Life: It Goes On - December 26

Happy day after Christmas! I hope this finds you all recovering happily from a weekend of family and festivities and none the worse for the weather, although I'm certain that impacted the holidays for many of you. We are both feeling very lazy today and happy to have the day to recover, even if the holiday was much less hectic than we've become accustomed to in the past decades. This was our first year of not celebrating Christmas at my mom's and dad's house and neither of my siblings or their families came (nor, of course, did my Alaskans) so we were a small group. But we still had most of the usual goodies and meals, my dad was with us all weekend, there were plenty of presents to open, we were lucky enough to have friends join us for dinner yesterday, and we got a two-hour FaceTime call with Mini-me and Ms. S. So while it wasn't what we've come to think of as normal, it was a good weekend. 

Last Week I: 

 

I bake the cookies and make the 
frosting - they create the 
masterpieces!

Listened To: All of the Christmas music. 

Watched: Mostly Christmas shows, including White Christmas, Miracle on 34th Street, A Christmas Carol (Muppet version and Patrick Stewart version), The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (the OG), Elf, It's A Wonderful Life, and Love Actually. I was disappointed not to have been able to find The Family Stone available and I also missed Rudolph. Of course, there was plenty of football thrown in there, as well. 

Read: I am finally going to finish Demon Copperhead today, after getting in very little reading this past week. 

Made: Bavarian mints, puppy chow, sugar cookies, chocolate peanut butter toffee, hash brown casserole, my great-grandma's beans and ham hocks, creamed peas, homemade ice cream, homemade chocolate sauce, taco soup, potato soup, cheese ball, egg casserole. I've been busy the past week! 

Enjoyed: Watching my family open and enjoy their gifts. 

This Week I’m:  

Planning: Christmas will come down this week. I'd do it today but there are other things that need to be done before I start that. I'm going to go through everything we have and get rid of the things we didn't use and things I'm just tired of putting out. After I got the house all decorated this year, I immediately began wishing I had not done so much. 

Thinking About: What my first book of 2023 and my word of the year will be for 2023. 

Feeling: Ready to get back on the healthier eating track. We've eaten so much delicious food the past couple of weeks but my stomach is saying that enough it enough. 

Looking forward to: A four-day weekend next weekend. 

Question of the week: Were you holidays impacted by the weather?