5 days ago, I received my first COVID vaccination. The experience went well, although it was also a little...traumatic? Just a little! I registered to be vaccinated through the State of New Mexico . (Be sure to register for the COVID vaccine , if you haven't already. Select the option 'I do not have an event code; I want to register for the vaccine when it’s available.' Even if you're still on the fence, it makes sense to at least get in line.)  Side note: I'm pretty pleased with how this graphic I made turned out. When COVID is behind us, we can get back to enjoying fun events like the Green Chile Cheeseburger Smackdown and the  New Mexico Fermentation Festival .  Although I've always expected to receive the COVID vaccine, I'll admit my hope was to be vaccinated later.  I'm 99.9% confident that the vaccine is safe...but let's see how a few million other people respond to it first, just in case. Working in the healthcare industry though, my number c

Happy new year! I have a special present to thank you for reading my blog - free printable calendar pages . Aren't they pretty? You can save these to fill in online or download them to print.  Free printable calendar page 1 of 16 - see below for an entire year's worth of free templates, plus 4 bonus months But wait, there's more! (I hope you read that in your best infomercial voice.) There are a lot of people with a negative attitude toward New Year's resolutions. "Stop trying to make 'New Year, New You' happen," they say. "No one ever sticks to their resolutions anyway." I am the rare person who enjoys setting these goals. You clicked a link for blank calendar templates, so I'm guessing you and I are not so different. Even better, I have tips that work wonderfully for actually sticking to your New Year's resolutions (and these free calendar pages are part of the plan): Set tiny goals. Do you buy multivitamins but often forget to take

It's unusual for SN and I to spend a New Mexico Christmas at home, all alone. As much as I'd like to say we made the most of it, celebrating another COVID holiday with just the two of us seemed a bit...old?  Repetitive? Pointless? We had our tinsel in a tangle. At first, it seemed like Christmas, 2020 was just going to be like any other day. Another boring quarantine breakfast followed by another boring quarantine lunch. But then... We were visited by Santa's reindeer! What do you mean that's just a normal deer outside our window? It's clearly Blitzen. Tiny tots with their eyes all aglow,  Olive and Bernadette were consumed by holiday magic.  That quickly wore off and they barked like crazy, demanding Santa's reindeer vacate their property at once. I'm pretty sure our visitors had stopped by because they'd heard we had no Christmas spirit. Suddenly, SN and I were excited to celebrate. Thanks, Santa! New Mexico Christmas It was already late in the day an

My Thanksgiving, 2020 blog post ended up being one of the most popular on my site this year (thank you!), so here's a quick Christmas Eve update, filled with photos.  Christmas, 2020 hasn't looked like it has in previous years... My younger self (with  braces !) was excited to wear that purple flower pin, which had been recently purchased at a consignment shop. My old lady self questions my previous sense of fashion while simultaneously wondering whatever happened to that purple flower pin. Though, to be fair, our Christmas celebrations often seem a bit untraditional. There's certainly no snow for Santa's sleigh when your family lives in Arizona. I'd had a light jacket, but it was so sunny and warm in Scottsdale the year we visited Frank Lloyd Wright's  Taliesin West. It would just be SN and I for the holidays this year. No homemade lasagna, no tamale brunch, and no Christmas cookies. Imagine my surprise when I received a card from my aunt saying to enjoy the p