Christmas 2021…
There’s just the two of us these days so as of in the past our Christmases are very simple.  Carla’s gifts to me are always meaningful, whereas mine to her are generally on the fun side. Even now our new home does not lend itself to “things” for the sake of just giving stuff. Below right was to us from Amy. a very personalized mat with our name on it.

As seen above Carla very enjoys caramel popcorn. She found it at Ace Hardware and really enjoyed the flavor. Once again Amy’s mat and a couple of smaller gifts. Back when we had our last home, we had an awesome collection of ceramic Christmas village buildings. It will take a few years, but I hope to be able to bring back our village with items from St Theresa’s Thrift Shop at our Church.   

A beautiful food gift set from Jody and Mark will be enjoyed by us in time. Scoots could really care less. What she doesn’t know is that she also has a fairly big gift waiting for her, once I put it together. McDonalds’ and any and all gift cards are always relished.

We always enjoy a gift card from either Texas Roadhouse and/or Ale House because of the calamari Ale House cooks up. It took a little longer than usual this Christmas due to all the calls from Carla’s family, as usual. Delightful to speak to all. Carla enjoys a little rest after all the openings.

Above is the creation of Scotty’s gift, a cat “tower.” It’s tall enough for her to enjoy looking out the back door window. As of now she’s only made it to the top level just once, but we’re confident she’ll make it to the top on her own someday. 

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HAPPINESS, is to have everything…
you need!
NOT the need to have everything.

Dec 1- TV, closed on house, shed delivered

All this week is scheduled with things to do or placed to go. This morning early, we had the Closing on our new park-model home. On our way to the Closing we dropped by Best-Buy to pick up our TV we had ordered. Then came the Closing and our new shed wes being delivred as well.

Dec 2- Moving

It was a very apprehensive beginning to the morning. Carla met with her Oncologist and received the latest information on her condition. To our surprise the news was much better than we had expected. It’s still Stage-4 cancer but her doctor gave her some very optimistic information. Carla’s DNA, as it turns out from a test, is receptive to a particular drug. There’s even a possibility for a trial. Almost all the degenerative conditions we were imagining and fearing would not be part of her future. Her doctor is recommending and combination of a particular medication for her to take and a shot in the butt every three-months. She was told she might experience some tiredness and possibly a sore butt at times…A big relief to both of us!

We seriously looked at several homes to purchase, many with 2-bedrooms, just in anticipation of a special guest sometime in the future. This new residence reflects our blog philosophy above. Our Journey Motorhome was just a hair smaller than the home we purchased, but it did offer better storage in the living-section of the RV. I learned that in order to be called a “Camp-Home” it had to have a living area no bigger than 500-square-feet. Many of you might have walk-in closets bigger than this, but as the message-statement above says -Happiness is to have everything you need.

As you can see, just as in the Journey, all our rooms are tightly nestled together. The bottom left-hand corner of the picture is the edge of our living room with new TV and to the right is our dining room, or as in the RV our universal table. Needless to say, many of these cabinets extend too high for us to reach without a step stool. 

Welcome to our living room. It and the bedroom are both very spacious by our standards. Each measures approximately 12×12, more than adequate. There is a bathroom (no picture yet) of course, small but not tight. The shower is a very good size. 

The kitchen is adequate and linear in design. We even have a dishwasher, not sure how to use it yet. Our refrigerator is smaller than what we had in the RV but, if needed, there’s space for a residential in the future if needed.

There’s not much else left to talk about except for the bedroom. In the picture below you can see we have a ten-foot twin-closet area with storage draws in the center as well as below the mirrored closets. In the Journey we had a King-size bed, which, quite frankly, was overkill for what we needed, although Carla really liked the size very much. 

We also have a very generous porch out front. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks we hope to have it screened-in se Scoots can get to enjoy the outside with us. Getting on to the porch does have five steps but should that be inconvenient in the future a ramp can be easily installed to the back-porch entrance.

Tomorrow we have someone coming in to pick up the furniture that came with the house. This is not a big deal; we’re talking about a queen-size sleeper bed-sofa and a recliner. This is to make room for furniture we have purchased more to our liking.

Dec 3- Friday-RV and mtying boxes