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Caught at home...
Due to the frickin' BLIZZARD going on outside.
So I'm stuck inside until we're through most of the day tomorrow. I'll shovel first thing in the morning, and likely again sometime tomorrow afternoon. The town has, due to our state of emergency, canceled trash and recycling pickup for tomorrow (Monday is my trash day), and all trash pickup will happen one day late this week - like a Monday Holiday schedule. Which is good, since I have been spending the day throwing things away and getting the multitudes of boxes broken down in prep for recycling.
The Christmas holiday was good, if a little weird. My brother invited us to dinner on Christmas Eve, and he, his wife and kids, his in-laws, my folks, and his wife's brother and his family all crammed ourselves into their tiny kitchen/dining nook/livingroom. Five kids, nine and younger (the youngest is my nephew, he's 2.5yo), all hyped up on sugar and holiday excitement, and nine adults. Plus one aging golden retriever.
Dinner was amazing, mostly because both my brother and his wife are really good cooks. Plus they are vegetarian, so they prepare a wide variety of foods (my SIL's folks brought meatballs and Italian sausage for the carnivores - my folks brought wine).
After dinner, we went to their across the street neighbors to carol a little bit (although we need to widen our song base if we do this again next year - plus, some hand held electric lights might be useful, as it was dark and extremely cold).
Christmas morning found my parents and I back at my brother and sister in law's for brunch and presents. All three kids were excited and wound up, but also really really appreciative of everything they got - L loved the wooden workbench my folks got him - he wanted to bang on it all afternoon. I have awesome pictures of him standing at it with the wooden hammer, just happy to bang on it for the rest of the day. G wanted to play her Muppets Monopoly game (even if it was slightly defective in that it did not have a Gonzo player piece, and TWO Swedish Chef player piece. I suggested painting one of the Swedish Chefs so six people could play the game and not get confused if they were going to keep the game as-is (G wanted to keep it, as she didn't mind there were two Swedish Chef's and no Gonzo)). My folks and I left around 2pm, so they could get to the other grandparent's for dinner. I went to my folks for a mellow afternoon with them, and a comfortable dinner.
Came home around nine, and nearly went straight to bed.
Today it started snowing around 2pm, although there isn't a heck of a lot of accumulation yet. But the storm isn't supposed to end until tomorrow afternoon, so there is lots of time.
In other news, I cleaned up on tea and tea-related items, which is *completely* awesome. And I *think* my brother and sister in law liked the pancake extravaganza I gave them. They are so food-oriented, this might be a good idea in general, to keep gifts consumable.
So I'm stuck inside until we're through most of the day tomorrow. I'll shovel first thing in the morning, and likely again sometime tomorrow afternoon. The town has, due to our state of emergency, canceled trash and recycling pickup for tomorrow (Monday is my trash day), and all trash pickup will happen one day late this week - like a Monday Holiday schedule. Which is good, since I have been spending the day throwing things away and getting the multitudes of boxes broken down in prep for recycling.
The Christmas holiday was good, if a little weird. My brother invited us to dinner on Christmas Eve, and he, his wife and kids, his in-laws, my folks, and his wife's brother and his family all crammed ourselves into their tiny kitchen/dining nook/livingroom. Five kids, nine and younger (the youngest is my nephew, he's 2.5yo), all hyped up on sugar and holiday excitement, and nine adults. Plus one aging golden retriever.
Dinner was amazing, mostly because both my brother and his wife are really good cooks. Plus they are vegetarian, so they prepare a wide variety of foods (my SIL's folks brought meatballs and Italian sausage for the carnivores - my folks brought wine).
After dinner, we went to their across the street neighbors to carol a little bit (although we need to widen our song base if we do this again next year - plus, some hand held electric lights might be useful, as it was dark and extremely cold).
Christmas morning found my parents and I back at my brother and sister in law's for brunch and presents. All three kids were excited and wound up, but also really really appreciative of everything they got - L loved the wooden workbench my folks got him - he wanted to bang on it all afternoon. I have awesome pictures of him standing at it with the wooden hammer, just happy to bang on it for the rest of the day. G wanted to play her Muppets Monopoly game (even if it was slightly defective in that it did not have a Gonzo player piece, and TWO Swedish Chef player piece. I suggested painting one of the Swedish Chefs so six people could play the game and not get confused if they were going to keep the game as-is (G wanted to keep it, as she didn't mind there were two Swedish Chef's and no Gonzo)). My folks and I left around 2pm, so they could get to the other grandparent's for dinner. I went to my folks for a mellow afternoon with them, and a comfortable dinner.
Came home around nine, and nearly went straight to bed.
Today it started snowing around 2pm, although there isn't a heck of a lot of accumulation yet. But the storm isn't supposed to end until tomorrow afternoon, so there is lots of time.
In other news, I cleaned up on tea and tea-related items, which is *completely* awesome. And I *think* my brother and sister in law liked the pancake extravaganza I gave them. They are so food-oriented, this might be a good idea in general, to keep gifts consumable.