Happy New Year! I Can’t Believe It’s 2022!

On By DianaIn Barn stories, Living life, Memories
Christmas in Solvang!

Happy New Year to all! As my title states, I can’t believe it is 2022. I made it through Christmas as I accidentally stressed myself out a bit by not being better prepared. There were so many things I wanted to do that I didn’t get too. I wanted to do more baking which I mentioned in my last post. I ended up not baking like I wanted and making all those goodies I usually make during the holidays. The time just got away from me! I did leave the day after Christmas to visit my daughter who lives 3.5 hours north and we had a great time together!

My first photo is a pretty Christmas tree in Solvang, CA. We had so much fun visiting there even though it was raining. We have been getting a lot of weather this last month which we need. Tons of rain and snow in the local mountains. As we walked around Solvang with our umbrellas visiting bookstores I bought a Swedish cookbook and can’t wait to make a thing or two. We visited a few other stores as we meandered around. Here are a few photos I took while there! 😀

I just love the Danish architecture, love the photo of my daughter and her girlfriend and my Swedish FIKA book!

What fun I had getting to know my daughter’s girlfriend. We also exchanged gifts while visiting. On Christmas day we zoomed with family as we did a secret Santa exchange with the Elfster app. We have been using this app for about 4 years now and it is nice because it picks the name for us and then we can put items on our wish list which makes shopping easier. Usually all the shopping is done online. It was great to zoom, it’s like we are all together! ❤

I returned home from my daughter’s and it was back to work until New Years. I took two days off so I only worked three days last week which was nice. My daughter drove down here for the New year and left this evening. It was great to see her again, and she helped with our New Year dinner. Traditionally, we have Turkey dinner with all the fixings on Thanksgiving, then for New Years I buy a honey baked spiral cut ham with all the fixings. We include black eyed peas for New Year’s day which is a southern tradition which my mother-in-law always made for us and so I am keeping this tradition going. Eating the black eyed peas is supposed to bring you good luck for the new year. I think we all need all the luck we can get, right? 😀

New Year’s dinner, and two very yummy dessert’s while visiting my daughter!

Oh I have so much to share and could probably break this down to a few posts instead of one very long post! My daughter made from scratch the homemade cheesecake. It was AMAZING and it was a recipe from Chef Tyler Florence. I will have to look it up and make it too as it just melts in your mouth. She happened to have a can of cherry pie filling which we put on top. The ham dinner was amazing as was the middle desserts made by my daughter’s girlfriend who has opened up her own bakery! She is a master baker from Italy and makes amazing chocolates and other baked goods. I had so much FUN! What a great holiday it turned out to be. I’m smiling! 😀

This is downtown SLO a fun college town and the Pacific ocean as we drive by Pismo beach!

We went to SLO (San Luis Obisbo) and we visited my daughter’s girlfriends bakery which is inside an Italian restaurant. It is small but we got to taste her wonderful baked goods. This is a good way for her to start her business as eventually she will get her own place as it grows. It was a beautiful day as we drove to Pismo beach to get those wonderful cinnamon rolls to bring home to my son and hubby! ❤ (They loved them!)

There’s no easy way to change the subject, so on to my other love, my horses! I will always try to put family first and they are part of my family as well so of course I just have to share. I am thinking ya’ll like to hear how things are going with my ponies as I love to call them. They are certainly far from being ponies, especially that big tall boy Murphy! I recently measured him and he stands at 17.2hh, very tall and as I work with him each day I make sure he respects me since he is so big. He does, it doesn’t take much at all but I need to always be aware of his size. I also never hand feed him any treats as he is rather food aggressive which just means he LOVES food. So it’s best if I want to give him a treat it goes in a bucket in his stall, not from my hands. He gets plenty of pats and loving scratches which he loves.

Murphy in his new stall. He is very happy and doing great in the outside paddocks!

I have some updates and fortunately for Murphy a couple of horses moved out and two stalls opened up at the barn where I board the horses. These stalls are out in the paddocks and are very big and wide. He is doing great and I can tell really enjoys all the room he has now. I took a little video I will share!

He is doing great in his new digs, Yay!

He is so cute and I wanted to tell you of a fun thing he enjoys. He will lick your hand and as he licks if you hang on to his tongue he will just stick out his tongue while you play with it! Hahaha, I know this sounds weird, but horses can do the funniest things. He is very gentle as he licks and he enjoys this interaction as one of the girls at the barn showed me this the other day. Hey, if it tickles his tongue or he likes the salts off your hand? I’m not sure but It is great fun to pet him and interact with him without any treats of any kind! He is so silly! 😀

I took this impromptu selfie this evening before dinner!

My daughter says to me as I bring over my camera “I don’t have any makeup on!” Haha, us horse girls rarely if ever wear makeup! What’s makeup anyways, hahaha!!! She is beautiful without makeup and of course is beautiful all made up too. I actually sat here thinking should I share this photo? Yes, I want to share and send out happy healthy thoughts your way and hope everyone has had a wonderful new year no matter if you celebrated or not. I wonder what 2022 will bring our way? We will see! I’ll end with this quote;

You can't go back and change the beginning,
but you can start where you are and change the ending.
C.S. Lewis

I think of my dad as he loved C.S Lewis. Love you Mom and Dad up in heaven! He passed on New Years day in 2003. ❤ ❤ ❤

Grateful, thankful and feeling blessed,

~Diana ❤

25 thoughts on “Happy New Year! I Can’t Believe It’s 2022!”

    1. Thank you so kindly, Happy 2022 to you too! I’m so happy you enjoyed my quote and enjoy C.S. Lewis too. I wasn’t planning a quote, it just popped into my head and thinking of my dad on this day it just all worked out PERFECT!! 💞

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  2. Happy, healthy New Year, Diana. I spent 3 hours with my girlfriend and family Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve I was out for the first time in 12-15 years and sea fog came in, so we couldn’t see a thing from my friends docked boat. I saw it in watching the ball drop on the television 🎉

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    1. Happy and healthy new Year to you too Susie!! We have had some fog here too which then makes things a bit eery. I saw it watching TV too, time square 2022 here we come! 🎉🥂😍💞

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  4. My first thought on your title was, I KNOW RIGHT! What a amazing odd wonderful fun year it has been. So awesome you spent time with your daughter for Christmas, yum to the food, who needs make up, yas are just gorgeous just the way you are. 17 hands high mighty tall magnificent Murphy, great stretch for the hips getting on & off, lol. Merry Christmas moment for Murphy, He does look very content in his new digs, love the sawdust on his back, gelding pony glitter. Love C.S.Lewis. Cheers to grateful, thankful & blessed to have pony friends like you in the world.

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    1. Oh gosh what an odd, amazing crazy year it’s been! And I agree, I KNOW RIGHT! Thanks for all your wonderful, kind, heartfelt sweet comments. You also make me giggle often in a wonderful way!! I love how you describe the sawdust on his back as gelding pony glitter!! 😂 So cute!! I’m thankful and grateful too to have pony friends like you in this world!! YES! 2022 here we come! 💞😍🐴❤️🎉🥂💖

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  7. Happy and healthy 2022 dear Diana! 🎉🍀 Lovely to see you had so much fun with your family and Murphy’s new stall looks fabulous! Wishing you happy times ahead and please give sweet Chloe and Murphy a big pat from us all 🤗🧡🐴 xxx

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    1. Thank you so much Xenia!! Happy 2022 to you too. It turned out to be a wonderful holiday and thank you, Murphy is so happy outside with all that room. I’ll give them a big pat, and sending pats and hugs to Eivor and Pearl! 🥰💖🐾xxx

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  8. That is nice that you got to do a bit of visiting over the holidays. I did this year too and I really needed it. Your food looks and sounds delicious. I cooked Christmas dinner for 12 people this year, 5 of them were kids, but it was a lot of work. I enjoyed it though. Gluten-free Christmas dinner is a challenge if you haven’t done it before.

    Anyway, thanks for the virtual coffee. Best wishes for 2022.

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    1. Thank you Shari! I’m glad you were able to do some visiting too. It is good for the soul. That would be challenging to cook gluten-free. I do vegetarian dishes for my daughter, she often helps with them so at least I’m expanding my culinary cooking a little bit. 😍 Thank you for visiting and enjoying some virtual coffee! Here’s to a great 2022! 🤩🥂

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  10. I have enjoyed seeing you photos on facebook and instagram. It makes me so happy to see that you had a lovely Christmas and a Happy New Year! That Swedish fika book have many amazing recipes. I gave that book as a Christmas gift to one of my girlfriends in Cali five years ago. Cheers to a wonderful 2022!

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    1. Thank you so very much Maria! I’m so happy we share and are friends on Instagram and Facebook as I Love all that you share too. I can’t wait to make some recipes from the Swedish Fika book, and I’m even more excited since you’ve gifted it too. I know it will be YUMMY food!! And yes, cheers to a wonderful 2022!! ❤️

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