Hodgepodge

 

Thanks to Joyce for our questions. You can answer in the comments below or join us over at From This Side of the Pond.

1. What are three words you would use to describe your 2025? 

"Another Hard Year" . . .or on a more positive note, how about "Blessings Outweigh Difficulties." 

2. I ask this question every January, and I always get comments about how we shouldn't be banning words. This is fun and games so just play along : ) 

Every January 1st since 1976 Lake Superior University has published a list of words they'd like to see banished from the Queen's English. Words may be banished due to misuse, overuse, or just general uselessness (go here to read about how the words are chosen). Here's the list for 2026- 

67 • demure • cooked • massive • incentivize • full stop • perfect • gift/gifted  • my bad • reach out 

Which one (if any) do you use most often? Which one of these words/phrases would you most like to see banished from everyday speech and why? Is there a word you think should have made the list? 

I think incentivize is such a weird word!! I actually thought "full stop" was already out. I haven't heard anyone use "demure" in years - is it slang for something else? I remember that 67 was word of the year . . .but it is not really a word!! I think I still say "my bad" every once in a while. I don't have a strong opinion on most of these - either direction!

3. What are your nightly rituals? Is that different from your 'ideal' nightly ritual? If so what's your ideal? 

Classes start back on Monday and our routine will be:

I arrive home from work.

I do homework while Mark exercises in the garage and takes a shower.

We eat something for dinner and wash the dishes and clean up the kitchen.

We watch a couple of tv shows.

On a cold night, we turn down our covers so our sheets will warm up!

We floss our teeth, take our pills, brush our teeth.

I set the alarm on my phone and we turn on white noise on both of our phones.

We go to bed - usually right around 10:00 p.m., say sleep tight and I love you, and hopefully, go to sleep!

I don't know what an ideal routine would be . . .what do other people do at night??

4. January 6th is/was National Bean Day. Do you like beans? Which one is your favorite? Last thing you ate made with beans? 

I love a lot of beans - are we counting "peas" as beans, too? If so, I love pink-eye purple hull peas in the summer time! I love pinto beans, black beans, garbanzo beans, and green beans (do those count?). If peas do count, I love black eye peas, crowder peas, lady peas, cream peas, and zipper peas.

Oh my goodness - I asked AI "what is the difference in peas and beans." I learned lots of new things! Peas prefer cooler weather, while beans like hot weather! Beans come in more colors and shapes than peas! Peas are more delicate than beans - I knew that!

5. Are you easily embarrassed? Elaborate. 

I can be easily embarrassed and my face turns red quickly. I actually have a hard time watching others embarrass themselves - like on TV!

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Sunset was at 4:54 p.m. today…though since we never actually saw the sun, it was hard to notice when daytime gave up and night officially took over. By February 14, sunset will push back to 5:39 p.m., gifting us a glorious 45 extra minutes of daylight. January and February in Alabama are long, dark months. And yes, I know February is technically the shortest month—but emotionally? It feels like it lasts forever.

 

Sunday Stealing Inspired by Christina at Call Me Patsy

 

Welcome to Sunday Stealing. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves!

This week's meme is inspired by Christina at Call Me Patsy, who turned to answering these questions when she felt frustrated by a project she was working on.

Questions to Answer when You Need a Break 

1. What would you rather be doing right now? It is a chilly, gray (or is it grey?) day here in Birmingham, AL. I am writing on Saturday afternoon. My hubby is watching a football game that he taped and he doesn't know the outcome. I am upstairs in my office. I would rather be at the nail salon getting a pedicure, but I haven't been able to get myself motivated to go. Maybe I'll do that in a few minutes.

2. What is always on your grocery list? Diet pepsis, distilled water, no sugar added fudgsicles, lean ground beef, fruit  . . . those are almost always on my list.

3. Have you ever used a fire extinguisher for its intended purpose? I have never used a fire extinguisher for its intended purpose nor for any other reason! A fire extinguisher would not have helped when our home burned.

4. How many times did you text yesterday? My phone is downstairs right now, so I can't give an accurate count . . .I usually text quite a bit.

5. Would you prefer a slow-paced, relaxing vacation or one filled with new sights and experiences? I personally like a mix of both. I love a trip filled with new sights and experiences - why I love to travel! I also love a week like this last week where life slowed down for a moment and I could breathe and sleep. It would have been better at the beach, but it was just fine here at home.

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.

New Year's Eve Plus Reflections on the Year

 Back around the first of December, Mark and I went to the Outlet Mall. I bought some really cute navy velvet pants at Loft and I found the most beautiful shirt at J Crew. It was a little dressy for dinner at home on New Year's Eve - but hey! I'm 67 years old and can wear what I want to wear, right?

We had removed all of our Christmas decorations (except for our Nativities) and I had redecorated the mantle for New Year's Eve. Since I was on vacation, I made sculpey clay stars one day and had a star theme.

I was very pleased with how they turned out!

I bought some new gold ribbon and traded out the polka dot.

It was not an "over the top" mantle decoration - just right, in my humble opinion :-).

I was able to update the flowers and use the centerpiece ONE MORE TIME. I sent a text to the three ladies who sent it to us telling them that it was the gift that kept on giving. My boss made the box for me years ago and I use it all of the time.

I bought New Year's champagne flutes at Publix and had one at each place on the table. I went back and placed a star at the bottom of each glass - party favors :-).

At one point, three of the guys were backed up to the fireplace. It was cold.

We decided to celebrate when the ball dropped in New York City -- which is actually only 11:00 p.m. in Alabama. We were proud of ourselves for making it! You can see the stars hanging from the light over the island - I bought those stars. Guy was pouring our champagne for toasting.

One couple was unable to join us so we snapped a photo to send to them. We snapped some practice rounds and we snapped one with only 10 seconds to go. In one of the photos you can see the champagne glasses. None of the photos was good of me, but once again - oh well!

I bought nice New Year's paper plates and we ate dinner on paper so the clean up didn't take as long. Mark and I were in bed by 12:30. Our menu was smoked brisket, roasted multi-colored dutch potatoes, salad, rolls, an appetizer and several desserts.

Mark left for the farm on New Year's Day morning and I puttered around the house all day. I sent a lunch/dinner like the one below with him to the farm. We had sliced ham, greens, and black eye peas. I actually added two of those baby potatoes from the night before to my plate!

I cannot believe it is now 2026. Wow!

2025 was quite a year. We lost Mark's brother and his wife - Bill and Rebecca - exactly one month apart. Our family had two weddings - one in Delaware and one in Birmingham - a nephew . . .and a niece. Both weddings were fun and true celebrations.

We hosted a fun brunch for our niece on the day of her wedding.

I graduated with my Associate Degree and moved on to Samford University as a Junior. I did a lot of studying in 2025!

My sister came for a visit and was at graduation.

We had an outside picnic/memorial for my sister who had died at the end of 2024.

Mark and I took a great trip to Amsterdam, Germany, France, and Switzerland.

We enjoyed meals with our long-time supper club - we even spent a weekend at the lake together.

We enjoyed meals with neighbors and meals with people from our Sunday School Class. I continued to work and Mark continued to volunteer. I continued to teach our adult Sunday School class and facilitate on Tuesday nights for the young adults.

Our sweet grands continued to thrive and grow.

I hope and pray that 2026 is a year of peace and a year of joy! I keep trying to think of a personal word for 2026, but I'm not very good at doing that!! I have jotted a list of possibilities, but haven't settled on a single one.

Last Hodgepodge of 2025. . .and It Is Sooo Late!

 

1. Did you make resolutions or set goals for the year we're waving goodbye? How did that work out for you? Will you set any goals for this new year, new season, or new month? Share one or two if you'd like to share. If I made any resolutions, I have forgotten them. I should look back at my blog – I might have shared them!! That sentence should tell you how it worked out for me. I’ve been trying to think of a word for 2026, but don’t have one yet. I would like to finally reach my goal weight at Weight Watchers.

2. When did you have the most fun this year? I had a lot of fun at various times this year. We love hanging out with the young adults each week – they are a lot of fun. We are truly blessed with good friends and we spent lots of time together and that is almost always fun. We had fun on our trip – meeting new people, seeing and experiencing new things, trying new foods.

3. What's a song or song lyric you'll associate with 2025? Tell us why. Golden - KPop Demon Hunters . . . Here is a link to the video.

why? Our staff video was based on that tune - you can see it here (if you have facebook).

4. Best (or a favorite) bite of something delicious you tasted this year? Gingerbread in France. Oh my goodness! It was delicious.

5. What do you want to do more of in the new year? Less of? I want to spend more time on relationships. I'm not sure when I think this will happen, but I would definitely like to do so. I want to do less negative self-talk.

6. Insert your own random thought here. I'm three days late posting this -- Wednesday Hodgepodge on Saturday. Oh well . . .it is what it is.

The Real Christmas at the Elliott's House

We were finally able to celebrate our family Christmas on the Saturday following Christmas Day. Our daughter, son-in-law, and two of the three grands arrived on Friday in time for lunch. I had planned easy kid-approved meals for Friday -- hot dogs for lunch and burgers for dinner.

There is a park in front of our house so there was some playing going on!

There was some playing happening inside, too.

Just FYI - there was NO sleeping going on. haha! That is not exactly true. This one did take a good nap on Friday -- perhaps too long. Mark and I had moved upstairs and had set up the little bed in our bedroom. Laura and one girl slept in our bed on Friday night and the other slept in the little bed -- or that is how the night began. To be honest, there was not a lot of sleeping going on. Scott ended up with the sweet six year old in the bed with him upstairs and Laura and the baby were downstairs. Mark and I were in the other guest room.

Mark met Glenn at the gas station on Saturday morning so that our oldest grand could come for the whole day. Everyone left me at one point for several hours with all three. Whew! The youngest is VERY BUSY. At this point, the older girls were making marshmallow designs with toothpicks and miniature marshmallows. The little wanted to make her own - which included trying to eat a few . . .which I found "glued" to the side of the bar stools later that day haha!

Pops brought in the little table and the bigger girls worked on Gingerbread houses . . .the little one wanted her own chair and her own house!!

When everyone came back, there was more park time. I may have been day drinking at this point - which I never do hahahaha!

That is our son in the swing - just a big kid.

Our oldest is 3 years older than our middle and she is so sweet with her.

I went in to work on our dinner and everyone went to one of the other parks - we have several in the neighborhood.

Before dinner, we gave our gifts to the girls.

The little one wanted jewelry like her sister's so this Gran found safe jewelry. NOPE - she wouldn't have anything to do with it!! Not the same - NO! NO!

The middle daughter received a DJ Furby Interactive toy from Santa - everyone was wearing it like a boa!

Our daughter-in-law had sent the name of some special markers. I was able to get a box for each of the older girls . . .this Gran would like some, too, please. They are in this huge case and there are so many colors!!

She received a scooter and decided to sit on it - immediately!

We grabbed a quick selfie before dinner - you can see all of the wonderful mess around us. Our son-in-law and daughter are on the left. I'm in the middle (horrible picture but who cares, right?). Mark is behind me. Our son is over my right shoulder. Our "son by choice" is in the back right. Our dauther-in-law is on the far right.

The sofa -- our little on the left; middle in the middle; oldest on the right.

After dinner, S'mores were dessert.

Since no one had slept the night before, our daughter and son-in-law and their two loaded their car and headed home after dinner. It is about an hour and a half or a little more to drive to their house. They all went to bed in their own beds that night. It was a short time together, but it was good!

 

Christmas Day 2025

We received a text from our daughter on Christmas morning asking if we wanted to FaceTime while the girls discovered Santa gifts We quickly hopped on so we could "participate."

The girls were so cute as they opened and examined their new toys.

This was our view at home. It was quiet, but it was ok!! We opened our gifts to each other -- I bought a new Nerf Gun for Mark. He loved it haha! I also bought a clock for the garage. It has fish with each number and you can hear the fish splash each hour. I thought it was large . . .it is small, but it is fine for the garage. I also bought a silly slap card game for him.

He bought a Jenga game for me and a gift certificate for a pedicure. A few years ago we decided not to go nuts for each other at Christmas. We would rather spend the money on trips or other things. We both bought some new clothes a few weeks ago so we didn't need anything.

FaceTime rang again and it was our son and our older granddaughter. She showed us what Santa brought her.

Mark and I opened the gift I showed y'all in the previous post and made mimosas!!

I jumped into making cheese grits and a big fruit salad because we were headed to Mark's sister's house for brunch. Everyone who was in town was able to attend.

Susie purchased enough Dirty Santa gifts for everyone. We are still trying to figure out new traditions now that there are three no longer with us. Dirty Santa was a hit!

We also went with a less traditional menu. It was delicious.

I loved how she hung the ornaments from her chandalier.

The following are pictures from the Dirty Santa swap.

The temperature warmed into the mid seventies . . .so one group played Bocce Ball outside and some of us sat on the deck.

We headed home and grabbed a quick nap (I think!) and then got dressed again and headed to Nathan's for the extended family (Mark's cousins) Christmas party. We are actually headed back to Nathan's on January 4 for a friend party.

Nathan LOVES decorating and had beautiful decorations throughout the house. His tree was gorgeous.

It was a good day!!