TGIF! It’s the last Friday Five of 2024! 2025 is pounding rather demandingly on the door Okay, let’s get into sharing five random things about our week:

1. We had a lovely Christmas Day. In the morning we were alone, opened gifts and had breakfast. All good. Maggie has the silly story here: Santa got her a new bed all wrapped up. Maggie knew it was a bed for her, and immediately curled up on it — while it was still wrapped! Oh Maggie…you’re priceless. Once I ripped a bit of the paper, she got into the game and unwrapped it. But she seems to love it.
2. In the afternoon, we went over to Biker Witch’s house (my sister) and had a pretty low key but totally fun dinner. I got to catch up with her step daughter whom I haven’t seen in a while. That was awesome and really made me happy. And Maggie came with us — she had a blast until she got tired, then she found a quiet spot to rest in.
3. I know this will sound crazy: But we took down the tree yesterday and got it all cleaned up. The house had gotten pretty dirty and both of us were ready. If feels good to have that done. Now I can get the house reasonably clean for the new year. I think we are both just ready to go back to our normal schedules.
4. Every year, I SWEAR I won’t bake that much again. We’ll see. For the record, I’m the problem — I want to make everything while my body laughs in my face at my delusional thinking that I can bake everything in 5 days at my age.
5. Wizard’s not feeling well. It may be a cold. Or it’s part of ongoing allergies plus another issue he’s having treated (nothing real serious as far as we know). I mean it’s good that he got through all the holiday stuff, but I hope whatever it is, he feels better soon. He could just be really tired too — it happens.

Now it’s your turn to share! I really hope you all have an amazing last weekend of 2024!

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas!! And sharing a picture of my granddaughter wearing pajamas that Uncle Oldest got her. I hope your holiday is as bright and happy as her smile.

Happy two days before Christmas!!! I hear Santa’s checking his list twice and making sure the Reindeers are resting up and loading up on their carbs to fly! So for the weekend:

Saturday was an amazing and way too much fun family party! I think we all had a great time. It was just sheerly a casual but good time with everyone in a good mood and really to play. Turbo got Dad and one of his Aunties to play soccer. All went great until Turbo took a hit right in the face. Everyone winced at the same time. But Turbo shook that off fast, and got back to playing something else. Later that evening, he finally sat still and began building a leg set that was about three years too old for him. Didn’t matter — his parents have taught him how to both read instructions and to figure out how things work by studying the pictures. It’s awesome to see how long and hard Turbo can concentrate and work a problem when he wants too.

When Baby Girl arrived and Youngest called Dibs from out front. I heard this from inside the house, and raced out to beat Youngest to the car I did politely hug her mom before grabbing her in case anyway thinks I’m rude, LOL. And her mom is awesome to be, happily sharing her daughter which I appreciate (as did Turbo’s mom). This baby is so chill, it’s mind-boggling. She’ll let us pass her around endlessly. She just loves watching everyone and is beginning to explore hands and mouth of course. Everything will go in her mouth if she can manage it. Turbo was (and is) a bundle of nonstop energy with an engineer’s mind. This baby is more laidback, but we’ll see….I feel like she’s absorbing and learning and we’ll see her personality really unfold.

We ate, opened gifts, had dessert and then a Nerf Gun Battle broke out with my sons. Sigh, I got shot like three times by supposedly friendly fire and no one was even sorry. Probably because he didn’t hurt me, but still! Somehow we managed to keep Baby Girl out of the line of fire and Turbo and Grandpa were playing Legos far away from the firefight. But my sons were leaping over furniture and rolling across the floors, cracking the rest of us up. Because we’re all high class like that…obviously.

So it was just a lovely afternoon and evening of family time.

Sunday we were tired, and I tried to give my body a recovery day (from a long super busy week plus a couple careful workout while guarding my ankle). But dang, my brain was drumming it’s fingers going, do you know what we could be getting done? Someone needs to drug my brain, really. I did manage to take nearly a full day to do lowkey things and sit around.

How was your weekend?

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas or whatever version of the holiday you celebrate! I may put a quick post up on Wednesday, but I want to make sure I wish you all a joyous time with your loved ones!

TGIF! Are the holidays always such a whirlwind? But you know what? Keeping busy isn’t a bad thing Anyhow, let’s get into sharing five random things about our week. Here’s mine:

1. I went to the dentist on Monday and they did a full set of x-rays and cleaning and all is well. Considering the year I’ve had, it’s nice to get good news anywhere on the health front.
2. We bought two pictures over a year ago — and just this last week Wizard had them professionally frame. Because we get right on stuff like that, LOL. Wizard hung them then in the office and they add a lot of color.
3. I’ve been baking. Let’s see if I can remember what I’ve made: Cranberry orange bread with an orange glaze, double batch of white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, double batch of Mocha Toffee cookies, double batch of Pistachio Cookies with brown butter icing, double batch of lemon cookies, gluten free lemon bars, gluten free oatmeal chocoate chip bars, and double batch of gluten free chocolate crinkle cookies. Have I forgotten anything? I don’t know! Oh wait, I also made peppermint bark.
4. Wednesday I ran to the store, and I paid $11.99 for 18 eggs. I was so mad. And then the bag guy wanted to bag my eggs separately and the checker stopped him. I watched in horror as she told him the put the eggs on the bottom of the bag, then added three pounds of butter, two pounds of powdered sugar then picked up a bag of lemons and told him to put those on top. OF MY EGGS THAT COST $11.99. That when I said,  “No. Those are eggs on the bottom. I’ll take the bag of lemons.” I’m being serious when I say that was me being restrained. But the bag guy was new, and trying. It was the checker I was annoyed with.
5. Tomorrow is the family party at Oldest’s house. He’s every excited for us to see his lights — he totally went Christmas Vacation (the movie) with his outside decor. I’m brining dessert, so I ordered an apple pie, and will make gluten free/dairy free cupcakes. I’ll probably make chocolate cupcakes and  sprinkle cupcakes, but I’m also considering a S’mores cupcake with Marshmallow icing. I have concerns about the Marshmallow icing melting so I may hold off on that one. These are not my best desserts, but they should be okay.

That’s my week, now it’s your turn! I hope everyone has a great weekend!

I was getting so irritated at a book I was listening to that was supposed to be a mystery — until I realized I had missed that there was two women protagonists, not one. There’s a single narrator and she’s pretty good, so this isn’t on her. It’s me — I’m baking and doing a bunch of stuff while listening so it just slipped by me. And somehow the book was coming across as one woman whining about a breakup.

Once I caught onto the chapters alternating between the two women’s POVs the book got much more interesting!  There is a women upset about the breakup, but there’s a mystery (or maybe a suspense) brewing up in there too.

I’m not always the brightest, LOLOL!! But seriously, I’d never miss this when reading a physical or Kindle book, but I sure can listening to an Audible book while I’m doing other things at the same time. Especially since I’ve been doing random math in my head while baking for doubling and quadrupling recipes. Plus I change the technique and that requires a shift in baking temp and times. So much math

I’m guessing you all don’t make this same mistake????

Happy Wednesday!

Yep, the weekend came and went with nothing exciting to report. I felt Grinchy on Sunday, but that will probably pass by today. It’s just achiness and a bit of insomnia. Plus I’m not resting my ankle much because…who has time for that? I did minimal cleaning, wrapped gifts, went to Walmart and spent and obscene amount on baking stuff. I’ll have flour, sugar, butter and chocolate left over, but hopefully won’t run short as I bake as I sometimes have to pivot recipes for various reasons and wanted to make sure I have what I need. I’m still looking for cranberries, pistachios and of all things, candy canes.

This morning I’m going to the dentist, then a couple errands on the way home, and get I’ll started on baking and writing out a few Christmas cards. I’m feeling oddly lazy and not motivated to bake, but I’ll probably get into it once I start. Also no one is making me do this, so the only pressure I feel is self imposed

I also need to come up with a dessert for our family party on Saturday…suggestions welcome but I’m not too worried about it yet. That I can conjure up pretty quickly if needed.

That was my weekend, how was yours?

TGIF!! Okay let’s dive right into sharing five random things about our week. Here’s mine:

1. Car Drama stopped by for a visit to our family. One car was damaged getting a tire patched, and other vehicle stolen. Neither things have happened before so it was jarring. It wasn’t Wizard or my cars. And while it’s upsetting, at least it wasn’t an accident and no one was hurt! Things can be fixed or replaced, but people can’t.
2. We babysat our granddaughter on Tuesday. That was amazing as always. She’s just a delight at three months old. She smiles at everyone. And of course, she’d much rather take naps on us than in her crib.
3. I made White Chicken Chili for the first time ever. It came out good (I think). A tad spicy for my taste, but some jack cheese, plain Greek yogurt and avocado on top tames that nicely. I’m pretty proud of it. Wizard isn’t interested, which means it’s all mine for quick and easy lunches. I divided it up in single servings and froze some. That was the good part. The bad part, I didn’t use gloves when I diced the jalapeno. Jalapeno Hand is a thing and it’s annoying. For any of you too smart to chop jalapeno without gloves, it essentially burns for a few hours. I did use some olive oil to break down the  oil from the pepper that causes it, and that helped. Fun fact — I had disposable gloves in the drawer directly below where I was chopping the jalapeno, I was just too pressed for time to stop and put them on. That was a very annoying miscalculation.
4. Wednesday I ran from one room to the other to get the phone when it rang and half way there I felt something funky in my right ankle. I actually said, mid-run, “Crap I felt that.” Wizard saw, and heard, this whole thing and just shook his head in despair. I rarely ever fall, or do normal things. I just sprain my ankle mid-jog and keep going   However I did get the phone in time to answer an important question from one of my sons, and then practiced some dedicated denial to clean the bathrooms after that. When I went to bed, my denial dissolved into an ache, and then when I got up in the middle of the night, I groaned enough to have Maggie run in and check on me. Seriously, it’s mild overall. No significant swelling, it feels better with shoes on, and I spent all Thursday afternoon and evening resting it. Mostly because Wizard made me, but it still counts.
5. This weekend I’ll plan and organize a little baking for next week. I’m not doing a lot, just a few things. I’ll need to do some wrapping since my ankle prevented that yesterday. I’m 92% done with Christmas shopping so that’s nice. I had one key gift go missing even though it showed delivered a week ago — then it showed up last night. That was a relief. I had just started a refund process and then was able to cancel that so all good. So this weekend is odds and ends. Oh and I’m getting the gray erased from my hair today.

That’s my five, now I’d to hear yours!