Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to all those celebrating.

Oh, no, Tom! That's just wrong.

We are slowly prepping for dinner; once the rolls rise, my sister & I will go see Dad, who is not improving. Then back for presents and stuffing the little turkey.

The neighbors who own a coffee cart promised to stop by this morning, but there has been no sign of them. :-(

I hope everyone has a better holiday!

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah all!

We had a good, somewhat chaotic Christmas Eve. Having a big guinea pig cage in the living room and a big ass xmas tree takes up most of the socializing space.

But everybody played with the Guinea Pig.

Emmett decided he wanted to cook a roast for his first big meal as self-appointed chef, and...it came out great. Made horseradish sauce from scratch, and au jus gravy. All very tasty.

EM made a cioppino so JZ had fancy seafood.

Matilda was Mary at the xmas pageant. We watched Elf and everybody fell asleep early.

Matilda and I pulled off a very sneaky potato gift to Emmett which was really funny.

So now we are in various states of overstuffed (big breakfast) and hanging out. Emmett went back to bed. EM took off. And now we've got several hours before we had to the East Bay for dinner with my FiL.

Nothing says welcome home for the holidays like being left waiting at the train station in the cold for 45 minutes because my sister forgot to pick me up.

Ugh. I am so sorry. You remain welcome to my home any holiday you would like.

Mac was displeased with his presents (he had asked for a $2000 desktop computer. we generally spend $80 - $100 max on gifts each) and refused to eat the meal with us or even speak to his grandparents, so there's that.

The parents and I had a good time and despite everyone just having a few gifts, I think everyone was pleased with what they got.

Now we're back home and the drama king has very dramatically taken his laptop to the recycling bin.

I am gonna watch Deadpool.

the drama king has very dramatically taken his laptop to the recycling bin.

That'll show you.

yep. I am fully shown.

I think he is DYING to mouth off, but I am not asking what's the matter to give him an opening.

I am sure he will be pleased with the spreadsheet I have prepared to show him the fastest way to get to the $2000 needed for the computer. (he will get it the second he mouths off)

I was going to watch Lord of the Rings, but decided on Conan the Barbarian instead. Boy, I miss D&D.

Tom I'm sorry that was part of your Xmas.

Hot chocolate bread pudding is cooling. Oven is heating for the next temp with dinner.

There was a slight oops with the main dish mom forgot about three part where the butternut squash should have been roasted with maple syrup and brown sugar.

We cooked it in the slow cooker. So we're going to heat it with some brown sugar MD maple syrup.

As soon as we get to a good point to stop in RED which mom is loving so far.

We've been in Oklahoma since Wednesday and mostly it's been fine but I'm starting to reach the point where I'm just irritated by everything. The bedroom we're sleeping in (all four of us) stinks of cat pee and my in-laws are so awkward with us and passive-aggressive with each other and the house is too small for all of us and all the junk they gave us and everything smells weird and I just want to go home.

Whew, it felt good to get that all out. The good news is that the girls are both having a great time and I'm glad they're getting to spend a good amount of time with the grandparents they see least often (my FIL and his wife). So it's fine and worth the aggravation for sure. But everything still smells weird.

Tom, I'm so sorry. You deserve better.

George Michael passed away.