Saturday, December 22

[karlinann]

Good morning Rounders! Hey Maxie, merry Christmas Eve to you! Let your hair down and celebrate girl!

It stopped raining sometime during the night I suppose. I saw the moon this morning and that's a good sign. That strong wind knocked down some more of those dead palm fronds and I'm thankful for that. They looked awful and there is no way we could ever trim those up. You have to have one of those lift trucks and a heavy duty chainsaw.

I made Chili for dinner and there is lots left over for the cold spell that is coming. Nothing like a bowl of chili to warm you up.

That Eucalyptus tree had to be moved cuz I realized I had planted it too close to the driveway. If it survives it will get 60 or more feet tall and the roots will crack the driveway and the branches would take over the whole front of the house. I moved it to the backyard so it can spread out. I hope it makes it through the winter.

So, I am reading American Sniper and it is really good. I have seen the movie twice and loved it. Our neighbor gave us the book.

I'll be back later to catch up.

[cookielady]

Good Morning. Another dreary one here.

Yesterday was a busy one. Just finishing up this & that. It was like Grand Central Station for a while. Btw phn calls & pick ups, it took me way longer than planned to make the pies for the restaurant, but I got them done & delivered. Once the last one came, we took the old Escape back down to Kathy. When we were ready to leave her place, Blaise said he felt like throwing up. I figured it was his normal car sickness...NOT! He threw up all evening & through the night.

I had planned to wrap gifts last night while watching TV, but just couldn't get motivated. Got one whole one done. I finished my night off at 1am cleaning up after Blaise and changing his bedding. Cork took the night shift. I had planned to sleep in until 8am, but heard Blaise at 630, so I was up and moving. I said I felt like one of those ducks in a shooting gallery...back & forth.

I've got all my orders except one out on the porch & ready for pick up. One of my new customers texted in the middle of the night that she was short 2 doz sugar cookies. I don't know how. I have 2 doz extra I can give her, but I'm sure we packed the boxes right. Hmmmmmm.

I hope to make the big pan of lasagna for Christmas today & get it into the refrig. That way if we get sick, someone else can get it & bake it. Also have some gingersnap cookie dough to bake off. I need to do some cleaning & hopefully decorate the tree. We'll see. Slow but sure. Cork is helping me. Bless his pea picking heart.

Have a good one all!

[karlinann]

OMG, Cookielady! How in the world do you do it? Hope Blaise feels better and hope the rest of you don't get sick.

[maxie]

Kids sure know the perfect time to get sick...hope it is a 24 hour thing and he is up and running for Christmas and his disease misses the rest of you.

[JoGee]

Good morning. HAPPY WINTER!☕️

Winter arrived at EST atabout 5:26 p.m. yesterday. So it was 3:26p here, and 2:26 where Paula is.
Did you see the full winter moon last night? I saw it behind a veil of cloud cover. I can imagine how bright it was if there was no cloud cover, for the halo of bright light around it, and the outer edge of that halo was almost rainbow but only in the red-yellow-orange color and a bit hazy. Probably a reflection of moisture in the cloud cover. But despite the veil of cloud cover you could also see some moon details. It was really a sight. I couldn’t see any shooting stars from behind it, though.
Wonder if it will be so pretty tonight?

My brother’s gift did not arrive yesterday, but should be here by noon today. Hope it actually makes it before we go out this afternoon.

E took a couple of cartons of stuff to Goodwill and a box of food donation for the Food Bank yesterday. He returned with gifts of See’s chocolate candy for the holiday.....for each of us, and one quite large one for his nephew’s family. He has already opened his. They put my peppermint patties in a separate bag, so we sampled those, but my candy box is still sealed, and will be til Christmas. I do have some will power.

We we will meet nephew and his wife for holiday dinner tonight. We haven’t been to that restaurant before, never even heard of it...probably won’t again. But it’s supposed to be upscale and it’s their favorite place. So I’ll be nice about it. I looked them up on the web. I have trouble with steak, and they do not have smaller fillets. Chicken & fish are covered in nuts or seeds...which I can’t have. Everything else is in spicy BBQ sauce and hot peppers and garlic. Much on their menu must be made ahead. If they can’t accommodate my tastes don’t know what I’ll get. Maybe just bring the stupid steak home and eat the veggie.

Looks like a sunny day ahead. I will like that. Still, we get rain (premelted snow?) for Christmas Day.
Hope you all have a lovely day. ☀️

Hope Blaise feels better quickly, Donna. Got chicken soup? I believe in that.

Karlinann, tree trimmer companies usually charge quite a bit for trimming palm leaves. Some places have Hispanic guys driving around looking for tree trimming jobs, and they will undercut the prices considerably.
Eucalyptus trees—— hope it isn’t near any water lines. Those roots will get into those lines. Had that problem when we lived in Phx. I kept it at bay by flushing some septic tank remedy for tree roots into the system on a regular basis.

[karlinann]

We are a gated community and the only tree trimming has to be approved in advance by the Architectural Review Board and they do check the approval when the tree trimming crews come in the gate. I would never hire anyone to trim up that Palm tree anyway. Mother nature brings down the dead fronds all through the year.

Thanks for the heads up regarding the Eucalyptus though. We have an irrigation system all through the property and I will put that little tree back into a pot on the patio. Thank you so much.

[maxie]

Good Morning...Christmas Eve for us here! I am going to bake a cherry and pumpkin pie and still need to bake the last batch of cookie dough in the fridge. Jon is going to grill pork steaks and pork chops for supper. All the gifts are wrapped and hidden away, meals planned and groceries bought. Need to clean the kitchen floor and lay the clean rugs. Ho Ho Ho around here!

Going to have another cup of coffee and start the day. Have a wonderful weekend of Christmas festivities..

[karlinann]

You go girl!

[Paula A]

Oh, good morning, friends! I could not see the moon well last night, either and hoping it will be more visible tonight.
Yay for days getting longer now! Yesterday was a 3 child day and they were the easy ones. and were all picked up by 4:00! So my break started an hour earlier than it could have! I received some nice gifts from the families and by Thursday I will be ready to see them all again!

My son in WA texted a picture of him and his assistant principal in the cafeteria serving up food. They had a food worker quit during the week and the cafeteria manager asked if he could get some volunteers to help. He said he could and then the assistant said she could and they hustled right through it. The picture looked a bit chaotic, like where is the line? But he said it was organized chaos! I love that the kids know him and like him. He always gets gifts from families and students...I never gave a gift to the principal when my kids were in school. Just the teacher. When Gary was teaching he would bring home so many great gifts that we almost always re-gifted some as needed. Always received multiple boxes of Sees candy!

Today I have normal Saturday errands and that means grocery shopping. I did not go to buy the turkey last night...I just don't want to make all the food that I do want to eat. that is the dilemma!

Tomorrow is what our friends call Christmas Adam, because the next day is Christmas Eve and Adam came before Eve...my kids all thought that was so funny so they figured it was another way to get some celebration food and candy! Goofy stuff from memories when they were all little. Two of the boys in that family are now Border Patrol agents. ONe is on a special rescue team up in WA and the other is a Chaplain who is in AZ...their mother prays for them a Lot!

No baking going on here today...I think I will get more motivation after I go to the store.
I hope that day you are having goes well and the Christmas music is playing.
My favorite is Music Box Christmas and I have it on Spotify. WE had an album of it when I was growing up.

[JoGee]

We had a copy of Music Box Christmas, a long time ago. I loved it. I wonder if a kid took it when they left to be on their own??? Hmmmm - will ask E if he has another copy or can get it again

[Paula A]

It came up free on my Spotify app

[karlinann]

Attention Aunt Maye. You will want to read Cold Betrayal by J.A. Jance. It is so good I can't put it down. I'm actually reading two books at the same time.

[Paula A]

I am looking for that now!
Thanks!

[Aunt Maye]

good evening..

Karlin,,,J.A. Jance,, will see if I can get my hands on that book..... I have read three others of his. 1. name with hold ,2. Last goodby and 3, Man
Overboard,,,
I have the Man Overboard book marked" skimmed">.. which generally means it was either boring or too much bad language.. ..But I will always try a book someone else reads and finds great... so see will see if I can get it from our huge library system or ebook on line from the Carnegie library system

thanks for suggestion...
I did tell you I have a loose leaf notebook. in which I have recorded all books I have read since sometime in the 70... I was getting too many "repeat " books ,so started to write down titles ,under author.. and the little book grew.. into a many paged folder now... so many of my favorite authors are dead, or stopped writing . ( Jane Haddam, Dick Francis) .. the librarian from Local library told me I have borrow almost 1900 books since coming there regularly. before our move to this house,in 2003, I borrow from a different library.. so this record they have would only be for about 13-14 years ..

cookie bake with granddaughter and the Great Granddaughter ,14 mos, went fine..and fun.. all the girls are 18 and over. grandson also stopped in..they did most of the work and even the cleanup..I hope they have happy memories of this ,,I sure do.

made big pot of beef broth ,with beef bones and some meat.. for my veggie soup.. plus I roasted in slow cooker a sirloin tip roast almost done. for more broth and the meat of course.. will put the rest together either tomorrow afternoon or Monday morn.. for our C. Eve get together..

.Grandson Kiel made it up from Va.. got caught in the horrible hard rain near D.C.. had to pull off.. wait. Got here about 10pm.. plans on being here a whole week.. wonderful..

ok see you tomorrow.. we had snow , a little, today.. hope that is it for the week..

[Aunt Maye]

hey Karlin,,, went on line to Carnegie Library,,J.A. Jance,Cold Betrayal -- e book--- is downloading .as I type ..will start it immediately.. thanks.