January 02nd, 2024

It's 2024!  A brand New Year!  I don't know about you, but even after all these years, I still get excited at the prospect of a New Year. I have no idea what the next 365 days will bring.  Nobody does.  You might have a fair guess at some of it, but not all. There's always some surprise  that comes with a new calendar and I do love that!   So far, the New Year is looking pretty good.

Since it's now January 2024,  that means that Christmas 2023 is officially over.  I haven't managed to remove the outside lights yet but Tim and I took down what was left of the tree already.  Usually I leave it up for awhile but this year, it was just looking kind of beat up, bedraggled and more than a little sad.   I packed up the few ornaments we had on the tree but Tim bagged the tree remains and most of it is, right now, in the garbage can awaiting pick up.  It'll take two  separate garbage days to get it gone.  

Brysco and Wyatt  watched the tree come down and same way they watched it go up. With great curiosity and fascination!

I even took down the cards.  I had them taped to the big old cased opening between the living and family rooms this year.  High enough that those frisky kittyboys couldn't reach no matter how hard they tried. And believe you me, they tried. I love  Christmas cards!   We don't receive as many as we used to but it's enough to make me look forward to mail delivery every day during the Holiday Season.  And they look so festive hung up.    We ended up with 24 actual real life paper cards this year and I loved each and every one. They were all so very pretty.  The breakdown went a little something like this:  

2 cards -  had only words on the front
5 cards  - had foliage of some sort - one was a mix of pine branches and holly the rest were Pine trees, some decorated, some not
2 cards  - had snoopy characters!  And yes I know the cartoon is called Peanuts but let's face it, Snoopy is the star of that show
2 cards  -  had birds on the front
6 cards -   had animals on the front.  Broken down further it was: 1 fox, 1 horse, 1 long horned bull, 2 cats and one cat&dog.  Nice!  Amusingly,  most of the cats were wearing sweaters and Christmas themed glasses - heh
1 card   - was beautifully hand painted (wow!)
6 cards - photos of the people who sent the card.  I enjoy those so much!

And of course, other than the wreath and outside lights, which as I already mentioned, I haven't managed to work my way up to taking down, all indicators of Christmas 2023 have been removed.  

Now we are concentrating on 2024.  I'm sure it will take me my usual few weeks to stop writing the wrong date on things.  But otherwise, so far, it feels a whole lot like last year.  It's much cool out, windows are open, I'm wearing long pants and sometimes a sweater. Tim of course, is still wearing shorts.  As is normal for our town in winter, there has been a big uptick in people hereabouts, between tourists, snowbirds, visitors and those of us who live here full time, the restaurants and shops are a lot busier, the parker lots are fuller, the roads are busier and the lines are longer.  But that is what happens when you live in a tourist destination town.

Tim and I walked out the old year literally but going for a hike.  It was a gorgeous afternoon and a great way to end the year.  I didn't take a lot of photos, but here's a few:

It was a perfect way to end a year, peaceful, beautiful and in nature.  Later on of course, we could hear the fireworks that were crackling all around us. I guess that represent ed more of the excitement and fun of things!

We mostly relaxed and enjoyed the first day of the new year just hanging out together at home, running a few errands and eventually taking first, a drive and then a walk, and holding on  to every last minute of a precious Monday off (for Tim)

Today, the on the 2nd day of 2024, we are once again celebrating.  Me by doing laundry and then going to a dental appointment and Tim by being back in his office, hard at work.  We have a few things to learn about celebrating eh?  Or perhaps we just  make it a point to low -key celebrate and enjoy every day.  Yeah, I think that's it.

We did not however, make any resolutions.  I learned a long time ago to  not set myself up to fail.  No good can come of that!

Hope all of you had a Wonderful New Year Celebration, however you did it!

Happy 2024 everybody.  May it bring us all Good Health, Great Happiness and Load of fun!