Merry!

I'M NOT SICK! Hold your applause, please.

It's true, though. I am healthy! Now all I have to do is get the smoke out of my house, and all will be well.

Merry Christmas to all who observe. And to those of you who do not: Happy snowy Saturday in late December! Today was good. Unpleasantness was minimal, and cute moments plentiful. Life is good.

Yesterday we spent the morning at Josh's mom's house. My color wasn't quite right, but I was able to eat, so that made me happy. Besides, nobody is interested in what I look like, anyway. The food was good, and we got leftovers, which made me happy. Plus, we were given presents, too. Very generous of everyone, and we are grateful. I now welcome any crock pot recipes!

Josh left to go to work in the snow, and then we left somewhat later. The weather was kind of weird. It really didn't get bad until very near our exit, so I'm not sure if any of my friends were inconvenienced by it. Our neighborhood was actually quite scary, but we made it. Then, I unloaded the car, put the dogs in the back and the kids in the front and shoveled the driveway. then, Grant and Abbie made a snowman. He was funny. He kind of looked like a blob of whipped cream with eyes. Some neighbors came by, and we threw snowballs until we started to get cold, then it was inside to the hot chocolate!

After a dinner of leftover ham, we set out stockings and cookies. Santa got good cookies this year (if only my tummy had been better, I could have shared some): Pepridge Farm Veronas, my oatmeal toffee ones, a few that the kids decorated, and selections from Sara Pelikan's cookies.

At Josh's house, Santa always took one bite of each cookie and left the rest. Have you ever heard of anything so wasteful, bad mannered and ridiculous? At my house, he left suspiciously large crumbs, and thank you notes.

The kids ran out about 5 something, after we were accidentally awakened by something falling in Grant's room. Grant is now the proud owner of lots of Bakugan, and lots of Bionicles (among other things) and Abbie has dolls of all shapes and sizes, including a Rapunzel Barbie from the movie Tangled. Josh actually liked the wireless networking adapter I got for him, and we've already watched Ponyo, and How to Train Your Dragon (twice).

Josh left around 1, armed with brownies and bacon smokies for the Christmas Feast at work. Before that, we had our steaks. Josh didn't get the kind I wanted, and the ones he got instead were super fancy ($$), so I asked if he wanted to sear them for me. (This is because I am to fragile to lug the huge cast iron pan around. Plus, he just likes it.) The preparations seemed in order. Then, when the time came, large billows of gray smoke flowed from the kitchen, and set off several of our smoke detectors. At least I don't have to worry about the batteries being dead. It would seem that Josh marinated the meat in Yoshidas without ever saying so. For those of you who don't know, Yoshidas is an Asian style sauce that is high in sugar, which you don't really want to put directly onto a hot surface...because it burns.

In the past few hours, I've been scrubbing all the kitchen surfaces, trying to get out the smell. I've had the windows open a lot, too. The meat tasted really good, despite a bit of charring, but I won't be able to eat it after smelling it all day and night. Good thing I didn't wear myself out cleaning for "Santa" last night, eh?

I got tabisocks in my stocking!!!! So, naturally, there is no taiko tomorrow morning. Oh, well, it's probably just as well I wait until Tuesday to show them off, with my delicate immune system. But I am currently NOT sick. (Whee!)

Tomorrow is Boxing Day, otherwise known as the Feast of Stephen. Will you be taking anything to Goodwill? We aren't doing it tomorrow, but are planning our "boxing" for next week. The actual purging of un-needed items, etc., might actually happen on a nicer day, but the collecting and boxing part is scheduled for Tuesday or Wednesday.

Okay, I'm not procrastinating this deep look into the past year and the future one, but it is now time to put Grant and Abbie to bet with their haul. I wish for you the happiest of Christmas nights. Sing and rejoice!

I love Christmas carols...