I love this time of year! Kind of funny as I have had quiet days at home with pets for many years … no presents but lovely music, good food and hopefully enough snow to snowshoe!

Enough snow is doubtful this year but you never know!!

Friday, December 15, 2023 … my last coding day of 2023.

I started the day with a delicious mocha latte … That was followed by Emmett throwing up and then…

Oscar pushed the little Christmas tree onto the floor.

All was cleaned up and no damage to the tree or any creatures, but Oscar and I did have words!!

Onward.

Emmett and my first daylight walk …

So pretty that it made me forget the morning messes :)

I finished my coding tasks including uploading the project, documentation and my final 2023 timesheet … at 1:20 p.m.

I have 13 hours left to work off my final contract and those will be spent in January when the code completed today will be deployed to production. I will likely have a few meetings, some code adjustments and ?? before I run out of hours. I am ok with this … the stakeholders for this code were caught in the same snafu that the rest of the tech team was. I am happy to be able to deliver a good solution and then be done on a positive note.

Current snow … enough to look a bit Christmas-y but not enough for snowshoes.

Yes, that is my glove or a glove. The routine is as we get close to home, Emmett gets a glove to carry home. I finally smartened up and carry a spare to throw … took me a while :( . At any rate, he considers it big fun and brings the glove inside very proud of himself!

My watercolor journey so far has been wonderful! It did not really take off until I bought the little art table. I had a number of supplies for I think 6 weeks and used them once or twice. Once I had the art table and sitting down to paint or draw involves only filling some water jars …

I have been spending 20-30-60 minutes early evenings learning and experimenting. I am finding it incredibly relaxing. When I stop, I walk around with a big grin on my face as I reflect.

One of my favorite YouTube watercolor persons is Harriet de Winton:

This skill level is far beyond mine but on day 11 I decided to try the candies:

I tried them multiple times and practiced brush strokes and tried again. No masterpiece but I learned a lot and I think it is good to keep trying to gain some experience or ??

The snowman is out of my own head and uses some techniques that Harriet demonstrated on the candies which is what gave me the idea.

I am dating all of my stuff so that hopefully … next year, when I hope to be able to do the Advent Watercolor Calendar … I will see progress.

Meanwhile, I am actually very pleased that some of the items look a bit like what they are supposed to be :) !!!

I might try some of the others from the calendar: the gnome, the stocking, Santa stuck in the chimney … And I will have another go at my snowman!

Nine days until Christmas!