I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We sure did! It was nice to have the entire family together on Christmas day.  We spent our holiday at a hunting camp in the mountains of south eastern Ohio.  It was so awesome! It's a ranch style cabin with 2 bedrooms and a loft. Besides my husband, Karl, and myself, we had our son and his wife and little son, and our daughter, and her husband and 2 of their children. The guys went out hunting every day, and the girls stayed home at the cabin and tended the children and cooked the meals on the woodstove, worked on a couple of beautiful jigsaw puzzles and just chatted. It was really nice. The cabin has indoor plumbing, but no electricity. It does have a generator, but it's noisy and we didn't want to terrify the deer, so we didn't use it. We used oil lamps and candles instead. It was so nice! At night you could look outside and see nothing but bare naked trees swaying in the cold breeze, and thousands of stars glittering in a velvety black sky. There were no other lights visible at all anywhere, and it was soooo hushed and quiet. We're looking into building a hunting cabin of our own now.  Oh, and Karl got a doe, so we have some venison in the freezer now too.

My ankle is healing up from my surgery nicely. I'm taking PT two times a week now that we're home from vacation. It's still sore, but I know that will work itself out over time and therapy.  I'm really pleased with the results of the surgery!

So, do we have any resolutions for the New Year?  I am determined that I'm going to lose this stubborn 25 lbs I've gained over the past couple of years. I've joined Weight Watchers, and I'll let you all know how it goes.   I want to be at my target weight by June of 2009.  Anyone want to be my weight loss buddy?

I'm also resolute about getting my fiction finished and published. My goal is to get the work finished by December 2009, and look for a publisher for release in 2010.  I will also continue with my homesteading series, Today's Homestead.  Volume III should be out by March or April, at the latest.

I'm disappointed in how little snow we've had so far this year.  We usually have several inches by this time of year, but it's been in the 50's and if we get any precipitation, it's rain.  No white Christmas for us this year, and 2009 is coming in green and entirely too warm.  This can't be good for the orchard trees, or for the sap run this year.

We've received our seed cataloges and are busy planning our 2009 garden. Are you all planning your gardens too? What are you all considering planting? Trying anything new this year?

Have a safe, and blessed New Year everyone!