Shhh... it'll be okay on Saturday

[CathyS]

Whatever you are celebrating, may you find love and peace and happiness.

Don't stress. Try not to stress. Martha has left the building, disgusted because she couldn't find her soul mate amongst us. But that's okay! We know who we are and we can deal with it.

Happy birthday and Happy Hanukkah to TwinsMom. Happy Yule, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays. However you celebrate, have a great time. Remember, this is not Stressmas, for the Christians amongst us, it is Christmas, and it only comes once a year.

[CathyS]

Haven't gotten any updates regarding my post in J&C, but we will be heading up to Brampton as soon as Mr. Sleepyhead wakes up and gets moving.

I am grateful that I have so little left to do other than putting stuff away. Dh has requested and/or reminded me that I was going to make shortbread. I can do that later.

I hear a rumble or a growl or something emanating from the bed chamber. Sounds like a growly bear. Ah, here he comes, blinking his eyes and looking like a little lost boy. He's so cute. I just hope he stays mostly cute for the rest of the day. He doesn't like going to Brampton.

[helia]

Yes, it'll be OK! Praying for your concern, CathyS.

I'm up earlier than usual b/c I couldn't sleep anymore. Today, we're celebrating Sinterklaas! This involves 2 special meals, for which I don't traditionally cook since this is a Dutch thing. Dh and dd18 will make poffertjes (basically little beignets) for breakfast. Dh will make pannekoeken (Dutch pancakes, very eggy, savory as well as sweet) for dinner. I will make the Dutch letter cookies. This is our first year doing this with dd21's celiac diagnosis, so we'll be playing around with gluten-free flour. I have some gluten free pie crusts to experiment with in making the Dutch letter cookies. I'm not sure that will work well.

We will also make a gag gift and a long humorous poem about a characteristic of each family member. This takes a long time and might involve more errands, depending on how complicated we design the gag gifts. If we keep them simple and doable with just poster board, which we're hoping to do today, their construction will go faster. The family splits the tasks based on giftings. Ds and I are the main poem writers, though the girls aren't bad either. Dh and the girls mainly do the gag gift design and construction, though ds helps there too -- but his poetic abilities are more in need. Dh never does the poems. I never do the gag gift construction. After dinner, we'll each do the gag gifts and poems and then open our gifts to each other.

Dd18 and dh went pod diving yesterday to get the poffertje pan and the stroop (Dutch syrup, very molasses-like) for the pancakes.

I'm up and dressed, though not showered. First, I'm going to go stand in line at the H.B. ham store and pick up the ham for tomorrow and get a few odds and ends at the groc. store. I'll put the extra tax payments in the mailbox as I leave.

I think I accomplished all my goals yesterday.

Main goals for today:
1. Procure food (ham, a few groceries)
2. Wrap a lot of gifts
3. Gag gifts and poems for each person.
4. Make Dutch letter cookies
5. Celebrate Sinterklaas with the family!

[BookSaver]

Good morning, villagers ~
I woke up very early and decided instead of tossing & turning trying to get back to sleep, better to get up and work for a couple hours. I'm almost done and ready to go back for a nap.

Just looked at my list from yesterday morning. I didn't change the sheets but otherwise have checked everything else off for yesterday, last night, and a couple things this morning. It's too soon to start cooking the spicy nacho sauce, too soon to s2s and put on party clothes, so ...

This is weird. I've done everything on the list. I have time to take a break and read the newspaper. This doesn't feel right -- what did I forget to put on the list?
I've never been ready this early!

[LadyMaverick]

Good Morning!

Happy Birthday Twins!!!!!

I took a turn for the worse for about 24 hours but feel MUCH better now. I can breathe easier now and but I continue to sound like a seal barking when I cough.

DH says he feels fine but his face looks bad. One of his eyes is swollen shut and one side of his face is multi-colored bruises. We were told this would happen but actually seeing it happen is concerning. I have been taking pictures of his face to document the changes. The photos show he is still in the "it gets worse before it gets better" stage.

I have exceeded my tolerance of laying down. I am going to start pushing myself down the road to recovery. One step at a time.

[Norma]

Want to wish Twins a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY Hope you have a happy one.

Helia I enjoy when you post about things Dutch. My paternal grandfather's family all came to this country from the Netherlands many many years ago - before the Revolutionary War as they were Loyalists of 1782 and given land in New Brunswick. I really don't know much else about them but knowing this I like to know about the Dutch.

Cathy, you are in good form today and your opening was great. Have a good Christmas. Happy Holidays to everyone.

[Harriet]

Happy Hanukkah!

Happy Birthday, Twins' Mom!

Norma, it's so good to see you. I agree with you about helia's chat on her family's celebration. I'm hoping you will have a wonderful dual day tomorrow. Tell Mr. Guy that HRH is mad at the bakery world right now because he can't find ordinary Brown and Serve Rolls anywhere and says that after making a billion of them he would like to show his grandchildren what they are! (you can find products that have those words in the name here, but they aren't the same)

helia, I got to tell about SinterKlaas yesterday and I felt so well-informed because of you! (discussion of various traditions someone brought up)

[DeeClutter]

Martha has left the building, disgusted because she couldn't find her soul mate amongst us. But that's okay! We know who we are and we can deal with it.

I surely can deal with it. I lost trying to be Martha Stewartish a long, long time ago!

Your Brampton quote reminded me of when the Solar Bears played Brampton a couple of weeks ago. One of the men who works with dd as an off-ice official upstairs was called upon to sing the National Anthem. DD asked if he was ready to sing the Canadian anthem as well. "I have to sing that too?!" DD: "I would thinks so; we're playing a Canadian team." He actually did very well with it and did know the words and tune.

Wishing you a TRULY HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TWINS! You deserve a really happy day! So, I see Hanukkah begins this evening through tomorrow night. Happy Hanukkah as well. Is Hanukkah tonight similar to our Christmas Eve?

We have Christmas Eve Service at 6:00 tonight. Tomorrow will be a busy day. The rest of the family has now gone to the flea market and stopping on the way back to pick up an order Dh placed at a convenience store last week. Know they took my walker out of the trunk. Think I'd better look to see where they 'hid' it. Sure don't want it taken in the meantime.

Dsonil got called into work last night about 5:30 and got home around midnight. Nice pay but he's tired. Has to go back in this afternoon. Nice thing is he's getting pay 2.5x. Tomorrow we have church at 10:30. Dsonil has to work a few hours in the morning. Then they're going to his Mom's and taking dgd21 with them. We're going to dbil/dsisil's for a while tomorrow afternoon. Also going there tonight after church -for all of us with Christmas Eve dinner. Hoping it goes better than the last time she made lasagna. She had a complete meltdown and declared she would NEVER do this again! Nothing was done to her liking and she said it was time for the younger generation to do it. DD offered this year but she flatly refused. We hope to do Christmas gifts tomorrow night. DGD has to leave for the airport by about 4:30am on Monday. Think dh is going with them. She's flying A llegiant out of Sanford so it's quite a bit further than the Orland airport. I'm staying home nursing this cold. So tired of not feeling up to snuff but it could be worse. At least it's not pneumonia or even probably bronchitis just very bothersome!

[DeeClutter]

Wishing Lord Maverick and LadyM healing vibes as well!

[Norma]

Harriet - I had to laugh at your post about the Brown and Serve rolls. I told Mr. Guy and he laughed and said "yeah, they don't have the old "Burn" and Serves anymore. The guys always called them that.

Dee - please get well soon! And Lord and Lady M too.

A little story hockey fans may find funny - or not! In San Jose at the Shark Tank when the Canadian Anthem is starting "Oh Canada..."
a group of not so nice fans always yell "GO HOME". That in itself is funny because our best players are Canadian as they are on other teams in the NHL. Oh Well!