Perfect!~I’ll look forward to it with my morning, er…noon at the latest coffee. It’s a date!
And merry merry merry Christmas Eve to all~it’s 
Eve here too. Granted, a gray, damp drizzly not scenic white Christmas. I’m celebrating by bingeing ‘Longwire’ on Netflix and catching up with eating the chocolates out of my advent calendar from the grandkidlets-I got a little behind and need to catch up, a nice problem to have.
Merry Christmas Eve! 
(I thought this was a group of candles, but it’s bamboo: 
)
Sorry to all of those suffering due to corona, whether sick, or ruined plans. It’s definitely the gift which keeps giving. 
Nellie, I am amazed at the delay - they would have done better to put everybody on a bus (which is how the “flight” from Lehigh Valley to Newark operates), assuming the roads are passable. Glad you finally made it and have kitties for distraction.
Cupcakes, Congrats on 24 years of Doping. 
MetalMouse - glad you made it to your destination. Flying over the holidays takes nerves of steel.
Looking forward to shoe’s stories.
{{{Boo}}}
I have two weeks off - company’s closed between Christmas and New Years, and just needed to take 3 days of vacation to complete the set. As both the 25th and the 26th are holidays here, yesterday was grocery store fun - only had to go to 3 different stores.
Watched “A Christmas Story” yesterday for the first time. And the last time. Hubby received the blu-ray as a gift some years ago. Now it’s in the trash.
Being lazy today, so lunch will be fondue and I’m making a pumpkin pie for tomorrow. I made the crust yesterday, so I only have to roll it out and put together the filling.
Now I need to start clearing out the china cabinet. I want to do something productive (besides cooking, clearning) at least every other day. If it stays this warm and dry, we’re going to have to cut the grass. In December. 3 weeks ago we had 19 cm of snow. Yep, that’s the weirdness of weather.
Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffeinatin’. YAWN ‘Tis 51 Amurrkin out and cloudy with a predicted high of 68 with scattered light rain showers predicted for late afternoon. Looks like rain for real around midnight and all of Christmas day. The big item on today’s agenda is repeated deheathenization. ‘Tis the fourth Sunday of Advent, so we shall do Advent this mornin’. The service is Morning Prayer and I get to be Officiant. Then the kiddies will have some kind of special sump’n which I have nuttin’ to do with except to sit there and go “awwwwww” while it happens. The various guild whatevers will decorate the church this afternoon, but not me cause da bear don’t decorate. Then this evenin’ we will have a Christmas choral Evensong at ten p.m. which I must participate in but don’t really want to do so. In between all that, I must squeeze in sloth, nappage, and day drinkin’ and I suppose eat. Any need to feed today will be via forage.
Now I need more caffeine and to feed rumbly tummy. Then, purtification for deheathenization must commence.
Happy Sunday/Christmas Eve Y’all!
I tried to watch it once - I don’t think I even lasted 30 minutes. Just didn’t get the appeal…
My daughter is hosting a Christmas Eve breakfast, after which the kids will get their gifts from us. Tomorrow morning will be Santa gifts… Anyway, I asked her last week if I could bring anything for the meal. Nope - she had it all in hand. So of course, when I mentioned last night that we’d bring our own Diet Cokes since she doesn’t buy that, she asked me to bring some fruit. Lessee, a can of pineapple chunks from the pantry?? So we get to stop on the way and hope Food Lion has some fresh fruit - I’m hoping for an assorted try. She could have mentioned it before 8 last night. 
I’m guessing we’ll be getting swampy’s rain on Tues and Weds. It’ll be mild and partly cloudy hereabouts today and tomorrow. After breakfast and after I do the deviled eggs, I may go outside and move some leaves. Or not. We’ll see. Since I woke stupid early again, I may not want to do anything.
Fa-la-la-la-la! Merry Christmas Eve!!
Merry Christmas Eve!
It’s 31F, dark and cloudy outside. It’ll be cloudy all day, and the expected high temp is 42F. Rain moves in around 4:00 a.m. tomorrow and will stay all day long.
We’re expected to have warmer than average temps over the next three months, so I doubt we’ll see a snow event this winter. Worse, the bugs won’t be killed off, so fleas could become a problem.
nellie, I’m glad you finally made it over there. Really, even if you could drive, I-90 wouldn’t have worked either because it was shut down for hours due to multiple accidents and spin-outs. I hope your flight home runs very smoothly. In the meantime, I hope your visit with your daughter and SiL is lovely.
I managed to get to Safeway early yesterday morning and avoided crowds. I didn’t have to wait in line to pick up my prime rib roast, and I even managed a trip to PetSmart to pick up Christmas stuffies for the pups. I did all this and was home by 9:30 a.m. However, while feeding the pups yesterday evening, I realized I do not have enough dog food left to get us through Tuesday. Alas and alack, I will have to go to Costco today. I am not thrilled by that prospect, but I used Kirkland brand puppy chow, and I don’t want to abruptly change their diet and cause stomach issues.
Speaking of the pups, they have grown quite a bit since their last visit vet visit two weeks ago. Buster now weighs over 28 pounds and Maisie weighs over 26 pounds. They’ve each gained approximately seven pounds, again. Their next visit is 19 January.
FCM, yeah, that is a little annoying. My local grocery stores have fruit trays in abundance; hopefully, yours will too.
swampy, that sounds like so much stuff and so much peopling. I hope things go smoothly and quickly, and that your sloth sessions are lovely.
metal mouse, I’m glad you made it in safely and that you now have a rental car that runs.
Welp, that’s about it. I’m going to get another cup of coffee, cruise the 'net, and relax before the next potty session for the pups. I was up at 3:00, took them to potty, played and now they’re sleeping again.
Up, caffeinated, and sheveled. Off for 2 whole days. Cleaning and handegg on the agenda.
1st Sleep dream: I’m flying low over D.C., strafing old B-17s, a blimp, and a 747 that cut me off in traffic when an earthquake struck. I jumped out of the plane into a collapsing baseball stadium to escape the rubble with my hockey friends.
2nd Sleep dream: I’m working in Smalls, when a bunch of loose stuff from Da Jungle comes down the belt(used to happen), followed by a boxcar full, which caused the guy helping to climb up into Secondary Sort. Then we were outside on railroad tracks, trying to deal with tons of boxcars and loose stuff. So my retired hockey friends and I went to see the President about it. Which was difficult, because reality was a bunch of Candy Crush-ish levels, and the government level was only recently accessible by a 10,000 foot pink ladder, after you had purchased a ladder extension and sketchy black bungee cord($5). The President of Reality was some humorless North Korean bureaucrat that took my papers and the spoon from my Bento box(but he left me the bacon), and set the government level on fire, so we went back to the railroad, which was now hovering above the wreck of the USS North Carolina 
, and a boxcar fell through the rails onto it. Then as we descended towards the water which contained a Great White in the ship, and a 60 foot gator off the port bow, I woke up.
Instacart services Costco, so might that be a helpful option? I really don’t want to be anywhere NEAR a Costco today myself, or any other major retailer. I just got back from a grocery run at Winco, which is normally 24/7 (it’s about quarter after 5am as I type), but they’re closing at 6pm today for the holiday, so I thought going way early would be a good strategy. I don’t mind maneuvering around stockers, especially if a tall one is nearby and the item I want is on a shelf a short customer has trouble reaching 
.
When do we get more puppy pictures?
Don’t give up hope, this was my Facebook Memory from 2018:
“For those of you wishing for a White Christmas, one is still available at the 300 block of Lynn Rd.”
Our early Christmas dinner with the wife’s niece and her family went off without an issue. After that oven issue mentioned above, I was leery of the “things happen in threes” rule, but all went well. Today we head across the border to see my kids and grandkids. My daughter is hosting a stop-and-nosh afternoon at her place.
A grey and foggy Christmas Eve in no Illinois. I love A Christmas Story but like many movies, I’ve seen it so often that I can say the lines with the actors. Today I will watch Scrooge with Alastair Sim. It’s my favorite Christmas movie. I’m not feeling well due to a sinus infection so I have canceled Christmas Eve and Christmas Day outings with friends. It’s okay. This is the first Christmas in 50 years my sister and I haven’t been together so I’m not feeling festive. Tonight will be ravioli with Alfredo sauce. Christmas dinner will be flank steak pinwheel stuffed with blue cheese. Eatin’ good in my neighborhood!
There’s an orange glow in the eastern sky. I always think of this song when I see the sunrise.
Started Typing: 9:17 AM ET
Clicked Reply: 10:57 AM ET
Happy Christmas Eve to those who observe!
I was raised Catholic, but haven’t been religious in quite some time*: I still enjoy decorations and (secular) holiday music and the like, I just think of it as honoring the holiday’s pagan roots. I’m a fan of both Santa and the Easter Bunny.
*{spoilered due to religious opinionizing} Please don’t ever use the phrase “recovering Catholic” around me. It makes me twitchy, and frankly whenever I hear someone describe themself that way my opinion of their intellectual capacity instantly lowers. I have no beef with the Church (in general), organized religion, or anyone who is faithful. And I would never say anything like “there’s no way for anyone to know for sure,” because I believe that faith = knowing. I simply no longer have any.
It was raining when I woke up and has been overcast most of the morning, but the sun is finally starting to peek through the clouds a little and the forecast high is 53°F. Weather-wise the rest of today and Christmas Day shouldn’t be bad at all, but then it’s supposed to rain Tue/Wed/Thu. At least highs will be in the low 50s with overnight lows in the mid-to-upper 40s, so there’s no snow expected. I’ll take rain over snow any day!
Friday evening’s reunion in MD with old friends – three people I’ve known since 1985, plus some spouses and even parents – was really nice. I knew that I-495 on the Friday of a holiday weekend would be insane, and indeed it took 90 minutes to drive 43 miles! But I left plenty early, and arrived with time to spare. One friend and I agreed to meet an hour before everyone else, and it was nice to catch up with him before the others arrived. We hadn’t seen each other since before the pandemic! The parents who came are beloved by all of us; we used to hang out at their house quite a bit. They’re in their late 70s and live in NC now, but were visiting their daughter and SIL for the holidays and came along. It was really good to see them, and they were tickled to see us again…even if after we started reminiscing they learned some things they might have preferred not to know. 
The drive home only took 45 minutes.
Yesterday I was supposed to get together with my BFFs and their son (and his girlfriend), but Wife BFF has been dealing with a series of nasty infections – she’s gone from antibiotic to antibiotic, and just had a midline removed a few days ago – and on Friday afternoon she suddenly had a fever and weakness and wound up in the ER with a bad UTI. Luckily, they didn’t admit her. She was feeling better yesterday, but we immediately agreed that it was best for her to not push it. Their son is spending today/tonight with his girlfriend’s family, and tomorrow I’ll be going to MD again for lunch with my dad and brother*, so we’ll reschedule our holiday get-together/gift exhange for sometime next weekend. Getting to see them is definitely more important than when it happens!
*Funnily, the Denny’s we’re meeting at is just 1 mile from the restaurant I was at on Friday night! Yep, I said Denny’s: my father is picky and there aren’t many places open on Christmas Day, and that’s what he chose. It’s actually totally fine by me.
I wound up being home all day yesterday, but never posted (though I lurked!) because I spent the morning catching up on emails and some volunteer-related stuff and by the time I was done it was 1pm and I wasn’t up for eating lunch at this desk again. The afternoon/evening were quite slothful, including being too lazy to even go to the grocery store for bananas and getting InstaCart for them and maybe some cookies.
Normally I don’t undecorate before Christmas, but I’m planning to do so later today: I ordered some new ornament storage containers from Amazon that are being delivered sometime today (
), and once they get here I’ll start putting stuff away. Except the lighted wreath on my front door, which will stay out until at least Tuesday. I find myself with no desire to keep all of my indoor decorations up, and – even though I’m taking next Friday off – I kind of feel the need to “reset” on Tuesday vs waiting for the new year. Also, every year my BFFs give me the annual Swarovski ornament: usually I like to hang the new one with the others for a few days, but now I won’t be getting it for another week. And I want to rearrange some of the shelves/books/decor in my living room, which I can’t do until all of the decorations are away. Not to mention that if I put everything away today, when I get home from MD tomorrow I can finally start building the jazz club LEGO set that’s been sitting in my third bedroom for almost a month. 
In the past week I’ve watched Trading Places, Lethal Weapon, Scrooged, A Charlie Brown Christmas, and Candy Cane Lane (a new Amazon Prime comedy with Eddie Murphy). I’ve been saving Die Hard for later today…I’m looking forward to it! I might also watch National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation sometime today or tomorrow.
Ahhh, I had no idea it was a free thing so I never bothered looking for it! Turns out it’s available on Apple TV. I meant to add it yesterday, but forgot: I’ve made a physical note to remember to do so today, and to look for Scarecrow and Mrs. King. Thank you! 
Oh my, that was truly very lovely! 
Belated Happy Doperversary!
Mine is in July; I’m coming up on 20 years.
OMG I almost want to print and frame this! 
Especially the pepperoni and mozzarella part!! 
Very cool!!
I’ve been tipping more than usual for the past couple of weeks – wait staff, DoorDash/InstaCart drivers, etc. Nothing as generous as you mentioned, mostly 22-25% vs my usual 20%, but I’m hoping every little bit helps.
(This may have inspired me to DoorDash some orange chicken for lunch… 
)
If Bears Who Brunch (my swampy-inspired restaurant concept – which will be open to all, Metal Mouse!) either fails or is a spectacular success, I shall open Stop-N-Nosh.
I always think of Barry Manilow.
Morning all. Rainy here in Kansas and likely to remain that way all day. Watching Criminal Minds: Evolution with family (hey, they have the controls) and hoping the Hotel fixes the heat (got to 63F and the thermostat is set for 74F). If it isn’t working this afternoon I’ll ask for another room.
Couldn’t log in on my laptop so still posting on my phone so will try to catch up this evening. Have a good Xmas Eve all.
Buddy is apparently corrupting his older sister. Just a few minutes ago, I had to chase her off the kitchen counter, which was not something she did when younger, but this isn’t the first time in the last few days. Buddy, of course, is a rather persistent counter cruiser.
I’m also sure he’s taught her how to get over the patio fence.
Woke up, and turned on the tv, what to my wondering eyes appeared? Die hard, a wonderful Christmas movie with aleksandr godunov. I haven’t gotten further than my chair or fridge.
Tomorrow will be a day with cousins. Crackers and secret Santa. We have 13 more days to real Christmas.
Got some great crackers at Costco one year. I still use the fingernail clippers I got in one of them. They haven’t had them since. I used to buy them from England, but there aren’t many people around to share them with anymore.
Well, that changed a little. They aren’t making the decision to let him go home until Tuesday so he will be in the hospital for Christmas. I’m going to talk to the rest of the family and let them know what’s happening with a suggestion of video calls for him. He was just planning on watching the games at home, but I want to make sure that he knows he’s loved, in the hospital or out.
nellie and metal mouse, I’m glad to read that you both got to your destinations. Hoping for smooth returns!
shoe, I probably would have thrown the speaker in the fryer, everyone else be damned. I’ve been able to avoid most Christmas music this season and am just starting to listen to my curated list (with lots of The Monkees, including “Riu Chiu”. Enjoy your well deserved days off!
Glad it was an easier night than expected.
While we aren’t the royalty of the 99ers, I’m still proud to be a 00s and a survivor of the Winter of Our Missed Content! 
This is one of the things I don’t enjoy about living in TN. I miss my white Christmases. My kids never really got a chance to play in the snow the way Hubby and I did when we were kids.
I think we have something similar here. I’ve been meaning to go check it out but I’m afraid that if I go and play with kittehs, I’d come home with kittehs, which, while emotionally satisfying, wouldn’t be fiscally responsible.
Thank you, doggio and oopsie for your compliments. After I get a new teeth, I’m going to try to record something new for next year.
curls up by the tree, drinking hot chocolate and waiting for the fun stories
Hubby takes that week off as well. He had to take 3 days off because they were given the Friday for Christmas Eve. I thought we were going to get by without having to hit the store until after the holiday, but BtY emptied our milk again so Hubby just got back from braving it. I am a very lucky woman.
You are very welcome! I look forward to chatting while binging, if you’d like!
My partner delivers for Uber Eats and i can guarantee you that every little bit helps! Though he only takes deliveries that have a decent tip because otherwise it’s not worth the wear and tear on his car.
Christmas Eve is relatively quiet here in the pond. Hubby is making a tourtierre for dinner tonight as is our tradition. I’ve got a virtual D&D game from 2 until 7. After that’s done, I’m settling in with a book gifted to me by a friend for Jolabokaflod. He’s my DM for my game today, so he knows that, as much as I’m geeking about gaming, I’m also really looking forward to reading tonight.
Wesołej Wigilii, moi przyjaciele Mumper!
It appeared the combo trays were all sold out, but I got watermelon, cantaloupe, blueberries, and pineapple, so it worked.
Anyway, home. We got pictures of Tobias and Roxy in painted tongue depressor frames - the back sides were their hand prints. Very nice! And they seemed to enjoy their gifts - Tobias especially liked his Hot Wheels. We told Daughter and SIL that their gift would be an air conditioner for their outside room but they’re not getting it till spring when we can install it for them. Kinda like last year when we got them a new front storm door, but they didn’t get it till April.
Since getting home, I’ve cleaned the critter fountain, made egg salad, mixed up the two kinds of deviled egg fillings, and dyed the whites - half of them red, half of them green. Oh, and I also dumped the ashes from the pellet stove and cleaned it a bit. I believe I’ve earned chillage.
Nie mówię po polsku!
(Happy Christmas Eve to you, too.)
I figured one of our other Polish speakers would come in and translate. (Though translation programs have gotten better. I’m assuming that’s how you could tell me you don’t speak Polish? )