Lunch with my friend yesterday was awesome! The Nutcracker was…OK. 
Turns out it was a regional company’s production, with a lot of young-ish company members who had friends/family in the audience…and who treated the performance like it was a recital, with loud cheering and clapping after almost every lift, jump, pirouette, etc. It was a good enough show, but between the recital atmosphere and it lasting nearly 3 hours (with the intermission) I was definitely ready for it be over by the time it ended. I’d be willing to go see a truly professional production sometime, though, and my friend and I talked about trying to go to a different one next year. Meanwhile, we’ll be getting together again in just under a month: we’re going to a Sunday matinee of Wicked at the Kennedy Center, after treating ourselves to the brunch buffet at the KC’s Roof Terrace Restaurant.
My “nephew” and his girlfriend are up for going to the Museum of Illusions next week! Yay! And, afterwards we’ll meet up with his folks – my BFFs – to go see the trees at the White House and U.S. Capitol. It’s tradition for us to go see the trees, but the wife BFF has a compromised immune system and some mobility issues so we figure that going after Christmas should help a little with the crowds. We skipped it entirely last year. The BFFs are picking the evening that will work best for them and deciding what time we should all meet up, then I’ll work backwards to figure out which entry time to get museum tickets for (by all accounts it will only take 45-60 min to see everything). We’ll finalize everything sometime this week.
Just four more days of work this year… 
Starting with replies left over from the last thread:
Oh no! 
Thanks! Due to my weight loss surgery and the fact that I haven’t started any kind of strength training yet, I currently have neither padding nor muscle down there and my poor tailbone is unprotected for the first time in 51 years (I joke with my support group that surgery has literally been a pain in the ass 
). It’s been an issue for a few months now, but I have workarounds everywhere/for everything except typing on my iPad from my couch. Sometimes it seems to be getting better, but then I’ll sit the “wrong” way for a few minutes and pay for it! All things considered, though, if the worst part of being 80 pounds lighter is not posting or writing emails from my couch, it’s hard to complain.
It is super, super crappy for anyone to do that to anyone, let alone family. Those are the bastards it’s the hardest to build up real defenses against, too: you can know they’re going to let you down and still be hurt when it happens. Ugh.
That made me laugh out loud, too. 
Could there have been a skunk outside? Sometimes that smells like coffee to me!
Oh how frustrating for both of you.
Reminds me of the first time I went to Key West. It was January, and they were having a cold snap where the daytime highs only reached the upper 60s/low 70s: the locals were walking around in sweatshirts and jackets, while those of us who were visiting from DC were in shorts and flip-flops!
Everything but the wrapping.
I have a very small gift list, usually just my BFFs and their son. This year I also got something for his girlfriend, who is staying with them for the winter break, and some small things for my dad and brother (we agreed years ago that gifts are no longer expected, but they’re still allowed). I think I did OK by everyone. I’ll see my BFFs/my “nephew”/the gf on Christmas Eve, and will likely wrap all of their stuff that afternoon. I won’t see my dad and bro until the 26th, so I might “wrap” their stuff – i.e., stick them in tissue paper and gift bags – on Christmas Day.
Sigh. Sorry.
You don’t have to apologize to us for grieving. 
I’m so sorry about Gibbs.