Week 51

Welcome back and happy Wednesday!  I'm just a little behind because of the holidays.  I hope everyone had a great Christmas and is gearing up to celebrate the New Year.  Bring on 2023!  We need and are ready for a good year.

Here's a look at last week's fun family times:

Day 353- Monday, 12/19/22

I get home from work today and this is what I find--the college boys are tired from their school finals and have been napping a lot upon their return home.  At least Rusty can relate and is enjoying the extra napping buddies.

Day 354- Tuesday, 12/20/22

Good thing Justin is napping safely at home. They had a big earthquake near where he lives for school at 2:30am this morning and many aftershocks.  He made contact with the roommates staying at the house over break and all is ok there except power that is expected to be out for the rest of the day.  Interestingly enough, Justin is sad he missed it.  In other news I'm getting some nice gifts from people at work.  So far some chocolates from a grad student and these amazing blood oranges from a co-worker's tree.  Oh my, they are so fragrant and full of flavor.  I've never actually seen one in person before.  I've had many blood-orange flavored things but never the actual oranges.  I'm an even bigger fan now even if they are kind of messy to eat. 

Day 355- Wednesday, 12/21/22

Today Justin and I made our way to the store for baking supplies and started off by making some Christmas Crack to enjoy over the next few days.  Later for dinner Brandon helped fry up some taco shells for dinner tonight.  It's great having help in the kitchen again.

Day 356- Thursday, 12/22/22

'Tis the season and we're so close to being ready.  Pretty much all the presents are wrapped and under the tree. We started baking (day #1) and tried a new graham cracker toffee recipe that turned out great.  The mailbox has been full with cards from family and friends which is fun to see and we are collecting them for now in this sleigh.  Plus today is my Friday since my winter vacation break from work starts tomorrow.  Yay!

Day 357- Friday, 12/23/22

Baking day #2.  It took all day but we finally finished right around dinner time and will be ready to pass out cookie plates to the neighbors tomorrow for Christmas Eve. Our Friday night movie was the newly released Knives Out mystery on Netflix featuring so many great actors we haven't seen in awhile. It was actually pretty good. Rusty found a comfy spot to watch with me.

Day 358- Saturday, 12/24/22

Happy Christmas Eve!  We had a nice relaxing and sunny day, made pizza for dinner, ate cookies for dessert and opened one gift before going to bed.  Tyler and Lupe are with her family tonight but they will be with us tomorrow for dinner at least.

Day 359- Sunday, 12/25/22

Merry Christmas!  I had the peaceful morning tree to myself for a good bit while everyone else slept in which is totally fine. I'm good with a slow relaxing start to the day.  Once they all got up we did stockings and then ate a nice eggnog French-toast breakfast with cranberry-orange mimosas--Yum!  After that we opened gifts and then enjoyed the rest of the day with our new stuff before sitting down to a good prime-rib dinner.  This was my first time making prime-rib since John is usually the one cooking our meats.  He supervised though so it was really a team effort.  We work best as a team.  Then we had cake and took our first full family picture since last Christmas.  My monthly family photos just did not happen at all this past year with John's health issues starting in late January.  I can't believe it's been almost a year now.  We're so grateful even though it's been a really rough year that he pulled through and continues to get stronger and be with us. This picture on this special day says it all.

That's it!  See you next week in the next year.  Have a safe and wonderful time ringing in 2023.