So for today, I've made an enormous pot of chicken veg stew...visited with some of my favorite neighborhood buds and...nothing else!

Blergh. I so wanted to be more motivated this weekend.

Oh, and I treated myself to a nice manicure. It really is pretty.

We gave up on going to the beach tonight. We finished baking and we're watching Love Actually while finishing up wrapping. We'll head out early tomorrow instead.

Geez sj. I was hoping he was on the upswing. More 'ma headed your family's way

Thanks, le nubian. I think he set himself back by insisting he be let out of the hospital for Christmas.

Cute Nephew story:

Mom and bro just got a tree today and were set to decorate it. My dad is up there too and they were getting out the ornaments and the lights and Mom plugged in the lights to test them. When E saw them lit up he said, "I have an idea. We can put them around and around the tree." (that's a paraphrase he said something cuter which I forgot). So Mom and Dad said "that's a good idea!" Not letting on it was the plan all along. And so E held the bundle of lights while Dad put them around the tree.

Also Mom , bro and E just moved in with bro's GF (this has been in the plans for awhile) and E was a big helper. He kept finding things to put in the "delivery truck" and even packed his night night and Soft Monkey that he sleeps with every night so they'd be ready to move first thing the next morning.

He kept saying "come on guys, I have to put (whatever he found} on the delivery truck!"

{{{{sj}}}} that just sucks.

My favorite call today (in addition to all the various partner agency and alarm company employees being all cheery and 'happy holidays!' which is a nice change of pace) has been from a very nice Nordstrom employee. She had a bunch of packages shipped to her home address and some jerk stole them. That's not the good part. The good part is that the dumb thief took them to the store where she works to "return" them for cash. The clerk doing the "return" thought it was a little sketchy and copied his ID. So she actually knows exactly who it was and there's a paper trail. Kudos to Nordies!

TCG and I finished wrapping all of the gifts for the family, and now he is going to bed so I can wrap his gifts. Some year I will be organized.

Cash and Beverley, I hope you both feel better soon.

Hi all. I'm rarely here these days, but I just wanted to stop and wish you all happy holidays. You're all in my heart and in my daily thoughts.

Here's how it looks like two minutes away from my place in Haifa: [link] (not my picture).

Christmas conversation with Ryan:

"Look Ryan, this is a dollar from New Zealand. And what's this on the coin?"
"It's a kiwi!"
"That's right! Did we see kiwis?"
"Yes. [Turns coin over] And that's a sheep!"
"...That's the Queen!"
"It looks like a sheep!"

My boy has Opinions about New Zealand currency.