Classic Christmas Eve

I must be getting wiser because I appreciate Christmas on such a different level than I used to.

Perhaps it isn't Christmas itself, but the gathering of family and the moments that ensue.

DS2 finally made it home on the night of the 23rd, and DS1 and GF made it back to town earlier today so for a few hours I had all three heartbeats in the house.

The boys were busy wrapping the few things they bought. DS1 always tries to make it a challenge to open them.

DH had gone out ice fishing and by 4 PM we all headed over to my sister's for Christmas eve supper. There were 25 of us including 6 little ones. 

Food is always in shortage there............is our running joke. We are blessed to have an abundance of food on the table. We had a lovely supper with turkey and ham, potatoes and gravy, deer sausage, cabbage rolls and all the other little fixings.  My mom brought her home made buns and there was pie and cheesecake for dessert. Not that anyone had room right away.

It was fun to watch the little ones run and play. My nephew's three little girls were excited to see GF. They adore her and think she is a princess.

Games are a big part of our celebrations. We started with one where everyone puts a paperplate on the top of their head and one of the daughter in laws gave drawing instructions of a Christmas scene.  Then we played one I have seen on facebook videos. Person 1 has oven mitts on and a Santa hat. He or she has to try to open a tightly wrapped gift while the person beside them rolls dice.  If the roller gets doubles then they get the oven mitts and hat and get to tackle the gift.

DS1 went first and he looked like a reindeer pawing at the present in his oven mitts. He desperately wanted to use his teeth but that's against the rules.  When DS1 went he twitched as he is the camper and his reflex is to get out his pocket knife.   They had fun.

They also played Heads Up and some other new game but I didn't catch the name on that one.

GF had had to leave about 6 pm to go work a casual shift at a group home. She got back about 11 PM and we got home shortly before midnight.

Lots of laughter. Lots of food. Lots of people. Not much space :-)

my abc book list for 2017

So this year I thought I would try something a little different with my books. I have seen a few friends with a variety of ways to challenge or expand their reading.  Some went by author or category or subject.  I decided to try an ABC list by title to see if I can read one by each letter of the alphabet. If nothing else I will have read 26 books, which is more than I have in years past.

I have made a new tab at the top to keep track.

Really hoping this inspires me.

Relaxing start

Well DS2 isn't coming home until tomorrow now. Said he is not feeling well. He gets migraines.

It was a lovely morning just curled up here. My cat was deeply concerned when I didn't get up at 6 like usual and she was certain my alarm broke so she kindly woke me up. We dozed together for another hour and then I just got up. So much for sleeping in on my first day lol

It was so nice to plug in the lights of the Christmas tree and just curl up with my coffee and watch the news and then some HGTV...all with kitty safely curled up on my lap, purring.

It was a treat to have time (and mental energy) to read through some of your blogs and see what is happening in your worlds. I feel very out of touch. My own fault.

I spent a bit of time going through my budget lines and  making sure that all the planned charges to my CCs were paid off from their planned spending categories.

Our usual payday is the 25th of each month. Our district traditionally pays us on the last day of school for the month of December. So the 21st this year.  I made sure yest morning to quickly transfer that into my savings to be 'held' until the actual 25th. It would be far too tempting to think 'oooo I have lots of money' and spend recklessly while the kids are home over the break.  Much better to wait and then handle it like  the regular paycheck it is and allocate the money to the proper categories.

And now I am off to lunch with three friends. Though most of us work in the same building, it's pretty big and we never get time to just relax and talk. This is our Christmas tradition. Always a lot of laughter.

Last Day of School - First Day of Holidays

And..............let the holidays begin.

I was down 11 children today, for the last day of school. Three were gone out of the country and the rest............. no idea.  I have a very diverse group of students with some able to go away for the holidays and some that will be lucky to be able to pay their heat bill this month.

We were out at 2:30 (an hour early) and my first stop was the public library where I checked out FOUR books. Ahhhh the thought of time to read...........for pleasure. very exciting.

I got home to find a message from DS1 that he and the GF were on their way home from her house, so it felt like holidays were truly about to begin.

It was great to make supper together and share conversation....all those things that just seem to hard to ask by text or I forget to when we skype.  They both fell asleep on the couch after supper. The cat happily climbed up on top of DS and curled up for a nap too.

 They'd had a big day with her 3 year old niece. DS is still figuring out how much work it is to have little ones around and she was so glad to see her uncle that she stuck to him like glue. He had to take her tobogganing.  Then they took her to the rink and he was teaching her to skate. GF sent me a video of DS and the little one zooming about the ice. I am not sure who was laughing more or saying WHEEEEEEEE louder :-) 

We watched a bit of the Canada game for World Jr hockey. One of DS's teammates is playing on USA so we will have to catch one of those games too.

Then DS went off to play a pick up game of hockey so GF and I did some no bake baking. I hadn't made saltine cracker bark before so we attempted that. Turned out not too bad.  She wanted to make some oreo cheesecake balls so we made some of those too. Neither of us have good melted chocolate coating skills so they look more..............rustic than refined. They taste delicious!  We also learned that white chocolate is not the easiest to melt and managed to get it to seize up beyond repair.

Lots of laughter.

DS just nicely got home and is raiding the fridge.

DS2 will be home tomorrow

First round of Christmas grocery shopping

When the boys both went off to college last fall, I did not change my weekly jar allowance for grocery. Instead I tucked $20 automatically into a Christmas grocery jar. Any spare $5 or $10 went in too.

It was nice to have that money when I headed off today with DH to buy all the non perishable Christmas groceries and a few final presents.

First I made DH help me clean the fridge and tidy. You can't come home with bags of groceries and put them in a messy fridge or cluttered pantry. He grumbled but helped out.

It didn't take long to fill the cart with items from the list.  It felt good to have the pantry and cupboards full and ready to go.  It had gotten more than a little lean.

We just don't grocery shop the way we used to when the boys lived here full time.