Thankful Me

  Drexel the yellow lab points his nose up toward a bowl of banana bread batter Though I haven't done much baking recently, I made Drexel very happy by making some banana bread the other day. You might recall that Drexel used to be a guide dog puppy in training, but he "career-changed" due to scent distraction--and one of the scents he enjoys most of all is bananas! Even though gingerbread or peppermint might be more traditional, I think that the scent of bananas might evoke a feeling of Christmas for Drexel. I'm thankful for Drexel. Christmas has a different feel for me this year. Our place here is perfectly small for the two of us, but doesn't lend itself for entertaining big crowds, so we will have a quiet Christmas morning, then head to the grandchildren's house for the day. Later in the week, we'll visit our son and his wife, then our oldest daughter will come here for a few days. We will miss seeing our two youngest children, but know we will be back

Orange poppies bloom on a hillside in December in California. White wispy clouds punctuate the blue sky. I've put up a small tree and a few other decorations. A wreath is on the front door and Alexa is playing carols. By the looks and sounds of things inside, it's nearly Christmas. Outside is another story, as you can tell from the photo above. The poppies are blooming (!) and I've traded my sweaters and boots for short sleeves and sandals. While I'm not a fan of the summertime million degrees temperatures (OK, I might be exaggerating a tad on the number) , I really can't complain about "winter" weather here.  I'm thankful for shirt-sleeve weather and mixed-up flowers.  Even though we lived in this general area of California for quite a few years, we didn't live in this rural community. When we moved to Utah, I noticed differences between California and Utah , and now that we're back in California for a while, I'm noticing differences again

  An orange sunrise in California marks the beginning of a new adventure Thanksgiving was last week, and I missed the Ten Things of Thankful blog hop! I was certainly thankful, but we picked last weekend to move from Utah to California, and even though we didn't actually move that many possessions, a move is still a move and so the blogging got delayed. But now we're mostly unpacked and settled in and it's time to return to blogging! We spent Thanksgiving day with John's family. The "kids table" was filled with adults, and for the first time, my sister-in-law didn't lead children in making apple and candy turkeys. With age comes perspective, though, and it was nice to gather together and reminisce.  I'm thankful for family. Friday morning, I woke up to a winter wonderland.  Even though I doubt we'll have a white Christmas in California, it was nice to see snow before leaving Utah. Snow blankets rooftops, trees, yards, and the street in my neighborh