Christmas Vacation

It has been a quiet vacation so far.

Puzzles:  we finished numbers 2,3,4 AND 5.

The seed catalogs began arriving on Christmas eve.

The girls enjoyed Christmas presents on Christmas morning.

My parents came over for Christmas dinner.  We decided to do a fondue this year.  It was an epic fail.

JP's sister and brother-in-law joined us for dinner on the day after Christmas.  We had a delicious tenderloin and this lovely pecan pie.

L's birthday was on the 27th.  She is now officially a teenager.

JP's family helped us make around 50 tamales.

Tomorrow is New Year's Eve.  JP is working and the girls have dentist appointments in the morning.  We plan to head to Barnes and Noble afterwards.

Christmas Confusion

For a good part of the day yesterday, I thought it was Friday.

It wasn't.

I did wear my new skirt to work yesterday.

Yes, it does light up!

One of my colleagues was almost overwhelmed.  "I have a migraine, and I thought I was seeing lights!" she said.

Today, TGIF, I spent all morning volunteering at the Middle School.  While helping 7th and 8th graders make tied fleece blankets, I overheard this conversation:

"Are cucumbers fruits or vegetables?"

"Cucumbers are fruits, but sea cucumbers are vegetables."

To save you all any more confusion:
- tomorrow is Saturday
- it is also 4 days until Christmas
- cucumbers are in the melon family, but whether that makes it fruit or vegetable, I'm not certain
- apparently Christmas unicorns are a thing, so are Christmas Spider Men.

This Week in Song

It has been a busy week for J's vocal cords.

On Monday after school, she had chorus rehearsal, with the chorus concert being Tuesday evening.

Wednesday after school were auditions for the Spring musical, "Mama Mia."

She sang at another Open Mic night tonight.

She is resting her vocal cords for the remainder of the week!

Have Yourself a Scary Little Christmas

I am sitting here, sipping my butterscotch cocoa (which I made even more extravagant with the addition of chocolate whipped cream on top), and enjoying the warm house with Christmas music playing in the background on this rainy day.  We are officially 10 days away from the big day, and this week has been anything from festive.

JP is finally nearly well from the cold which kept him up at night coughing (and me some too, being a light sleeper) for the better part of 2 weeks.  Unfortunately, I am the next one to be lucky enough to contract it.  I actually called off work on Tuesday because I couldn't stop coughing.  It was kinda nice to lie on the sofa, wrapped in blankets, watching corny Netflix Christmas movies all day.

I went to the Podiatrist on Wednesday, since my foot is STILL hurting from the Turkey Trot on Nov. 17th.  He diagnosed me with a stress fracture, and I am to follow up after the Holidays if it is not completely better. Soon after the appointment, I manage to open the car door right into my forehead, giving myself a nice goose egg there.  Now I seem to be developing an infection there, and have been periodically holding hot compresses on it.

The bank called that morning to inform me that our account was overdrawn. I was apparently half asleep when I paid the bills last time, as I wrote in a transfer that I never made, and addressed a large e-check to the insurance company, instead of the credit card company where it was due.

I've been pretty much of a hot mess for most of the week, but I've had it easy.

We heard from a dear friend, who was just diagnosed with brain cancer.  Another close friend, who is a teacher in Indiana, spent several hours hiding in her classroom with her students on Thursday, while an active shooter was in the builder.  He ended up taking his own life, at age 14, but none of the other children were injured.

In the midst of all of this pain and sadness, there has been some beauty.

J and her Chamber Choir sang carols at the bank on Friday afternoon.

The decorations are up in the house, including all of my snowmen:

We even bought a new decoration for outside of the house - a Moravian Star.  I love the lights at Christmas.

Gingerbread cupcakes:

And the moment where a patient remembered that I had these earrings made from old mason canning jars, and she gave me 2 of them, filled with green and red peppermint candies.

Here's hoping your Christmas season is more merry than scary!

Morphing

Every year it seems that we jump from activity to activity in November and December.  Things have been morphing around here so fast that I can hardly catch up!

We hadn't even been home from vacation in sunny FL for a week, when L and I ran the Turkey Trot.  The following Monday was J's 16th birthday!  We had a low key celebration at home on Wednesday evening with my parents.  J chose a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake, which was delicious.

The following day was Thanksgiving, so we morphed into feasting mode.  I tried out these pumpkin pasties (inspired by Harry Potter fare) instead of pumpkin pie.   They were pretty much of a mess to make, and weren't amazing to eat either...probably won't need to make them again.

I have morphed into the shape of a butterball myself since the Turkey Trot.  My foot is still hurting, and I haven't been able to exercise.

We have also slid right into basketball season - L had her first practice last week.

JP drove the tractor into town last week to a tractor repair place.  It was very redneck, but it saved us the $150 transport fee each way!  (The tractor has been leaking brake fluid, and working brakes are a good thing to have when we are clearing snow off our icy hill!)  Of course, as soon as he did that, the season morphed into winter, and we got 4 inches of snow and the first 2 hour delay for snow of the school year!

Now we are hurtling ever faster into the Christmas season.  Friday night was Light UP Night in town.  L sang at the Holiday Open House at our local Historical Museum today.  I am trying to get Christmas presents for all, and birthday presents for L ordered and organized.  Both girls were irritated today that we didn't put the tree up this weekend.

ACK!

On the slower side, we completed our first puzzle of the winter yesterday, while watching Christmas movies.  I think we put together about 20 puzzles last winter.  It is fun to have the puzzles sitting out so we can stop and put a piece or two in here and there as we walk by.

Hope your December is off to a good start.