Hello, my friends, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I hope this newsletter finds you healthy (no Covid variants), happy (all your holiday wishes came true) and ready to say good-bye to 2021 and “Welcome, 2022!” (not 2020, too) 😉.

In my last newsletter, I publicly stated my Christmas wishes. QUOTE: “When asked what I want for Christmas, I tell everyone: rain and snow.🙂”

Guess what?

Since that newsletter, we’ve had 3.97” of rain!!! (That’s a lot for our part of California.)

And on this past Monday morning Paul and I witlessly headed to town for Paul’s Physical Therapy (more on that below) and plowed (literally) into a snow storm.

I was driving, of course, and while I grew up in snow country, I hadn’t actually driven in snow for many years—and, worse, the people around me had NO snow skills whatsoever. We actually watched a car back down a hill in 4”-deep snow.

And having a know-it-all co-pilot didn’t help.

By the way, that video was taken before it got bad. Below is the one an hour later and he’s not nearly as cocky.

But we made it home safely. Only to learn that our power was out. Again!!

Happily, the sun came out a few hours later, and all that lovely snow will melt and our drought might not be too bad this summer. Fingers crossed.

The bionic man has his second new knee!

To our shock, we got a call from Paul’s doctor offering him a chance to have his surgery a week ahead of schedule. We jumped at the chance. On early Monday, December 13, Paul got his right knee replaced.

I’m happy and relieved to report that this recovery is progressing ahead of Knee #1. Paul’s feeling great, and we were able to attend several delightful holiday festivities with our family (photo collage below).

I hope your holidays stocked up your well of great memories.

As promised, here’s a tiny glimpse back at 2021. So many memories! Too many to pick from:

With love and good cheer,

Deb

PS: Because this makes me smile, I want to share a shot I took at our creek on the Winter Solstice. Angels on my shoulders? Or little devils on my head?

Coming Thursday – 1/13: Writing, travel plans (knee health permitting) and Poppy turns 7.