Daily Ooo's: December 26-27: Post-Holiday Weekend Edition

[faerywings]

Whew!!!!! I made it!!!!! There were some moments over the last few days, I did *not* think I was going to make it.
Christmas Eve was just brutal for me. I was struggling on the way down to my mom's at 3pm. By the time people started to show up around 4.30, I was shaking and bleary.

Christopher was in full-on 4 year old on Christmas Eve mode. I don't think that there is any other way to say it hahaha!!!! I loooove that kid!!!!!! That had to have been the highlight of the night for me.

By 5.30 we were getting ready to leave when my BFF arrived. We had to take a couple of photos of the 4 "kids" for their traditional pics together. When did they all grow up??? My God daughter is 6 months older than Caitlyn, but sheesh-- I remember them still as chubby cheeked toddlers. Now, talk about gorgeous!!! BFF's hubby joked to Gary that they should invest in several shotguns, and even being very anti-gun, I have to agree
Unfortunately, I had to leave right after that, and was home by 7, in bed soon after. It was the first time since I was 5 that I did not see Santa on the fire engine. I think that hit my BFF pretty hard since that it our "thing." But we are doing a Christmas Re-Do on Jan 2nd. They are coming up, and my BIL/SIL and my nieces too. They are bring all of the food so I don't have to do anything, and I can just see all of the cousins together since I missed that.

I have no idea of what gifts anyone got but I felt so blessed to be around my family yesterday. My kids got each other some really funny gifts- Scott laughed so hard at his from Cait that I thought he was going to pass out. THAT is my gift- to see my kids laughing. To see Gary smiling, knowing that we did a great job. I guess today I am feeling all mushy and s*** But it is a good mush, not a melancholy mush.

I hope that all of you have quiet days with little clean-up and chaos.

I love you all, and am thankful for my O-Fam. I don't know what I would do without you too!!!

 

[scrap-genie]

Chris, so glad you made it through in whatever shape it was. Guess everyone is recuperating or out after-Christmas shopping. It'll be a quiet day here but yesterday was great with long phone calls to distant family and lots of good cheer. I got the most important things all done though some folks won't get their mail until today.

 

[nancyr]

good day! My Christmas and Christmas Eve was so low key it was exceptional! I love my kids but they needed to be with their other families and I understand this. So we went for a lovely walk on Christmas Eve to see all the decorated homes and luminaries. It was so fun because so many families were on their porches enjoying the record breaking heat. Christmas day we made an awesome breakfast and enjoyed a lazy start to the day. My son and his girlfriend got their apple watches and tapped me all day. Walked the puppy and scrapped. Today was as good as I went on the Christmas bird count. It is warm but cloudy and we were not sure what birds we would see. Well we saw fantastic birds well at least some of my favorites, a brown creeper, white breasted nuthatches, blue birds, and kingfishers and 3 red tailed hawks, a sharp-shinned hawk and a harrier hawk. Can you tell that I like birds. I did not take my camera as it is a time for just looking for and counting birds. The world juniors of hockey is on and I am watching the USA play Canada. Fun game. And tonight the NHL is back as my NJ Devils play the Hurricanes. Tomorrow is an open practice for the Devils so that will be fun! All in all a great weekend.

Chris so sorry you had to leave so early but I am glad you went! Sounds like Christmas was good and the presents I am sure were perfect. Enjoy the quiet of this weekend!

Jean enjoy the phone calls, always good to hear a real voice!

Have a great day all!

 

[taxed4ever]

Happy Boxing Day everyone!! Christmas was quiet here but some nice time spent on Skype with all the kids and we watched as they opened their gifts!! So fun, but wish we could have all been together, oh well perhaps next year? We enjoyed a very laid back morning with Champagne and Orange juice and Eggs Bennie for Breakfast, so yummy!! DH and I just did stockings and we each got some great things for each other! I got a fitbit and today I am trying to get it all set up and get motivated to get many more steps in than I have been doing over the last few months! Not much exercise sitting in front of the computer doing calendars all day long LOL.

Chris - Sorry that you had to miss out on so much, but oh so glad that you went to your Mom and Dad's and what fun to be around a four year old at Christmas time!!! I hope you manage to rest up and enjoy a nice quiet weekend :hug:

Jean - A lovely way to spend the day catching up with family that you do not see too often! Glad that you managed to get it all done!! Merry Christmas to you!!

Nancy - Yikes you spoiled your family with new iWatches, I think that one of my sisters got that as a gift also! So fun that they tapped you all day! Hope you enjoy the world juniors game, hubby is watching the third period right now, USA out a head by one goal right now. Have fun at the open practice too. Ohhh Canada just scored and tied it up. Hubby complaining about the typical bad refereeing at these games LOL.

We are going to brave the crowds and do a bit of boxing day shopping this afternoon, maybe some great deals for some Christmas things for next year?? :noidea: Enjoy the day everyone :wave:

 

[nancyr]

Good morning - Well my Devils came off the Christmas and lost. Oh well at least USA defeated Canada. It is a good start by they have many games to play before they get to the medal games and will probably get to play the Canadiens again. I am going out to a fun dinner with friends. And the best is that my fence will be put in tomorrow. So excited for the puppy to have a place to play and run with out being on a leash. Well Luther has figured out that he gets to go on a morning walk and so he bugs my DH and it is pretty funny.

Chris hope you had a restful day!

Trudy boxing day shopping sounds so fun. So fun you got to Skype with the kids and grandkids. Of course being there would be so much better but still to see them is a pretty good second best.

Waving to all. Have a great day!

 

[bcgal00]

Good morning, ladies. This is the first morning I get to sit and relax for a bit. We don't have to go anywhere until after lunch time today. We're off to visit more family and if we get back in time, I'll head over to the mall to return a couple of shirts that don't fit my hubs. Then I'm looking forward to relaxing at home this evening, watching tv and hanging out with my hubs. I had a fairly good sleep so feel back to normal today. I don't have to cook for a few days which is nice. I've got lots of leftovers. I need to google a recipe for chicken soup. I haven't made soup in ages but thought it would be nice to give it a try. Any tips or ideas? Pass them on, pls.

Chris - it may not have gone exactly as you'd like but sounds like you had a wonderful Xmas.

Nancy - I enjoy watching the birds too, although I don't know much about them. We get a lot of woodpeckers and some smaller birds at our feeder every day. I love the photograph the birds when I go for walks at the bird sanctuary. Enjoy the hockey! My hubs will be looking forward to watching the canucks on monday.

Trudy - have fun with the fitbit. My hubs is enjoying his. His monitors his sleep so every morning he checks to see how his sleep pattern was the night before. He checks how many steps he does each day. He loves it. It's not helping to encourage him to be more active (unfortunately) but he is having fun with it.

 

[ceeflower]

Looks like everyone had a good Christmas. We did too. My eldest son arrived after work on Christmas eve, it is great now he has a car no waiting around on station platforms,cancelled trains etc. I was starting with a sore throat and cough but ignored it as much as I could. We had a lovely evening catching up on everyone's news. Everyone was up early on Christmas day thanks to an excited little boy next door who was out trying out his new bike before it was even light. It made us think of the Christmases when our kids were little. By Christmas night my cold etc was causing big problems, and lying down was a no go so Sat up with Richard talking well into the night. David was working boxing day so early start again. Richard left just before dinner. It was fabulous to be all under the same roof again. Yesterday David was off so I stayed in bed and today I am beginning to feel human again, resting on the bed rather than in it.
Glad you managed to go to family Chris, and hope that you are recovering. Nancy that birdwatching day sounds good, we have quite a few birds come to the woods and stream behind the garden. Most unusual has been a little egret and grey her on but we get Jay ,bullfinch, nuthatch etc as well as the bluetits and other more common birds.
Glad Trudy and. Jean were able to catch up with family even if you couldn't be with them
Hope your visits went well Rae
Off to get another hot drink
Claire