Thursday, December 26

[karlinann]

Good morning Rounders! This is my 2nd post. Something is either wrong or it's doing back-up when I try to post. The door is open.

[cookielady]

Good Morning! Well come back in & post away Karlinann. It's suppose to be another pretty day here. It felt more like Easter than Christmas with the warm temps yesterday.

Yesterday was very nice. Started off at Kathy's. The boys got tons btw us all. With Xander being only 5, his gifts were actual toys that are big & bulky. Blaise got a couple duplicates, but that's no big deal because they'll be just sent to his Father's for his room there. One of the books I rec'd for Blaise's Wimpy Kid series was an autographed copy by the author. He was so thrilled. Kathy made a big deal about keeping it pristine, but I said to just read it & enjoy it. I'm not big into collecting, though you wouldn't know if from my dust collection. LOL!

I spent the afternoon cooking & baking. It's truly what brings me joy. I made an extra lg pan of lasagna, but I should have made the regular lg pan and it would have been plenty. Lots of leftovers. I'm taking some over to Aunt J & Uncle D along with some pie. For many years they would pop in and join us for dessert on Christmas. It's so sad when traditions have to change. I provided all the Dirty Santa gifts this year, and we changed up the rules. We still rolled the giant dice and but I had LOTS of gifts, there was always a chance to get a second (or third) gift. Well wouldn't you know Corky ended up with 3 gifts and all 3 were some of the more expensive gifts. He got 2 out of 3 of the tools and the Mel's gift card that of course he gave to me. I got stuck with the coffee bag, but when it was all over, some people traded and everyone was happy. My brother Tom got the Aldi's combo...bag, quarter holder, & a gift certificate. He gave it to my SIL and she was thrilled. We love their big bags! The quarter holders were pie shaped. It doesn't take much to excite us. LOL! Matt got the snot (egg) separator. You crack your eggs into the "man's head", tilt his head, and the "snot" runs out his nose. The guys got a big kick out of that just like I thought they would. Surprisingly I only ended up with about 10 extra gifts, and I'll just put them back for next year. My brother will store the big dice until then. Last Christmas day Becca & I created that by covering a big square box, then cut out black circles and put them on the proper sides so it looked like a real dice. Again, it doesn't take much to make us happy.

Blaise REALLY wanted to come home with us, but that wasn't happening. He's staying with Kathy until New Years Eve. He did something to Xander, and boy did he get in trouble. He was in an extremely foul mood then for about a half an hour. At one point Matt took out to the garage and gave his a good talking to. I stayed out of it. Let them be the parents. I just gave out the hugs & kisses. Just like a grammy!!!

Not sure what today will bring. I've got a pie in the oven for Mel's Place. I had it all assembled yesterday, so I just had to bake it which is no big deal. We MAY go into town. I really need to go to the bank. Going to slowly but sure get this house back in order. Cork is off work thru the 1st. Becca will be heading back up home sometime today. No hurry. She's now witnessed how rotten Oliver is at times. It took him forever to settle down last night. I love him, but he's pure muscle and his tail is like a whip.

Oh my, I've been awful chatty this morning. Making up for lost time I guess. Have a good one all!

[maxie]

Morning Karlinann..hope you get the problem figured out...miss hearing your news.

I gotta say I am tired of cookies and junk food and ham..Andrew and his mom brought breakfast casserole but I am not a breakfast casserole fan so saved it for Jon. I guess I am saying I am ready for some good old regular food. Maybe some McD's? No matter how wonderful the holidays are it is time to get back to normal.

Looking forward to hearing about your holiday and celebrations. Going to get cooler here and sun is gone. Have a great one!!

[bethina]

Good morning my sister dropped me off at Walmart to get groceries and to exchange my jammies mom got me. I couldn’t exchange them.

When I get off this bus I plan to read for a while.

[karlinann]

Good afternoon. The people who live in NY and have the house next door must be going to sell it. The son and his wife were there yesterday cleaning up the leaves, cleaning out the gutters and trimming the trees and shrubs. We have lived here for over 3 yrs and that is the first time they have done anything. If they do I sure hope we get good neighbors.

I have just been getting out a little each day. I've spread 2 boxes of coffee grinds and from now on I will just dump them onto the compost pile. It is supposed to make the compost decompose faster. I also found out it's good for earthworms, it deters snails and yucky creatures, it aerates the soil, and adds a whole bunch of nutrients to the soil. Wow! It will be easy from here on out. I have a super pile of leaves that need to get composted before spring.

It is cloudy today. Yesterday afternoon I had to turn on the ceiling fans for a few hours. Yes, the weather is definitely off kilter this year.

Peace & Plenty.

[Paula A]

My Florida nieces were posting photos of their kids swimming!!!

[Paula A]

Well, I feel like I got my Hallmark Christmas gathering. and so sorry Idid not get here yesterday to wish you all the merriest!
My mother texted me that her cousin was alone and would I ask her to come over. I called and she said yes, graciously thanking me over and over for asking...I had assumed she would be at her granddaughter;s in chico. Her daughter died a few yers ago and Crystal, my mom's first cousin, is a widow, too and all the people who are still here (like the widowered husband) have remarried and are not inviting her...anyway, I was so glad my mom talked to her and found out because we wuld hav efelt terrible to heard later that she was alone. And it really helped my mother to have her there because I had asked two single friends (one the recent new widow) to dinner and she brought her sister, so we had 7 around the table! I had to borrow a chair form my mom, even.

I heard from and saw pictures form all the grandkids opening and modeling the gifts and showing the Lego sets being worked on.
Ham was wonderful and dinner was cleaned up and the leaf out of the table and all is cleaned up and put away.
Not the tree,of course, but nice to have a big dinner and then to clean it all up quickly.

Ok, had to let the dogs in. It is a cold but sunny morning and instead of enjoying the sun they have to stand at the fence and bark at the neighbor's cat who totally knows there is fence between him and the dogs.

All three of my niece's videoed and one Facetimed me so I could see their little girls opening the autographed books I got for them. they are my Florida brother's daughters and since the book is a counting alligator book I had to get each a copy.

I took today off in case I wanted to go to any after Christmas sales and glad I did, although I don't want to shop. I do want to get out of the house but no real reason to...maybe take the car through the car wash?

Beth, you will have to let me know of good recipes you find for the air fryer. Mine is sitting on top of my refrigerator and I haven'used it since my brother was out this summer. I have told people what you said, Maxi, about ding the frozenpretzels and how good they are (you said like pretzels in the mall) but since I am trying to not over eat on bread things I have not made them. Waiting for family to visit.
Donna, the cookies are definitely one of the Big Hits of my season! I have shared some and the replies are all the same: Wow! Lady Locks are just not known around here. Only one person I know (and she is acaterer in Las Vegas) has heard of them. So people who get to taste them are the ones high up on my baking friends list! And the raisin cookies, too. I shared with a friend who is in a sad situation right now and added some of my cookies (salted caramel pretzel cookies and brownie cookies) and she said it was the best gift she got.

I will let you all go. Hope Becca is getting over her cold and ear problems and hope you get over the computer issues, Karlinann.
Maxi, winning is a big deal and hope your team keeps going.
Spencer, my MD son said he can't wait to go to the next Ravens game now that all of them have Ravens hoodies (thanks Nana. Part of me wants to ask why he didn't just get them himself, but then I am so happy to have found gifts they wanted and needed. And both DIL's really liked their scarves (good deals on cashmere scarves). Of course, the granddaughter liked the check! She is going away to school right after New Year's. Stuart and Jenni are driving her to Idaho.

Ok, I amnow going to turn up the heat. Hope you all are staying healthya nd warm!

[maxie]

Because you can never have enough Ravens hoodies! You just need to understand you never have to many! This year I have Blues socks and Andrews mom framed a poster of the team for me because he ask her to and of course, my promised game.

I got the final Christmas gift today...the credit card bill. It was a shock but then it will will be paid and Christmas done by New Year without any surprises. I went to put the gift cards away and found some of Kohl's I hadn't used from last year. Looks like I can eat all the cookies I want because I can afford new clothes! Ok, I have already ate all the cookies so all that is left is the new clothes!

It is not swimming weather here but it is still warm. All the snow is melted and everything is damp. Christmas must be over because the mail was back on schedule and 3 hours earlier than the last couple of weeks. Normal is a good thing.

Hope you get good neighbors Karlinann and wish it were me moving to a warmer climate and becoming a snow bird. We are still hunting for places to stay on the beach for our Florida vacay this summer. Need a lottery winner in the family cuz we have pretty nice taste in places but this darn ole beer budget. And they will need plenty of beer seeing me in a swim suit!

Cookie saw your pictures. Your little boys had a nice Christmas! I admire how you just cook up a storm for all those people like it is nothing and enjoy it.

Need to run out for milk and maybe some fast food. Nothing going on tonight..not even a hockey game...so it will be an early bedtime.

Enjoy those leftovers people!

[Paula A]

Great idea on socks! Valentines might be Ravens socks! Thanks for that idea!