Number FOUR HUNDRED

Here are the questions to this week's Wednesday Hodgepodge, Volume 400. 400!! Answer on your own blog then hop on over to From This Side of the Pond to share answers with all of Santa's elves. Thanks so much to Joyce!! I cannot imagine how much thought has gone into 2000 questions spread out over 400 blog posts!!

1. I feel like episode 400 cannot go without comment. That's a whole lot of Hodgepodging folks. 2000 questions if my math is right. So, what's something you feel like you do 400 times a week? Even with just two of us at home now, I sometimes feel like I wash 400 loads of clothes each week!

2. Tell us where you were and something about what your life looked like in the year 2000? Our twins were 14 years old in 2000. That is so hard to believe! I was a stay-at-home mom and drove a lot of carpools to school and back.

3. Do you like cinnamon? What is something you make and enjoy that calls for cinnamon? Of the cinnamon 'foods' listed which is your favorite-red hot cinnamon candies, cinnamon toast, cinnamon rolls, cinnamon toast crunch cereal, apple cinnamon oatmeal, churros, an Indian curry? I love cinnamon! I like the taste of cinnamon and I love to smell it. I've received two of the coolest gifts. The gift is a clear gift bag filled with an orange, a couple of cinnamon sticks, a few cloves, some fresh cranberries, and a couple of small pieces of rosemary. There are instructions to slice the orange, put everything in a pan, add 2 cups of water and bring to a boil and then simmer. OH MY GOODNESS! We did one on Saturday and just kept adding water through Sunday. Our house smelled like Christmas!! I think my favorite thing to eat might be pumpkin cinnamon oatmeal. I know - once again I'm venturing away from the correct answers. I'm going to be honest - red hot cinnamon candy, cinnamon rolls, cinnamon toast, etc. all taste really good! I just don't eat sweets like that anymore.

I borrowed this photo from

images on google

4. Does Christmas 2020 (or Hanukkah) look much like it has in years past, or is this year vastly different for you and your family? How so? How are you feeling about it all? Yes, it looks different. I work on a church staff and everything is somewhat different this year due to covid regulations. My husband and I (and family) will not be attending Christmas Eve service but will be participating in drive through communion. We plan to pick up my mother-in-law tomorrow and drive through with her. We normally gather for pizza on Christmas Eve after church with my husband's siblings and their families and we won't be doing that this year. This will be the second year in a row that Mark and I have awakened all alone on Christmas morning and that is unusual. We are going to try to come up with some new traditions for just us. How do I feel about it all? Normally I "feel" like Christmas has arrived right at the end of the Christmas Eve service. This year, I'll be watching from home and I am going to keep reminding myself that God is with us - Emmanuel - no matter where I might find myself on Christmas Eve.

5. What's one thing you need or want to do before this year ends? I'm going to rest next week. Yes - rest before the end of the year so that I might enter 2021 refreshed and ready to go. I have ordered a chair that folds out into a twin bed (from Pottery Barn) and I hope they deliver it while I'm off. I need to clean up that room upstairs and get it ready to set up a little bedroom for our granddaughters. The room is a total unorganized disaster. It used to be my craft room and I got rid of some things and packed up things because we were going to move Mark's exercise equipment into that room. That is evidently not happening and now it is a mismatched bunch of junk. This is the chair I ordered and it says it has been made and has arrived at the delivery center - eek! I have to get busy tonight! This is the exact chair and color.

6. Insert your own random thought here. Did y'all see the Christmas "star"? We could see it from our courtyard, and I tried to get some pictures. 

This was taken with my Canon

rebel with my biggest lens - you can sort

of see the rings on the right

This was all I could get on my Iphone

Speaking of pictures, my husband has been setting up the game cameras each week at the farm and I sure do love seeing the animals. 

Turkeys love to eat the corn!

Deer love the corn, too!

They are beautiful creatures.

There are some shots where the

deer are eating at the same time as

a raccoon and I love that they "share"

I don't think coyotes eat corn . . .I hope he leaves

everyone else alone.

One more random thought – Santa and an elf drove through our neighborhood last night on Vespas!! Yes, I may be 62 years old but I ran out onto the front porch and waved like crazy!