December 24th Dinner Post

[livetobake]

Good Morning!

Happy Christmas Eve Morning!

I hope everyone is having power this morning and heat. That wind is making a shrieking noise that I have never heard before and so shrill going around the corner of the house. It made me jump and is just plain scary sounding. It has kept me up most of the night. Bad enough during the day yesterday but even worse sounding at night.

The high will be 12 and the low of 9 degrees. The wind is going strong which makes the wind chill in the minus 20-30 range.

DGS and I will make a pizza tonight as he said that would be fun doing together and I agree. He already has chopped some of the veggies and cooked up sausage.

What culinary delights are you having tonight?

[MudderBear]

So far we have not lost power, it is just CRAZY out there!
I knew it would happen one year.....I woke up 2 hours after I fell asleep with a horrible painful sore throat and nausea. DD and I were just talking yesterday of how awful would it be to be sick for Christmas...we jinxed ourselves I suppose and she has sore throat as well. I'm trying very hard to get stuff done today - cooking ham and a bit of cleaning, I have to keep sitting down as I get feeling very pukey. I can't even think about dinner tonite...DH & DS may have to make themselves grilled cheese or hot dogs.

[Chayote]

Thankfully I'm feeling better today... still not eating much but I'm ok other than that. John did a few things outside: cleaned the rubbish out of the car, connected the hose in the courtyard so I can water the succulents and hosed Weed'n'Feed onto the back lawn to kill the bindies. The egg was still near the garden shed so the snake must have moved to a better feeding-ground. I finished wrapping the gifts for later today (it's now 4am Christmas morning) and I think John will be happy with the Lego sets that I bought for him. They've been under my bed since we sold the Melbourne house... *LOL* He had no idea it was so close.

I made John a small burger for his dinner. I surprised myself that I could tolerate the smell of meat cooking. He said it was "wonderful".

The children are excited about Christmas. Actually Hannah is excited because Andrew is excited and she doesn't know why but it seemed like a good idea. She'll be a bit injured in her Christmas photos but such is life. She was running with her nanny and faceplanted, putting her bottom teeth through her lip. When they arrived home and she saw her Mum at the door, she ran up the path, tripped and grazed both knees. As if that wasn't a good enough effort for one day, she slipped getting into her bath and bumped her chin on the edge of the bath... Andrew is mostly excited about it being the time when Jesus was born. He has written a Nativity puppet show to perform for us when we arrive. Each character will be played by one of his hand puppets and I happen to know that they are all puppets of Australian animals and birds. His parents will record it but I suspect the file will be too big to post in here. He decorated some biscuits/cookies to leave out for Santa. He asked Santa for a big cardboard box that Daddy, Andrew and Hannah can fit into and a special Beyblade.

Santa's cookies: (I hope he's hungry)

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[Vera]

Those cookies are what I would call Picasso cookies, My teeth almost hurt thinking of biting into one with all the toppings - lol.
I am so sorry to hear about Hannah and all her accidents, but this too shall pass.
So happy that John is feeling more perky and did some jobs in the yard. Glad he didn't come face to face with that brown snake.
Enjoy your time with Julia and family. You have been looking forward to this for a long time and it's great you are feeling better.
Merry Christmas indeed.

[CharleneG]

Hannah sounds a lot like my boys were when they were little. They were constantly doing things that required a visit to the ER. It got kind of embarrassing when the staff recognized me! I was sure glad when they outgrew that phase.

And just like that, the snow is gone! There was at least 3” of snow all over the yard when I went to bed about midnight last night. A warm and wet weather front moved in overnight and the rain melted all the snow. I took advantage of that and got my mail and went down and cashed the Power Ball ticket from the big jackpot in the fall and got 4 Mega Millions tickets since the jackpot is over $500 million right now. The only time I buy tickets is when it gets really high.

I had started out this morning making a Crock Pot chicken and noodles dish and my next door neighbors invited me over to their house for Christmas Eve dinner. That’s so nice of them and I said yes. So, I’m going to chill what I made and continue the final prep on Monday or Tuesday.

[Vera]

Charlene - It sounds like you landed in a really nice neighborhood. When my son and family moved to a neighborhood in Texas, my son accidently locked himself out of the house with his keys, and phone in the house. He had to go next door and ask if he could use a phone to call a locksmith - which he did. Would you believe neither the husband nor wife have made an effort to at least be neighborly. That just kind of irritates me. We had new neighbors this past summer move in across the street. When I saw a strange car in the driveway with California plates, I was heading out to run some errands, but I also brought a carry out menu with me. I handed it to them and said pick what you want for lunch. I guess there are some people that live in their own little world. Too bad my son moved next door to them. The other side is now empty but under contract. Hope they are at least sociable.

[CharleneG]

This family has been super friendly from day one. Milas introduced himself the day the moving truck was unloading and they’ve always been friendly. This is a very friendly neighborhood.