Quiet Sunday

All the Christmas decorations inside are put away. What a job, even with doing some of it in the days before. The big tree is a chore, that's for sure. DH was missing his extra help getting it all back upstairs LOL. I don't know how he even gets it stuffed back in the box, but he does. I did try to squeeze all the branches back down as much as possible, which takes a while. We added a bin to the storage, as I had picked up a few Christmas decor items on clearance last year that just got stuck in the closet and received a few new things this year.  We put the 3 tree boxes in a separate "closet" that accesses the attic. It doesn't have a real door. Just a cut out that is framed and screwed on the wall that goes back into a small attic area. We put the 3 tree boxes, the 2 old sleds and the 2 small potted trees in there, where before we had kept those 2 small potted trees in the main closet with the bins. I also was able to put the 5 or 6 fake potted poinsettia's in the extra bin, so those aren't just sitting on top the the bins in the closet.

DH got all the lights down from the fence and put away. After carrying the 5 parts of the big tree and the box for the dining room tree up stairs and put away and taking down the lights from the fence, in like 5 degree weather, he opted to wait on getting up a ladder and taking the lights down that go across the front of the house and on the shop gutters. Maybe today.

We did finally manage to watch 1883 on Paramount +  via adding it to our Amazon Prime subscription. Every so often it would freeze for a quick second, but nothing like their app. Then about halfway through the first episode the words stopped matching the mouths. GAHH!!! So frustrating. I paused it, rewound it just a bit and then it was ok for a bit. Then started doing it again. DH was tired and falling asleep and I needed to make dinner, so I paused it and made dinner and he took a nap. When I resumed it, all was fine and we were able to finish episode 1 and 2 and 3 with no issues. I think episode 4 is on tonight, as well as the season finale to Yellowstone. 

My mom seemed good yesterday. She actually called me in the morning and wished me a Happy New Year.

DH is waiting on some parts to repair the quad/snow plow and hoping they come in the next couple of days before we are getting more snow predicted. It looks like one should arrive tomorrow. The other one I'm not sure when. Shipped via DHL, which then goes to USPS. I don't know why business's ship like that. Seems to take twice as long to go through 2 carriers, so why not just ship directly via USPS in the first place. It appears to have made it to Denver this morning, but unfortunately I think it's the part that dh needs the most, so I think it's going to be a few more days. I think he can still use the quad to plow, but he's really having to baby it.

DD is halfway through her masters degree program now and made the dean's list. She's just taking one class per term and I think she skipped a term later this summer, just to take a break from it. 6 more classes to go.

Kitty is gradually doing better at night, except for when dh gets up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. Wakes kitty up, so then he thinks it's play time, most of the time. I swear sometimes it's like he wants me to put him back upstairs in the middle of the night. In the middle of the night I'm thinking to myself "then just go up there! LOL". It seems the last couple of nights he has finally figured that out himself and I hear him up there (my office is above our bedroom) playing a bit. Later he comes back and sleeps with us some more. 

I have a $50 Kohl's gift card to use, plus Kohl's just sent an email that I have a $10 birthday cash to use by the end of January. Plus there's a 20% off code available right now. I'm trying to decide what to get. I don't know why it's so hard, LOL. I'll think I'll buy some clothes. Then by the time I've gone through 20 pages I give up. Too many choices. Every Christmas I wish I had a Christmas bedspread for our bed, then after every Christmas I think "oh, I don't need to spend the money on one". This morning I'm kind of leaning toward a new comforter for the guest bedroom that has the buffalo stuff. I've never really liked that comforter much. 

With all the Christmas decor put away the house seems so bare and empty! And dark, without the lights, haha. Always takes awhile to get used to again, but for some reason this year, I was glad to have it back to normal. I'm not one to decorate for every holiday coming up so it's just normal every day decor and Christmas. I don't change with the seasons or holidays. That's just too much work to me.

I'll know for sure when we get the year end statement on my mom's retirement account, but it looks like she increased her portfolio by about $135,000 overall, in 2021. She was required to take out her minimum distribution of $49,000 during this past year (included in the $135k figure). She earns about $22,000 in social security a year and is currently spending about $40k a year to live on. Even when she has to start paying high assisted living/memory care costs it appears her annual earnings on her portfolio, combined with her social security will more than cover what she will need in the coming years. She will probably not even need to reduce her principal balance much, if at all. I'm not sure what her required min distribution will be this year, it appears they changed the tables again, but I think she'll be required to take around $52,000 out.