Some sale success

I haven't had much luck at the after-Christmas sales this year - I bought two rolls of wrapping paper, lip balm and some food-storage containers. I stopped in at Hobby Lobby on a whim and they had Christmas marked down to 90 percent off. Many of the items were broken or missing pieces, but I did get 10 of these popcorn garland strands for 90 cents each, marked down from $8.99. They're short, only six feet each, so better to get too many than not enough. These poinsettias were on sale too, marked down to $1.20 from $12.99. I'd never pay $13 for fake flowers but for just over $1 they had to come home with me.

Honeymoon gift

E and D gave me these coffee chocolate macadamia nuts on Christmas (they might have out them in my stocking?) but I was so busy I didn't get a good chance to look at them until days later when I was straightening up and noticed that they're from Hawaii. They picked them out for me (and Andy, I suppose) when they were on their honeymoon. Aw! They leave today to fly back home.

I also took a closer look at this horse from D's parents. It has Ecuador-25 written on it. What a cool remembrance of their wedding year. And, so far, it's been on our mantel and safe from the cats.

New Year’s Eve

As we did to ring in 2025, we did the same to ring in 2026. It was dinner with the golf buddies and the golf widows. We were expecting a group of 12 but three couples had at least one person who was sick. There's something going around. We went to Maya Del Sol for dinner.

They had a prix fixe menu for ala carte or $82 a person so, as a couple, we got two appetizers, two drinks, two entrees and one dessert. I usually don't have an appetizer or dessert when we go out but we splurged. It's only New Year's Eve once a year, right? For the appetizer, we shared the tamales and nachos. No, we didn't finish the nachos.

We could have stopped eating after the appetizer, but the filet and mashed potatoes were amazing, especially the sangria reduction.

We certainly could have done without dessert but we had a few bites of this cookie with ice cream.

For the "after party" we went to our friends C and M's house to ring in the New Year. It was nice having the smaller group because we could all participate in the same conversation, and as the hostess said, there was seating for everyone!

Cheers to 2026. We not only stayed up for the celebration in New York, but Chicago too and talked until 1:15 a.m. We haven't stayed up that late in a long time lol.

Group selfie taken shortly after midnight.

Winter puzzle

A rarity for me, a brand new puzzle. At least I know all the pieces will be there. Not sure what happened to these two pieces, not fully cut apart.

Can't work on the puzzle until Ruby gets her licks in ... ew.

This only took a couple of days to do - 500 big pieces. At least I knew all of the pieces would be there.

Worth the wait

My Christmas gift from E, D and B arrived Saturday while E and D were still staying with us (they went to D's parents' house Sunday morning for the remainder of their stay). It's a solar hummingbird feeder. I can't set it outside until at least spring but let's hope some hummingbirds stop by next summer.

Fog and rain

Sunday was warm but overall a miserable day weatherwise. This was about 10:30 in the morning - our outdoor lights are on a timer that turns on at dusk and the sky got so dark, they turned on.

We did a little shopping and got soaked loading groceries into the car at Jewel.

We stopped in at Menards to get more birdseed and saw this beauty. Even at half off, Andy passed it by. The post-Christmas sales have been lackluster so far.

Cats at Christmas

The cats are enjoying having the folding chairs all over the living room from our family Christmas. They won't be around for long.

This picture of Piper was taken on Christmas.

Margie’s Candies

Cousin C brought a box of Margie's Candies' hand-dipped terrapins (turtles) over for Christmas. They're delicious and the box is so cute. The store has been in Chicago since 1921 so you know it has to be good.

Family dinner

I wasn't able to set the table as early as usual (darn cats - there's even one in this picture!) but we got it ready in plenty of time.

Appetizers - the usual meatballs, veggies and ranch dip and olives. I setbthe cheese on the counter and had the cheeses all laid out in layers on a Christmas tree platter ... and no picture? What?

Back porch. I was disappointed that I forgot to turn on the snowglobe lights. I had nametags for everyone to write their "elf name" on, based on the first letter of your name, your birth month and your favorite thing about Christmas. Even E and B wouldn't do it. Party poopers.

This was my dining room centerpiece since Thanksgiving and we moved it to the little china cabinet the other day.

L sent this picture of flowers that W welded for her - they'll last forever!

E and B.

E and D.

And us with our traditional celebratory margarita for getting everything together before the family arrives.

Good thing E asked when she and D should make their sauces for the beef because I said just before the rolls go in the oven. The rolls! We forgot to set them out to rise! I ran downstairs to get them from the freezer and Andy and I started plopping them on cookie sheets. Then, a whike later, he asked if the pans needed to be greased. Yes! We had to pull them off and, of course, they were already sticking. We washed the pans, re-shaped the rolls and set them aside to rise. They turned out ok but next year I might stick to Hawaiian rolls.

Family dinner went as planned. We were expecting 19 originally but Allison was home sick and two others just didn't show. In addition the rolls, we had beef tenderloin, ham, carrots, green beans, stuffing and mashed potatoes.

The kids' table.

After dinner we sat around and chatted.

We kind of had a late start to dinner so it was later than usual when we debated playing games. We had bingo and trivia ready to go, but decided to skip it. We'll try again next year.

Christmas morning

B was up early so he was the girst to look into his stocking.

The breakfast casserole turned out well.

We opened presents when E and D woke up. All of the kids received Little Debbie brownies - kind of a tradition - but B's were the Christmas trees; E and D git snowflakes. B also got a fact-a-day calendar, sweatpants and money.

We gave D a quarter-zip shirt and this candy cane of various favored Bird Dog whiskey.

We gave E a Corgi shirt, a box full of quilting fat quarters and hiking shoes ... that are expected to arrive Saturday. She also got some money, to share with D, of course.

The kids gave Andy a knife sharpener - that he asked for - and I gave him a Tommy Bahama shirt. Andy gave me a walking pad (as requested) and my gift from the kids ... will arrive Saturday.

D brought us gift from his parents. It's a magnificent horse carved out of wood, from Ecuador. We set it on our mantel and if the cats leave it alone, it can stay there, but if the cats decide to start scratching on it, Andy will take it to his office.

Time to search for the pickle present.

D was the winner and got a bag of chocolate-covered pretzels.