~~~MERRY CHRISTMAS~~

It's coming soon. SOON.. Hope you all have your plans set and shopping done. I have been baking with my 4 year old "helper". He had a really fun time and yes the more icing the better. He was really good about NOT eating the cookies after he iced them. I told him that the ELF on the shelf would report back to Santa that he was doing a great job. This is his first Christmas with the ELF and it seems he likes looking for him and being GOOD. Bless the person who thought this idea up it really helps. I had to reflect back when his mother was his age and decorated cookies at this same table. It was a tradition to visit Grandma's house and decorate cookies with her cousin every Christmas.       

Seeing a third generation following along made my heart happy. I know his Grandma in heaven was watching and smiling. In the years to come he will find that making them and giving them away will bring him a great feeling of joy. 

I hope this Christmas, that whatever gives you the greatest JOY and blessings find you and your family. 

 

 

WHAT'S GOING ON????

Looking at the courtyard.

 OH MY..what is going on..???

Heard in the hallway when a woman left a large dog inside an upstairs apt.
IT started BARKING at everything that moved. NO DOGS allowed in this building so it was bound to bring people out of their apartments and into the hall. Is it any surprise that the lady left it in the place ABOVE ME??? NO not to me.. it sounded like an elephant running around up there. THIS was NO little dog. I have put up with people keeping me up all night and loud children running up and down but nothing like this. So I called the manager and reported it. The lady came back almost 2 hours later and I was so relieved when she left with TWO LARGE LAB dogs, I think everyone else was too. 

In APT 101 an elderly woman named Margaret lives and she has been in it for at least 25 years! I was startled to hear this. I also was surprised to hear that the management has NEVER replaced the carpet or painted since she moved there. She does not smoke but keeps her apartment hot summer and winter. I learned from her to put some sort of rugs over the top of the areas that are the busiest pathways. I asked her if they wanted to clean the carpet for her and she said.."Oh honey, I cannot move all this furniture around..so NO they have ever cleaned it." I made a mental note to not let my place get so cluttered that the carpet could not be cleaned somehow. Margaret and Barbara were good friends. Barbara lived in my apt for over 20 years too. Barbara was in her late 80's when she got too ill to stay here. Her daughter moved her to a facility out of town and Margaret could not visit her. They said their goodbyes when she left this place and Margaret never saw Barbara again. Two months later Barbara died from pneumonia at the facility. I had been on a waiting list for years and finally I got the call I had been waiting for.  The day I got keys to my apartment was a hot hot July day and the smell of new paint and new carpet was overwhelming. I talked to the maintenance man Aaron and he told me that almost everything in my place had been replaced. The only thing that wasn't was the tub and the refrigerator. He told me that Barbara was an immaculate housekeeper in her day but the place really needed so much replaced. The carpets had not been cleaned in years, again, because she had so much furniture they could not clean it. 

So I had to wait to move into my place because the smells were so strong it made my Asthma go crazy. I moved some things into the apartment but  I  really moved into my apartment a whole month later.
More later.....