Blessed gifts Christmas PWYC

[AustinGranny]

Wishing a Happy and Blessed Christmas to all my SHE friends.

Just happy I don't have to deal with snow. That last blizzard the year before we left Illinois in '79 cured me of wishing for a White Christmas.It was reinforced by subsequent wintry Christmas visits to kin still in Kansas and Oklahoma. Later I will walk by the pool and feel blessed I live with banana plants and palm trees.

[blessedw2]

merry christmas!!!

[Dove]

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Love & hugs to you all.

[Harriet]

It's a joy to hear from you again, Dove, and I'm sure hoping you are feeling better and able to get back to exercise and long walks without frustration. Big hugs!

Enjoy a palm tree for me, too, Austin!

We had fun with Gunner and his boy. ToddlerC was feeling puny. Her Mommy doesn't know what's going on - she's been reacting with tears suddenly for the past two days. This time her Daddy only got up from sitting beside her when he realized we'd driven up. Having him move away - not even knowing there was a reason that was about to make her happy - she just melted into misery and finally fell asleep on Mommy's lap after crying to sleep in her embarrassment about crying. Oh, the twos.

They have a Simon toy. I must be totally behind the times, because this one fits on your head and you seem to bop yourself in the head to follow each color. Lots of fun for the people around you, because they like how silly you look. Dd had her nephew rolling with laughter as she figured out how to play. I don't think he really appreciated the toy until he watched a teen try.

[LadyMaverick]

Merry Christmas!

We were up and opening gifts at sunrise. DS9 was pleased with his gifts.

I put things into the oven and then started out the door for a walk. DGS21 pulled up in the driveway at that moment so he put his dog in our backyard and joined me on my walk.

I enjoyed Christmas brunch with extended family. About 30 of us gathered at DNephew home. It was noisy with kids playing (9 children between the age of 5-9 years old) but the noise level didn't stop the adults from having multiple conversations at the same time. I enjoyed every moment of the experience.

[Harmony]

I love reading what everybody is doing. And the snow sounds so pretty, but I remember how hard it is to deal with that stuff. I remember one year how the weather changed about the time we were sitting down to turkey lunch and we had to take a trip up the turnpike after that. Nobody thought we were going to come, but we did and slip-slided all the way home.

Quiet day. DH keeps asking me what's open, asking about this place and that. It does feel like we had our holiday yesterday and it's back to work today. He asked me what I was going to do and I told him sit here and eat turkey. So we both had a nice hot plate of turkey and gravy with all the fixins.

Our friends who came yesterday brought us a Pomegranate tree. They have a tree and gave DH one to bring home and he asked about their tree. So today he backed his truck to the dying-almost-dead grapefruit tree (sniff sniff) and attached a chain and pulled it out and got it out of here. He planted the new tree in its spot. Put the curbing back around and raked and I watered. They're supposed to grow fast. I need to know what to do with this fruit (hopefully we get some) besides making grenadine. DH likes that on tapioca.

I put my new calculator on the desk and threw away the old. Asked DH if he'd get his hole saw and open a hole above the lower shelf, so I connected everything there and all the cords are mostly hidden and up off the floor. Much neater.

So y'all have a nice time for the rest of your day. I'll just putter around and erase more footprints.

[Sunny]

Merry Christmas!

Quick peek in, we are here at dfam#1's and I'm on my phone. We're having a nice visit. We talked to ds#2 this morning and will probably talk to ds#3 this evening. We've had dinner about 4pm and just waiting for dessert.

Oops, dgs14 just dropped and broke a glass glass on the tile floor. I'll be back later...

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Dinner is done but not dessert. Ds is sleeping again. Dgs is going down for sleep we hope. He had a bath here and was adorable in it, splashing because he could. At home he doesn't get near as deep a tub. I loved that he was playing with the bath toys I I saved all these years. The pack n play is set up in our room for him to sleep in.

Turkey was ready with 45 minutes to spare. It wasn't very good but we suspect it is because we're used to the processed Butterballs. On the other hand the stuffing was way better than the processed stuffing.

I'm resting for a few minutes while dh gets the first load of dishes cleaned up.

[LadyMaverick]

This afternoon DGS21 shadowed me for 3 hours. He is curious about everything I do. Silly fella. After all these years of hanging around me, you would think he would get tired of my boring doings. I showed him some of my digital BuJo notebooks, sections, and pages. I'm logical, simple and like tracking things. DGS21 tends to be focused more on beauty and design. He is about 10000000% more creative than I am. He decided to get to work on his 2018 BuJo. I'm looking forward to seeing what he comes up with.

I am attempting to put more intentional one-on-one time with those who are in my immediate circle. Life goes by fast and it seems we don't sit down and really talk. I have asked 4 people and they have agreed to weekly one-on-one time. We have agreed on a weekly day/time to meet. I intend to ask 2 more people if they will do it. Each one has a one-hour time slot. I am limiting the time to keep it doable. This ends up being a 6-hour commitment each week for me which is a huge endeavor. I hope I can pull it off.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Dd had a rough Christmas because she wasn't in the moment and could feel that.

Dgs didn't go to sleep for any length of time so the evening fizzled.

Tomorrow will be another long day and I'm anxious for bed. Poor ds was off to work for 10 hours. I've told him not to come tomorrow except he can come for dinner if he chooses.

Dd has asked to take our car again tomorrow night (she has it now) and return it in the day on Wednesday. I should remind her it will need gas long before then, probably tomorrow.

The check engine light is on and we have the computer thingy to clear that but will do that tomorrow. I'm assuming I've fixed the problem (loose gas cap) and that we'll just clear the problem not have to take it in to a mechanic. This has happened 2x before so I know the drill pretty well. That's the joy of hanging out on auto forums, I'm holding a ton of car trivia in my head.

Dd and family will show up here at lunch time tomorrow. No idea when W & R will show up. We have a ton of meat leftover from the turkey so there will be a lot of leftovers plus the tourtiere meatloaf for tomorrow night after the party.

Dgs got one of the giant play kitchens and is loving it. You could tell because up until he started playing with it, he was busy trying to undecorate the tree. Once that revealed, he stood next to the tree but was ignoring it and playing with the kitchen instead. It has doors to open, bins to put and pull out, and dishes to put away on shelves. When he's bigger he'll be able to reach up to the microwave and fridge.

At my place he got the wagon which he seemed to like as well. Dsil took dd and dgs for a ride in it (capacity is 300 pounds and she's barely 100.)

He has a lot more words. Book (without the K), brrrr (for cold) and other things we recognize, like Kara for Klara his stuffed doll. He blows kisses and he waves good bye. Dd had helped herself to some mulled cider and I asked her if it was warm enough and dgs said Brrrr. When I was taking off his sweater to get him ready for his bath, he kept saying Brrrr and trying to put it back on! So he has the idea of warm and cold.

It was a good day but I'm far too tired. And tomorrow will be a bigger day. So I'm off to bed now.