Good morning to you all! I notice the furnace is on more than off so I imagine it is still cold outside. I haven't even put my nose out this morning. Jack left for work, but they always come home around noon on the day before Christmas Eve so I expect he won't be there long. I told him to call me when he leaves so he doesn't scare me to death walking in.

I paid bills this morning, did laundry that has to go into the dryer and unloaded the dishwasher. When I am done here, I will dust the downstairs, eat breakfast and watch the Sopranos (I never saw it the first time around and am now hooked on the reruns) then do my exercising and the upstairs I want to do. I will be done with cleaning until the weekend! Yeah!

I am going to look for a sauce to go over lamb chops. Kelly is having lamb chops on Friday and I want a sauce so thought I might scout one out, make it and take it over. If they want to put it on, fine, if not, fine. I am not a lamb lover unless it is cooked perfectly and have only had it once where I liked it and that was at the Bellagio buffet in Las Vegas. I thought if it tasted icky I could drowned it in sauce so I wouldn't hurt her feelings! I don't like that spoiled taste it can have. I don't like gamey meat taste either and sometime long aged beef in fancy restaurants will taste like that. I don't know how people can like it, but there you go.

This will shock everyone I know, but I am sending back two handbags I bought from HSN! They are pretty bags, but even huge by my standards so back they go. One is this pretty deep lavender leather ostrich look and the other is a cute navy alligator bag that is round. I got them on clearance, but they are way too big to carry around so I regretfully am sending them back. Maybe that is why they are on clearance!

Jean: Yep, it was 16 yesterday alright. The sun did come out for awhile though. I was bundled up all day trying to keep warm. I am back to square one having another durn cold so I felt kind of icky by afternoon yesterday. I am thrilled to have everything put away. My house looks less cluttered now. I would do well with minimalist furniture and stuff I think. Clutter drives me up a wall. Kelly is a clutterer so I imagine it is some deep rebellion against her mom's anti clutter campaign!

Susan: I sent you an email with a recipe. I am not sure it is right for the holidays, but it is a really good tasting slaw. The american heart association has some great veggie recipes and that is where I found this one along with "Faye's stuff," which they no longer have in their data banks. I am glad I am done with the hats and such but I sat down to work on my sweater and am having trouble figuring out where I left off! I gave up yesterday and will start again today. It is a dot stitch pattern and then a lace pattern down the middle so I don't want to have it screwed up as it is the front! I saw someone's user name this morning on another thread from the one we used to belong to. Her user was "Jello." She is the only one I have seen on here after everyone just disappeared.

I guess I should get in gear and get some cereal in me. Have a great Tuesday gals!
Faye

Good morning, ladies! Still cold here too. But the sun is shining and no snow.

Jean, The whole office is closed. I'm very happy to have the time off. Glazed carrots sounds great, thanks!

Faye, I love slaw so I'll make that recipe too instead of a salad. We aren't having a conventional Christmas dinner - Gloria lived in England for a long time and makes a wonder Shepherd's Pie so the carrots and slaw will be good with that. I love your ticker - you are only one pound more than I was. Keep up the good work!

Have a good day!

Good morning to you all! It is in the balmy 60's this morning and raining, raining, raining. It started yesterday morning and is still going at it. We were afraid it might freeze as it was in the 30's yesterday afternoon when we went out, but it is beautifully warm outside and is supposed to be that way the rest of the week. I think all of Jean's snow is rain down here.

Jean: No, Jello posted on another thread Susan and I were part of several years ago. One day it just kind of disappeared. No one posted and we didn't really know where everyone went. I know one of the ladies lost her husband suddenly and it wasn't long after that no more posts. That's when Susan moved into our little group. Lesson learned? You shouldn't let things gang up on you like that as it makes for lots of Christmas stress and you want to be able to enjoy it. I am not sure which it is, cold or allergies, but since the cold medicine didn't do anything to help much, I am going to try some Zyrtec and see what that does. I don't have a sore throat, just a tickle that causes me to cough my head off and it never goes into a sore throat, just that darn tickle. I do have allergies but they have never been bad enough to see an allergist. I may have to go that route if this continues to keep popping up though.

Maggie: I tried my darndest to open the snowflake, but couldn't get it opened so I thought that maybe it didn't open. Ahh well, at least I know now! We are having ham today only it is just a ham slice I am making with lowfat mac and cheese for dinner tonight. I actually love ham but I don't make it that often because of the sodium in it.

Susan: Sounds like you can have a grand time quilting with your time off. I have to sit down today and figure out where I left off on that sweater and get back to it. I hope you have a good time with your friend tomorrow. It is going to be quiet here at the Wilkinson's as we are going to be alone today and tomorrow. I think we will go down to the buffet for lunch, but I am going to stick to good stuff like salad, cold shrimp, maybe a baked potato or something. I don't go in so much for all the fatty stuff down there anyway. I like the salad bar as they have nice fresh pineapple, melon and strawberries and they have cold shrimp as well. My downfall is the Chinese food and their fried Chicken, but I can avoid that but filling up on salad stuff.

I hope everyone has a glorious Christmas Day and I am wishing you the very best in the coming year.

Faye

Good evening, ladies! 60 degrees and sun today!

The lost quilt block has been found! I have a bag I keep plastic grocery bags in to reuse. When I reached in today, out came the block! How I managed to get it in there, I'll never know. So that's what I'll be doing the next week - putting that quilt together and getting it quilted.

Went to WW this morning - down 4.3 for a total of 7 pounds. I have to say that about 2 pounds of that is due to weighing in this morning when I normally go to the Thursday evening meeting - but any way you slice it, I'm still down.

Made a Trader Joe's run and now I'm in until it's time to go to Mass tomorrow. Got the stuff for the carrots and Asian slaw.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

Good morning to all of you! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. We enjoyed our lunch out and I even behaved myself pretty much. I ate mostly salad and fruit, some cold shrimp and only a couple bites of chocolate cookie for dessert.

Susan: Wonderful! Congrats on the loss I started laughing when I saw the part about the quilt block because I changed handbags and found a pair of Savaroski crystal earrings Jack bought me in Vegas a year ago and could never find. I think I wore them once before I lost them. Glad you found the missing quilt squares though and in such an unusual place, too!

Hopefully, my cold is starting to break up now and I will be back to normal in a couple days. It is definitely a cold so I switched to Mucinex to get the congestion broken up and it seems to be doing the trick.

Have any of you ever seen the movie "Charlotte Gray?" It is about an English woman who goes to France and joins the French resistance when she finds out her boyfriend has been shot down inside France. It is a sad movie especially towards the end. It is beyond me how people still believe the Holacaust never happened.

Well gals, I need to get up and get around. Jack should be up in about half an hour to get ready for work and I need to figure out what we are going to have for dinner so I can do points for it.

Have a good one today! It is supposed to be in the 70's here today.

Faye

PS: (10:00 AM) Well, it looks like Jean was part way right when she said Jack would have me in a new car soon. Either I or Jack are picking up the new car today. Jack went to work this morning and the grand marquis started having transmission trouble so we just went ahead and got a pre-approval from the bank for the car loan and the guy at the dealership said to come pick it up today. Bummer, this is going to screw up my trip to Vegas I think! lol

Good morning, ladies! Cooler today, 43 degrees, but the sun is out.

I had a wonderful day yesterday. Went to Mass then to my friend's and we had a good day and stayed OP. I got up this morning with the scale down .4!

Today I have to vacuum and mop the kitchen and bathrooms. Oh, joy.

Faye, I hope your cold is clearing up. No fun this time of year.

Jean, we sang lots of the old Christmas carols during Mass yesterday - I thought of you.

Hi, Maggie!

Have a great day!

Jean, you were looking for your school keys when I lost the quilt block. I'm putting the blocks together on the machine and then I'll do hand quilting when I get the brace off. I really like that idea with carrying the stone around. I'm going to look for a nice stone that I can decorate and carry in my pocket.

Faye, what a bummer to have to get a new car right now! I hope it doesn't mean you can't go to Vegas, too!

Good early morning! It is beautifully balmy here even in the middle of the night. My poor son and dil are dealing with solid ice streets. I am going to give them a call today to make sure all things are ok with them. I went to bed too early last night so here I am up for awhile I guess.

We are supposed to pick up the loan docs and the check for the car today. I just hope they are ready as otherwise I will have to go and get them on Monday I guess. Our credit union is clear out by the base so it is a drive and the bank is only open until 1 today so I hope they were able to get them ready. We are supposed to have lunch with dd and family since yesterday got all mucked up.

My new car is gorgeous, comfortable and has all the bells and whistles so Jack is happy. He played around with the thing all last evening. It has "sync" which means you can do something with your cell phone so it is voice activated from the car. I just bought a bluetooth earpiece for heavens sake that cost me $70 and now my car will call home for me and I can talk to people through the speaker system. {{{sigh}}} Men and their gadgets. We were hilarious last night though. We went to Target and got Lean Cuisine type meals for Jack for work for the next couple weeks, a case of bottled water and a few other things. Well, we get to the car and can't figure out how to get the back lift gate opened. We could get the window opened, but I had to get the owner's manual to figure out how to get the lift gate opened! It was like dumb and dumber in the parking lot. Another thing, Jack left me off in front of the store because I have been having knee issues lately. I told my dopey husband to park out away from other cars so it wouldn't get "dinged." Well he did, sort of. The man parked next to a cart holder! No place worse in the world to park. Jack is going to take a picture so I can post it. It is a beautiful red.

Susan: I finally got my ww cookbook and I got the binder style too. I was so glad and found some nice recipes I think Jack will like in them. I noticed some of the desserts were sort of heavy points I thought, but then who am I? We have ice cream treats for desserts because they are only 1 or 2 pts. Yeah, looks like Vegas is out this year, but that's ok. We did what we had to do and need to spend the $$ on the other car to fix it. Jack thinks it is a sensor that is causing the problem and not the transmission directly as he quit having problems driving home yesterday. He is gong to talk to one of the mechanics at work on Monday and see what he thinks. It won't be cheap, but a LOT cheaper than a new transmission would be. I have always loved the old carols and hymns, but they seem to be going away in a lot of churches, which is sad. They said what needed to be said better, I think.

Jean: As folks down here say, "that'll learn ya." We will start working on you in November to get started on Christmas stuff early next year. I cleaned up the last vestiges of wayward pine needles yesterday and since the stupid trash guys wouldn't pick up the tree, we took it out to the plant and disposed of it at the park so the birds could take advantage of the pine cones and such off it. I learned a lesson about the candy canes when T was little and I have cute plastic ones I hang on the tree now. Sounds like the family had a nice time though and that is good. You still have some work time off so enjoy yourself a little before tackling putting stuff away.

Maggie, Gloria, Gail, hope you all had a lovely holiday and are looking forward to the coming new year and a thinner healthier you!

Faye

Good morning, ladies! Heading for 70 degrees today!

Faye, I love a red car. When I got this car, I managed to hit the panic button and had no clue how to turn it off and had to sit in the parking lot reading the manual with the car honking. Embarassed for sure! The recipes in the new WW cookbook really look good. I'm going to make one everyday until I go back to work. I'll let you know what I think of them. The desserts are pointy but WW expects people to use their 35 WAPs to have an occasional dessert. They are now recommending that desserts and 100-calorie packs, chips, and stuff like that should come out of the 35 extra points. People were not getting in the healthy guidelines because they would rather eat a 100-calorie pack than have a glass of milk. I don't care much for sweet stuff like those recipes. I'd rather have a Slimabear bar for 2 points.

Today is tidy up the pantry and kitchen cupboards. You would think with only me here they wouldn't get messy but they do. I really need to get rid of some more plastic storage stuff, especially the big containers. I'm going to make some Garden Vegetable Soup today, too. I like to have that on hand.

Have a great day, ladies!

Here is a picture of our new suv.

Susan: I like a piece of fruit more than anything else for snack. I eat pretzels or something like that, but I try to get my fruits and veggies in since that seems to be hardest since Jack is sort of veggie phobic. He is working on it though and that is all I can ask.