Russ is gone again for a few days doing an install out of state. Not that that is a good thing, specifically, but it did give Quin and me a chance to go out just by ourselves and get some Christmas shopping done and have a girls night by ourselves.
So this is turning into a nice weekend. Today is one of my niece's birthday and my parents were taking her and her brother and sister out for dinner. They called and asked if Quin and I would like to join them, so we got to go out and see the kids, as well as see my niece on her actual birthday and not just near it (that was the plan as of earlier in the week). They also wouldn't let us pay for our dinners! That was very nice and it saved Quin and me from reheated left overs for dinner, too.
Tomorrow is our Christmas cookie baking day. It is a family tradition that we go to my in-law's house about two weeks before Christmas and spend the whole day baking dozens and dozens of cookies to give to friends and other family. It is a super busy day, but always a lot of fun and we get to have enough "samples" that we are just about cookie'd out by the end of the day. (Though that doesn't stop my mother-in-law from sending a tin of cookies home with us anyway...she knows us well enough to know that in a day or two we'll be wishing we had some)
Then on Sunday Quin has her school Christmas band concert. She is excited about being second chair and this is their first concert since they were given their placements.
It is going to be a busy, going non-stop weekend, but I'm really looking forward to all of it.
Soooo many cookies! The cookies are packaged up and ready to distribute and, as expected, we got to have a bowl of them to bring home, too. They taste so good and we had such a good time. I think that cookie day is one of my favorite days of the year.
It's just the kidlet and I baking cookies, and since she volunteers me to 'help' bake cookies for her classmates each year, we baked last weekend, this weekend and will finish up next weekend.
I like the idea of cookie elves getting together and doing it all in one day!
It's always "fun" to be volunteered for stuff like that. Quin did it a few times, too. Normally I would be fine with it, it was when she volunteered me for some baking project and didn't bother to tell me until 9 or 10 pm the night before it was needed.
Christmas Cookie Day is a big thing for the family. We go to my mother and father-in-law's house and my sis-in-law comes out and we frequently have one of my nephews with (though he has lost interest the past couple of years) or Quin will have a friend or her boyfriend. Dillin wasn't able to join us this year because of college, but we made a tray that is just for him that he doesn't have to share with his family. His family gets their tray tomorrow and Dillin will get his when he gets home for winter break. We all work on various parts of making or decorating the cookies and do whatever is needed at the time. Generally we spend about 9 to 10 hours from start to finish.
It's just a really nice family day with a lot of laughing and "sampling". We have been doing this for years now and every year has been fun with lots of neat memories made.
Today's good thing is our first fire in the fireplace of the winter! The weather app on my computer says that it is currently 9 degrees in my town and it wasn't much warmer earlier. Russ got home and brought a load of firewood in and got a wonderful nice fire going. I love having the fireplace going and love when we have the first fire of the season.
Glencairn, we did our first fire in the fire place a few days ago, too. Nothing beats a fire in the fireplace on a cold day! Might build another tonight, it's 18 right now and going to get a whole lot colder. Maybe roast some apples in there & make the kids' night. We've done that and hot dogs, and the standard marshmallows, they think it's all awesome. Food type doesn't matter, cooking it on a skewer in the fireplace is the bee's knees, lol.
I think I can safely say the Christmas shopping is done. Online, at least. Not worth ordering anything else, there's already one thing that may not arrive before Christmas as it is.
Speaking of Christmas stuff, a slight irritation/slight funny. Big Kid has successfully guessed 2 of Little Kid's gifts under the tree. Dang it. Hopefully she can keep her mouth shut for a week and a half yet, Little Kid's not expecting a Darth Vader doll or Spiderman. Side note: Sorry guys, when it's the size of a Barbie, it's not an action figure anymore, it's a doll
Queen of English Language Mangling, Master of the Edit button
Our weather has been in the single and very low double digits with wind chill factor in the negatives. Tomorrow morning is supposed to be about -15 to -25 wind chill. That means getting up and outside to drive Quin to school, it is too cold for her to walk.
We are still not done Christmas shopping. If it were up to me, we'd be finished sometime in September, but Russ is horrible about putting it off and wanting to wait and it drives me crazy. For the love of God, just start buying a thing or two here and there and spread it out so it doesn't hit the bank account so hard instead of waiting until the freaking week before Christmas to buy everything all at once on one paycheck (that we need for other things like bills and the mortgage) and worrying about even having time to get everything bought and gathered by Christmas! We argue about this every single year and every single year he pulls this and then wonders why I'm frustrated when we are racing around at the last second frantically trying to get everything done.
I've got my fingers crossed for you that big kid can keep the presents she guessed a secret from little kid!
Quin is all excited because there was talk at school today that there might be no school tomorrow due to the temperatures we've been having. Tomorrow is looking to be even colder and so they might cancel. I don't know if it is a good thing specifically, but at least it means that I don't have to drive Quin to school since it is too cold for her to walk and beyond that, if they cancel and Quin is home for the day she can finally get some chores done. Russ and I have taken her chores over lately because her course load for school is so heavy. She gets home at 3:30-ish and doesn't get done with her homework most days until between 9 and 11 pm.
Well, there was school for the kids, but Quin is hoping that tomorrow's (technically today, I suppose) school might be cancelled. I'll just be happy if I don't have to get out of my warm bed to drive her to school.
Finally a day that we don't have to go anywhere or leave the house coming up tomorrow! At least, as it stands right now there is nothing planned and nothing to do but relax. We are planning to bring in more firewood (I just used the last of it that was in the house last night, now we need to cart more in) and make sure there is enough to last all day and through the night and just sit and play games or watch some movies and enjoy the fireplace. Starting Monday we have something or other going on every single day next week through to next Monday, just non stop. I am going to be so worn out, so I am relishing having a full day tomorrow to relax and prepare for the coming week.
Quin is super happy and excited that her boyfriend, Dillin, is home from college for Christmas break. The fact that she is so happy makes me happy. And it is nice to have the acquired teen here to visit. Quin is sad that it is only a short visit, though. He is only here until Christmas eve. His family is leaving early on Christmas morning to go on their annual Christmas cruise to someplace tropical and instead of coming back home for a few days after the cruise, he is going straight back to college from the airport nearest to where the cruise ends and debarks.
We took the kids to the mall so they could do some Christmas shopping and while they were wandering around on their own, I stopped into the tea shop called Teavana. They have samples that you can try of a handful of teas and Quin really loves some of the tea they sell. So, I was trying samples to see if there was anything I thought she would like (there was) and one was called White Chocolate Mint. Oh holy baby Jesus! It was amazing! I really don't like tea in general, the only tea I like is just a plain unsweetened mint tea and that's it. This was the exception. I loved this one. I convinced Russ to get me a bit, but 2 oz costs $10.00, so I didn't get very much, but I am so happy to have gotten any.
If you have a Teavana store near you, go and try a sample of the White Chocolate Mint tea. It is wonderful. I have a new favorite and now I just need to figure out how to convince Russ to get more for me.
And the non-stop going continued today. At least I was able to go get a gift that Quin was really wanting. A particular lip gloss from Ulta, a makeup store, that has been selling out as soon as it gets shipped in. Russ has gone into almost every Ulta in northern Illinois to try to get this and they all have the same answer, they sell out within a day - if not a few hours - of getting a new shipment in stock. I called the Ulta closest to us this afternoon and they had just gotten some in and had two left. I asked if they would hold them for me and they did, so Quin and I each get a lip gloss that we were wanting for Christmas.
ok so I don't normally post anything here (I'm an admin on a privet gaming site so post things there mostly) but it's been an epic year for me. First I have worked my way back into management and a somewhat decent paycheck every couple weeks. Massive change from a couple years ago. Things are looking up for next year and think I'm with a company I could actually retire from. I enjoy what I do and most of the people I work with.I don't see it laying off any time soon or going belly up as has happened to me before.Got the kids what is probably the best x-mas to date.Been a god year for us here and things should be great next year as well sense I'm starting the year with a pay increase already. Going from rock bottom to this has been a climb but we are getting there. Have a good x-mas you all and here is to a better 2017.
History is just that,His Story.There are always two sides to it.