New Year's Eve

I'm very ready for 2016 to be over. I've never been a fan of New Year's Eve celebration so I'm sure I'll be in bed long before midnight. Here's our exciting New Year's Eve:

Andy sorted through a huge file folder of bills that had accumulated over the past year to decide which to keep and which to take to work and shred. His annual purging has sort of become a New Year's tradition. Apparently, the sweatshirt is also a New Year's Eve tradition.

Lunch was pizza from Blaze Pizza. It's sort of a Subway sandwich shop concept, but for pizza. You choose all your toppings and they make it to order. We had buy-one, get-one-free offers, so we paid for three pizzas (Andy went and took B and L along, who ordered themselves) and got three free. Looked like a pizza party! And since we each had our own pizza, I was able to have mushrooms and green pepper with my sausage and pepperoni.

After a homemade lasagna dinner, it was time for some champagne to say good riddance to 2016. Here's to hoping 2017 is better.

Cheers! (Yes, we had the champagne at 7:15 p.m. We never stay up till midnight and, hey, it's the New Year somewhere in the world.)

L has two friends, T from Naperville and A from school, over who are going to spend the night. They went out for dinner, then came home and fired up some sparklers. Then they opened one of two bottles of sparkling juice ...

... and toasted to a New Year! I'm pretty sure they'll still be up at midnight, and well past it.

Merry Christmas to me

I spent some of mom's Christmas money today when Andy, L and I went to Julie's house and looked through her Creative Memories stock. I have enough paper and stickers to last me for quite a while. Now I need to get started working on some of my albums. L even talked us into getting her a Disney album which, she said, is going to be the best album I've ever seen.

Allison met us there and we had pizza. Here's L chillin' in Julie's comfortable chair.

Then L demonstrated Allison's Fit Board for us ...

... and then she lost her balance. I bought one with some of mom's Christmas money just before Christmas when I saw that they were selling out online. I should have abs of steel by summer ... Sure.

No more lost balls?

Andy brought home a couple of Christmas presents he received from coworkers. They must think he loses a lot of balls when he golfs because they both gave him personalized golf balls. One set says, "If found, return to Andy H...;" the other set has his name on them and an "H" monogram. He said he'll use them to hit over water but most golfers don't use them on the course. If one goes through a home's window, you certainly don't want it to be a ball with your name on it.

Cat tongue candy?

When L was at the Christkinkdlmarket with her friends, she saw this German "cat tongue" chocolate in the candy shop. Her friend, T, bought it for her as a Christmas present. Each "tongue" is a mixture of milk and white chocolate, like what's pictured on the box. L loves her cats so I'm sure when she saw those five adorable kittens on the box, she had to have it, regardless of what was inside.

The day after

Andy and I took E and L out for a little post-Christmas shopping yesterday. L was wearing the "Attack on Titan" sweatshirt (yes, it was that warm) she received for Christmas. She had a couple of people compliment her sweatshirt so she said those were cool people because they knew the Japanese manga series it represents. The cape is detachable, but she wore it. She looked like a superhero.

And last night we went to the Bakers for the annual Christmas party. E brought along her BF, P. I tried a new recipe called Holiday Salsa. It's a cranberry salsa served over cream cheese.

Family Christmas dinner

It's Christmas Day, early afternoon (writing this on Monday though.)

The table is set ...

the cookies are out ...

the appetizers are ready!

Even the kids' table in the basement is set. It's time for the family Christmas dinner.

We bought Belt and Suspenders beer for Andy and his siblings as a memorial of sorts to their dad who always wore a belt and suspenders, just to be safe.

The adult table with two of the cousins. We had 10 people upstairs and nine downstairs for dinner.

Post-dinner game of Monopoly.

Dessert time. Andy had to boil water on the stove then pour it through our coffee pot. He cleaned the coffee pot on Christmas Eve and when we went to make coffee Christmas morning, it wouldn't work. Guess we'll be buying a new coffee pot during the after-Christmas sales.

The kids with grandma.

The girl cousins.

Christmas morning

The kids were pretty slow waking up this morning. Andy and I had breakfast before presents were even open. We opened presents by age so I went first. The kids got me a Keep Collective bracelet and a new sun tea jar and Andy got me a new purse. You can't have too many purses.

Here's Andy trying to figure out who gave him this present. The tag said, "Santa." I had to eventually tell him it was Allison when the kids didn't claim it. The present? A light for his grill. Now, I suppose, he can cook for me even after dark!

E got an Amazon fire, a Tasty cookbook, Star Wars measuring cups, a Cards Against Humanity expansion pack, cooking utensils from L and a plush blanket from B.

We gave B a WiiU game and a weekend travel bag for those trips home from college next year. He also got a microwavable soup bowl from E and a new wallet from L.

L got this fancy "Supernatural" purse, a sweater with angel wings on the back, a shower speaker with bluetooth, some Pusheen T-shirts from the siblings and a kanji-a-day calendar from E so she can practice her Japanese.

Muffles is happy with the boxes.

An overview of the madness we call Christmas morning.

I almost forgot to hide the pickle. We had to send the kids out of the room and then call them back. It took them a surprisingly long time to find it. I didn't think I hid it that well.

Finally, though, B was the victorious one and got to open the pickle present - a travel-size blanket. That might come in handy on those trips home from college too.

Christmas Eve

The kids, Andy and I spent today cleaning and cooking. My table is sort of set, the house is sort of clean, etc.

E is trying out a new salad this year for tomorrow's Christmas dinner - a caprese salad. She chopped the lettuce for it today and will assemble it tomorrow closer to dinner time.

Andy took all three (!) kids out to do some last-minute Christmas shopping this afternoon. I listened to Christmas music courtesy of Andy's new Amazon Echo and had a glass of wine while staring at the Christmas tree. Aaah!

Tonight we went to the candlelight Christmas Eve service at church. L was surprised to see her history teacher there; her grandmother is a church member. L did tell her hi during our "passing of the peace" and said it was weird. You know, a teacher out in public. How dare they leave the school.

After church I got a picture of the kids before they opened their traditional Christmas Eve present - new pajamas. And here they are in their new jammies:

L's pants have cats on them and, fittingly, she's holding Muffles. E's pants have penquins and B has plaid, as usual.

Christmases past

Going through old photos:

This was 1968. I was 2 years old and got a fire engine. That thing lasted forever and it was awesome! The bell rang on the front. We used to push each other all over the yard in that. I guess the pedals weren't fast enough for us.

And this was 1972, probably Christmas Eve since we were dressed up and not in pajamas. We opened finger paints, which I'm guessing were from our neighbor we called Noni as she was like a grandmother to us. I was 6, in first grade. I loved this plaid jumper and the turtleneck sweater and wore it for my first-grade picture. How cute was I with the gold tights, too?

And it's Friday!

It's been a rough week for L and B, finishing up finals, and today they each had their last final!

L rushed home so she could wait for her friend, J, from Naperville and her dad to pick her up and drive her downtown with their friend, T. They went to the Christkindlmarket and ice skating in Millennium Park. J's dad called about 7:30 and said the girls wanted to stay till the rink closed at 10 p.m. Sounded like they were having a great time.

Here's J, T and L in the warming station at the ice rink. Meanwhile, B had his friends, IR, IB and B, over. It's been a couple months since we've seen them. I think the boys have been busy studying and completing college applications. Hopefully now they can relax. And, E went out with her boyfriend to see "Rogue One," the new Star Wars movie. Andy and I sat at home, caught up on our DVR'd shows and had a margarita!

To work it goes

Look who's stashed egg nog in his briefcase. It's Andy's office party tonight! Apparently he and the partners have their own egg nog toast each year before walking over to the staff party and it's his job to bring the egg nog.

'Cindycation' matching clothes

So on the way back from the farm, we stopped at the Alamo in Normal and Cindy and I ended up getting matching ISU alumni shirts. What can I say? We like the same clothes. Guess that goes back to all those years we shared clothes.

Then, we get to Macy's yesterday and find this navy cardigan - on sale - that we've both been looking for. What are the odds? Of course, we had to get a picture in our matching shirts and then with the sweater. She left on the train this morning to go back home, and she had purchased so many things she had to borrow one of my weekend bags to take things home.

'Cindycation' Day 2

Temperatures got up to about 30 today so that's a heat wave compared to yesterday. E looks a lot colder in this picture than it actually was outside. We took Cindy downtown, first to Macy's (we now have matching sweaters), then Old Navy, then to the Christkindlmarket. The Berlin Christmas market was terrorized yesterday so the Chicago police had a heavy presence at the market today with their cars and trucks blocking all entrances to the market to prevent a similar attack. We felt really safe.

Cindy's first order of business was to get herself mulled wine in a souvenir mug.

Then she had to get a big German pretzel.

And, after that, we went to lunch at Giordano's downtown.

Meanwhile, Andy was having his office attorneys' holiday lunch. He got an Amazon Echo Dot as a Christmas present. The kids were pretty excited about that. I'm not sure what it does ... yet.

And for dinner we went to Margaritas. B stayed home to study for finals - he has three tomorrow - but L is pretty confident with her classes so she came along.