Let The Shopping Begin!

I hope everyone in the US had a great Thanksgiving and those who are into it had a successful Black Friday! Ours turned out pretty well, cooking the meal at Dad’s and transporting the whole thing 20 minutes north to Grandma’s apartment. I had fun with my turkey hat too. The family dining area is private in that the door is closed, but all glass walls in front so people can see in. I joked that it was like we were the Thanksgiving zoo exhibit, but we weren’t bothered and people who walked by smiled and waved. Okay, maybe some of the smiles were at my hat, those ones where they pointed at me and smiled. I smiled back, said Happy Thanksgiving, and it was usually followed by a wave and a wish for the same. It was pretty cool. The turkey hat is very me, but I also knew that wearing it would get some laughs or smiles at the senior apartments by residents and workers alike. That’s my selfish side of giving. Sharing a little joy and making people smile when they are residents in the memory care unit or working on a holiday just feels good!


On the meal front, everything tasted so good! The stuffing was exceptional this year, if I do say so myself. At one point, Grandma asked me if my Mom was coming to dinner. Pop was great as he seamlessly got her immediately on another subject, but I was thinking to myself, “Grandma can’t you taste that she was touching the stuffing when I made it?” That was the hardest part of dinner, when Grandma asked if people were joining us who only could in spirit, but there was enough good food and conversation that she didn’t dwell on those questions before another topic came up. It really was a very nice and special dinner.

Now after that recap, I’m wanting some cranberry relish. Is cranberry relish okay for breakfast on a weekend during the holiday season? (Someone please leave a yes in the comments so I feel better about it because I’m gonna do it!)


Now that Thanksgiving is done, I’ll be officially adding the Christmas music. I’ve been listening to some hit and miss for a while with those all Christmas all the time stations that start the first of November, but it’s now officially Christmas Music season! As always at The Chronicles of Nani you can click the off button on the iPod to the right. I always make sure it’s high enough on the page that it can be easily turned off if a visitor doesn’t want to listen. Just think, if this were a real time coffee shop, you’d have to BUY your coffee and listen to whatever is on the overhead speakers, which means Christmas music even if you don’t celebrate Christmas, or if your taste in Christmas music is just really different than mine! So, I welcome you all once again to enjoy the sounds of the season or enjoy being able to NOT enjoy them when you visit my cyber coffee shop!

And to go with that cyber coffee, here’s some festive calorie-free black forest cake! (Festive because black forest cake makes any blog entry a party!)





A Freebie With A Twist!

Actually a freebie with several twists!

I have so many attempts at the photo in the center of this layout that I wanted to include a couple to document my struggle and eventual success! 2007 was my first Christmas Day in Toledo and I wanted a Christmas Day picture of Baggle and Kaline together. It was almost 20 shots before I got one where they were both looking at me and there were no glowy eyes!



This was originally a layout for a challenge at Designs In Digital, but that challenge required several things and there was to be no journaling. The finished product was not to my liking, although it fit the challenge criteria. I loved the template I made for it and decided to strip it down and redo the layout with the same pictures but different everything else, including journaling. Now I like it, but it wouldn’t have fit the original challenge. It did qualify for the Out of the Box challenge at Digital Freebies, though!

So the freebie is that template, with the twisted mats and photos that don’t quite go in the frames! I call it Twists! I usually use a mish-mosh of colors that don’t really go together when I make a template for my layouts because it’s easier to tell which layer is which in the layers thumbnails in Photoshop CS. I’ve even recolored traditional shades of gray templates when I’ve worked with them for that purpose. It’s especially handy when it’s a template with lots of layers, like this one. If you have a strong opinion on the colors of the layers in a template, one way or another let me know in the comments. I could have taken the color out, but that takes extra time and, like I said, I think it makes it harder to work with. Feel free to chime in!

Click preview to dowload
Passwords is kitties

Of course, I love to hear from you if you have a moment when you download. The comments here are pop-up style, so you can comment and download at the same time. I hope you enjoy the template and I’d love to see what you make with it!

Okay, I’m really craving some coffee and that cranberry relish now! Bye!!