Finally!

Our board game haul for the year, before it was opened.

We're going to be celebrating Christmas this weekend!  Oldest son and his lovely wife are traveling today to come see us.  We're excited.  On actual Christmas eve this year, we opened some board games, but that was all and I had to work so much this week, that we only got to play one of them.  We got Coup Rebellion (the only one we've played so far) another Coup expansion I can't remember the name of,  Betrayal at House on the Hill, Magic Maze and Hanabi.   This week, I'm off work and they will be here, so we're going to open the rest of our presents and stockings and take some time to play all the games and eat some junk food.  My daughter in law is a great cook and she's bringing cookies and things like that.  She's also going to make her wonderful Mac and Cheese for us.  I'm not going to worry about any calories this week.  It's going to be awesome.

The first game we played was really fun, Coup Rebellion.

The only black cloud on the horizon for us, is that Freckles had surgery the day before yesterday and the wound is not looking great and may be infected.  I'm very worried about her.  We've had her in a crate in the living room since Thursday and she does fine in there with everyone else in the room, but when I come in there, she gets all excited and starts panting and coughing, because she wants me to let her out.  It's pretty heartbreaking.  Hopefully, she'll be okay.  I'm hoping the vet will give her an antibiotic shot today as well as some meds to bring home.  My daughter is handling all the medicine giving and carrying Freckles outside and all of that, because she's wonderful that way and because I can't handle it when one of the dogs has an issue like this.  I don't know why.  When the kids were little, I always did all of this stuff, dealing with broken bones (5 times!), ER visits, cutting the cornea (although that one did make me very squeamish!) and all of that, when it's a pet I can't communicate with, I get all upset.

This is the first page of many, many, many pages of notes that I have to use when I work my co-worker's job.  It's a lot to keep up with, plus the phone interrupts every single thing you try to do, about 50 times.   It's not fun. 

Speaking of my wonderful daughter, my whole family has been so great this week.  I've been working long days, (doing someone else's job that I'm not as familiar with) and with the commute, being gone 11 hours a day and they've grocery shopped and cleaned and taken care of the dog and made me cookies and mashed potatoes. They are the BEST.  They surprised me with some mint chocolate chip cookies the other day that were out of this world. (I love peppermint everything!).  I am amazingly blessed.

Happy New Year everyone from our house, where we're a little behind and still Christmas-ing!

Merry Christmas!

I realize it's basically over now, but I hope everyone had a happy holiday!! 

Christmas is almost here!!

I've been in the mood to make these Christmas tree thingies today.  :-)

I am just about done with my shopping and it's a good thing too, since tomorrow is the 20th and I've got to work Friday and Monday and go to a wedding rehearsal, a wedding, and an anniversary party this weekend!!   I've been able to maintain my non-grinchy attitude about Christmas.  I've been a bit crabby about some other things that have happened, but about Christmas, I'm still enjoying the season and enjoying the music, lights and decorations.  It helps a little that we're celebrating a week after Christmas, so I've got some time.  I might not even worry about the stockings until after Christmas ... I'm not sure.  I've got to work the 3 days after Christmas, 8-4:30 and with the commute, that makes for a long day.  I'm not sure how much shopping I want to do.

It's busy, but that's how I like it, if I get my sleep and some downtime, at least a little every day.  I've spent a lot of my downtime in my bedroom lately (making no noise and pretending I don't exist)  because the kids had a party here Saturday and then Monday they had an epic 8 hour game of Dungeons and Dragons.   That should be it for them for a while.  I think most of their games are taking a break this week and possibly next week.   I'm glad.  It's time for family time for the next couple of weeks.

I hope everyone is enjoying the season!!

Finally some time off!

I have a couple of days off this week and it's great.  So much to do to get ready for the weekend, but thank goodness, I have the time to do it.  We have 5 events this weekend, starting Friday with a work Christmas party that I have to take a dish for (and those people bring their A game every time, so it needs to be something kind of fancy), then we're having the board game group come here for a party on Saturday (so, of course, there will need to be a bit of cleaning), then we have a party with our old college/high school friends on Saturday night, then Sunday morning a potluck brunch and then a baby shower.  After that, ironically, we don't have much going on and really don't even have any plans for Christmas because our son and his wife will not be here for Christmas this year.  We'll be celebrating with them in January.  So this weekend is probably going to be the busiest of the season.  It's fun though.  I'm looking forward to seeing old friends and new friends and eating a lot of great food.  It's just a challenge showing up dressed and presentable with the right food and/or gift for each occasion.  It takes a lot of prep work and planning.

Thankfully, I've not turned into the old grinch this year.  We've been watching a few Christmas movies and listening to Christmas music and I'm trying very hard not to let it bother me that I don't have my shopping done.  :-P  I will get there.  Eventually.    I always do.

Old and new.

Okay, here's our old entertainment center and our new one.  Yes, we're watching Friends on both.  It's been a Friend's marathon around here the last couple of weeks.  I like the new one better than the old one, but I'm not sure I actually like it - like it.  It's too white and it blends into the beige wall too much.   It looks marginally better since my son decorated it for Christmas, but it's just blah.    I'm not sure what to do.  Should we paint the wall behind it a contrasting color?  Should we paint it or put wallpaper or contact paper on it?  I'm seriously wishing I would have waited 2 weeks for the new shipment at Ikea and paid the 300 ish extra dollars by missing the sale.  Or .. something.    The good news is that we found the third wise man behind a stack of video games on the old unit along with some seriously healthy, boisterous dust bunnies.