Afternoon all. Happy Boxing Day. Sorry I didn’t get here yesterday - I was pretty tired out from Christmas Eve that on Christmas morning I just chilled out on the sofa and watched an old movie called “Holiday Affair”. It starred Janet Leigh (of “Psycho” fame), as well as Gregory Peck. The little boy in the movie was really good – he practically stole the show!
Christmas Eve dinner here at the house was a bit too labor-intensive to allow me to have quite enough time with my family, but it was good to see them nonetheless. We had prime rib with au jus and homemade horseradish sauce, mashed sweet potatoes, roasted/seasoned white potatoes, steamed green beans, and cheddar bay biscuits (from a mix). Very tasty. Bf and I were beat after the day as well the cleanup afterwards.
After a lazy Christmas morning watching that movie, I took doggy for a nice walk, and then bf & I went to bf’s mom’s for dinner with her and bf’s aunt. I wish I could say it was the relaxing gathering I’d hoped for, but it actually wasn’t…Bf’s aunt cannot let there be just one conversation (among a group of just four people!) and I left with the start of a headache after four hours of listening to two conversations at once. It doesn't help that there was a rather heated disagreement between the two sisters at one point. On the bright side, the meal was tasty. We brought home a few slices of ham.
Last night we watched another old movie – “It Happened on 5th Avenue”. I’d never seen it, and it was cute. I still have a couple other holiday movies I dvr’d that I want to watch.
Ahhh, today - finally a day to just relax! The only productive thing I’ve done is get the garbage and recycling bins wheeled out to the curb for pickup. Oh, and I’ve got a load of laundry in the washer. Okay, I also checked my work e-mail. Nothing urgent came through, thankfully. I’ll be glad to have already gone through most of it when I return to the office Monday. But that’s about it. I went to the library and picked up some books, as well as the Peggy Cappy yoga video. (Happy – my library lets us have those for 2 weeks, probably because it’s not a movie/new release.)
No plans at all for the remainder of the day except more laundry and some puttering around. The thought that we have to return that !@#$#% tree stand to the store is niggling at me, but it’ll get done, perhaps this weekend. They better not try to give us a hassle about it!! End of topic, before I get all worked up, LOL.
Tomorrow will be Jazzercise class, and at night is a party at which we won’t stay long because bf is tentatively planning to go to another party of a friend in the city. Not me, I just want to get home at a decent hour and kick back and enjoy some “me” time.
Ceejay – Nice you had yesterday off and it sounded nice and relaxing. . The chicken and dressing sounds good to me right about now. I guess I didn’t eat enough yesterday – I’ve been hungry all day. Safe travels to your uncles’ tomorrow!! I hope your nephew’s child is feeling better now – breathing issues are scary!! I’d be happy with a 4 % raise too! Everything else has gone up (except gasoline I guess) - we need raises just to keep up with the necessities!!
Shad – Sorry your cold has been giving you fits. Mine is easing up. I only took Nyquil one night at bedtime and woke up with that awful grogginess. Christmas Eve I took one dose of a daytime cold med just to control the runny nose/congestion. Otherwise, it’s been bearable. Anyway, try to resist the call of your to-do list and just let your body rest and eradicate this cold! Awww, cute nieces and cute clothes! Nothing cuter than kiddie clothes!!
Michelle – You sound like you’re doing great with the workouts, and I’m so glad you’re getting your energy back. I was worried that the reason for the energy deficit was too few calories! Santa might not be able to keep up with you as your fitness continues to improve, LOL! Yeh, all the prep over last weekend and on Tuesday & Wed. was a LOT, but it was nice to host my side of the family. Not to say bf and I weren’t whooped by all the activity (and stress) on Tues/Wed – we definitely wore ourselves out. But our hosting duty is done for a couple years - for Christmas at least - LOL. I’m so glad you were able to eat out with your friend, and I know as your body gets accustomed to your new eating guidelines it’ll get easier to work eating out into your life once again. My best wishes to Bob in his recovery from this 2nd surgery.
Happy – Good job with the gym workouts! The garland on the bannister sounds nice. We usually put some lighted garland on our fireplace mantle. Didn’t get around to that – yet, lol. Since we are having people over on NYE, bf wants to get that garland up, and the big wreath as well. Too funny – I know of a few people who like to take everything down on the 26th, but we’re the sort to wait until after New Year’s to do that. If I’m going to spend a good amount of time decorating, it’s staying up for more than just a week or two.
LOL re the turkeys pecking at the car! No damage I hope!!!! Your Christmas Eve and Christmas Day meals sounded wonderful! Sorry to hear you and hubby caught colds. Ugh. Sorry the thrift shop drama is turning you away from wanting to continue with that – what a shame. But would you plan to continue on the activities that don’t include shifts at the shop? Independent projects sound like the best way to go. This morning I went over to the strip mall where my local thrift shop and the bakery are (the one that sells the awesome rye bread) and was disappointed to see both of them closed. Probably for the best – the Christmas stuff is half off and I have a feeling I would’ve ended up carting home a few items. My intention is to actually go through some of my existing Christmas bins and weed out some of the items that never go on display for whatever reason. I like the America’s Test Kitchen tv series on PBS, and we own one of the ATK cookbooks and one of the Cook’s Illustrated cookbooks. After that one dog of a cookie recipe from a magazine advert that I made the mistake of trying, I’m definitely more comfortable trying out recipes that have been thoroughly tested, such as ATK’s.
Annie - Great job with the weight loss sister!!! Awesome!! Keep up the good work. Between you and Michelle and Happy, I’m starting to get psyched to get back to some exercise and trying to eat more mindfully. Poor C dealing with this hernia/hisnia (teehee). I hope that by supporting each other with your dietary challenges, you can both see great results and feel great! Yeh, none of the cookies are chocolate, and for whatever reason, I’m not all that tempted to go to town on them. I’ve given away a lot of them to family, and I’m ready to stick the rest in the freezer until we have friends over on NYE. The cheesecake too has all been sent home/left with family – bf and I had one small slice each yesterday when we brought it over to his mom’s for dinner yesterday. I guess it’s a good thing not to have any of my trigger/red light foods in the house!
Terra – Sounds like you had a nice Christmas with your family. Does your family cook anything special for the holidays? We don’t have a special dinner or particular dish, but here’s something goofy I did: I decided to put out some Bugles and some whipped cream cheese with chives for one of the appetizers because my grandmother used to do that when she had the whole family over on Christmas Day back when I was a kid. My sister saw that & knew why I did it!
I’m so sorry your mom caught the flu!! I hope she isn’t hit too hard with it and feels better soon.
Susie – I’m glad you enjoyed your time with your friends yesterday. Fun to watch kids opening their gifts!! I hope taking care of the car issue isn’t too expensive. We have a 2005 Acura that we’re trying to keep in good repair until we take the plunge and purchase something newer. Cosmetically, it needs some work, but recently we’ve been focusing on the mechanicals. Nice you get to leave work early today!
Well, that’s it for me. Everyone have a wonderful weekend! TTFN.