This is always a busy time of year for us. First, there’s Christmas. Everybody was home for a nice Christmas evening dinner, so that was cool. We used my rec room craft table, which used to be our big dinner table in VA. I had set it with a nice blue & white Christmas decor. Hayden slipped out to spend time with his girlfriend’s family as soon as dinner was done, and I was on the phone with my sister at the time. Unfortunately, that meant we never did get our annual family photo in front of the tree. Ugh! I get nervous when that happens, because with a son who is 21, I always wonder if this will be the last Christmas where all my kids still live at home.
Then just 3 days later, it’s my youngest son’s birthday. Holden turned the big 13! No more little kids in my house…only teenagers and adults! Isn’t he so handsome? I sure do love him.
Then just a week after Christmas, my own birthday falls on New Year’s Day. Hayden had to work that day, but he slipped home long enough to sing and eat cake before Haylee had to go to work, too. I turned 49 this year! It’s my last year before I’m officially “over the hill!”
Check out that cake! It’s my favorite, and I order it from the Kroger bakery every year. It’s a 1/4 chocolate sheet cake with chocolate whipped cream, strawberries in gel and chocolate curls on top, and sliced strawberries down the sides. So yummy!
Now this Thursday, it will be Steve’s birthday, too. He’s turning 50! But for now, we get to spend a few days being the same age. For our birthdays, we decided to buy a 1912 Victrola phonograph for ourselves. It’s gorgeous! It’s in a mahogany cabinet. We bought it with 91 records for $450 from a retired couple in Hurst, TX. It was a little pricey, but it’s in really good condition, and the mahogany matches our living room perfectly. It was nice not to need to fix anything major or to have to hunt for records and needles to get started. Also, this particular 1912 model is a little lesson common, so it’s worth a bit more than most. It has an internal horn.
I am absolutely in love with it! Today, we had a nice family breakfast while everyone was at home, and then Steve and I slipped out to the Montgomery Street Antique Mall by the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens and visited a record shop in there called Doc’s Records to look for more shellac phonograph records. Bingo! We really hit the jackpot. He had 2 crates underneath a table that were labeled as 78 rpm shellac records for just 25 cents each! We took everything that wasn’t broken, and we paid under $13 including tax for 48 records! Such a steal. I spent the rest of the day listening to each one and cataloguing them in my spreadsheet that I’d already set up with the records that came with the Victrola. I also set up a “my collection” list on the Discogs website. All that took me about 6 hours, but it was worth it! And all of the music we got today was fabulous. I’ve decided that my favorite era of music is the 1940’s! I now have 18 different Bing Crosby records, so I’m really happy about that. Now we want to keep an eye on that record store in the antique mall to see when he might add some more. He has a huge separate record store somewhere in town, but I think he takes his overstock to the antique mall and sells everything much cheaper for a flat price. That’s what I’m looking for. He ought to be pleased that we cleaned him out! Now I’m on a hunt for a Bluebird record from 1946 that has Glen Miller with Moonlight Serenade on one side and Sunrise Serenade on the other side. It seems to sell for a bunch, so I’m hoping to just run across it somewhere locally. Moonlight Serenade has always been one of my favorite songs, and I feel like it’s just so well-suited for the sound of a phonograph. Not a day has gone by that I haven’t played records on this Victrola! I’m totally enamored with it.
Well, that’s it for now! I’ll have a photo from Steve’s birthday for you next week! I will be skipping my favorite recipe posts for a couple of weeks since we have been making special meals and treats for all of these holidays and birthdays instead of doing our traditional meal plan. Unfortunately, all the goodies have added 5 pounds to me! Ugh. I’ll be back to the usual meal plan soon enough.
Happy New Year!
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