Happy New Year!

Hey, Y'all!
Well, it is almost over, isn't it? Many people think of New Year's resolutions on this last day of the year. I never bother to make them, because I know it is a foolish gesture because they are almost always things that we have attempted to accompllish before and never could.

Actually, each new day is a virtual new beginning for each of us, if we choose to do so.

This morning, I had a good cry thinking about my little brother, John, who was laid to rest on Monday, December 29th. I was thinking about how we spent so many years walking to school together, talking about things, and just generally enjoying each other's company. I remembered how he enjoyed telling or listening to a good joke. I thought about how we laughed together over those times in later years and how we won't be doing that anymore. His wife, Darlene, had sent me an e-mail telling me how they had buried his ashes in the National Military Cemetary on Monday, and how the Military had given him the 21 gun salute, played taps and gave her the American Flag in his memory. Thinking about all those things really brought it home to me, that he really is gone from this life. I know I shall miss him terribly in the years to come.

All my brothers served our country in the United States Army, and so far, three of them have been laid to their final resting place. I miss them all. I look forward to the time when I will see them again.

What does all this have to do with a Happy New Year? Well, although they are gone, there are those who are still here and Gramps and I intend on enjoying our time here as long as we can. Gramps actually got up this morning at around 10:30 or so. Hallelujah! He probably heard the activity going on outside our back door, although that is not necessarily true. I groused at him a little bit yesterday about staying in bed until 4:30 yesterday. Anyway, the noise outside the back door was our neighbor putting a ramp outside the back door for us to use so that Gramps can get out without my having a nervous breakdown trying to get him down the step without his falling on his snoot.

Scott, our new neighbor, is a construction worker, who is out of a job during the past few weeks. I hired him to put the new ramp in, and it is going to be perfect for us. Not only will we be able to use it for Gramps, but now Marion, (Judy's mama) will be able to come in easily to visit us. As you may remember, Marion is 90 years old, and uses a walker to get around.

This morning, I got up around 7:30, and cleaned the kitchen, did some laundry, vacuumed the living room and bed room, and did a few other things (like showering and eating breakfast), reorganized my linen closet, all by 10 a.m.

I put a cornish game hen in a dutch oven and put some barbeque sauce on it, and put it in the oven to cook while I went to the Walmart (this after I got Gramps fed breakfast). When I got home, the dutch oven was quite (very) dry and that poor little bird was almost a disaster, but I am sure that underneath that dark, dark skin, the meat is quite tasty. Oh, well, we shall see. I am going to use my new dicer to cut a sweet potato into dices, and cook them in a skillet, and also open some canned spinach to go with those things. I will let you know if the little bird was edible or not. Things that are cooked do not always turn out the way one visualizes, you know. I don't claim to be a gourmet (if I did, it would be an entirely false claim, you know).

Well, Gotta go fix that supper and tomorrow is New Year's day and we ususally try to have black eye peas and ham and rice for lunch or dinner (whichever you want to call it) We eat supper in the evening. Those items are supposed to bring luck in the new year. Also, my parents always said that if a person goes outside on New Year's Day, they should always bring something back inside to secure a prosperous year. We always had to at least bring in a stick of stovewood or some such thing if we went outside on that day.

This is Blabbin' Grammy signing off for now. Happy New Year to each of you, and may you feel God's richest blessings on your life in the year to come. Love to all and bye for now.