Merry Christmas!

Happy - Sounds like a lovely Christmast Eve and Christmas Day. Your dinner sounds delicious. I"m sure it's so romantic... candlelight, fireplace, woods, deer...

Laura - I'm sure the Luminaries are just beautiful. We got some snow today, it will probably be gone by tomorrow afternoon. I don't know what will happen in 2013 about the travel. I'm on a project that goes live in Oct 2013 and they are trying to decide if we are going to stay in Dallas or go back to East Texas for the training. I'm hoping they comprimise and do a 50 split.

Mel - I'm sure your days are never quite. Did you all get any snow? What was on the dinner menu?

Ceejay - Do you work for electric company too? I was thinking it was water. Oh, I would not like answering calls if the power is out. People don't understand you have no control over the weather, or if someone didn't trim the trees, or if someone hits a transformer. I hope you get to enjoy some time off. Glad you BFF made it in.

Annie - How was dinner? Are you snowed in?

Shad - Did you get to go home for the holidays?

Mitchellez - I hope you are enjoying your vacation with family. Well deserved time off.

Was pretty bummed this time. Woke up sick on Christmas Eve about 1:30am. Thought it was something I ate, felt worse at noon and by 1pm had call into doctor. He prescribed some meds for me and I was suppose to see how I progressed. We'll unfortunately I was hosting Christmas Eve at my house and didn't want to take a chance on being a stomach virus... so at the last minute we moved everything to Mom's. She was panicked at first, but I assured her I had everthing covered, so my brother in law came over and picked up the The Honey Baked Ham/Turkey, tamales, homemade breads, chips, dips/plates,cups.. you name it I had it. I was soo looking forward to seeing everyone but at the same time kept thinking what if this stomach virus and mom and dad get sick or others. They called and everything was great...I never got a stomach virus, stomach is still hurting, but I think it was what I ate.. I keep telling myself.. I can see them this weekend.

We are getting snow.. What a beautiful day.. Even thought I didn't get to see family, I am so Blessed!

Hello Everyone...Merry Christmas night!

Family and friends were wonderful. Food was great, Curtis even got home by 3:30 just in time for arrivals. My bro and SIL and her momma stayed over last night. I made a breakfast casserole, pineapple fluff, toast, orange juice, coffee for brekkie. They had to leave around 11 to go to SILs sister's house.

Curtis got me a very expensive cookware set. The brand is Anolon. A gift card and of course the jewelry he gave me early. I about cried, he said anyone that cook and bake as good as I do deserved awesome cookware. 11 piece set. I just love it.

Going to post and start another post as I always lose them.

Thank you for all your cards, so very nice. I have them framing one of the doors in the entry way.

Sassy is healing nicely, however she has pulled all her stitches out. Thank God it didn't open back up and is healing.

We are looking at blizzard warnings..12-15 inches of snow expected. Supposed to start around midnight. I may just stay home another day. Especially if it involves shoveling to get my car out of the garage/driveway.

My dad has decided that he does not feel comfortable living by himself anymore and would like to go into assisted living or live with one of use kids, he said he would rather live with one of us but assisted living would be fine. We siblings are supposed to get together to discuss it this week or early next. My heart is heavy.

Better post before I lose this, Oh and I got a text from Chelle that she made it to CA. Having fun and wishing us all a Merry Christmas.

Love, Hugs and Merriment!!

Evening all,
I am in (very sunny) South Australia and we have spent the day (boxing day) being tourists and in vineyards and lavender farms. I am about to load up my photos from the camera. I also have copies of those photos you all saw early, so you will be getting photos for weeks to come.

I haven't been particularly well but okay enough to go out to Christmas lunch yesterday, ate too much and needed to lie down later in the afternoon. Needless to say we didn't need much dinner last night.

Today we went off and did a few wine tastings in the various wineries, R bought lots of good stuff. I don't have the room to take them home so didn't. However I did find some interesting honeys and dukkah and oils. The lavender farm was not really in bloom but you might see a purple haze in one or two photos.

Happy - sounds like fun having dinner by candlelight and the festive garlands on the stairs. Isn't it great to meet some nice, really with it young folks.

Laura - exercising??? dear lord. But the food sounded good.

Annie - that Analon cookware should just about see you out. What a man!

Ceejay - That must have been the worst thing having to answer the phone knowing what the complaint would be. The system can only take what it can take and do what it can do.

Mel - Nice that Richie cooks for you both. I will be there for dinner one year. Tell him to keep practising.

Patty - how awful to have all that stuff and feel so ill. Hope things improve soon.

So we have one my day in the vines and then I go back to Adelaide and home to Brisbane, then two days at home and back to Darwin. Not really looking forward to that.
Well sitting under this grapevine is all very well, but I probably need to get up and do something. Exercise would be good. Try and work up an appetite for dinner maybe.
I won't post photos right now. But I will be back. The battery here won't last much longer anyway. Have a great Boxing day and be careful all of you.

Good morning ladies,

Happy Boxing Day to all. Hope you have lots to "box up". I think this was the first Christmas ever I did not have a single present to open up. Well technically not. Mom sent a check for us to shop on our own and I did buy some art materials. DH says every day is Christmas around here - we are free to buy what we want, when we want. Well... I tend to disagree - somewhat but not totally We stopped buying for each other a few years back - after 40 years haven't you about bought it all??? Anyway we will look for something for both of us. I'm still thinking get away weekend somewhere. Would love to visit Door County Wisconsin one day.

I got on the scale this morning, held my breath and saw a number I have not seen in YEARS. Had plenty of room to zip my dress pants which I have not worn in several months. It was a good feeling. The weight is coming off slow, but it's coming off. I know that working is helping and it's the one thing that makes me reluctant to give up the job. I had a great 2 days off and sure was reluctant to get out of bed at 7 today. The house was cold (it's minus 3 out with the sun up), the bed was snuggly and I was having a good sleep for a change. I'm sure it's going to be slow at work. No after Christmas bargains at the store although she has a few holiday stocking stuffer things that could probably stand a discount to get rid of them quickly. DH is doing ok. He was sort of restless yesterday late in the day. Too much sitting around for him I suppose. And he had palpitations all day. They are coming more frequently. Going to be a long month until we can see the heart doctor... I come into bed at night and if he's totally quiet as he has been, I hold my breath until I hear some signs of movement or breathing. I don't want to wake him and then he will start snoring hard enough to suck the covers off the bed

Was probably good we didn't go down to Chicago for Christmas. My BIL came down with a very bad flu Christmas eve. He is contagious for 7 days so that killed Christmas at my sister's house. They enjoyed a rare, quiet day themselves. Mom is walking around telling everyone that she has a much stronger immune system than my sis. We will probably wind up shipping everyone's gifts to each other as we won't be travelling for a while now.

Mel - I would eat Ritchie's food any time. Looks like we have a couple of cooks for the commune one day Seems that cookware was the "it" gift this year. Always a good choice. I bought some tri-ply pots when we moved here and I love them. You forget how much nicer cooking is with good pots instead of the bruised and dented favorites we are used to. The only good "old" pot is a well seasoned cast iron skillet Enjoy your day off - hope it's quiet and tell people to reheat their food in the microwaves Ozzie and Harriet - I can barely remember them. Must be fun to watch the old tv shows.

Shad - a vineyard and lavendar fields? That must smell sweet. Pity you could not pack a few bottles to take home. I understand your reluctance to get back to work - each return seems to take more effort. At least you have a little bit more time to enjoy - have a good visit with DS and babykins. What is dukkah? And what sort of oils did they have? Flavored cooking oils or aromatherapy oils?

Annie my dear - it is dark blue on the radar out by you so that means, heavy heavy snow storms. I do hope you stayed home - looks horrid to be travelling today. Stay in and make a nice pot of soup in those new pots. What a great gift from C. He is very thoughtful and kind. I have seen the Analon pots - they look nice and sturdy and wonderful to cook in. You will enjoy them for a long, long time. How did the noodles come out? I imagine it's both good and bad with Dad's decision - but glad to hear that he came up with it of his own decision. So much harder to fight them to get them out of their homes when they refuse to admit what everyone else sees clearly. I hope you can come up with a workable solution that fits everyone's needs.

Patty - so sorry you were not feeling well and had to miss out on the family gathering. There is so much going around (sickness) that I guess it's hard to avoid it. The nurse who saw my BIL said she cannot recall ever seeing so many cases of the flu this early. I'm sure your body was tired from all the hustle and bustle you've had lately. As you say, at least you can see the family over the weekend - still some holidays yet to be celebrated. On the work front - hope they decide to do the training closer to home for you.

Ceejay - I could only imagine the volume of complaints if the storm knocked power out on Christmas Eve when everyone was preparing for the holiday. Tell 'em to get to bed early so that Santa can arrive Hope you didn't get whacked too hard with the storm. How was your Christmas?

Laura - your meals sound very yummy including desserts. DH loves lasagna, I'd have my face in a plate of stuffed shells Looks like you had a nice balance of Christmas - a bit of social and some relaxing time too. Are you off the rest of the week?

Guess it's time to get off my chair and go get ready for work. Sure don't feel like going in. I work today and Friday then hoping to take next week off. My foot needs more than 2 days to rest and with the young girls available to work, let them have the hours.

Hello to the rest of the Worldlies hope you had a good Christmas too.

Blizzard city here, cannot get Sassy to go out and potty,. I even went out with her, but she was having no part of it. I even shoveled a path to the grass..no dice. That was about an hour ago and now it is all blown over and still snowing. I stayed home today, pretty bad when they close the malls but now also have closed the hospitals. How do you do that. Send all the patients home? lol. Wind sounds like a scary movie. Airport is closed, flights cancelled. Thank God we have leftovers...lol. Like we would starve..NOT. Curtis did go to work because of all the idiots out there buying all the bread. He is going to do two more stops then head in and home. Gonna post before I lose it.

Blowing snow/freezing rain is no fun whatsoever. We had thunder snow if you can believe that. We only had a dusting of snow on the ground. The roads were not bad at all this morning. The snow amount was like I like it.

The wind was furocious last night. I had a couple of spots in town that were without power befofre I went hoem. I had to potty around midnight and thought oh no the power is off again. I went back to bed and had to get up again around 3.30 a.m. to find the power was still off. I was getting a bit chilled so I added some more cover. The power finaly came back on round four. I had to get up at 5.30.
When I got to work my co-worker was on edge. I usually am. The whole town had lost power. Don't remember who asked but yes my main job is the water plant but after the light office goes home and on week ends we're elected to do the job. It's very, very stressful.
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Happy
Your romantic dinner sounded so nice. I've never eaten lobster. If dh's palpitations keep coming call the dr's office and tell them they are getting worse. Palpitations are no fun. Congrats on those pounds lost.

Annie
Think you are getting the worst of the storm. It ususally picks up speed after crossing the mississippi river. Glad to hear that sassy is feeling better and can you blame her for not wanting to go potty outside in this cold. So sad that you your dad doesn't feel comfortable living at home. He may be depressed because of the holidays.

Patty
Sorry you were sick on christmas eve and could enjoy the festivities. Hope you are feeling better.

Mel
Good for Richie in preparing the meal. I love Mexican food. Does he make tortilla soup. That's good.

Shad
You should have bought at least one bottle of wine. You travel as much as I do going here and yon.

Hellos to the rest. My mind is in a fog from all the stress this week end.

We finally got some snow yesterday.
But it didn't last long. The rain came and took it away.
Yesterday was a great day. Only one call & I brushed it off.
People just don't get it. If I am not downstairs there is a reason.
Jen & I sat chatting and watched some old TV together.
That was the highlight of the day.
Now it's time for some breakfast.
Have a great day.





Happy......I would love for you & DH to cook for me any day!!!
Come to think of it....I am the only one on here NOT cooking!
So the commune has plenty of chefs to rotate
I CAN BE THE TASTE TESTER!
I hope you can give the hours to the girls & give the feet a rest.
I am so happy for you and the weightloss!!!
Congratulations my friend!!
Great way to begin the new year!!!




Ceejay....I find thunder snow storms very spooky.
I've only been in a few and they are scary for some reason.
Hope your weather calms down.
I couldn't believe the pictures on the weather channel.
Sorry the job can get so stressful.
People having fits over the phone are not helping either.
Stay calm & I hope things go better today for you
Richie is Cuban & Dominican. Not sure about tortilla soup.
But most of the Hispanic countries make similar stuff.
Come to think of it....he hasn't made any soups.





Annie....these storms are unreal. Stay safe & warm.
Seems like all my sisters are getting pummeled with this crazy weather.
When the hospitals close they send the NEW patients to another hosp nearby.
Poor little Sassy. She needs indoor plumbing!!!
Glad you got to stay home. Call in sick!!!








Guess the

Good morning ladies,

I am home today. Work tomorrow but then I am off for at least a week, possibly for good. Was talking to the boss yesterday, she did not make up January's work schedule because she didn't have a 2013 calendar yet. She talked about keeping the current girl through January when she goes back to school. That's ok. I know she's hoping my current co-worker will leave for college soon - the sooner the better. And then in a round about fashion she casually mentioned that it's going to be getting very slow and she won't be needing us "girls" (although I am 10 years older than her) anymore. I'll be glad to walk away from this one, it's been an adventure and I enjoyed parts of it - still a very demanding job for a pittance of pay. Sorry, don't mean to sound like a downer although I'm sure I do. Just so disappointing to me that the rules have changed so drastically and people just don't matter any more. I'm also bummed about a family thing that happened the other day. Told DH that maybe we are better off closing off and being hermits

Anyway the good news is that I will have time to rest my foot - it is feeling better and I will have time to study techniques and play with my art pencils, painting and drawings. I picked up several good books as my Christmas gift from my Mom, kind of eager to get started. Not sure if we are going to have a snowy winter, but so far it's been quite cold so light up the fireplace and spread out on the dining table with all that good natural light streaming in through the windows and get busy.

All your talking about cooking has me jonesing for some homemade soup and a nice loaf of homemade bread. I know I have some soup beef and bones, not sure what I have in the way of vegetables though - with my hectic work schedule I didn't buy much in the way of groceries because I knew I wouldn't have time to cook. But I think I can fire up the crock pot and get something going in time for dinner tonight.

Mel - I like your snowy scene. Guess the best snow is the stuff that cleans up after itself So Ritchie is Cuban. Not so familiar with that style of cooking but I do love a good Cuban sandwich so while not the sort of Hispanic we think of, I'm sure he makes some darn good stuff. You are right - we do have alot of great cooks for our commune. Always something good to eat! And yes, you can be the taste tester. I can just see you now wheeling along the table, taking sips and making notes on index cards Ok, we'll give you a hat too

Ceejay - I think thundersnow is more of a southern thing. I love it. So cool (no pun intended) and unexpected. Like pink lighting in Atlanta. Oh man, I can't think of anything worse than being on the called end of the telephone line when people are yelling about losing their power. Must have been pretty bad if the whole town lost power. I guess you got a clip of that storm that hit Annie. Are you working New Year's Eve too? So you've never eaten lobster? I guess that's more of a city or east coast thing. If you ever get down to Memphis and have a chance to eat at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, have the surf and turf. They do lobster tail right. It has the texture of grilled shrimp, but if it's the good cold water kind it's sweet and tender.

Annie - hope you are home safe digging out from the storm. Heck, if I was Sassy and had short legs (as I do), I'd not be wanting to wade out in the snow to go potty - even if you did shovel a path to the outhouse for me I have heard about closing the hospitals - which means not accepting new patients - generally because they are severely short staffed and can't run things properly. Must be a pistol to be a medical person, emergency services worker, snow plow driver, electrical worker - all those people we depend on who have to get out to work no matter what. And no less important - the bread man - geez poor C - having to drive a not so good traction truck I'm sure in a blizzard to make sure people have bread. I might do an extra load the day before but would hate to have to go out in the thick of things to deliver. Hope everyone is home safe and sound.

Guess everyone else is enjoying some time off - hope you are all having a good time no matter what you are doing. Think I'll mosey down to the kitchen and get that soup and bread going. Have a good day chicks.

Morning all. Back at work today. The admin was supposed to be here for a half-day, but she called in sick. She actually did sound horrible on the voicemail message she left, poor thing.

Shad – Your time in the vineyards and lavender fields sounds wonderful. My pathetic memory, I can’t remember where I was this past year that had lavender fields in the area…might have been our fall 2011 trip to the Pacific NW? Or was it New Buffalo, MI this past June? Anyway, we didn’t stop to see them so I guess it really doesn’t matter. Looking forward to your photos. I hope you’re feeling good enough now, especially with travel home on your agenda.

Happy – You and your dh had a very romantic feast! Or shall I say feasts? Sounds wonderful, out in your hideaway in the snowy woods. A getaway weekend to Minneapolis and/or Door County sound wonderful. Nice to have something on the calendar (however tentative) to look forward to. Congrats on the weight loss!! Being on your feet and with your hands and mind busy certainly help keep boredom eating at bay, after the initial temptation of the goodies at the shop has worn off, LOL. Sorry to hear about the BIL being sick over Christmas. Is your mom still staying with them? I took the 26th off, but I’m at work today and a half-day tomorrow, then I'm off through the 1st. Enjoy your day off, and I hope your foot feels a little better before going back on Friday. that the temp helpers can pick up more hours and give you and your feet a well-deserved break.

Mel – I’m glad yesterday was quiet for you. Your holiday meal sounds delicious. I think it was an excellent idea getting cookware for the kids. Get them cooking, and make sure they include meals that meet your requirements!! Especially some soups. We went to bf’s mom’s later on Christmas Day and thankfully she was looking and sounding so much better. We were relieved.

Patty – I hope at least half of the training will be local for you. I’m so sorry you got sick for the holiday and couldn’t be with your family! At least nothing went to waste. How are you feeling now? I’m glad you’ll see your family this weekend. The luminaria lighting at dusk on Christmas Eve is very pretty – both sides of the block do it. Wish I had thought to take a photo. A woman on our block keeps everyone stocked with long-burning church votives. We had a couple still burning at around 9 am the next morning!

Annie – What a fabulous gift for you – Curtis is right, if anyone would make good use of it and deserve it, it’s YOU!! I hope you enjoy using that cookware. I’m sorry your father no longer feels comfortable living in the house alone. The same thing just happened to bf’s brother’s MIL. She’s 90 y.o., had a fall, and decided on her own that she want to move into a nursing home. She spent a couple days in the hospital after her fall (they discovered a previously unknown heart problem) and I think she moved to the nursing facility yesterday, or it might be today. Even with the offer to have live-in assistance, she still opted for the nursing facility. Wow, we really dodged the bullet with these storms here! Are you back at work today, or is it still too hazardous to be out and about? Poor Sassy! Coal is the same way – doesn’t want to use the paths & spots we shovel for him when we get a lot of snow, so he ends up hopping around like a rabbit in the deep snow. Love Mel’s suggestion about indoor plumbing for Sassy!!

Ceejay – Glad you didn’t get all the snow that Annie did. But the wind sounds awful, and I’m glad the power outage didn’t last very long. We had a lot of wind as well, but no real precipitation to speak of. Two of our lawn decorations have bitten the dust – some of the lights went out on them. They had to be anchored down because of the wind and maybe something in the wiring snapped. Oh well, they were many years old and they weren’t exactly the highest quality to begin with. Is it almost your weekend now?

--
The rest of Christmas Day was nice for us. We went over to bf’s mom for a short visit and were glad to see she’s feeling better. It’s unfortunate that she has to work at her age (78), but if she would just take it easier on her days off, she’d probably do better with keeping her immunity up. It doesn’t help that she’s always running back and forth to be with her older sister, who has become very frail since having complications after hip replacement a couple years ago. BF’s aunt is at the point where she may need a caregiver, and bf’s mother is not the one who should be doing it! We’re worried.

Yesterday I had another vacation day. I was up early and lazed around until 10 am, when I went to the 4G exercise class. The instructor is one I’ve had for Pilates on Mondays - the one who keeps up a brisk pace and uses every minute of class productively - and this was no different. We were constantly switching between strength moves with hand weights and moves with a medicine ball. Everything got worked and OMG am I sore today! But what better place to be sore and miserable than at work, LOL.

After class, I stopped at Jewel-Osco (grocery/drugstore) to check out their clearance aisle. We needed some small-sized gift bags and so I picked up some of those, along with some flat gift wrap (when do you ever see that these days??), some more gift tag stickers and some sweets. Of course I’ve had to tell bf to put the sweets away somewhere and maybe dole them out to me in small bits, LOL.

The rest of the day was ho-hum. I watched a dvd that I had to get back to the library. It was highly rated by critics, but I thought the ending was just awful (one of those “non-endings”) and the rest was okay - not worth it because there was no payoff at the end. Bah. Went for a dog walk. Went out to eat a late lunch/early dinner. After the last couple days of pasta, I was in the mood for meat, so the half price burgers at a local place near us, but the burgers were just so-so. Bf thinks they use frozen patties for the half-price day, but recalls a hand-made patty when we’ve been there before. Boo. Used up the rest of the fresh apple pie filling I had leftover from the other day and made a mini-pie.

No plans tonight except maybe to get bf to massage my sore muscles, haha. I also have to get back to the library. Naturally, right after making the short trip there after dinner last night to return books and dvds, I get home, check e-mail and see that I have a hold that’s ready for pick up. It’s the first season of “Downton Abbey”. Yay! Looking forward to watching that.

Well, I better get this posted and get back to work. I have enough work to keep me busy, but I’m sure the day will feel very long because I’m sore. I guess that exercise class was my penance for not tracking my eating while I’ve been off work, LOL. Fortunately, I didn’t gain any weight after all that!! Whoohoo! And so my ticker is still spot on, for a change!

Everyone have a good day!! TTFN!

Hi Laura,

Guess we were typing right over each other's heads I do recommend the candlelight dinner - not sure it does as much for DH as it does for me - just makes me feel like it's something a bit more special. I am one who believes that there are certain days and times (like your birthday) when you are allowed to have something a bit more special. Now the candles are burnt down almost to the nubs and the pine boughs in the flower arrangement are dropping needles as fast as the mum petals so I'll have to come up with something for New Years Eve. Maybe we can sit out by the firepit and watch for deer. NOT! at least not when it's -7 degrees out there Good for you for getting through the first part of the holidays without the scale moving. You are still ahead of me on the ticker list. I really admire you for hitting the gym as hard as you do. This time of year I really feel like a sloth when it comes to exercising. I hope you can convince the BF to give you a nice massage. Just be prepared to give him something in return as that kind of thing always leads to something else in their minds God bless his mum still working at 78 years old. I do feel sad for the people at Walmart and the grocery store. Not sure if like me, they just want to get out among people - mostly I think alot of them have to work to make ends meet. Standing on your feet all day past 60 has to be especially brutal. Yum... now you have me in the mood for a good burger. A hand formed patty - not the frozen one But I hear DH banging a cereal bowl with a spoon so I guess I'm too late to suggest lunch. Hopefully your day at work will be quiet and then you can have some lounging time at home to enjoy.

I'm off to cook...

P.S. I like your Christmas tree border / signature! Very festive.

Morning Folks
It's so nice to get to sleep late. Got up around 8 this morning and decided to go get the good dr to refill my rx's. Also my shoulder has been giving me fits. Come to find out I have a pulled muscle in my shoulder. How I did that is beyond me. It's been painful. I need to call the eye doctor to check on my new glasses. They are not in yet.

----------------
Annie
This snow storm was a doozy. We were very lucky that we only got a dusting of snow. We mainly had freezing rain. Paragould had 8 inches, Jonesboro had 5 inches. I was very tempted to call in sick.

Mel
I had the electric crew out and one of them called me back and said be prepared there was a huge flash of light out by the interstate. You may have a lot of calls. I realized a bit later that what he saw was lightening cause I heard it thunder right after that. I like to watch it snow. I just pray that the next blizzard winds we have will be on my day's off. The guys got through at 6.38 p.m. last night. They had work more than 12 hours more like 16 hours to restore the power.

More later.

Laura
You and Happy snuck in on me. Wow working at 78 would be challenging. My uncle is 83 and stills does some office work for our missionary in India. But that's not like going out in the public every day. I love those relaxing days of doing what ever.

Happy
I thought I'd make another pot of soup today. I like soup or stew in cold weather. Didn't realize we had an artist amongst us. I sometimes wish for my piano. I think it would be good therapy on my hands. My hands get stiff at times.

Good Morning ladies! these days just seem to be flying by. The kids all had a blast on Christmas. DH has been sick, so we really did keep it quiet, I ran around a bit yesterday and today we are straigtening things out and tackling Mt Washmore. Not enough snow here to speak of, I know the kiddies are disapointed, but I am really ok with it.

I need to get back on the Band wagon, I Havn't lost any more weight, and I have been indulging a little too much with all the yummy food.Ok, off to finish up. Luv and hugs ladies