Have a safe and happy New Year celebration!

Happy New Year to all my bloggy friends!

However you choose to celebrate, please be smart and please be safe!

Easiest work day of the year!

Because this is what it sounds like in my office. I LOVE it! There are 8 people on my team and only 2 of us are here today. I thought 2 other people would be here, but apparently they decided to take off. Hey, I am not the boss...they don't have to tell me in advance. There are about 50 people that are on our quarter of the floor and today there are 5 of us here. It is so quiet!

Our office was closed on Christmas Day and yesterday. I took Christmas Eve off, so worked Monday and today. I could have taken vacation days for both of those as I have plenty of time left, but we didn't have plans at home and I don't like to take all of Christmas week off as so many people are out. I think it makes my boss more comfortable about taking time off if I am here. Plus, with so few people here, I can get SO MUCH WORK DONE, even while spending some quality goof off time. (Okay, some call it lunch.)

I am looking forward to my last 3 day weekend of December. I will be trying out one of my Christmas presents from Hubby....a Ball Automatic Jam Maker. I am not going to talk about it, since when they first came out, I could not get one to review, even though I make jam all the time, lived on the Ball website and have more readers than a lot of bloggers that got one to review. So there, Ball, take that.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday week and has a great weekend!

Christmas Frenzy!

How was your Christmas?

Ours has been excellent. The family, well our kids, Hubby and MIL decided to have our get together on Christmas Eve. Fortunately, that was decided in time for me to request the day off. LOL! For some odd reason, my company closed for the holiday on Christmas Day and the day AFTER Christmas. Maybe it was some form of political correctness, so as not to offend those that don't observe Christmas. Who knows. But I have planty of vacation days left, so am having a nice 3 day break in the middle of the week.

MIL had sent word via Hubby that I was to bring green bean casserole. I also made deviled eggs and Hubby had gotten a variety cheesecake, rolls and chips. So, we got to MIL's at 12:30 and I took my casserole into the kitchen and lo and behold, MIL had ALSO made a green bean casserole. I was confused and reminded her that she had sent word to me to make one. She then told me that she HAD sent word, but then she changed her mind and decided to make one. She said she was sure she told Hubby or left him a message. Hmmmm...I don't think he would forget to tell me THAT. Oh, well, we have plenty of green bean casserole in the freezer now. LOL!

Our kids and grandkids came, as well as Samantha's boyfriend and Meredith's baby daddy. He is actually also her hubby. They have been separated for a couple of years, but still hang out as a family with the kids. And I have heard that they MIGHT get back together. We shall see. I haven't asked and figure I will be told when there is something to tell.

As for the frenzy? It happened when it was time to open gifts. Our grandsons just started ripping into gifts. I tried to slow them down, but I am not the parent and their parents WERE there. In Chance's defence, he did get Jacob to slow down and actually read the tags to know who gifts were from. But Meredith and Billy just sat and watched as Theo and Wyatt just tore through gift wrapping, tossed the gift aside and went to the next. They even opened some stuff that was not theirs. Ugh!

MY kids did that before I became their stepmom. The first Christmas I spent with them, before Hubby and I married, I was appalled at how they attacked gifts at the family get together. They did NOT behave like that the next year and my in-laws were stunned at the change in their behavior. LOL!

But I am not the mom to the grandkids, so..... But they DID scream out loud and often how much they loved gifts as they opened them.

We had a great visit with the kids, though there was a little tension after Chance and Jacob left as Mere and Samantha are really put out that Chance is not telling them and their mom everything he is doing. As Sam's bf said, "Well, it is HIS business after all." Smart bf. And as my mom said when I talked to her last night, "He has fought in wars...he doesn't have to report his every move to his sisters."

But we did not let that ruin our Christmas. Hubby and I spent yesterday quietly at home, opening gifts and just relaxing. It was like this:

It was a great Christmas! Hope yours was as well!

He's gone again and Happy Holidays!

After staying with us for 5 weeks, our son has moved into his own place. I didn't post updates, but he was busy the entire time he stayed with us and kept me really busy, too! He looked for jobs, he enrolled in school, he shopped for apartments and he did his Christmas shopping.

It was a lot of fun looking at apartments with him and shopping for new stuff for his home. He did have a fully furnished apartment when he was in the Army and put his stuff in storage when he deployed to Afghanistan. Then his storeroom was robbed! Stupid people! They did go to jail for it, but he never got his stuff back, so he only had what he had in his barracks when he got back from deployment. So we shopped...and it was fun. He is a good bargain shopper and was so thankful for everything we got for him.

Last week, Hubby and my MIL helped him move his stuff into his new place. I have not seen it yet, but will when I am invited. I don't invite myself anywhere. I have texted with him a few times and he is doing fine. He found a job that is not the one he was hoping for, but will work around his class schedule. He had several options and decided if the job he wanted the most didn't call, then it meant he was supposed to go to school, so that is his plan now. The GI Bill will pay for school, plus give him a living stipend, so he should manage fine with that and his little job he took.

Hubby and I are ready for Christmas! I was really behind in the jam making and baking area, so made jam and baked bread this weekend. Tomorrow is our family get together and Christmas Day will just be Hubby and me. I am also off on Thursday. So work today, off 3 days, work Friday, off 3 days. I could get used to this schedule. LOL!

Hope everyone is excited about Christmas!

Check it out! Google made my tree twinkle!

Take that, CVS!

For the last couple of years, I have been using CVS brand gentle facial cleansing wash. On the bottle is says "Compare to Purpose", so I figured it was the same as Purpose. It was oil and soap free and I really liked how it made my skin feel.

Recently, I was getting low, so decided to get a new bottle, so I would not run out. Well, thank you very much, CVS. Apparently, I was the only one that liked the facial cleanser as you no longer carry it. Ugh! So, I have been looking for a replacement cleanser. Oh, sure, I COULD pay $9.99 for a bottle of Purpose, but I just don't want to. So, I have been looking.

Then, last weekend, I was at Aldi and looked at the HBA endcap...yes, it is just an endcap at my store.....and there was a bottle of Lacura facial cleanser.I had read good things about Lacura products so thought I would try a bottle. Heck, it was only $2.49. If I didn't like it on my face, I could use it as body wash, or to hand wash something.

I think mine had a green top though. I don't know now, as I put in in a pump bottle I had so I could just pump it instead of picking it up and squeezing. No, not lazy...just like the amount the pump bottle gives me.

So take that CVS, I don't have to buy more expensive facial cleanser. I will just buy it from Aldi.

Happy Friday, everyone!

Are you playing bongos naked?

I thought I would share with you my most excellent Thanksgiving holiday. Wednesday, our office closed early, so I got home around 2:30. It was excellent!

Thursday, we went to see "Dallas Buyers Club" an excellent movie, starring Matthew McConoughey. Though it definitely was not a "feel good" movie, it was a GOOD movie. Then we went to eat at a local "country cooking" restaurant. It was just Hubby, Chance and me. The food was excellent and the company better. We did not eat "Thanksgiving food" as we expected to have that on Saturday. Then we came home and the boys watched football games while I played on the computer and watched some tv. It was really nice.

We thought we were to have the family get together on Saturday, so I planned to cook a broccoli casserole, deviled eggs and pumpkin pie for that. Then I was going to cook more on Sunday to fill in leftovers, so had a turkey breast thawing. BUT, the girls messaged Chance that the Saturday get together was off as Hubby's mom was going to have Meredith's boys and it would be too much for her. Yes, my sorta son-in-law called Hubby's mom and asked if she would take them Saturday so he could "study" and she could not tell him she had plans, so she just cancelled her plans. Yep, she cancelled the family Thanksgiving dinner so she could babysit. I would have been happy to cook dinner and carry  it over there, but didn't even suggest it. Sometimes she drives me crazy in that she will cancel plans at the last minute. Oh, well, her loss.

So I said I would just cook here on Saturday. Chance let the girls know and Samantha said she'd be here. Meredith said she was "all Thanksgivinged out". Whatever. LOL! More food for us!

Friday, Chance and I went running around looking at apartments, he took me to lunch and then we went to Big Lots. Yes on Black Friday and it wasn't too bad. He wanted to do some Christmas shopping for Jacob and BL had a nice set of cookware on sale. So he got some shopping done, bought a set of cookware and a set of dishes. While we were gone, Hubby made cornbread for my dressing, boiled eggs and baked a pumpkin pie.

Saturday I cooked a turkey breast, dressing, broccoli cheese casserole, sweet potato casserole, deviled eggs, crescent rolls and gravy and Bob made mashed potatoes. Chance got a message FRIDAY night from his ex, responding to Chance's message from last MONDAY, that he could pick our grandson, Jacob, up for the day on Saturday, so he went and got Jacob. We had a small group, but it was fun and the food was yummy. 

Sunday was a day to relax, except that I did run to Aldi and Family Dollar to pick up a few things. On Monday, I canned 12 pints of salsa as we were on our last jar and since we did not have enough turkey leftovers, so I roasted another turkey breast on Monday and made some more broccoli casserole. It was quite delicious!

I am taking every Monday in December off, so long weekends all month. WooHoo! I don't know that I plan to cook on every Monday, but we will see.

Oh, and the playing bongos naked question???? After we saw Dallas Buyers Club on Thanksgiving, there was discussion about Matthew McConoughey and it was brought up that he was arrested years ago for smoking pot and playing bongos naked in his house.

So now, when we call each other we ask if the other one is playing bongos naked. LOL! Yes, we are odd.