I vote for Christmas home. It sounds lovely. You have everything you need there.
ANN

The next Hump Day will be Christmas..

Erika, sounds like you will have a very rewarding Christmas there in your own home. And that's what the holiday is all about, celebrating God's love and that's exactly what you will be doing. I think Ziggy would be better this year with her Mommy staying with her and providing that security she has grown to understand and love.

I'm so proud of my non tech type person that I am. I ordered some Amazon gift cards and I used the ones you can just print off yourself. My son in law is self employed and doesn't make a lot of money in it but has several side things he does to bring in extra money. One of them is that he gets a certain percentage from everything bought on Amazon that uses his companies web site. Right now he gets 6% but as orders increase the % can go up. Plus when I went to order them I found out you can order them and the card is sent to your own email and you just print it off. It comes in a card format and you just fold it like a card!!!! 2 stocking gifts done!!! Now I have to get one from Kohls, wrap all the ornaments I have for stocking gifts for all the women, wrap the last present which weighs 50 pounds and it's done. Well I still have to clean house, clean the refrigerator and get candy for stockings and then somehow find a way to leave it alone.

Last year I bought candy, ate most of it and had to go back and find the exact same bags because my husband was with me when I bought it and knew what I had. Bad girl.

What a great idea Doydie. Its also nice that your son gets a benefit through Amazon .
Ah yes, staying out of the Christmas treats must be a real challenge, especially for those with a sweet tooth. You've done so well Doydie, so if you deserve to indulge a bit. After all, its only once a year.

I'm lucky in that regard as I don't actually like sweet stuff generally, but as I said in another post, once in a while I do try some. There's a nasty negative re-enforcement reaction thing built into this body of mine that promptly discourages further indulgences

I had to go in to the office yesterday to catch up on mail and other office management stuff, and one my long term patients dropped off a huge tin of home made Christmas baking, as she always does. She's a dear soul with a large family of adult children and several grandchildren, who all live here in town.

Her and the adult children do a baking exchange and always have lots to share with others. Each one of them bakes a lot of only a few items, then they get together and exchange them so that everyone has a wide variety of traditional baking for the holidays and to give as gifts. I think that is so smart because it is easier to bake only a few recipes, than to a whole lot of different ones and I must say that these ladies have perfected the recipes that they do bake.

My goodness! The tin must weigh 5 pounds and in it there are shortbread, gingerbread, rum balls, home made chocolates, macaroons, sugar cookies, date squares, Christmas cake cookies, mini tarts, nut clusters and a few others that I don't know the names of. Some of the cookies have clearly been decorated by their children, which is such a nice touch .

After leaving some for the clinic associates to enjoy, the remainder of these cookies have been set aside in gratitude; as they will be such a nice addition to the Turkey dinners that we'll be taking to shut-ins on the 24th. My friends and I were a bit stumped as to what we could include as a desert and now we have the solution .
I'm sure that the patient that gifted them to me would give her full approval to us for passing most of them on; as she and her family also bake for their church's Christmas Dinner that is served to the less fortunate of our community on the 24th.

I let my folks know that I won't be coming for Christmas and they were actually happy that I would not be driving down in potentially poor weather. They will be going out for a brunch that is being put on by some people from their church on the 24th. Later they'll go to midnight mass as they usually do and then are looking forward to a quiet Christmas at home, with a few of their friends dropping over in the afternoon during their "open house" between 1:00 & 4:00.

Meanwhile, the turkey here has been moved from the freezer to the fridge so that it will be thawed out by Sunday and ready for the oven.

With love, Erika

Well we bought our stocking candy tonight and I told my husband to hide it. He came in and put it on the kitchen table and I figured he just left it there but when I went in later to wrap my stocking gifts they were gone. So I think I am safe but Jan 4th is a long way and I know there are two large bags of chocolate somewhere in this house.

Our plans are down to this.... Christmas gift wrapping, wine guzzling party,
with DD and me, is Monday. Christmas Eve's honey baked ham dinner,
eggnog gulping and the formal (ha ha) unwraping of gifts, by the Grands
(All 5 with SO's and GGD.) is Tuesday.

Christmas Day, DD will take the Kids to their Pop's Mother's, for another
unwrapping and I shall have a quiet Day at home, gorging on left over
ham and xmas frosted cookies. With, perhaps a visit from DSSon.
Ta Da!

And may you all have a peaceful day.

Hey Sally,

I'll be here to keep you company on Christams Day. I'll pass on the ham and cookies. Would you care for some of my festively colored kale green & beet red Christmas smoothie?

With love, Erika

Sure I love kale & beets.

Sounds like a wonderful couple of days Sally. Will give a lot of memories

Finished wrapping and DD & I also finished a bottle of Asti Spumanti.
...woohoo!! Nap time.... I was up late trying to clean my Mac,
to speed up my slowing Macbook Air.

That used to be an easy job with Windows and IE, but Apple is a whole
other animal and makes everything hard to do.