Woman in the Middle

My daughters are going off with friends to a local Indian casino. They have tickets to a comedy show, and will be doing a little gambling, enjoying a few drinks, listening to some live music, and staying the night at a local hotel. Ah, youth! Hubby and I used to try and find things to do New Year’s Eve. After several tries we finally had to admit that staying up until midnight with strangers while wearing slightly uncomfortable clothes was just not our thing.

This year we are staying in (as usual), cooking a steak and baking potatoes, while the house rings with our mutual coughing. Yes, Hubby is still coughing and I have now caught the dread coughing disease that is going around. But, hey, you know what they say, the couple that coughs together stays together. LOL!

It is chilly and rainy outside, so it is the perfect night to stay in. I am looking forward to it! Cough, cough…..

A whole lot of people are ready to kick 2016 out the door. As the last few days of 2016 wind down, it is hard to bear yet more celebrity deaths, bad news from the middle east, weirdness from Washington, and all the rest. It is easy to get caught up in other people’s angst about 2016 being a bad year. But, then, I did a closer examination, and I realize that while yucky things happened in 2016 in the greater world and, I fully admit, in other people’s lives,  the life me and my family lead was actually a pretty good one in dear old 2016.

Eldest Daughter graduated from college, I was elected to the Park’s Board, Hubby’s business perked along as a decent rate, we went on a family vacation, Hubby and I were able to celebrate our 30th  anniversary with a train trip to Kansas City, Youngest Daughter was establishing herself well in her job, as well as all the other normal, everyday things that went well.

If we want to talk about a bad year, 2013 was a bad year. Spending the whole year watching Brother Dear die, now that makes for a bad set of months right there. Then having Mom in Law die unexpectedly. Wow. Not nice at all. 2014 wasn’t so great either. We spent a great deal of time that year cleaning out Mom in Law’s house. There was a lot to clean out, believe me. Not a fun year, old 2014.

So, while I agree a nasty presidential election does cast a pall over things, and unfortunately other folks I know had a 2016 that looked too much like my 2013, I have to say 2016 wasn’t so bad for me and mine.

We shall see what 2017 holds. I think it is going to be a bumpy ride out there in the world. I am just hoping me and mine can hold on tight and keep things real and good  in the year to come. I wish all of you the same in 2017, as we wave goodbye to 2016.

Christmas Eve at the Festival of Lights in the big city next door (with our cousin.)

Me making our Christmas breakfast of biscuits and chocolate gravy. Yum!

Hubby trying to figure out one of his Christmas presents.

Nox hiding in the wrapping paper.

Having brunch at El Torito for Christmas dinner.

I seem to have taken a few days off after Christmas this year. Not on purpose. It just worked out that way. One reason was because all the worker bees in our house had the 26th off. Oddly enough, when my family is around I actually enjoy interacting with them.  Also Hubby likes to get the occasional crack at the computer when he is around. (I really need to get that man his own….) Then there was the after Christmas shopping. I don’t shop for myself. I shop for bargain things we can stuff in stockings for the children’s Christmas group I am involved in. So my after Christmas shopping involves lots of dollar stores.

Then there is the cold I picked up, which conveniently waited until the day after Christmas to roar into my life. I appreciate that a lot, really, I do. But it seems like ever since I got that horrible cold and bronchitis back in October of 2013, colds like to go into my chest right away. I was never a chest cold sort of person. Now I am.  So when I wasn’t shopping or fighting Hubby for the computer, I was napping or laying on the couch reading one of the books I got for Christmas. I am still doing that, the laying around part that is.

One of the reasons Hubby was on the computer on the 26th was because we have a leaking shower and he was trying to figure out how to find the leak without taking out wallboard or tile. This particular bathroom is in the middle of the house and when the shower leaks water runs into the hallway, The wood floor there is toast from previous leaks, but we still need it to stop the water leaking into the wall. He managed to find a leak and fix it. We shall see if that was the only leak the next time some one showers in that bathroom. Oh, the joys of home ownership! 

On the cat front, the boys have a new toy they love. A friend of Eldest Daughter happens to be Jewish, and she ran across a line of cat and dog toys called “Chewish.” Get it? LOL! Anyway, she bought our cats a little dreidel on the end of a long elastic string. We keep hanging it up here or there and boy do the young cats love that thing! Nox is playing with it right now, even as I type. Dear Hubby has already had to repair it once because they loved it to pieces.

Meanwhile, the rain has washed us clean and we are having beautiful sunny weather. The distant mountains look lovely with their snow capped peaks and our nearby hills are turning green.  Perfect So Cal winter weather!

I hope you had a Merry Christmas!

I want to wish you and yours Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and a peaceful and joyous 2017! 

Nothing says Christmas like a fake snowman in Southern California!!!

As usual, the local newspaper had a weather prediction that was off by a long shot. They said yesterday there was a 20% chance of rain and we could expect some light winds. Instead it rained all day and all night, and in between the two there was a short pause when the wind kicked up to gale force. Oh boy!

So, as we count down to Christmas in my fair city, the line from the Christmas song “Let it Snow” keeps running through my head – “The weather outside is frightful…” Happily, we aren’t having snow. because that really would be frightful!

Of course, other than being caught off guard by the unexpected rain, everyone is happy water is falling from the sky, because we need the rain so much. When Christmas rolls around, the world will have had a nice bath and everything will look clean and beautiful.

Hopefully, we won’t get much more wind, because when the ground is soft from the rain, then the wind blows, trees have a tendency to topple over. Hubby and I won’t have to worry about that as the only real tree we have is the Navel orange tree. But there are plenty of other trees to heave ho out of the ground. And we haven’t even started our true rainy season yet.

Here is hoping the weather isn’t too frightful where ever you are!

This past Saturday was the children’s Christmas party event I have become involved in. It is a nonprofit that provides lunch, a show, gifts, books, and a bag full of goodies, school supplies, and hygiene items for over 800 underprivileged children every year.  Even though I am just one little corner of it, it took a lot of time. Our fearless leader laughed Sunday night when I said I hadn’t gotten my Christmas cards out yet, and I am never this late doing that. She said “The Christmas party does tend to take over your life.” Truer words were never spoken!

So, with the party done and over for another year, I am looking forward to a crazy week of my own making. How can the week before Christmas be anything but crazy? I will be getting those Christmas cards out, wrapping gifts, cleaning house, and otherwise getting ready for Christmas.

I keep making lists, and I check them twice, like a certain jolly old elf I happen to know of. I got most everything checked off today’s list, except for getting all the Christmas cards mailed. I managed to get the eight that had to travel the farthest done and mailed, but then my printer gagged. It looks like it just needs black ink, but we got a funny error message. So we shall see tomorrow after I buy some ink. Our Christmas cards might be New Year’s cards this year. Ink or not, that just may be what they are anyway!

What do you have planned this week before Christmas?

On December 21, 2013, I posted about a “Very Fun Christmas Game” that my family and I have played for several years with friends at their Christmas party.  It involves wrapping a little gift in many layers of wrapping paper and then trying to get that paper off while wearing oven mitts. The person who gets the last layer off wins the prize.

Little did I know I was making my lasting contribution to Christmas with that post. Go ahead. Just google “oven mitt gift game” or some thing like that. You will see Woman in the Middle and that post pop up. With the phrase I just mentioned, my post was third.

I told you about how the views of my blog went out of control in April when Prince died, due to a post I had written about seeing Price open for the Rolling Stones back in the day. That is nothing compared to the hits I got last month and now this month because of the oven mitt game. Unfortunately, none of those folks seem to stick around and become my new blog buddies. But I hope they enjoy the oven mitt game. It is a whole lot of fun!

Meanwhile, I feel like I can’t ever stop this blog. How would people get through all those Christmas parties without directions for the “oven mitt Christmas game?”

Good friends recently took a trip to Iceland. I have wanted to go to Iceland for a long time, just to say I have been to Iceland. But after finding out all about their trip, I am ready to pack my bag and get on a plane. Iceland sounds like a really wonderful place! They saw so many interesting natural wonders and the northern lights. Our friends thought they were checking Iceland off their bucket list, but now they want to go back. Maybe we can go back with them!

I have been busy wrapping packages, but not for the family. I have been wrapping for the children’s Christmas party I am involved with. The girls and Hubby were laughing about that last night. “Oh Mom’s been wrapping, but not for us!”

Back when the girls were in high school, Hubby dropped them off to school on his way to work (We don’t have busing for high school kids in our area.) Bliss! But usually one or the other needed to take a shower before school at 0-dark-hundred. I noticed it a few times, but then it just became one of the normal sounds of the morning  and I never noticed again. That is when I realized I had the amazing ability to ignore normal, routine, household sounds when I was sleeping. Unfortunately for Hubby, Honey getting up in the middle of the night, giving a shake, and wanting to go outside has become a normal, routine sound to my brain. I usually, finally, become conscious of what is going on about the time Hubby is letting her back inside.  I feel so bad about this, especially when he is sick as he is now, or just because he has to get up and go to work in a few hours. I have no idea how to get my brain to shake off this amazing ability to ignore things and allow me to become, once again, the primary middle of the night dog minder.

Speaking of dogs, Honey is doing much better. She is eating and bouncing around like her old self. We are glad to have dodged a bullet with our elderly dog!

“I am just hanging out, not nauseous at all!”

I hope you are having a great Monday!

After getting meds from Urgent Care on Saturday, Hubby rallied yesterday and managed to help me buy a tree and get it up (although it isn’t decorated yet) and he put some lights on the front of the house and hung my new, lighted wreath from Costco. I was just hoping for the wreath to get hung on the garage, so we didn’t look like Scrooges, but Hubby decided to put up some lights as well. I think he eventually regretted that decision, but I do appreciate the pretty result.

I got the living room and dining room cleaned out of all the stuff that had been accumulating there the past week, mostly for a charity Christmas party I volunteer for. The dining room still looks pretty good, but I started wrapping and made another big mess in the living room. Sigh. I will be cleaning that up today.

Meanwhile, I bought a little notebook and  have started making a daily list in it so I can remember what I need to do. Today’s list has 12 things on it, not a single one having to do with cleaning the house.  Hum…

Honey is doing better. She is just about back to her normal perky self. She still isn’t eating as much as normal, and is taking a page from Blackie’s book – she will eat any thing we offer once, but expects something totally new the next time we offer anything. So, I have two picky eaters at the moment. She also is having some diarrhea (sorry, TMI, I know) so that is fun.

I am making plans for some shopping today, delivering some donations around town and decorating the tree. What is on your “to do” list today, and I hope it is less than 12 things!!!