Month: December 2025

2025 – In The Books!

2025 was a good year in so many ways. I picked up lots of new subscribers (thank you!) and discovered so many interesting new blogs and blogger friends. I love these glimpses into your lives 🙂

This summer I embarked on a journey to a (mostly) sugar free lifestyle. I was pleasantly surprised this morning to discover I have lost 15.8 pounds! In the new year I want to incorporate more healthy choices, but eliminating sugar was a good place to start.

I read 56 books, falling just short of my Goodreads goal of 60. I will set my Reading Challenge goal at 60 again in the new year. I currently have 40 books on my bookshelf and 20 on my Kindle app. I hope to get through most of them, though let’s be honest, the year will end and I will still have sixty books or more in my TBR pile. I can’t help it, I’m a book junkie, lol.

I also read 11 books of the Old Testament, which I’ve been working through one chapter at a time.

On the writing front, I had two books release in 2025, Superheroes and Chester’s Miracle. I’m thrilled with the reviews they are getting. I’m on track to finish my current WIP, Blackberry Summer in the next few months (I hope 🙂 )

After much thought and prayer, I’m planning a life change in the new year. I’m retiring! I have been working for 44 years (unless you count the paper route I had when I was twelve, and the years I dusted furniture in my mom and dad’s furniture store ) Truthfully, this girl is tired. At 18 I walked into Burger King and began life in the working world. Oh, the places I’ve clocked into since then!

I’ve been a pizza maker. A mail sorter. A hairdresser. A nurse’s aide. A factory worker. For a few lovely years, I worked alongside my mother in our wallpaper shop. For even more years I was a teaching assistant. I have sold tickets and scooped popcorn in movie theaters, baked bread and fried doughnuts in bakeries. And always, in the background, I have been a writer.

Time is so precious. The older I get, the more I understand this. My plan is to still work one or two days a week. It will provide a little extra money and keep me from becoming a recluse 🙂 But I can no longer watch precious time slip away as I stand behind a cash register day after day. I want to spend my time on people. On hobbies. On my writing. And on whatever work the Lord gives me to do with the time that I have left 🙂

A Few Quiet Moments

I told myself that this year I would take December slow. I would spend more time being quiet, more time focusing on what matters. This year I would not hurry and stress my way through the Christmas season. That’s what I told myself. In reality, my December has kind of been like this:

But not today. Today I am having a second cup of coffee. I’m enjoying the twinkling lights on my Christmas tree, working on a ridiculously hard puzzle, and listening to music.

This evening I have plans to go out to dinner and then for a tour of lights around town with some friends. It is an annual tradition I love and always look forward to. But this morning I’m hanging out with Jesus. I’m reflecting on the Baby born in Bethlehem 2025 years ago and the indescribable gift He has given to me, to us all.

I love Enya’s rendition of O Come O Come Emmanuel. It’s so hauntingly beautiful. It gets my head in the right place.

Wishing you all a day of peace and quiet reflection!

Cardinal Cookies, A Plate of Spaghetti, and So Much Love!

I’ll be working on Christmas day this year, and since one of my very favorite people is visiting from out of state, we decided to celebrate Christmas early.

Me and my nephew, Sincere.

A former kindergarten teacher, my sister Marge always has a fun craft idea up her sleeve. Today we made Cardinal Cookies.

With flour, sugar, eggs, peanut butter, and seeds, these tasty little energy boosters will see our feathered friends through the cold, Ohio winter 😊

I can’t wait until Marge gets pictures of them enjoying the fruits of our labor!

For us humans, what could be nicer than a spaghetti dinner with tossed salad and homemade dinner rolls?

Topped off with an ice cream sandwich snowman cake. Yummm!

After dinner we had a lot of fun stretching our brains with a Christmas trivia game before exchanging gifts.

Michael got some new coloring books and some Superhero stickers to add to his collection!

I got the most wonderful, thoughtful gifts. My ‘What An Author Needs’ Christmas Collection included coffee, candles, snacks, notepads, and even socks, lol.

Most special of all was this coffee mug, custom made with some of my book titles 😊

The calendar won’t say Christmas for another few days, but this day of family, food and fun, this day of love, has made today Christmas in my heart!

Snow Girls

I love to bake any time of year, but there’s something special about holiday baking… Maybe it’s because I stood at my mother’s elbow for so many years, watching her whip up batches of cookies, muffins, cakes for family and friends. Birthdays, babies, new homes — all were celebrated with baked goods. Each one made with love.

I’ve spent decades in various kitchens of my own, following suit. Birthday cakes, Easter cakes, batches of muffins. Baking has always been a celebration for me. Among my favorite things to bake are snow girls.

I like to start my Christmas shopping early, setting aside what I can spare from each paycheck from September to December. But it seems I’m always just one baby step ahead of that dental bill, that trip to the vet, that visit to urgent care… I usually end up with too much Christmas list at the end of my money 😊 I refuse to go into debt over Christmas. I don’t think anyone should. That’s not what it’s about. So I gift from my kitchen. From my heart, if not my bank account. My friends and neighbors know when I show up with a wrapped package, it’s going to be snow girls. Baked with love.  

Quiet

Things have been pretty quiet this week and I really haven’t had a lot to say. But I thought I’d jump on here and post a few of the highlights. Since the Bills played the Bengals on Sunday, Miss Emma and Chester exchanged their Christmas gifts early.

Though we live fairly near Cincinnati, growing up in Western NY we are definitely team Bills! Emma loved her Bills hot dog squeaky toy. Thanks, Chester!

Chester got a custom made Bengals doggie scarf. Doesn’t he look proud? Who Dey!

I put together a fun Christmas puzzle. It was a little challenging because it had so many odd shaped pieces.

My sister always gets me something special when I have a new book out. She had this ornament custom made for Chester’s Miracle. Absolutely love it!

And lastly, a random pic of a morning moon from the other day. I’m kind of obsessed with the moon!

I hope everyone’s having a wonderful and blessed week. Christmas will be here before we know it 🙂

A few of my favorite (Christmas) things… part four

The temps have dropped into the chilly low 30’s in Southern Ohio this week, but that did not stop my sister and I from doing a little window shopping yesterday. The storefronts are looking lovely decked out in all of their holiday finery.

After a brisk stroll down Broadway, we headed to Michael’s Ice Cream to meet our fellow church ladies for our annual Christmas ornament exchange. It’s one of my favorite events of the holiday season 🙂

I was due for my monthly splurge. Instead of a bubble, I opted for a dish of Peppermint Stick ice cream. It was sooo good!

We had a fun time playing our ornament exchange game and I ended up with this lovely manger scene ornament 🙂

Due to illness and busy schedules we had a small group this year but it was still a lovely time of fun and fellowship. On our way out we got a group picture.

Later that night the town held its Christmas parade and tree lighting ceremony. It was too cold for this girl to go to those festivities, but the city put on a fireworks display that I could see from my porch.

It was a wonderful, Christmasful day filled with some of my favorite things 🙂

What do you love about the holidays in your town?

A promise in the sky

“Never will I leave you;
    never will I forsake you.” Hebrews 13:5

I felt the bite of winter cold just now as I took Emma outside. I was talking to God about the day ahead. I’m still not feeling 100 per cent. I’m tired already, before the day even begins and my work days have been so chaotic this week. I told Him I was going to need His strength for all the day would require of me.

And then my gaze was drawn upward. I noticed how amazing the moon looks this morning. And then, faintly, I saw a promise in the sky. It whispered the truth of Christmas across my heart. Emanuel. God with us… And I smiled.

Thank You, God. We’ve got this 🙂