CHRISTMAS FUNNIES #1~2025

 

FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE; Coalinga-CA

For Heaven's sake! 🤦🏻‍♀️

Again, the drive to Hanford did not happen 🙄 - I didn't sleep more than a few quick winks last night (cold weather aches & feral dogs barking), and Holland didn't fare much better than I did; he's breathing much better this week, praise the Lord 🙏 … but those trolling, barking feral dogs are not allowing anyone in the Park, a peaceful rest period 🐕🐾🤬

Our city drive scrapped; & knowing we'd both be catnapping 😴 off and on throughout the Day (Holland already slipped back into bed upstairs 🛌💤) - I put a bean soup 🥣 on slow cook ⏱️; did some body toning 💪 reps for muscle strength (also hoping for some refreshing alertness, for Heaven's sake), watched a vintage Clifton Webb & Edmund Gwenn movie for some good Heaven's Sake humor 😇😉 … and worked more rows on the little pink WIP, for Heaven's sake - in a positive way 💝🎁😘

An impromptu, hearty winter soup, to finish off last night's garlic bread. General Cooking from scratch, burns roughly 100-150 calories per hour (chopping, stirring, moving). Washing dishes by hand, burns approximately 75–180 calories per hour.

Count your reps as you do them as follows: (1-2-3-4, ONE; 1-2-3-4, TWO) aiming for a consistent pace & rest between each set for a 10 sec. break before going into the 2nd+ set(s): 3 rep sets = 100 cals.

Bicep Extensions Exercise: 

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5dfkW6w5qI)

Arm Scissors Crossover Exercise

Bodyweight Standing Phelps Chest Stretch

Stepper, slow and easy 10 to 15 mins; x3 reps = 90 cal's. The ideal frequency depends on your individual fitness goals, current activity level, and how your body responds, so listen to your body and adjust as needed.

Accurate raglan sleeve length, is measured the whole length = from neck to cuff end.

Accurate gown body length, is measured from armpit to hemline. Knitting can burn approximately 100-150 calories per hour.

For Heaven's Sake 1950 Clfton Webb, Joan Bennet & Robert Cummings:  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns8TXKJqp9c)

Supper was delish - a definite repeat 😊

Val's Slowcooker Winter Pinto Bean Soup:  (https://roadgypsiesvalandholland.blogspot.com/2025/12/vals-slowcooker-winter-pinto-bean-soup.html)

VAL'S SLOWCOOKER WINTER PINTO BEAN SOUP; Coalinga-CA

YUM!

It has been cold here, in CA 😱

And it is shocking to me, because the hype talk since I moved West with my parents in the summer of 1965, was "it's always like summertime in sunny california!" But, I am finding out what my husband (who was born in Santa Cruz- CA and spent a good portion of his life living in and working in california) has always known: it gets downright cold 😳 in california valleys, in the winter months!

35-degree early morning hours, with a thick dense fog that holds a solid barrier between the sun's normal hot sunrays and california's valley tera firma … makes for cold atmosphere: cold days call for a good hearty, warming, soup; coupled with garlic bread 🥣🥖👌

While I was drinking my morning coffee with cupped hands & a space heater aimed in my direction, thinking this weather here reminds me of WA winters (sans the nonstop rain, freeze, or snowfall there) - I decided to pull a tasty soup together 😉 I had fat & sassy ham hocks in the freezer, a bag of pinto beans in the pantry, veggies in the 'fridge, & spices in the cupboard: drawing on memory of pinto soups in the past, I gathered together everything that came to mind; and got busy 👨‍🍳

This soup is very tasty.

This soup is satisfactorily filling.

Val's Slowcooker Winter Pinto Bean Soup ~serves 8

1-lb. bag of Pinto Beans, rinsed * 2 Ham Hocks, smoked * 1 large Yellow Onion, quartered & sliced * 6 Garlic cloves, peeled & sliced cross-grain * 2 c. Turkey stock (or chicken) * 4-5 small, skinny Carrots, sliced into thin coins * 3 skinny stalks Celery w-leaves (inner stalks), sliced thin * 2 c. Water * 1/4 c. bottled BBQ Sauce * 1-1/2 TBSP. Brown Sugar * 1 tsp. Baking Soda * 1 tsp. Paprika, smoked * 1 small Bay Leaf * 1/2 tsp. Black Pepper, ground * canned Pineapple chunks, drained * 1 Lrg. Crockpot (8-10 qt., oval) * 1 Lrg. Cooking Spoon, slotted * 1 whisk * 1 Lrg. Pyrex Glass Measuring Cup

1) Combine beans, hocks, vegetables, & turkey stock in the slowcooker crock - with bean and hocks at the bottom; then in the large Pyrex measuring cup, gently whisk water, BBQ sauce, sugar, baking soda, & spices together - add to bean mixture.

Pinto beans.

Frozen Thanksgiving Turkey Stock.

Garlic, onion, carrot, celery, ham hocks, pineapple, BBQ Sauce.

Garlic sliced cross-grain.

2) Set slowcooker temperature to HIGH until the crockpot blend boils (about 1-1/2 hrs) … then reduce heat to LOW and cook for 3-1/2 or 4-1/2 more hours: remove ham hocks from soup, & with fork tines removes meat from bones in chunky bits - discard bones & return meat to soup mixture. Add pineapple chunks, and continue cooking another hour - or until beans & veggies are cooked to desired tenderness.

3) Serve up & enjoy 😁

My husband says this soup is a definite repeat 😘

BEE MAN ARRIVED 😁; Coalinga-CA

We woke up to heavy fog laying thick 😱 throughout our immediate area … and Holland's cousin giving him a jingle 20 minutes before locating us 🤝 and whisking Holland off 🚘 for a ride-along to Bruce's bee hives, where they will be hunkered down until they are set up in almond orchards a few weeks ahead:

Thick Fog Advisory for our immediate area.

Bruce Harris; I'm so glad this hookup happened 👍

Bruce found us 📌 & they were off like the reindeer fleet 😉

Went thru the house like a whirling dervish to the backbeat of Christmas tunes 🎄🎸🎶, while making ready for cousin Bruce's welcome when the guys return.

Timeless Christmas Playlist | 4K Holiday Ambience & Classic Songs: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3C79bH9dRA)

When Holland & Bruce returned, they continued another 2 hour visit before cousin headed back to Colorado - I like Bruce; later, we drove into Coalinga to exchange my small change winnings for a couple more scratch cards (it's small change entertainment 🤞 that gives me an excitement boost, & Holland humorous indulgence 😘) - and then Holland took me for a little drive, to show me where Bruce had laid his bee boxes …

Small win fun = $5 + 1 free ticket 😉

Bruce's bees boxes 🍯🐝 will be placed in almond orchards in a few weeks.

Back home again, we ate a light supper 🥣🥖 & checked in 💗 on friends and family members in flood-prone 💧 regions of WA State; so far, everyone says they are safe 🙏

We are very thankful to be here 🎯 - instead of there; and very grateful for the road blocks, reroutes, and detours 🚧 Elohim ☝️ placed before us ➡️, to keep us safe, here for the time being ❤️

Then, I watched a vintage comedy 💻🎧 … and started work on another little sleeping gown:

Easy Living (1937) Ray Milland, Jean Arthur & Edward Arnold:  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wIGrAUxfn4)

MOD Preemie-NB Sleeping Gown.

After the movie, it's upstairs for early-night/down-time for me …

To bed early & will read 📖 until the book falls out of my hands 🛌😴

Holland is planning on going 🚘 into the city of Hanford-CA, tomorrow morning: he's going for 4x maintenance … I'm going for the downtown holiday sparkle ⭐️🎄✨ and glitz 😁

THINGS ARE DIFFERENT FOR A WOMAN

Things are different for a woman.

Men can - and more than they should; go places alone that a woman has to carefully plan before attempting.

While there are friendly people in the world … the world in general, is not a friendly place: especially for a woman alone.

YES! I AM "a woman with balls" - BUT, I am also a woman who understands that my strength is no match for a man when his testosterone is flowing at max level.

I CAN & DO go places alone, but I prefer having my man with me when a city trip is necessary: a lot of rats dwell in cities, and they do not always troll around on 4 legs.

CYCLE BREAKER; Coalinga-CA

This is true.

I stopped the cycle with my immediate family & don't miss the drama of my extended family … or my husbands' family dramas.

I learned early on that sometimes it is better to love people from a distance when they surround themselves by chaos.

PLOT TWIST; Coalinga-CA

This Holiday Season we are affirming the best in each other.

The diamond polishing process transforms a rough stone into a sparkling gem through precise shaping and smoothing, primarily using a spinning cast-iron wheel (scaife) coated with diamond dust.

December 8th: Our Life Tapestry with this holiday season's plot twist woven into it, has given a lot of pleasure with plenty of slow 🐢, cozy 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨, ordinary home & hearth days 💞 (very welcome interludes that were very noticeably 🙄 absent in winters past); mingled in with a generous sprinkling of more exciting happenings like ground shaking thunder & lightening episodes ⚡️😳 that rode through our area on the coat tails of November's stormy weather 💧; & explorations 🚘 into Hanford's city center, recently coming alive with holiday décor 🎅🎄 to lend seasonal excitement to balance out the humdrum ordinary of every day.

We had gone to bed last night with a well-laid plan to be in Hanford-CA, bright & early this morning … but the weather did not cooperate:

This morning's fog advisory.

We're the dot between Avenal & Huron-CA

Plus, there has been a pack of wild dogs trolling the Park here, every day for the past week - this morning, it seemed they were directly under our front windows, making themselves known around 4 A.M.; I finally got up around 6 A.M., so my tossing and turning would not wake Holland.

Between the shrouding fog & the barking dogs that had interrupted our sleep, it was understood we'd be staying home.

I drank some coffee, stretched my upper body muscles, watched a old plot twist movie, and finished up the little preemie/newborn sleeping gown set I'd been working on the past few days:

Upper body stretching boosts flexibility, range of motion, and posture while reducing tension (counteracts hunching from prolonged sitting, helping you maintain proper alignment.), stiffness, and injury risk, improving daily function and athletic performance by increasing blood flow and promoting relaxation for your neck, shoulders, chest, and back. It's crucial for counteracting desk work, enhancing recovery (increases blood flow to fatigued muscles), and fostering overall well-being: if you don't stretch your upper body regularly, the muscles in this area can “become short and tight, leading to weakness and muscle damage, strains, and joint pain,” Leanne says. “Super tight muscles limit your range of motion and may create a muscle imbalance.

The Competition 1980 Movie with Richard Dreyfuss, Amy Irving, and Lee Remick:  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC4nO1XahvI)

Creatively, December this year, is being split between the beginnings of MOD Christmas Chevron Afghan & the Preemie/NB items I am committed to; both WIP's are enjoyable and serve a beneficial purpose - as well as all the creative goodness that goes into each personalized item, which generates happiness ripples 💖💞😘

MOD Twisted Rib St. Buttonhole Bands. Putting the finishing touches on this little sleep gown, I laughingly said to Holland that it's long length reminds me of the escape artist baby boy in the Popeye cartoon series of days gone by. He laughingly agreed.

MOD Twisted Rib Trim Preemie-NB Beanie & Tube Socks, made to match the drawstring gown.

Earlier this morning, I also saw some new growth 👏 on my recently purchased fishbone cactus; but, my Thanksgiving Cactus did not set bud 😔 this year (lots of new leaf growth, though) & with Christmas Day a mere 19 days away: still no showing buds 🤷‍♀️

4 new growth spurts on my Fishbone Cactus.

But my Minerva continues to impress. The first rush of seasonal indoor Amaryllis bloom has come and gone - but today as I sit at my dining table changing out morning coffee for afternoon coca cola, I am delighting in the fresh new burst of growth with bloom promise 🌸👌 I was gifted with one of these flowering bulbs about 14 years ago, and they have since become a staple ✔️ in my December holiday enjoyment ✨🎄 I like  the bolt of bright color they bring into the house; & I like flowering bulbs in general (hyacinths, daffodils, tulips, crocuses, amaryllis) because they are low maintenance and uncomplicated … in my past life, buying & planting flowering bulbs was a seasonal ritual 😉 that delivered a huge amount of expansive colorful pleasure viewed through my spacious picture windows when seriously bad weather ☔️❄️ kept me indoors. This year, in my new life with it's unfolding plot twists, this one Minerva bulb is brightening my indoor space with holiday joy.

Minerva showing a bonus surprise.

And around suppertime, Holland's cousin Bruce, called to say he'd be dropping by tomorrow morning for some face time and catch-up jawing; they are the same age, give or take a few months between them. I'm glad they are finally getting together 🤝 - they've been trying for the past 30 months. Bruce will be heading to Colorado next week … and we aren't sure how long we'll be here: the barking dogs and the cold weather have put a wrinkle in our plans here - and the ensuing plot twist may have us on the move too, come January 2026, trusting Elohim's Plan for our Life.