Keep At It Saturday

[lucylee]

* sigh * Cowinkie.

We shall comfort ourselves with the fact that we have won far more games in Tuscaloosa than The Other team has won in our stadium.

45 minutes:
Tree is standing
Wreaths are on doors
All Christmas stuff is out of closet
Plastic Santa Claus is plugged in and shining cheerily on kitchen counter
Afghan is on chair
Stockings are hung by the chimney with care
Some dusting done before placing items
-- That took 45 minutes, plus the time I flip/flopped laundry.

... and still sooo sooo sooo much to do.

I really do NOT like decorating for Christmas.
I DESPISE putting the lights on the tree, and like -- I suppose -- 99% of the world, I DESPISE taking it all down AFTER Christmas.
However... I do love to wrap up in my afghan on the couch in the dark with no lights but the tree...
and I am looking forward to seeing dgs's reaction to the decorations and taking Christmas pictures...
ESPECIALLY -- taking Christmas pictures w/my new camera I ordered for myself last night to help dh w/his shopping!

But my goodness... my back is already sorta complaining and there are boxes everywhere and y'all honestly would not BELIEVE the EMPTY boxes dh has hoarded into that closet, which just makes me MAD everytime I open the closet door.

Let me look at all I have accomplished so far...

[lucylee]

15 MINUTES:
Just about emptied all the boxes in the dining room
All the snowmen on the china cabinet
Santas in the bay window w/Merry Christmas blocks
Christmas village houses set up on the hearth
Flip/flop laundry

Then I took a pretty long break to eat leftover turkey & a piece of German chocolate cake.
Mmmmm... dsgmother is SUCH a good cook!
One of my daunts made the turkey and it was delicious, too! I wish I had brought home twice as much!!!

I guess that's a long enough break but ooohhh I donwanna get back at it...

[Lilac]

Wednesday dh told me to go pay full price for the tree I wanted at H D. They were to have a 20% off sale when they opened yesterday at 5. When I went to get it, they were out of stock. The gal told me to order one. I came home and they were out of stock on-line. You could get the same tree with colored lights but I need white due to all my ornaments. So late yesterday morning I went to H D, to see if I could put my name on that tree, so that when they are allowed to sell the displays I could buy it. When I told them that they were unavailable on-line, they went ahead and sold me that tree. Trouble is they didn't have the box, so they put it in 2 large boxes. I called dh to bring the pickup because I didn't think they would fit in the SUV. We haven't put it together yet. That's on tomorrows agenda.

Dh and I went shopping yesterday afternoon. He wanted a new stereo radio for the garage. The one he had, had bit the dust due to the cd cover not staying shut. He had done his research and knew they had 1 in stock at Target. He can hook his phone up to it and have P andora radio. He is sooooooooooo happy. Then we went to S ams and bought a TV for our bedroom. This morning we had to rotate the bed to be able to see it from atop the high dresser. I used those slider deals and they worked great, moving the bed and the cedar chest. The cedar chest is now at the foot of the bed. So after moving it, dh decided the triple dresser needed to be centered between the window and wall. I took out all of the drawers and was going to use the sliders. I couldn't lift it, so dh had to help. The mattress is super thick and I have 2 mattress pads for it. I wanted to change it and it is a 2 person wrestling match but we accomplished it. I am washing all the bedding, sheets, mattress cover, blanket, comforter, shams and dust ruffle. It's a good surface cleaning but the drawers and closet will have to wait until after Christmas.

Yesterdays shopping is why we have a hard time buying each other gifts. We buy as we need it. Well I need to go do some more work on the bedroom. This is the largest bedroom we have ever had. There is still a lot of floor space even with the bed, 2 nightstands, cedar chest and triple dresser. At the last house, the bedrooms were all so small. That was the biggest con to the house.
It is a beautiful day out, low 60's and no wind. Dh is washing his newest H arley.

[lucylee]

This ballgame is just sad...
Might be a good day to watch Paint Your Wagon. (I borrowed the dvd from dparents b/c I don't think I've ever seen it.)

Waving to Lilac!
Everybody else must be awfully busy...
Glad you finally got the tree! Shopping is so frustrating.
I'm kicking myself now b/c why why why didn't I order several scarves while I was on B elk's website? I could go back and get more now, but you have to spend $50 to get free shopping. I bought dfriend one, and now I'm thinking, sheesh... I should have got one for my Dirty Christmas gift AND one for dsisil. * sheesh *

MAYBE ANOTHER 15 MINUTES:
I think I've done everything (decorating-wise, I mean) that I can do without starting on the lights.
Ugh. The sooner I start, the sooner it will be done.

[Twins' Mom]

This has been a quiet afternoon - I ran my errands and then watched some TV with dh, then napped. He went out to watch the FL State/FL game with the local FL State booster club.

DD and I started some challah earlier, and had another fail like yesterday, so I'm thinking now it's the yeast. I don't have enough flour to try again; I may run to the store later and get some to try with a fresh bottle of yeast.

I just walked ddogs so I'm done there; I'm trying to figure out whether I should bring in the large Boston fern on the porch for the night....

DD and I are going to make a risotto for our supper.

[lucylee]

Another 45 MINUTES
-- almost at the top of the tree w/the lights, but I ran out... one strand wouldn't work this year --
so... I decided to go to CVS while everyone else was watching the massacre.
Got more lights.
Got supper @ Sonic.
Back.

[Twins' Mom]

Have to say.....mushroom risotto made by me and dd was fabulous!

[lucylee]

WTG, Twins!

Lights are ON the tree.

Now... the decorations... I have too many, and it's hard to weed through them... and no no no, don't even THINK about saying I should put up two trees. Never never never.

[helia]

We are home! We had a nice time with my family. We got home about 5:30, later than expected, after stopping to pick up Pepper en route. We got the car completely unpacked, and then dh and I walked to WF for fixings for simple pasta for tonight and soup for tomorrow.

Dfriends who now live in TX are in town over the holiday and will be coming over for lunch tomorrow. They are going to go to our church in the morning, and we'll meet up there. Some of you may remember when I met weekly for one-on-one Bible study with this woman. She was a Taiwanese grad student, and I met with her for about 2.5 years. Well, she is in town this weekend with her husband -- you may remember my past concerns over their relationship, but in the end, we think he is a fine guy, maybe not what we would have chosen for her but then it was never our place to choose for her -- AND their 2 little girls! It will be good to see them again. The down side is that we are all so very tired and a bit socialized out right now. Also, parts of the house are clean while others are not. I'm not sure whether I should push to do some cleaning tonight, or just relax. Before we head off to church tomorrow, I will start soup in the crockpot and bread in the breadmaker so we will have something to eat for lunch tomorrow. We're not sure if they will leave a bit after lunch or stay all afternoon until it is time for them to catch their 7:30 flight. Dh thinks they will stay all afternoon. At least he has warned me to be mentally prepared for that. I sure hope that doesn't happen; they have a dd2 and a dd6 months. Surely, the girls will need to go wherever they are staying for an afternoon nap. . . I'm not sure I can socialize well for 5 hours, even if I weren't already tired and feeling a bit socialized out.

Our time together as just our family, w/out others around, has been quite minimal this vacation. I guess we were in the car together for hours. Maybe we can have more out-of-the-car time together next vacation.

Dh also leaves on his trip tomorrow evening. . .. So, this has ended up as a busy break, but we knew it would be that way. We are not planning on going anywhere over Cmas break, and we're all looking forward to that!

Can you tell I'm a bit tired of socializing? My introverted self is being stretched, as I knew it would. . ..

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

I'm existing here. Didn't have a good naptime because I think dh was trying to gently nudge me through the naptime to dinner by watching a lot of early I Dream of Jeannie episodes. I finally started to doze off in my chair so he gave up and I lay down for an hour and slept for a bit of it.

We did get the shopping done. That's it. Dishwasher is running now. Oh, and there's a load of laundry to fold.

Made arrangements for tomorrow morning. You'll likely not see me tomorrow since it is an early start and we'll be gone all day.

Got an upsetting phone call from my music friend re: her daughter's marriage which will likely fail before its 2nd anniversary. No surprise there, the shock for me was that someone would want to marry such a selfish, spoiled, "girl" (she is now 27.) He knew what he was getting and still married her - his mistake. I think he really thought he could change her and help her grow up. Instead, she's made his life miserable.

I feel sorry for my friend because, for 2 months this summer, she had no children at home (her other daughter is 22) and was starting to reconnect with her husband. The younger child moved in with her sister for a while, but is back home, with a dog and in due course the older child will come home, with her dog. I love my kids and if they need to they can move back home but only as part of a well-formed plan with a distinct end-date. And I'm not sure I'd want them both back at the same time.