Santa in the Fog of New Year’s Eve
Taking three days off for the end of the year was a delightful gift…to myself and to our family. We had the FixIt Family Holiday Extravaganza on Friday and it was such a delight. As is our tradition, the big blowout dinner of the year is Thanksgiving. Christmas is much lower key in order to allow all of us to sit down and enjoy the day and no one ends up doing an extraordinary amount of work.
One of my sweet Christmas gifts for the baker in me!
As it turned out, the night before our gathering, my sweetheart brought me a diet soft drink with my supper. I didn’t think anything of it because I’ve been drinking them forever. However, I’ve been living without caffeine for about four months now and just that amount that late in the evening had me laying in bed, counting the spots on the ceiling till about 5:00 in the morning. My alarm went off at 7:00 and I got up to start the two crockpots of chili…one with and the other without kidney beans. I can’t stand kidney beans.
More knitting…more Christmas stockings
As soon as everything was in the slow cookers, I picked up the recipe for the cinnamon rolls. Four pages of recipe. Heavy sigh. Mr. FixIt was still snoozing away when I made an executive decision. Yes…my homemade cinnamon rolls will stop traffic. But, in the grand scheme of things…the Cinnabon Brand of Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls are divine! And my new mantra is…work smarter, not harder. So, I stepped into my shoes and ran to the Pig to buy cinnamon rolls in a can. I apologized to the kids but they were thrilled with whatever we had. The chili was wonderful and the rolls were great, and the company was grand. We had such a good time and we got lots of hugs and kisses from the littles.
GiGi gets to snuggle one of the littles
New Year’s Eve was quiet. We watched a lot of football and snacked on leftovers. We were watching the exciting matchup between Ohio State and the Georgia Bulldogs. It was down to the last few seconds and Ohio State was attempting a field goal to win the game when Mr. FixIt switched the channel over to watch the ball drop! I squealed….”Nooooooo!” He jumped and turned towards me. I laughed and said, “Look, I’ve put in the time, watching this game and now it’s down to the last few seconds. The ball will drop every year, and all we have to do is look up here at the clock to see it’s midnight. So, Happy New Year! Now, please turn it back to the game!” He laughed and did as I asked, just in time to see Ohio State’s kicker swing the ball in a hard left arc…missing the goalpost entirely. Depending on who you were rooting for, you were either over the moon or crushed. I felt so bad for that young kicker.
I got a new stool/cooler/backpack. It may be a little short for sitting, but it will make a GREAT stool for camping and I can carry my knitting projects in it!
We were supposed to have the FixIt Family Holiday Extravaganza 2.0 yesterday but our grandson got called in to work at 7:00am so we will have to reschedule that one. It did offer us the opportunity to turn over and go back to sleep for a few hours. Another treat! We watched more football and ate yummy things all day. It was such a nice break but I was really glad to get back to my writing last night.
Mr. FixIt got an appropriate gift from one of the kids. So cute!
It’s a brand new year. A clean slate. Fresh…shiny…ready to make it as good a year as we possibly can. I hope you all had a great weekend. Now…let’s get to it!
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“This is what God says, the God who builds a road right through the ocean, who carves a path through pounding waves, The God who summons horses and chariots and armies— they lie down and then can’t get up; they’re snuffed out like so many candles: “Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it? There it is! I’m making a road through the desert, rivers in the badlands. Wild animals will say ‘Thank you!’ —the coyotes and the buzzards— Because I provided water in the desert, rivers through the sunbaked earth, Drinking water for the people I chose, the people I made especially for myself, a people custom-made to praise me.”
Isaiah 43:16-21 MSG