Monthly Archives: December 2021

December 31, 2021 · 12:00 am

Looking back, looking ahead. 2021 in review and a glimpse at the future.

2021 was, for me, a weird year. Personal losses, professional highlights, and a mix of mental and physical ailments marked 365 days that should have brought us out of the pandemic and back into normalcy.

Nope.

As I sit here in my office writing this, I think reflecting on the past year is one way to plan for the next, so here goes.

2021 in review.

Professional stuff:

wrote and published 4 full-length books and one prequel/novella

won 2 writing awards

got a new contract for 5 books with a new publisher

entered the Kindle Vella world and am kicking it!!

Attended my first writing conference/book signing since 2019, the Fall in Love New England conference

Had two book signings in my local Toadstool Bookshop for new releases.

Personal stuff:

lost 22 pounds ( of the 50 I need to lose)

welcomed my first grandson

saw my nephew married

kept my parents covid-free and healthy

had a negative mammogram but a positive melanoma biopsy that resulted in 1 Mohs surgery on my face and one excision on my shoulder. ( not fun!)

Lost my father-in-law to a myriad of medical issues.

For the first time since I started doing it, I was unable to complete the Goodreads reading challenge this year. Time, as they say, just flew.

I turned 61. Unbelievable.

Not bad. Not great, either, when you consider I could have written a lot more since I’m home for the pandemic and retirement.

So, looking toward 2022

First and foremost I have to lose the rest of the 50 pounds for my daughter’s big – 3 times delayed – super wedding reception in May.

I have 7 books on the docket to write for 2022 and am seriously hunkering down to start them in January

I have 3 conference/book signings booked for the year starting in July.

I am going on a family cruise (covid-permitting)

I want to be a better person in every way so I am going to start meditating daily

I want to be around for my grandson’s life so I am eating healthier.

I want to grow my book sales, online presence, and reader loyalty.

Some of these are lofty goals, some are not. Either way, I sincerely hope 2022 is better than 2019/2020/2021 has been. We need a break. I need a break.

Happy New Year, peeps.

~Peg

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December 25, 2021 · 12:01 am

Day 25 of the 25 Days of Christmas Ornaments

Whew!
I got it done. 25 posts in 25 days is the most I’ve posted all in a row in a few years.

I hope you enjoyed my ornament journey and the stories that went with all my favorites. This is the last one and it was given to me by my Sister-in-Law Mary when we moved into our current house.

I want to wish all of you the happiest of holidays, merriest of Christmas’s and a new year filled with love, laughter, light, and – most of all – health.

Thanks for taking this journey with me.

~Peg

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December 24, 2021 · 12:00 am

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments, day 24

Happy Christmas Eve!

Before I show you my final ornament tomorrow, I thought I’d show you the two trees I put up this year. One is our family and friends tree ( the big one), the other is the traveling tree.

You’ll recognize many of the ornaments I’ve already shown you on both of these!!!

Santa comes tonight, kids!

~Peg

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December 23, 2021 · 12:00 am

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments, Day 23

From Frank Sinatra and Alicia Keys singing about it, to all the wonderful movies that have been made in it, New York is one of the world’s favorite places.

I’m so proud to have been born and bred there. I was a real NYC girl until 27 when I married and moved away. But whenever we go back to visit the relatives I slip back into forgetting to pronounce my “Rs” and speaking really, really fast!

This ornament was purchased during the 2011 holiday season when hubby, daughter and I were back for Christmas. We took my niece, Alison, and my in-laws to see Chicago on Broadway and I just had to have an ornament to commemorate the great day we all had. The one blight? The apostrophe in Jaegers. I never noticed it until the street artist was finished. The writer in me is appalled, but the New Yorker in my just finds it funny.

Two more days to go, peeps.

~Peg

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December 22, 2021 · 12:00 am

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments, day 22

So…traveling.

Before Covid – when we could actually go to another country – my husband, daughter, and I traveled several times to England and Ireland ( my two favorite travel places on earth!) The first time was when my daughter was 8. We took my sister-in-law Kathleen with us because she’s a great traveler, and a good navigator in the car.

I am not.

My husband used her for a co-pilot the entire time we drove around the Ring of Kerry while I sat in the back with my 8 year old. It was a great trip.

The second time was when my daughter was deciding where she wanted to go to college during her sophomore high school year. She applied to Oxford and wanted to study literature there. We combined that trip with one to Ireland again.

Yet another trip was when my daughter did a summer semester at one of the Oxford colleges- I forget which.

The last time we visited the British and Emerald Isles was when she was a sophomore at Dartmouth because she was doing a semester abroad in Dublin. That trip sparked the following ornament that she brought back to the US as a present for me.

I have a few England ones as well, but this one is so pretty I wanted to spotlight it today.

More tomorrow, peeps. We’re almost done. Promise. LOL

~ Peg

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December 21, 2021 · 12:00 am

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments day 21

SO, back to travel ornaments.

The last family vacation – and by family I mean the entire Jaeger clan – took was a cruise to Nova Scotia in 2019. One of the stops was in Bar Harbor, Maine. I’d never been before and I fell in love with the tiny, quaint, seaside town. While there, I purchased ornaments for myself, my four sisters-in-law- and my bro in law and his wife to commemorate our trip.

They were all the same as this one, just different names.

Cute, no? Hee hee.

I actually love it because, first…moose! You can’t go wrong with a good KissmasMoose, and second, they really stand out on the tree because they’re not small. Each ornament is about 5 inches long, which is long for an ornament.

More traveling tomorrow, peeps.

~Peg

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December 20, 2021 · 12:04 am

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments, day 20

Sometimes, when I buy an ornament for my own tree, I get a duplicate for someone else.

Case in point – the one I purchased this year:

This ornament begins…”On the night you were born…”

I bought it this year to commemorate the birth of my first grandchild. I also gave one to my daughter who put up her very first married Christmas tree this year!

I’m hoping she continues the tradition of special ornaments that make memories even better.

Trim a tree, kids.

~Peg

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December 19, 2021 · 4:01 am

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments day 19

“There’s no place like home.”

Dorothy Gale said that almost 100 years ago and it’s true. So true.

No matter where I travel in the world I am ALWAYS thrilled when I come home and get to sleep in my own bed.

I bought today’s ornament 32 years ago when we relocated to New Hampshire. In fact, it was the first ornament I bought in our new home.

Covered bridges are very popular in NH and this one represents the State’s love affair with them.

Home. It’s where the heart is.

~ Peg

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December 18, 2021 · 12:00 am

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments Day 18

I’m gonna switch to the other tree that I have up and decorated in my house for the next few days of ornament sharing.

I told you a while back I have one tree decorated with ornaments from all the places we as a family have traveled, and places my daughter has traveled on her own. For today, it’s a shared vaca.

Several years ago the entire Jaeger family went on a cruise. It was my very first one and I’ll tell you this _ I get wicked seasick so you can imagine how wonderful the trip went for me ( note the sarcasm here, peeps.)

But…having said that, being all together and spending so much time together was a real treat. To commemorate the event, I bought this in the Bahamas:

It kinda looks like the cruise ship we too, took. Hee hee

But then, don’t all cruise ships look pretty much the same??
Until tomorrow, peeps.

~Peg

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December 17, 2021 · 12:15 am

25 Days of Christmas Ornaments, day 17

As an only child, I knew from the get-go I’d never have nieces and nephews related to me by blood. So when I married a man with 5 siblings, I was thrilled I’d get them via marriage.

I have 8 nephews and nieces and adore each and every one of them. They’re divided into common age groups and run the age range from 30 down to 16.

The two youngest gave me a Christmas ornament/gift several years ago when they were very young that I absolutely adore.

They don’t even care that I’m not an aunt-by-blood! I love that.

And I love them.

More tomorrow, peeps.

~Peg

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