New Year's Eve

Andy, E and I went out to lunch with Allison, Pat and Matt at Margarita's for their buffet. There was a huge group in the restaurant, probably at least 20 people, but the staff kept the buffet stocked so we got plenty to eat.

Meanwhile, L and her friend, T, were setting up the basement for a New Year's Eve party.

They found one of my never-used tablecloths I was saving for a Christmas dinner.

Lots of refreshments are ready for her friends. She had five friends over.

The basement looks good. Let's party!

They made quick work of a stadium pizza. I had one slice of cheese pizza but was still pretty full from lunch. The kids played games, the two boys left a little before midnight and the girls slept over. I was in bed by 10.

Homemade donuts

E was up early today to finish the homemade donuts she started last night. She even added sprinkles.

They were baked instead of fried and tasted pretty good.

Cat tree improvement

This is what happens when you have an engineer in the house. E went to Home Depot and bought more sisal rope to add to the cats' tree. Now they have a scratching post on the second level as well as the first.

And while she was working on the cat tree I was able to get a nice picture of Muffles in one of his favorite resting spots.

Interesting experience

A friend told me about the Portillo's Pop-up Experience at Woodfield Mall and since we were going there today I thought it would be a fun surprise for the kids. B stayed home. I think he enjoys having the house to himself. L and I went shopping in a strip mall while Andy and E test drove some cars before we went to the mall for lunch.

This onion ring swing is pretty neat but very hard for an adult to sit in. The top of the onion ring kept hitting my head so I couldn't sit up straight.

Here's E hanging out as a Portillo's French fry...

and hotdog.

Andy wrapped himself up as an Italian beef.

And L was part of a chopped salad. It was all pretty cheesy but it was free to walk through. Thank goodness.

Once we met up with L at the mall we went to a Toyota dealership for E to look at a couple more cars. She didn't test drive any there though. Then we went to the Lazyboy store to look at recliners.

L was doing a hard sell on this one in the clearance section. It has heat and massaging options. We ended up getting it and were able to take it home since we didn't need to order different fabric.

It's a hit with the kids ...

but the cats prefer the old one.

Getting organized

E had collected quite a bit of stuff in four years at college. When we got home Monday, we put most of it in the garage and parked my car on the street. Today we started sorting - stuff to take, stuff to donate, stuff to trash and stuff to see if B wants. A surprisingly large amount went to the garbage. I hope I'll get my parking space back soon.

The day after

Well, this was a nice way to wake up today. Andy did the dishes before I was even out of bed!

E, L and her friend, A, and I went shopping to hit all the clearance holiday sales. Here L and A are playing video games when we took a lunch break at Fuddrucker's.

We shopped a lot of clearance aisles at Walmart, Michael's, Hobby Lobby (didn't find anything there) and Target. Picked up some rolls of wrapping paper, tissue paper, candles, cat toys and some appetizer paper plates.

Family dinner

Clare and her boyfriend Marco were the first to arrive. We took bets on what time our first guests would arrive. B won guessing 3 p.m.

Dinner is served - Andy made beef tenderloin, I made stuffing, hashbrown casserole, and carrots; Julie brought mostaccioli and a huge bottle of wine; Allison brought mushrooms for the beef, Hawaiian salad and rolls; Len brought a green bean casserole.

After dinner, we did a white elephant exchange under L's direction.

Pat picked a gift full of candy which L stole from him. He also got a scarf and she let him keep that.

Here's Matt choosing a gift. After the gift exchange, we played Christmas trivia. I read the questions because Andy figured I knew all the answers because I went through the cards and marked the "good" questions. L was the first to get 10 answers right and won three lottery tickets; Marco got second with nine correct answers and won two lottery tickets; and E was third place, answering eight questions, and got one lottery ticket.

It should be noted that we didn't have a white Christmas. It was incredibly warm. This was from the Tribune: O'Hare International Airport, the city's official recording site, reported a high of 57 degrees on Dec. 25, 2019, making it the second warmest Christmas in the area since 1871. The last time the area experienced a high in the 50s on Christmas was in 1994.

Table is set

The table is ready for this afternoon's family dinner - red tablecloth, white napkins, snowflake table glitter. I used a three-candle candelabra as the centerpiece.

Appetizers are ready.

We got a cake for E's graduation that I served with desserts.

And it's time for our traditional before-the-family-gets-here margaritas!

Christmas morning

The kids don't get up as early as they used to! We opened presents by age and I was first but no one took any pictures. :( Guess that's what happens when you're usually the one taking pictures. I gave Andy a collection of bottles to mix with rum for cocktails and the kids got him the car vacuum, just as he suggested.

One of E's gifts was this ECE shirt we ordered in July. I had forgotten all about it until I was cleaning off Andy's dresser and found it still in its package.

Her big gift was a Kitchen Aid mixer in a Caribbean blue color.

B was very hard to shop for as he didn't give us any idea of what he wanted.

We think he's going to like these noise-canceling headphones. So far, so good.

This living room is getting messy and the family is expected to be over anytime after 2.

One of L's big gifts was more controllers for her Nintendo Switch.

She picked out all of her other gifts. We were watching "Christmas Vacation" as we opened presents and it looks like Chevy Chase can't believe she got another hoodie!

Time to search for the pickle ...

L found it and won the prize she suggested - a five-pack of charging cables.

I loved this spontaneous Christmas morning sibling hug.

Christmas Eve

It was a busy day of cleaning in preparation for tomorrow's family dinner but Andy and I managed to sneak out to the lunch buffet at Margarita's. We got all three kids to go to church for the Christmas Eve service.

They like the candle-lighting part the best.

After church we drove through River Forest to see this house that I was told had a fantastic light display. It certainly was.

I remember interviewing the homeowners when the Historical Society had its Mobsters Tour. The current residents own a chain of grocery stores. However, the home used to be owned by mobster Tony Accardo.

Just like the old days - all three kids pile on the porch and none has a key to get in the house. Andy and I listened to them debate where to get dinner before leaving for a church friend's Christmas Eve party. Good times.