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!

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!

Top of my mind today is Fires are Horrible. I know the news focuses on it being Malibu and most people think Hollywood Affluence, but there are many others living in and around that area and they are losing homes too. It’s devastating and very dangerous. The Santa Ana winds and the terrain make it all the more treacherous. It just makes me sad.

Switching topics to reading. So I was zooming along in the latest book I was reading when I just…lost interest. It was somewhere between 2/3s and the 3/4s mark and there wasn’t anything specific in the book that triggered it. I think that, for me, the book had a structural flaw that resolved the action portion of the plot too quickly. But again, that’s just for me personally as a reader. Other love it all the way through, so this is definitely a personal taste thing. But now I’m wondering: Have you ever lost interest that deep into a book you were enjoying?

Happy Wednesday!

I wore myself out this weekend, but it’s all good

First up, it’s December and we are on high alert for fires. Anyone else think the weather is just wacky? I mean it’s Southern CA so we don’t get real weather, but fire weather in December? I’m just gonna ask — Mother Nature, did you go off your meds? Hit your head? Have a stroke? I mean we want to be understanding and supportive, but things are getting really strange.

Anyhow, Saturday was my niece’s bridal shower and it was amazing! Just lovely and fun! It was held a restaurant but in a separate room which made it feel more intimate and I loved that. It was wonderful to get to chat with family and friends. I just had a great time + two of my three daughters-in-law were there and that’s always a good time for me. They also had a “fashion artist” (I learn new things every day!) who did sketches of each of us. I took a picture of my fashion sketch to show you:

Don’t panic, guys, I still have a face The sketches were about fashion not faces, LOL. My niece (the bride) and her two sisters are into fashion (one is a lawyer, one is a CPA an done is a journalist but they all love fashion!). The hilarious thing for me is fashion and I don’t live in the same zip code, or even on the same continent, you know? But it’s an accurate sketch of my dress. Also…Spell Check was sure I was trying to spell “ointment” not “continent.” Not even close, Spell Check!

Sunday Wizard went racing so I played “How Much Can I Physically Do In One Day?”  The answer is always not as much as I think I can do. But I keep myself busy trying. Most of it was typical stuff like working out (including rigging up a makeshift weight bench which probably isn’t too dangerous…) and washing bed sheets, but I managed to work a double batch of brownies in there which is fun — one for us to keep and one for Youngest. After writing this blog, I’m hoping to maybe get the tree decorated before Wizard gets home but we’ll see if I have the time and/or energy.

So how was your weekend?

The Wolves are in the house! As I’m writing this, I have about 30 pages left of the book “Moonstruck Mafia: Boston” by Silver James. And I will have definitely have finished it by the times this blog pops up in the feeds. I’m just trying to get this blog done before I read, get distracted and forget until late at night when I don’t want to write it. Because I’m lazy like that!  Also, I’m so NOT a night person.

So the book — it’s long, well over 500 pages, but fast-paced with lots of action so it’s a pretty quick read (now that I actually have time to read after Thanksgiving). Honestly it’s several stories in one book so if you like to get more bang for your buck, this is your book! I wasn’t trying to be funny, but there’s also some banging…just saying. But it’s not as R-rated as some books so pretty safe for the typical reader. I think my favorite characters are Ronan and Maura. I especially love Maura, she’s tough, smart and knows her own mind. I’ve enjoyed the book and sort of dreading The End Which is also why I’m writing this blog first. Am I the only one who kind of dreads The End on some books?

In other “reading” I’m listening to “The Wedding People” by Alison Espach and I think I like it…it’s different than what I expected but I’m intersted so far.

That’s my reading so far this week. What are you reading?

Happy Wednesday!