Beginning 2024

B and I did not go out for New Years Eve.  Stayed home and watched old movies, turned to Rockin Eve at midnight to watch the ball drop. Glass of wine, new years kiss and finished the movie and went to bed.  B says we are party animals. LOL

New Year's Day tradition is to turn the Rose Parade on tv and watch it while cleaning up Christmas.  I love decorating for the holiday.  I don't like taking it all down and putting it away.  We were surprised it only took 1 hour to clean up all the Christmas decor and put it away for next December.  There were past Christmases when it took us hours but that was when the boys were little.

We counted out our change jars that we fill all year, as well as the envelopes that we collect one dollar bills in.  This will be deposited in our savings account.  Also, we set a new goal for what we would like to have in the savings account by next December.  We reached our goal this year and were quite pleased.  Some things we do to help our savings grow are to reimburse the account if we have to take anything out of it for an emergency, etc.  Also, any bump we get in social security, we deposit that into the savings account too.  We are very pleased at how this is going.

We did a lot of decluttering in 2023 and will continue to do so in 2024.  It is amazing how much we have that we really don't use or need.

We are looking to "run away from home" at least once a month in 2024.  Mostly short trips but we would like to go out to Nevada to see our oldest son and dil if we can find flights that are not too expensive and not too many stops there and back.  We are also thinking of going to Florida in 2024 to visit my sister and her husband.  All this will be contingent on cost, weather and health.

My word for 2024 is "Hope".  With all the turmoil of the presidential election, war in the Ukraine and now in Israel, a record number of mass shootings in this country and just plain meanness and hatred for each other, I have "Hope" that 2024 will see a resurgence of peace and fellowship, of kindness, respect and care of the environment and of love toward all.  I know this sounds very "pie in the sky" but why shouldn't we try to "Hope" for the ultimate?