A New Year, A New Hodgepodge…

 

Happy New Year!  What better way to help get the year started than with The Hodgepodge?!  As always, many thanks to our gracious hostess, Joyce, for keeping things going.  Now, here are today’s questions:

1. Share one favorite moment/memory from your Christmas holiday.

My favorite moment/memory from this Christmas was the candlelight church service that Ed and I attended on Christmas Eve.  It was our first time attending a candlelight Christmas Eve service, and our oldest son brought the message. Good moments, good memories.

2. What was the best thing you ate over the holidays? Was it homemade or store-bought? If it was homemade did you make it?

I ate so many good things, it’s hard to choose just one–and my waist is showing it, too!!!  I’ll choose “fruitcake cookies” as my answer, though.  We ate some at a get-together that we attended, and those were some of the best fruitcake cookies I’ve ever eaten.  They were homemade by a friend, and she was kind enough to send some home with us, too.

3. What was one of the most beautiful things you saw over the holidays?

I’ll say the Christmas light displays Ed and I visited, shortly before Christmas.  We noticed there just weren’t many light displays, this year, but we found three families who went “all out” and had filled their yards with all kinds of Christmas decorations.  We thoroughly enjoyed looking at their displays, and really appreciated their efforts.

4. What does fresh start mean to you?

A fresh start means putting the past behind you, and starting all over, like when you move from one place to another, or when you retire.

5. On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being very positive and 1 being not so great) how would you rate 2016 in terms of personal achievement and well-being? Explain.

If I compare 2016 to our nightmare year of 2015, I’d have to give it a “10”, but since Ed and I did have a couple of issues to deal with during the year, I’m going to give 2016 an “8”.   2016 could’ve been better, but we know it could’ve been a whole lot worse, too!

6. Every January 1st since 1976 Lake Superior University has published a list of words they’d like to see banished from the Queen’s English. Words may be banished due to misuse, overuse, or just general uselessness. Go here to read more about how the words were chosen or, if you’re like me, to find out what in the world the word or phrase even means or the context in which it’s used. There were quite a few on this year’s list I’d never heard before.

Here’s the 2017 list of banished words-

You, Sir-focus-Bete Noire-Town Hall Meeting-Post Truth-guesstimate-831-historic-manicured-echo chamber-on fleek-bigly-ghost-Dadbod-listicle-get your dander up-selfie drone-frankenfruit-disruption

Which word on the list would you most like to see banished in 2017? What word or phrase would you add to the list?

There were quite a few  words and phrases I’m not familiar with either.  I think I’d most like to banish the phrase “Town Hall Meeting” simply because it makes me think of politics–and I’m not ready to think about politics again!  I’d like to see the word “selfie” banished, too, as well as “selfies” themselves!  Will this fad ever die?

 7. Large or small, light or deep, share with us one goal you have for the new year.

My goal for 2017 is to continue my spiritual growth.  I received a new Bible for Christmas and I plan to spend a lot of time with it.

Random:

A few ‘storm clouds’ [of life] have been gathering around Ed and me during the past few weeks.  I’m not at liberty to share details, but I will tell you these ‘clouds’ involve medical issues, procedures, and waiting for results.  Not the way we’d hoped to begin our new year, but we’ll be okay.

Also, our daughter-in-law, Jennifer, lost her granddaddy on January 2, the day after his birthday.  He had been hospitalized the entire month of December, and was finally sent home, under hospice care, on Christmas Eve. As you can imagine, the holidays have been bittersweet for Jennifer and her family.  They have been, and will be, in my thoughts and prayers.