Well hubby is back at work for 2 days, and then has 2 days off again. He was pretty much comatose yesterday. Working in retail at Christmas is not FUN! I have a lot of things I should be getting done over the next 10 days. I need to get my hair cut and colored, a manicure, brows done, buy new glasses, order new contacts, and give the pups a bath. I also have a lot of reading and organizing to do for work. The house is in good shape, but I could stand to go through some storage boxes and get rid of some of that clutter. I highly doubt I will get to that, but one can always hope. Then of course, there’s the whole de-Christmasing the house. That’s a job I totally despise! Especially the hauling up and downstairs of the tubs! Maybe I’ll invite Ben over for supper one night, and let him know that he gets to work for his supper!
He probably won’t mind, because he’s pretty stoked right now. He bought a Macbook last night with some of his giftcards. He hit a Boxing Day sale and did fairly well, pricewise. Hes wanted one for a long time! He likes to mix music on it, and make demos for radio interviews he does.
Hubby and I are going out for dinner tonight, and then to the Oilers game, so that will be a welcome change of pace after all the family things!

I was up at 6:00 AM Christmas morning to put the hash brown potato casserole in the oven. Then at 6:30, I threw in the sausages to cook. At 7:00 AM, I started the eggs, coffee and Baileys, orange juice, fruit tray, and toast. It was all on the table by 7:30. Sarah, Jay and my Mom left right at 8:00. Ben left for work at 8:30, and my brother left then too, so hubby and I went back to bed for a few hours. Jess was still sleeping too.

We eventually got up and got ready and went in to the Bickerson’s for Christmas dinner (my in-laws). The meal was good, but MIL has severe hearing loss now, and won’t get hearing aids, FIL has gotten TERRIBLY forgetful, and she natters at him all the live long day. She has zero patience with him! But, we did our “duty”, and won’t have to go back for a long time. She’s thinking it gets to be too much work for her to do. Suits me fine. One less place to run to!

I can’t believe it! I had a huge post all typed up, nearly ready to post, telling all the details of our Christmas Eve, and POOF! Gone! So you’ll get the very short version for now.

I hosted our annual steak and lobster Christmas Eve dinner. My whole family consists of the 6 of us, and my Mom, and brother. The food turned out really well. I discovered that as our family grows, so does the need for me to get a new, proper dining room table! Ours only seats 6, so that’s no good.

I got some nice gifts from the kids, but the nicest gift I got, was a wide, gold band ring from Mom. It’s made from the gold of my Dad’s wedding band, and one of Mom’s old necklaces and some of her old earrings. In it was a note: “now you can carry a piece of Dad, and a piece of me wherever you go” Very sweet! She also gave Sarah her wedding band. She had already had her engagement ring all refurbished, and Ben gave it to Jess when he proposed to her. So now we all have heirloom rings! heh

Well I’m lying in bed, drinking a beer, and typing away on my laptop, but I best roll over and go to sleep, as I have to be up starting breakfast by just after 6:00 am. Sarah and Jay have to be on the road back to the farm by 8:00, as they have to have an early Christmas dinner, because Jay’s sister goes to work at 3:00.

Merry Christmas one and all!

I’ve been BUSY! This is part of the living room with the new furniture. It’s since been decorated for Christmas, as has the rest of the house, and the outside as well. We also finished the bathroom, and it looks a lot more modern, even though the sink and vanity and floor need to be replaced. We’ll eventually get to those fix ups when time and money allow. Right now I’m just totally sick of spending money!! With Sarah’s wedding, Ben in school, new shingles on the roof, new gas fireplace insert, new living room furniture, Christmas shopping, Mom’s 75 birthday evening, and all the food and liquor for hubby’s 50th birthday party, I’m SICK of it!

I’ve been cleaning and decorating for 2 weeks now. But I can say that the large majority of the house is in pretty good shape, and we accomplished a lot! We ended up having about 30-35 people here, and everyone had a really good time! Especially hubby! The last guests left around 2:00 am, which is VERY late for us old farts! We had bought a ton of booze, but many people gave hubby a bottle as a gift, so we seem to have accumulated our liquor for Christmas! I also ended up with way too much food leftover! I think I’ll pack up quite a bit of it and take it in to work as my Christmas gift to the staff.

The pups were pretty well behaved. I brushed them, and put leave on conditioner in their hair, which makes them all soft, and shiny and smell nice. They get very exited when people come, but overall they were good. They were also cute, as I put them in their Christmas collars. I’ll share pictures later when Jess sends them to me.

The younger crowd hung out in the family room playing Guitar Hero3, and Scene It, and I hung out up in the loft with a bunch of the ladies that I hadn’t seen for a long time, and the rest of the gang was in the living room. There were people everywhere!

It was a TON of work, and I didn’t even do much of the food prep, I ordered trays for the bulk of the food, but just getting my house in order (and I’m no slob!) and free of cat hair was a lot of work! We locked the cats down in the basement so at least they weren’t running around too! It was all worth it though, because my hubby had a blast!