Sunday, January 25, 2015

The New Year Marches On

Well, guess my resolve to write more in my blog... dissolved ! OK  so I will try to correct that.  It has been a busy year around here.  Or I have been just goofing off,  enjoying a few swims in the pool (before the cooler weather set in), or enjoying the Christmas Season and then settling down to some house cleaning and planning for company.

We were really blessed by a nice visit from our Angel and our good friend and neighbor, Alison this past week. It is always SO good too have company from home.  These two are such fun to have around.  They arrived on a sprinkling afternoon in a very bright blue Mustang!  This flash of brightness after a few dreary days must have shocked the weather into brightening up.  We had some nice days while they were here with us.

The girls and their fancy wheels.

Very flashy but ...  that backseat ... Many laughs watching this Grammy crawl up and out of there!  Until Grampa came up with a great idea ...  why not just back out !!!  Now that really worked like a charm.  So for the rest of the time whenever we were out and about, I made a smooth and speedy exit.
We went to Tarpon Springs one day, the Greek community famous for it's harvesting of sponges and soap making.  A great day looking around this unique village, up and down the sponge docks checking out the little shops.  We had a wonderful lunch at Mykino's reported to be the very best place to get a great and authentic Greek meal.  Reports were correct!  Really great food!  After walking off all that lunch we had a little fortification for the trip home at a wonderfully decadent Greek bakery, Hellas.  The caramel cheesecake was perfect.

Now it is pretty quiet here again :(  and sad to have them leave.  But, we expect a visit from our grandson, Shaun in February as he and Jessica are on the way home from New Mexico where Shaun has been working this winter.  With gas prices so good they can make a swing into FL and a short visit with us before heading north up the coast.  

Meantime I am entertaining myself cooking up some new recipes, some nice healthy ones and some... well, not so healthy!  For healthy, I made a winter vegetable soup. We had been to the Famous Webster Flea Market on Monday and Angel made us a great and large casserole of roasted veggies and since we ate only half of it, I decided to put the rest into the blender and puree them,  add some ginger, a bit of garlic and some fresh carrot juice and top it off with  light cream.  It turned out SO good!  I froze a jar of it before adding the cream and will have that later.

Under the 'not so healthy' category,  there is the Chocolate/peanut butter Bark I made today while left to my own devices while hubby helped work on a neighbor's porch.   Here, I'll just offer you a piece!

Chocolate/Peanut Butter Bark

Last night we enjoyed a great Spaghetti dinner at Sunrise Hall.  Great cooks here!  A good turn out.  Friends came over after to have a few card games.  (Girls won, yea!)  
We are having another cool spell so it was nippy for them walking home later.  Needed the quilt last night too.  We hear that a blizzard is being warned for Vt this week.  Really glad cousin Natalie and her Jerry got out on Friday and are now in Georgia visiting relatives and will be at their place here in Sunshine tomorrow.  Always fun when Natalie gets here to pal around with!   

Once again it is planning time for the Great Tea Party!  I'm rounding up a committee to help with the planning and executing of this great event.  It is scheduled for March 3rd. so we have some time to come up with some unique ideas to make it as nice as last year.

Little Gr Granddaughter, Selena pours tea for her friends.  Wish she could come to and enliven
our Great Tea Party!!

It is around 6 PM now and the sun is getting ready to set over west of us.  There may be a beautiful sunset again tonight so guess I will stop rambling and check it out!   I truly have missed doing the blog and it is a good feeling to have written here again!  Hope y'all didn't give up on me entirely!

A quote for today, from Martin Luther

"I have had many things in my  hands
And have lost them all;
But whatever I have placed in God's hands,
That I still possess"

Blessings to you all!