Happy Thanksgiving!  We had a lovely Thanksgiving with family and wonderful food.  2017 has been an interesting year for me.  I started the year with a job I loved, and was hoping to retire from.  That was not to be, as business dropped off and I had to find another job.  Then on January 20^th, Donald Trump took office as president of the United States.  It’s been a never ending freak show every day. He is unequivocally the most unqualified person to hold office I have ever seen in my lifetime.  He is destroying the country I love, and is truly a threat to the safety of our citizens.  He has brought all of the ugliness to the surface and legitimized it.  People are so angry.

After the inauguration, I was sad and angry.  Now I am planning our escape.  While I have about five years to go before I can retire, I am ready to move elsewhere, preferably to another country.

I found another job in June. The months leading up to that were stressful as I was working two jobs and dealing with a knee injury. Now I am recuperating from knee replacement surgery and reflecting upon my life. I spent two weeks off from work after my surgery, and spent some great quality time with my family and dogs.

Nearing the end of my working career has me thinking about a lot of things. One being, spending money.  I love to do product reviews; however, I’ve decided to stop buying things I don’t really need.  I’m ready to downsize and not have so much stuff.

Now I’m on a mission to save as much money as I can, while paying off some obligations.  Christmas will be scaled back this year.  All I want for Christmas is a class to learn how to speak Spanish.  We are hoping to travel more in 2018.  Scouting out foreign locations for retirement is going to be fun.

I hope everyone has a great holiday season. Here’s hoping everyone has a better 2018.