Thread: December Tracking

Heads up!!! Under the category of "shoppingfor myself", everything on the Coldwater Creek website is 1/2 price until the 30th.
LOL, Judy! I'm going there now. Be back later!

Good Christmas Eve Morning!

Hey, Judy, I went to the Coldwater Creek site and I didn't see anything saying 50% off. Were you joking? I got real excited for a minute! Perhaps you need a special code to enter at checkout?

So back to my regularly scheduled program . . . .

Judy was not the only "bad" person yesterday. I actually got into a box of chocolate-covered almonds received as a gift. (Barb: from Andre's). Delicious!

About 8:00 PM last night my sister asked if I would cut her hair today! Am I a hairdresser? NO. Have I ever cut hair? NO. Do I have the time to cut hair, with the attendant mess? NO. But I will do it. I will probably also style it for her. And tweeze the hairs growing out of her chin that are about 2" long. Very distracting.Your eyes just go right to those hairs!

Everything is ready to go. I may complain and moan, but in truth I love doing this. I guess it sorta makes me feel like the "MOM." Last year my DIL told me that DGD told her she loves coming to our house for Christmas. I hope I am creating some special Christmas memories for my step children and grandchildren! When I die, they can all remember. Sheesh. I am getting maudlin!

Peg, I have actually been to Rancho Mirage and played golf there! It's truly beautiful. The whole Palm Springs area is.

I'll try to pop in later, after a few more of you have posted. I know we are all busy today!

To all of you -- Peg, Judy, Brenda, Shelley, Barb, Ilse, Terry, Donna and Rachel: my heartfelt wishes for a warm and wonderful Christmas and a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!

Merry Merry Christmas, dear friends!

What lovely graphic greetings! Many thanks to my tech-adept friends.

It's a quiet Christmas Eve morning at my house. I cooked up the rest of the pumpkin thingie batter for breakfast--and I might help myself to a chocolate truffle for breakfast dessert.

We'll pick up my dad for church this evening, and then to a family gathering--my sister's DIL's family. Anticipating lovely hospitality. Church in the morning, and maybe a movie in the afternoon.

Now...everybody take a deep breath, and relax. You've done all the work-- cooking, cleaning, shopping, worrying. Time has arrived for peace on earth...beginning at home.

Alida, (and everyone else),
I am on Coldwater's email list --- which seems to deliver something nearly everyday. The checkout code is WCH4037. Right now I'm on the lap top and I don't have your email address on this computer. When the backup finishes on the other one I'll forward the email to you. If anyone else wants the Coldwater ad, send me a PM with your email address and I will forward it to you, too.

And of course...................

A very Merry and safe Christmas to all of you!!

Judy, I thought I was on their e-mail list. Signed up for it. Glitch somewhere. Maybe I deleted it???

Sending you a PM just in case, with my e-mail address.

Shelley, great graphics!

Barb, you have a lovely holiday planned. In my mind it's perfect! Be careful driving later. I think our rain is going to turn into mush later today. Peace on Earth . . . starting at home. Sounds like a good plan. I cut my sister's hair and it was fun! Sometimes it's just the attitude you go in with.

Love you all.

Morning, lovlies!
Hope you all will have a wonderful Eve!

Alida, what a kindness for you to take care of your sister with everything else going on. You're a sweetie. We'll be getting your rain later today, then snow, it seems

Judy, Barb, Peg, Donna, and everyone else traveling this weekend, good tidings to you all, take care, and return safely.

It will be a quiet day here, as we will "do" Christmas tomorow morning, with a prelude of pannetone french toast for the guys. Ok, yeah, I do cook once in a while Anyway, I'll be thinking of all you you for whom today is also a main event.

Still mulling Coldwater Creek and feeling guilty already!!!

Well,
Here I am, waiting for it to get dark so we can go *Christmas lighting*...LOL.
When our daughter was about 3yrs old or so, DH and I hit upon a tradition that we have continued for 26 years. On Christmas Eve, we call in a pizza and bring it home.
After we eat our pizza, we load up and drive through various neighborhoods and look at the lights. Usually this can take a couple of hours, depending on how far over the metro area we roam. Then we come home, build a fire in the fireplace and have dessert and coffee, and open presents(saving the main one for Christmas morning, of course). I used to bake the same cake that my grandmother used to make...it was called a *Sunshine chiffon cake*. It is one of my most fondest memories of the Christmas holidays. This cake has fresh orange rind, and juice, and of course it's light as a feather being chiffon. Sometimes my nana(what I called my DGM) would put that wonderful fluffy white 7-minute frosting on it, and sometimes she would just make a glaze out of fresh squeezed oj and powdered sugar. Anyway...I digress...
I did not have the time or the energy to bake the sunshine cake this year, so I let DH pick our *splurge*(dessert) for tonight. He requested hot apple crumb pie with vanilla ice cream. So, as luck would have it, Albertson's bakery had them this year, so after we go *lighting*, that will be our treat tonight with a hot fresh cup of coffee.
Traditionally, on Christmas Day, we had the big dinner at nana's house as well. I will be doing a short and sweet version for Christmas Day; none of it will be low carb, but I'm trying to not OVER indulge, but I'm sure I have done some major damage this week <sigh>.
Sooooooo......to you all I say...have yourself a Merry little Christmas now!

(((much love and hugs)))

Hey All you Christmas Elves!

I'm just checking in before climbing into bed for a long winter's nap. Visit with DSD1 (Dear Step-daughter), Dear Stepson's (2) and ex-wife went quite well. We ate and ate and ate and ate. Going with "It's five o'clock somewhere," I started drinking wine at 11:30 a.m. All in all, I only had about one glass, but it did feel naughty! Actually, we started eating about then. We just never stopped. I didn't really overeat. Learned my lesson the other night.

Can't remember if I told you that I got sick on chocolate the other night, so I'm watching it really carefully with over eating on sugar.

Tomorrow morning we go to DD3's and my 3 dgkids. We're taking a bunch of appetizers, and the chex mix to make there. We didn't have a pan big enough here.

Excited about tomorrow. My DD3 really knows how to throw a party. I suspect that it will be nice. BF called today to wish me Merry Christmas. That was nice too.

Today is my DD2's birthday. 38 years ago tonight I was feeling pretty sorry for myself in the hospital. DD1 was 5 and we gave her a swing set. I was sorry not to see her face when she saw it. In those days we stayed in the hospital for two or three days. But, Christmas day then was really nice. The nurses had little red stockings to put the babies in and made it a very festive day.

Have a good day tomorrow all you. Alida: My gkids call me, "Nana." DH is "Papa."

Peace, Peg

It's almost Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of you!

First, Thursday night my DD called and said the results of her CT scan were in. She doesn't have a broken rib. The density was nothing. However, she has been referred to surgeon (visit is Tuesday). They found she has gall stones.

It's been an interesting couple of days here. I went swimming on Friday. I called my mom for my daily call. She told me my dad had called from the airport in Riga, Latvia and said he wasn't flying out Friday. I looked on-line for a possible reason. It turned out Lativa (and Poland) was blanketed with fog.(He was supposed to catch a flight from Warsaw to Chicago) The airline ended up busing everyone to Warsaw (a 350 mile trip) I guess when they got to Warsaw, the airline put them up in a hotel. My dad ended up flying to somewhere in Germany and then to Chicago. He called from home at 5pm Christmas Eve. We're just glad he made it home!

My DH took our grandson to Best Buy to shop for gifts for his family from him. My DD had given him some hints for what they would want from there. My DH took our grandson to see Kong. I decided to go to the same theater to see Harry Potter again. I peeked in their theater and saw them, but didn't say "hi". After the movie was over, they drove back to our house to wrap the gifts. Then, my DH drove our grandson home. I went to Farm and Fleet to look around and wrapped gifts.

Christmas Eve, we popped out to Jewel to pick up a few things. My DD and family came over at 10:30am for a Christmas Eve brunch. One of the top things to make were Latvian Pancakes. They are like crepes and can be eaten with sweet or savory fillings. I had to translate the recipe, as I don't know what I did with the one I used last year. Brunch was very filling (not LC).

Christmas day will be just the two of us. The 26th, were are supposed to celebrate with my parents and my DD's family again.

I hope everyone has a great holiday!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Good CHRISTMAS Morning!

Today is the day I crash! I actually slept until 6 am. We will open presents this morning, followed by a nice breakfast. I would love to go to a movie, but Tammie wants to watch a TV program at 4 pm. That's our usual movie time. Maybe earlier? To be decided.

Christmas Eve was so much fun. Judy, we did your little tradition of starting a pot and the person that guesses the most gifts wins. My DGD is a real pro at this! She won the pot. Son Mark took great delight in announcing the score after each gift was unwrapped. We became teams, with his family vs. me, Bob and Tammie (aka "Old Fogeys"). I received a pair of slippers, silicone bakeware and a French Press coffee maker. DIL Beth got a kick out of my story about asking you all if I should keep that purple sweater. The clue on her tag was: "Whoops! Long Story On This One." I love writing little clues on the tags. We were all in a jolly mood.

Dinner was excellent. One of my betters. While I just had a little of everything, many things were high carb. I did NOT get on the scale this morning! There are way too many cookies and candies left in this house, but my sister will finish them off by the time she leaves. I'll stick to the LC ones.

To make the coffee this morning I had to shove away the dirty dishes. Because we had such a late start (Mark had to "work," LOL), only one load made it into the dishwasher before Bob and I conked out.

Was all the work worth it? You bet! It always is . . . .

Shelley, your tradition of a pizza, a special treat, and looking at the lights sounds wonderful! No stress, relaxing and FUN.

Ilse, I am glad your Dad made it home safely. Your Latvian pancakes sound just like our Polish Nalesniki. Essentially crepes. While my Dad was alive, I used to make those on Christmas morning, filled with a cottage cheese filling sweetened with sugar and cinnamon. You shop to the very last minute, lol!

Peg, I am so glad your visit with the steps and ex went well! "It's 5 pm somewhere" . . . lol! We had an old joke in our family of always toasting "To the Bride!" on the assumption there was always a bride somewhere. I know you are going to have a wonderful day today with your daughter. Is DD2's birthday the 24th or 25th? That must have been a memorable Christmas for you!

Brenda, Your day also sounds wonderful. Relaxing and FUN. Feeling guilty about Coldwater, huh? I didn't get the e-mail from Judy (her plate was FULL!) but I did get an e-mail from Coldwater that "certain items" in the stores were 50% off. I may visit the site today and test that code!

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas Day!

We're off soon, but I couldn't leave without wishing you all a Merry Chrismas. The way I feel rigt now, I need to wish myself a fasting New Year.

Have a great day everyone. I'll try to check back later.

Merry Christmas!

My early alarm goes off no matter what day it is. And there's always the cat meowing and scratching on the door. I'm enjoying a quiet breakfast, newspaper, and chat in the glow of the Christmas tree.

This morning, I brought up the big box from the basement for DH--Santa's surprise. After major family festivities last night, we were too tired to open all the presents at home, so we'll continue our gift-fest after church. We were given a lovely bottle of champagne last night, so we'll certainly make that part of our celebration.

I did indulge in a few sugar transgressions on Christmas Eve. My nephew works for Russell Stover, so you can imagine what he contributes to the party. He kindly included bags of RS Weight Watchers pecan caramels.
The BEST treat, however, was a smoked salmon--delicious, and perfectly LC.

The REAL Santa showed up! (Uncle Alisdair, well-padded). He gave the two little girls matching jammies, and a gift for little brother, before ho-ho-ho-ing off into the night.

We'll go back to The Family Christmas celebration later today. I'm grateful that my sister's extended family makes us so welcome, since Larry's kids have been, through the years, mostly committed to other family. I think their mother, and DIL's mother, have first rights, and DH isn't all that excited about the uproar anyway.

Happy day everyone.

Some pictures from Christmas Eve. My daughter and grandchildren.