feels more relaxed than slaving over a hot stove. She is still taking her prerequisite classes so she can easily continue her classes right into the baking program.
It is a good thing that she is joining the real world and not always in her head. We have started watching creative cake baking on the food network channel which is something Kristine is interested in when her first baking class begins in the New Year.

One of Kristine's needle points she had framed for us

The rug, Kristine latch hooked with her matching framed needle point. She gave to me last year.

Presently, she is making Christmas and baby gifts. She loves to needlepoint; something she acquired while at Appleton House. Needlepoint, like baking, helps her relax and she does it 24/7 in between cooking classes.
She seems to excel at whatever she takes on; in spite, of her mental illness.
If I needlepointed as much as she does; it would drive me crazy; whereas, it's her sanity.

Kathleen is also making her Christmas gifts since she started taking a jewelry class. She is learning to weld metal pieces together. It is time consuming as she found out, as I have not heard from her since she started. I asked her to make me a necklace with an ankh and woman symbol welded together. It freaked her out when she saw the design I drew because she thinks it will be too hard to make; but, I think she can do it since she has made more complicated pieces. She said I probably won't get my Christmas gift on Christmas day; like my birthday gift which she will give me on Christmas. She and a friend made templates of my rose pictures, so I can make my own greeting cards. In the meantime, she is planning a trip to New York to look for an Internship in account planning in advertising. She has finally found her niche. She created her own informative videos of San Francisco: Alamo sq. shoe garden: discover and The slides of Castro that can be seen on youtube.com as well as at her KaptainCupcake blog site.


The house in Whitefish, Montana is coming along. I will not be getting my Blue Louise quantize slab oven wall for the kitchen.The Brazilian Co. sold it to someone else. I can get over it, as long as the house has a roof. It would have been the only thing in the house that is Wild as everything else are beige, brown, gray, etc. Although I probably can find something else just as wild. What do you think?

Painting I had in mind when I selected the Blue Louise slab

Blue Louise slab with my ideal vent

While in the health food store last month, a woman asked me to taste her salad. Then she gave me a free invitation to a healthy cooking show to learn about eating foods to prevent cancer. The demonstration is to promote expensive cookware. However, we also learned to cook some very tasty, healthy foods with tips on how to keep the vitamins in food. We learned about the natural nutrients in
Goji berries,  Hemp seeds  and Maca . Although, I have to put lots of flavoring in with Maca because it tastes like, what a smelly sock, might taste like; so you know it's gotta be healthy or who would eat it?
A few days ago, I put it in Kristine's coffee with lots of peppermint mocha flavored creme and cinnamon. She said nothing.
The next day, I forgot to put the Maca in her coffee; so I added it to her yogurt; instead, with blueberries, honey,  hemp seeds, and cinnamon.
Later, she came walking into the room saying her coffee tasted bad and she asked me if I had put that god awful Maca in it.  I swore, I did not put any Maca in her coffee that day;
but don't ask me about the yogurt.

My husband, as usual is on his marathon business trips. This year alone there were several trips to Saudi, Kuwait, Sweden, Switzerland, France, Qatar. Washington D.C, Alabama, TX and I cannot remember the other half of the year. He is getting a little tired of all the traveling and thinks about retiring all the time.
I have already heard from some women whose husbands have retired. Their husbands get bored and end up making them their new project.
What little time my husband is home, he likes to make me his project too. Once when he was home for 2 weeks he said, "We need to fold the towels a different way." This after 37 years of folding towels. That's fine dear, if you want to fold the towels a different way, you go for it.

It's winter and as usual I will be pulling out the soup pot. For some reason, my family likes my soups; although I have no clue what I put in them. Very similar to a witch's brew....Hee, hee, hee, hee...
Where's the dog?

I guess there were a few highlights this year...
We traveled to Montana to survey the building site, while selecting tile, etc..
It's not exciting like some people keep telling me. I will only know when the house is completed what it will actually look like.

We went to London to meet the Duke of York and a Saudi Prince. That could have been surreal, but I had already seen the Grand Canyon.
While in Dublin, I saw the Book of Kells. Definitely there is some mental illness associated with that kind of meticulous, detailed drawing; especially when a monk is cooped up for years in a room doing nothing else. No one sane could concentrate that long on one thing.
Of course, on a reversed planet, sanity would be considered insanity (much like our government is today). I think we are headed there now, in the New Year...Watch for It.
In the meantime,
MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Whitefish, Mt in Winter where we will be in Dec-Jan picking out more exciting brown tile.