Of Happy New Year 2017~~~~

Hello Darklings!!

And a Happy New Year to all of you!

I’m going to celebrate with Doyle with dancing and merriment on the USS Hornet,  nothing like being on a freezing aircraft carrier floating museum on New Years Eve, but we will have a wonderful view of the Fireworks on San Francisco Bay.

I love that city, I love all of the Bay Area, in many ways it is so Film Noir, if you know where to look and in some cases it just jumps right at you. The only problem is that it's getting too expensive to live here for many folks.

Christmas was wonderful!   The rains held off and I had a buffet type dinner, and I had friends and other relatives who couldn’t stay, drop in long enough for refreshments, a bite to eat and then they were off to see other friends and family, but my core group arrived and we enjoyed ourselves.

We went to Church on Christmas Eve, there is something both solemn and joyous with Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve, it reminds us how a husband and his expectant wife had to take shelter in a stable with the animals and there she gave birth.   It really gives the true meaning of Christmas.

Of course for the buffet dinner the main feature was not the traditional “Christmas Goose” (which in America is substituted by a Turkey) no we didn’t even have Turkey, to make it easier on myself and Sis we had the “Honey Baked Ham”.   Yes Ham,  all though I did have sliced turkey breast as well, but the beauty about it being a buffet is that if someone unexpected shows up and it did happen, it was no problem to seat them, any spot with a cushion on the floor would do.   And the kids did sit on the floor. Don't have to worry about the fine china, good old "Chinette" paper plates work very well, but I did owe our garbage man an entire Apple pie, the recycling bins were overflowing,  which I had the chance to give to him, all nicely boxed up.

Trust me Darklings, bribery and showing appreciation does work wonders.

Christmas eve I was ready for drop-in’s with coffee, tea, hot cider and other refreshments and my selection of treats on my three tiered plates,  and I did have a number of drop ins from just a few minutes to an hour or so.   

During the holidays, I took Coralline and Chris to the ballet to see the Nutcracker,  to the Dickens Fair (twice), the holiday Zoo lights, and we drove to Christmas Tree lane and walked among the displays,  of course shopping.   We went to the Theater that had a special showing of “It’s a Wonderful Life”  it’s amazing seeing it on the big screen,  not a dry eye was around me, not even my eyes were dry. 

As I said Christmas is a wonderful time but it can be Gothic in its own way, the dark comes sooner, the sun is much later rising, the night air is colder, it is a time for Ghosts, but not so much for Goblins.

And lately for Elves, it seems that elves are  big thing this year,  even on a number of tree lots they were advertising the small table top trees as “Elf Trees”  I thought that made good business sense.  I like that description.

But now we are heading like a speeding train with no breaks into 2017.

 So far we are going into it with a few colds in the family,  Coralline and Chris and their Dad, my brother, are down with colds, although the children will be well enough to go back to school,  the twins so far are healthy as is their Mom,  Sis has the sniffles but no sign of the cold, I’m doing well having taken my vitamins and a few other things which I can’t spell, which is supposed to strengthen the immune system, because I do not want to miss the Film Noir festival.   So I’ve been dosing Sis as well. 

My leg has healed very well, I do use a cane when I go shopping because there is still some muscle weakness but the strength is coming back with the therapy,  Betty has been happy to be my house keeper,  I ask her if it’s too much and she says no because of the help from the cleaning service, and the fact that I have a brand new dishwasher,  the only time things have to be hand washed and dried is with the fine china and table ware, but we do it together.  The only place she won’t go into is the Library, some of my strange and bizarre things bother her, especially my Cabinet of Curiosities.   So I deal with that room with the light dusting and for heavier with the help of my sister in law and Coralline.

I know I have not been posting as frequently as I use to, but I hope to take care of that soon.

I do have to say I’ve been having fun reading murder mysteries,  I’m in the middle of a Janet Dawson one titled “Murder on the Zephyr”  it’s about the California Zephyr in 1952 and it describes the train and it’s trip beautifully and a murder takes place with the usual  suspects, I’m enjoying this one, and I found out that ME TV on Sunday nights at 10 p.m. is showing “The Night Stalker” with Darren McGavin!   I loved that show when it came out the first time, and now it’s back.    I have it and the two movies on DVD, but to see it on T.V. is such a treat, and Blacklist is coming back.   So I’m looking forward to the revived T.V. season. 

Now I need to go and take care of a few things, last minute grocery shopping, it’s going to be a mad house.

To all of you Darklings, have a safe celebration and Happy New Year for 2017.

Later Darklings