December Twenty Seventh

 

Merry Christmas!

How was your Christmas…

We had a wonderful Christmas…

Even Indy and Maple got some toy mice and ping pong balls…

Holly got her favorite food in the pouches…

Stockings are filled…

Our new M&M Christmas decoration…

Isn’t he too cute…

Son3 was too excited…

And got everything he wanted on his list…

 

We were even able to surprise son2 with a couple of things he didn’t know he was getting…

Son1 and DIL stopped by and opened all their groceries we got for them… they loved it all… they got us a gift card to the movies…

Even though I told hubby we weren’t going to shop for each other, we bought each other a couple of treats anyway… with Christmas decorations 50% off I got hubby this Woodstock sledding… I also got him a Snoopy to match which just came in the mail today, so he’ll get another surprise tomorrow after I wrap it…

We did get some really good sales this year…

Especially son2 who was able to shop for Christmas this year and did most of the shopping for Santa… he was so excited that he said giving was even better then getting… he got really good deals on Amazon during all the Black Friday sales…

And then he got carried away and spoiled me…

He was also sneaky… He got me all the Vampirates books I have been wanting since they came out in 2005… It’s a children’s series… He wrapped them so I opened the first novel and I thought “oh thank you I’ve been wanting to start this series”… and then a couple of gifts later going around the room and I opened the box with all of them…

Snowman boxes hubby got me at the grocery store for just 68cents each…

Again son2 tricked me with the open one book and then later the whole series of The Game of Thrones series… of course he wants to read these too…

Hubby and son2 each got me a rose mug…

Hubby and the boys painted me Christmas ornaments… they were wrapped in the snowman boxes…

Hubby got me new spoons/spatulas to replace our used up ones… and a new frying pan and sauce pan to replace my two favorite sized ones that I had to throw away recently as the Teflon was wearing off…

Son2 also tricked hubby and I with season 3 of Supernatural that we have not been able to find and then he got us season 4-7… of course another thing that he also will benefit from…

Hubby got us all horoscope mugs…

Son2 got hubby new movies…

The book/card that I made for hubby…

Son3’s goodies…

More son3’s goodies…

Son2’s goodies…

Cards hubby made for me, also in the snowman boxes…

Goodies from work… Candy, bath soap and movie tickets…

New snowman decorations that were 50% off…

Happy Journaling…

December Twenty Third

 

One more day til Christmas!! Yay!!

One more day of holiday shoppers… Boo…

I’m not gonna make it…

Today was the longest day ever…

And it was my early day…

Tomorrow I have an early day too…

And the store is only open til 6pm, not midnight…

And I even have a more positive attitude than others…

But even I’m getting worn thin…

I’ll feel better tomorrow as it’s actually Christmas Eve…

I brought all the goodies for my team…

They really liked them…

Especially the brownies…

Tomorrow we are having our manager party…

The chocolate fudge bundt cake for the party is in the oven and the wrapped gift ready to go…

Son2 is getting ready to go to his friends Christmas Eve Eve gift exchange…

Hubby and I will have turkey loaf with stuffing and mashed potatoes and whatever other leftovers I find in the fridge for dinner…

We are going to watch Invasion of the Christmas Lights 2 & 3 that I DVRed and Too Cute on the Animal Planet Channel and probably some Ghost Adventures… all on the DVR… On Christmas Lights 2, Fresno’s Christmas Tree Lane is featured…

Son3 is having pizza and playing on the computer… He is officially on vacation now…

Hubby bought donuts for the boys for breakfast this morning and of course got me my favorite too… So when I got home to treat myself after a crazy day at work, I ate two… they were so good… and the trials of the day are melting away…

I can’t believe tomorrow is Christmas Eve…

All the presents are wrapped and under the tree…

I do have one thing coming for hubby in the mail tomorrow and one thing for DIL from son2 also coming in the mail that will have to be wrapped…

I need to vacuum and straighten up the house when I get home tomorrow as I haven’t cleaned in forever with all the working and getting ready for Christmas…

I have the ham already in the pan and covered with pineapple, mustard and brown sugar… In the morning before I go to work I’ll pop it in the oven and then when it’s done hubby can take it out so when I get home we can have ham with all the fixings for Christmas Eve dinner…

Then I am off on Christmas Day and the Day After…

It has been raining all weekend… I love it…

 

Tonight

 

Rain 49° Precip 90%

Tomorrow

 

Partly Cloudy 56° Precip 10%

Tomorrow night

 

Partly Cloudy 39° Precip 10%

Happy Journaling…

December Nineteenth

 

Less then a week til Christmas…

Today is my last day off til Christmas day…

We are more then ready here at home…

Presents under the tree…

Ham dinner waiting to be cooked…

These pictures are from the beginning of the month…

We don’t have snow, we have leaves galore…

And they are still out there this week as it is very cold…

Down in the thirties last night and fifties in the day…

In the hundreds in the summer…

Too hot to do yard work in the summer and too cold in the winter…

And our springs and falls are just a week long…

I though this was California, seventy all year long…

And yet flowers are still blooming…

I am looking forward to January to work in the yard…

I have been bringing baked goodies to my team at work…

So far I have brought pumpkin bread, brownies and today I made banana bread for tomorrow… Lastly I will make cranberry bread…

I have hubby helping too as this weekend he will be making butter pecan cookies, lemon cookies and spice mini cupcakes…

Then on Christmas eve the managers are having a little party of gift exchange and potluck… I’m bringing a chocolate fudge bundt cake for the potluck… and a margarita mix/cactus stemmed glasses gift set from Walmart… we didn’t exchange names… I think we are doing a number drawing of some sort to pick a gift…

I also bought some supplies for the team at the Dollar Store, but I’m not going to bring them til after Christmas as we are just too messy right now to enjoy them and they may get lost…

Indy was mad the other day as hubby and I were wrapping on the bed and she wanted to sleep… she climbed in there after we were wrapping, we didn’t just wrap on top of her…

She has a bad habit of scratching on my bedroom door every morning at 3:20am as she wants her turn to sleep on the bed… she gets to sleep on it all day and we get it at night… and if I let her in to sleep with us, she gets into stuff in my room as her rebellion to get us out of the bed as she doesn’t want to share… and I can't ignore her scratching at the door as it sounds as if she is ripping the wood to bits and the carpet…

Roses are still blooming this week…

I have all kinds of plans in my head at work of what I am going to do at home… but I never seem to get to do what I want to do… and I’m not even talking about just fun stuff… my plans include cleaning the house even… but all these ‘men’ are in my way… they can all be perfectly fine watching a show or on the computer… but… the moment I make a step to do something… they need something… or have to be where I am… I’m sure it’s not my imagination…

I did finish reading the last book in The Indian in the Cupboard series today… I know it is a children’s series but it was quite interesting… there are five books in the series… now I am going to read the third book in The Heroes of Olympus series… another children’s book… son2 is reading them too…

And I finished making hubby’s Christmas present… it’s a book/card of sorts… with stickers, 3-D images out of cards, poems and personal messages… all tied together with a ribbon…

Hubby is working on my present now too… his involves glitter glue… that’s all I know… of course I’m sure there is art work as well, since he can draw…

Son2 is on his laptop after not being able to use if for a few days as it stopped working… luckily is was just the power cord and he has since gotten a new one…

Son3 is doing homework of course… even with this being the last week of school… plus he has all his regular tests on Friday except no spelling words this week… they are having a party on Friday… son3 is bringing cookies…

I have pizza in the oven… we are going to the next town over to look at Christmas lights tonight… they have a neighborhood that decorates extremely plus a horse drawn carriage, Santa, hot chocolate, can food drive… we go every year…

Here is the little tree in the game room… amazingly the cats have not disturbed it and it sits on one of their scratching posts…

The timer is beeping for the pizzas… and I have to finish the laundry…

Son2 is helping son3 with his crossword homework page on Mesopotamia…

Today

 

Sunny 51°

Tonight

 

 Clear 36°

Tomorrow

Sunny 58°

Happy Journaling…

December Tenth

Between work and Christmas and school…

We are busy, busy, busy…

Last Thursday was the visit… We survived… He came bright and early at 9am… went off to check his email… walked the floor… rated our audit with the operations manager… he was in and out in under two hours… of course he wasn’t happy…. but he doesn’t tell me that… he pointed out what was wrong and then in the next breath said what a good job we were doing… which we do… we did get a higher rating then last time, so that was good being it’s only two weeks til Christmas… he said he’ll be back late January/early February… maybe I’ll be in hardware then…

Because of the visit I had to switch my day off and got to have Saturday off… We finished decorating the tree and took the boys to the zoo in the evening to see their Christmas lights… It was so crowded but they had even more lights this year then last year… and you get hot chocolate and a cookie…

How come every time I say we are done Christmas shopping, we have to do more Christmas shopping… Son2 has bought for all the family this year… since son3 is too old for Santa now, his own doing, not ours, I told hubby until he gets a job we don’t need to buy presents for each other… so we have bought for son2 and son3 and that is it…

Well not exactly as we also bought groceries to wrap for son1 and DIL…

And I bought all kinds of goodies to bake for my department at work… and the managers are having a secret Santa so I have an idea for that which won’t cost too much… and I bought some supplies and new baskets for the department at the dollar store today… so a present for the whole department instead of individual goodie bags this year…

And Maple and Indy each got a toy mouse from the dollar store… and Holly got a couple of her favorite food packets…

Hubby and I went to the dollar store, Walmart and the grocery store today…

We got home just in time to put everything away and then son3 was home to do homework….

I am making dinner of pork chops, scalloped potatoes, rice, veggies, pork & beans and cheese bread…

I am going to finish the Christmas cards tonight so hubby can take them to the postal annex tomorrow and mail them… I would have been done to mail them today but I discovered last night that I do not have one Christmas sticker to put on the envelopes… I finally found some for 97 cents at the last moment as we were standing in the checkout at Walmart… otherwise the cards were going out without stickers this year… which I know would have been fine… but I feel better having stickers…

This is son2’s last week of school… he is doing homework now and getting ready for finals while watching TV… Son3 still has two weeks left… and lots of homework…

Pork chops are just about done… I think we are watching The Grinch who stole Christmas, cartoon version…

I work tomorrow and then I am off Wednesday…

Enjoy the Christmas lights at the zoo…

Happy Journaling…