I'm so glad, N Q, that you still drop in with some regularity to chat. I really do miss this little community and enjoy connecting with you again! I like your sister's beer style :-)  My sister and I have an arrangement: I take care of all of the travel details and she does the research on the local destinations and attractions for when we get to where we are going. It works out well :-)

I think DS is safe enough. He is, at least, happy. He really, really loves his job so I'm glad for that, wherever he is. 

If I don't speak to you again until after tomorrow, good luck staying up until midnight and Happy New Year! 

H

Homely one of my sisters and her husband went to Belgium maybe 8 years ago right before christmas and they also enjoyed trying out all of the beers but then whenever they go to Europe, they try out the beers of the regions they're in.

I really hope your son stays safe, the fact that he can't say where he is sounds ominous :( but hopefully he won't be deployed for long !

Hope you have a nice New Years Eve, my plans are to try and stay up till midnight...LOL 

N Q, we did see some Christmas markets, but they do not make such a big deal about them in NL and Belgium as they do in Germany/Austria. They are mostly food and drink, with the odd crafts booth here and there. Very quiet, but very enjoyable. The most lovely one I saw was in Bruges. We are big fans of Belgian beers so it was very exciting for us to be chasing around after all of the local seasonal brews :-)

We are not certain where DS is at the moment. He can contact us only occasionally. This is his second deployment within the year - he was in Okinawa through March. He was much more in contact on that one and it was planned well in advance. This one is very different. I just hope we get to see him when he is done with it, whenever that will be. We saw him only once in 2025 and I miss him terribly.

I think we are getting your high winds today - I woke up this morning and it was 53 out - i had to do a triple take to be sure I was not misreading it - but now the winds are howling and it is supposed to be back down in the twenties overnight. It certainly has been a winter so far!

Hoping we get to hear from Silver Squirrel soon about her travels!

Homely that sounds like an enjoyable vacation,Europe during the christmas season. Did you get to any of the christmas markets ?

That's too bad about your son, I sure hope he wasn't deployed to the Middle East or any other place with major conflicts !

Our big storm waited till after christmas to arrive, we had a blizzard that lasted all day yesterday along with very heavy winds. A lot of roads were closed as was MSP, no planes in or out most of the day. Today it's not snowing but the winds are up to 30mph making for some more lousy roads BUT it sure is pretty :)

MD - I remember that story about Viti tracking down Feral Orchid! Haven't seen FO in quite a while. I've theorized that there are folks who can no longer log on because the system is slowly dying, which means they can read our comments but not add anything in. If folks lost their login into they will be out of luck. Such a shame to see the community shrink so.

N Q - We did NOT go anywhere warm... we were in the Netherlands and Belgium! We did not see the light of day for ten days, but it was a lovely trip. Sadly, the day we were leaving DS was deployed so he missed the trip. We missed him terribly but drank some beers for him.  

Hope everyone had a very warm and wonderful holiday!

Shame about Viti.  I remember when she tracked down Feral Orchid and knocked on her door!  She cycled to the village and walked round with a picture of Feral asking  ....."Do you know this woman?"  

I wonder how Feral is getting on ..... she used to do mountains of pickles. 

Homely a winter holiday sounds nice, where did you go, somewhere warm ?

Today is my baking day, cookies, fudge and cheesy onion rolls, then I'm set for christmas. I hope you have a nice christmas with your family.

Merry Christmas everybody !

Thanks for the add, MD - I couldn't come up with the year off the top of my head. So many gone... I stumbled across the note about Viti's passing the other day... 

Hi, N Q - I might need to try that crockpot trick for the turkey breast, it sounds amazing! I've been offline for quite a bit as we were on a winter's holiday and just returned last night. Should've been Saturday but our flight was canceled, so now I've lost the one baking day for Christmas that I had available! It snowed and iced here a fair bit while we were gone and I'm glad to have missed it. My partner's hand healed up well enough to cover things, thankfully!

If I don't see you here again before the end of the week, I hope your holiday is warm and wonderful!

http://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/keene-nh/shirley-powers-8953887

http://www.camsecure.co.uk/Christmas/FinlandChristmasWebcam.html

I hadn't realized Trix had died on the 6th, the same date my father died on in 2018, what year did Trix die ?

It's nice having snow for christmas but not enjoyable having to make sure it's all cleared away which I assume will be your job till your partners hand is heals, so no more working from home on snowy days :( Hopefully his hand will heal fast.

I bought a turkey breast just for myself, cook it in a crockpot and it was the moistest breast I've ever had. Other than a few turkey sandwiches I made a large stock pot of turkey soup which has been keeping me warm on these cold days, it's in the minus temps again today :(

Hi, N Q - After cooking for 15, a lovely, subdued Thanskgiving with neighbors sounds fantastic! Sorry about the weather - it's been unusually cold here and, yes, snowy. It finally arrived here yesterday. My law partner just had hand surgery and so I had to go in to the office and make sure the stairs to our front door and the sidewalks and parking spots were swept/shoveled/salted. He usually bears that burden so I was happy to help out.  Meanwhile, today is 12/6 and the anniversary of the death of Trix. Thought MD might make another appearance but no. 

We are a tiny community now, but a community nonetheless! I am snacking on Fritos for some relief from T'giving leftovers and having chili for dinner tonight!

PS. I just heard that you might be in for a nice snowstorm today? or tomorrow. Hope you don't get snowed in.

Homely that was nice that you could facetime with your son on Thanksgiving and YUP on the whole living in the futrure is fun, just think of all of the changes around us since we were kids !

I think Susan Dennis from Seattle was probably one of the first to facetime in her own way. She had her webcams with sound set up in her livingroom and then she put one up in her mom's livingroom so that they could watch the same tv show at the same time and talk about it in real time.

I had a nice but subdue Thanksgiving which was ok because we had rain on tuesday that turned into snow on wed, which left the roads ice covered so traveling wasn't wise, I stayed here at my apartment building and had Thanksgiving with some of my neighbors.

Hi, N Q - Hope your holiday was wonderful despite the bluster! Yes, the Thanksgiving thing worked out in the end for our son. By Thursday he'd been on the antibiotics long enough to feel well enogh to cook. He timed it so that he ate when we did, and we connected via FaceTime and passed him around the table while we all ate together. I love living in the future!

LOL, now your son doesn't have to feel guilty about not coming home and you get to feel relieved that he didn't come home, sorta a win on both sides except he's sick :(

I got about 3" of rain yesterday before it turned cold enough to snow, so I only got about 3" of snow but OMG is it windy and very cold today.

Sage advice about enjoying a peaceful year, N Q! We have the first baby in the family in 20 years this year - my niece and her husband had their first child in August. And, as chance would have it, my son called yesterday on his way to the doctor because he was quite ill. Tested positive for strep, so he would have gotten us all sick had he come down here. A strange way to have things "all work out in the end"! Enjoy the beautiful snow - 6" sounds manageable :-)

I remember how my parents felt as less of us would show up for the holidays and then it seem that there was suddenly a whole bunch of grandkids entertaining them over the holidays so it may be diasppointing for you now but some day in the future you may wish you had the peace and calm of this Thankgiving instead of screaming kids tearing your house apart over the holidays :)

They're now talking about 6"+ for Thanksgiving......it'll be pretty to look at :)

Hi, N Q - I haven't seen snow at Thanksgiving since I was a kid! Lucky you - maybe? Glad you're not traveling in it. I've been moping around because our son isn't here for the holiday this year. We cook everything together and it's a very special time. However, seeing that he will also be impacted by some of those big storms, I realize that his ability to get here and get home may be compromised so I am telling myself it is just as well. Enjoy your holiday! I'm home cooking today :-)

Happy Thanksgiving Homely, hope you have a real nice one. It sounds like I may have snow by Thanksgiving, luckily I won't be traveling in it !

Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate it :)