wrappin' it up!

It's 5.1 degrees F outside, and that's about the expected high for the day.  Well, at least the negative sign is gone from the digital readout now.  BRRRRR!

Yesterday, my plan was to take the van in to swap on the snow tires.  Ironically, I didn't make it there because the van doesn't have snow tires!  Today?  Maybe?




I guess we can call this "The Bitter End" of  2014.  Before I make any resolutions (yeah, riiiight...), I thought I should take a look back on the year with it's ups and downs.  Seems to me that they were mostly ups.  To save my fingers, I'm posting this photo montage of (some of) the highlights of the year in (sort of) chronological order.  Ready??!?

Yes, it's been another wonderful year!  And I'm looking forward to more good times among blog friends in 2015.  Thanks to all of you for making my life richer and warmer!  Best wishes for much fun and amusement in the new year for all you hard working souls!

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Silver Liningness Sunday

Here we are, the final week of 2014!  I'm not quite yet organized for the year-in-review post, but I think I can handle the week just passed.

It was a nice week off from school and work.  And, as typical, we don't get too stressed around here for the holidays, but still manage to partake in the specialness.  The kids all seem happy with what Magnum and I got for them.  Maybe part of the Christmas Eve freeze-out is to increase the gratitude scale!  Heck, it works for me.

Plus they had Grandparent money to burn, so we did some Boxing Day shopping on Friday.  Mostly all at Bass Pro Shop, where I didn't care to buy anything, but I do enjoy looking at the fish.  The guys also went to Big 5 Sporting Goods, and I passed on that one.  Too bad because some drunk guy came in and started undressing!

I guess he was using the floor display exercise equipment and began stripping.  Management had to throw him out.  Dang, I knew I should've gone with them.

We've had fun gaming together, of the non electronic sort.  Along with the more wholesome games, we played that totally inappropriate game, and so now our familial relationships have reached a whole 'nother level...

Along more traditional lines, there's been jigsaw puzzling, working away on this Picasso.  Anyone know the painting?  Anyone?

In movie news, Magnum and I watched "The Grand Budapest Hotel".  What silly fun is that?!  I'd never heard of it, but Magnum found it at the library so we gave it a go.  It's just silly satire, and I suspect that the many big-name celebrities in it had as much fun making it as we did watching.  

And I will give a shout out to the makeup department.  Remember a while ago when I was bashing "Prometheus"?  One of my gripes was the terrible make-up job in making a young actor look like an old man?  Well, The Grand Budapest Hotel had it going on.  Tilda Swinton looked absolutely ancient!

So we're winding up the last of the year.  This week looks to be a blast!  As in arctic blast...  I suppose that's good, though, because I still have much to scratch off the to-do list.  I did get out today for a romp with Bella since it's probably our last nice bicycling day for a while.  The menfolk also took advantage by going to the shooting range and (literally) blowing away the Christmas cash.  

Have a great final week!  Stay warm!

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larvae little Christmas

Happy post-Christmas to those who celebrate!
Happy Friday to the others!

We enjoyed a nice day of much cooking, much eating, much gaming, and much general slacking off for the five of us.  No travelling, and no visitors.





We also managed to survive another Christmas camp.  In fact, this year was not nearly as cold as last, but that's not saying a whole lot because last year was freaking freeeezing!

The trusty tent stove did its job nicely, cranking out the warmth until it didn't anymore.  Strangely, no one wanted to stay up all night to feed it.  I think  it needs a name...

We think the temperatures got down into the upper 20s.  Livable for one night, but I wouldn't want to do it on a regular basis

Long johns are our friends.

I remember waking up cold around 4 a.m.  The fire had long gone out and I was craving my hoodie, which was outside my bag.  WHY did I not tuck it in with me?  I managed to funnel it in through the small hole in my mummy bag, but had no success in actually putting it on once it was in there.  I had to sacrifice crucial body heat and loosen the bag so as to put on the hoodie, but in the end, it was worth it.

I stayed snug the rest of the night in my cocoon, hoping to emerge a beautiful butterfly.

Spoiler Alert:  it didn't work.

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oh, holy frijole night

Here we are, Christmas Eve.  The "manger" awaits.

Yes, once again, we'll be re-enacting the original Christmas story. We've got a Joseph, a Virgin *COUGH* Mary, three wise guys, and some animals.  The only missing detail is the baby savior.

All right, well, we will be spending the night outside again this year, but it's not really a portrayal of the nativity.  I'm not actually sure of the why behind Christmas camp, but I'm pretty sure it isn't that.  Maybe it's to spend the night like homeless people to help us appreciate that we're not homeless or alone on Christmas day or any day.

Yeah, okay, I'm going with that.

Wishing you all laughter, peace, and love!  Oh, and warmth too, we mustn't forget warmth (inside and out)!

From the AbbyNormals
xoxox

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Silver Liningness Sunday

Happy Winter Solstice!  In the northern hemisphere, the days will start getting longer now until they aren't anymore!

We got our annual little tree yesterday.  A baby Colorado Blue Spruce.  Here she is.  Quiet, she's asleep...

...in the garage, next to the unwanted TV that, yes *sigh* is still here.  

This was another nice week of getting caught up on a few neglected things.  Oh, Christmas is coming soon too.  PEO was fun earlier this week.  No business meeting in December, just party time. 

Despite the fact that we DID go to BestBuy on Thanksgiving, we're not big into the whole retail scene at all.  Magnum and I do get gifts for the kids, but we've never done lists or Santa or any of that, and so they're actually pretty hard to get gifts for.  If they need it, we just get it when it's needed.  If they want it, they just get it themselves or come to us ready to deal.  What's left??  It's a challenge, I tellya!

As mentioned, my pedal perks leg warmers arrived this week, earlier than I expected.  Gosh, they're nice :D.  Really, I would not likely get these for myself, but since they were on the list...

Alice and I took them for a lovely ride to put them through the paces.  It was about 40 degrees out and sunny.  My fingers and toes went a little numb, but my legs were so cozy!  Recommend!

When I got home, Chaco was here, happily finished with semester finals.  He took the pics of the legwarmers.  Not only are they comfy cozy, but I think they bring out Alice's eyes.

And so we're into the final weeks of 2014.  Thank you to all of my blog friends for another fun year of blogowship (??)!  Enjoy your holidays and all the extra sunlight coming our way!

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Friday! Not that it matters what day it is...

Happy Friday, but it's my second or third official day of break, so I'm not really paying attention!

Wednesday night, we got a dusting of snow, and yesterday morning I was out in the backyard with China when I noticed a bunch of critter tracks like this:

Cute huh?  About three inches long and all over the place.  The photo was taken next to China's food dish.  Note:  China was an outdoor dog when we first got her.  She and our other dog, Domino, had a barn and a dog run.  She has since become a lazy indoor dog, but she won't eat inside.  Against her religion or something.  Anyway...

These tracks, I wasn't sure what they were.  Fox maybe?  I googled and have narrowed it down to two possibilities:  raccoon or big skunk.  

I sure hope it's raccoon.

Unless it has rabies.

Now I'm off to run a few errands.  Good news - my leg warmers arrived this week and were bestowed upon me on Wednesday!  That was quicker than I expected.  I'ts fun to win stuff!

Gonna go road test them now :D.

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UPDATE:  I'm back.  

CO-ZEEEEEE!!
free legwarmers!

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dawn of a new error

Well...

I think I just turned in my last school assignment for the semester, and I'm all... "now what?"  This is how these semesters seem to typically end.  Mad rush of finals followed by a vast nothingness.  All that momentum grinds to a halt.  I'm a bit worried about my brain turning to mush before the next round, so I'd better come up with something to stimulate it.  Even my one current tutee is a college boy also on break, so he's no help.

But I do have things I need to do today.  It's grey and gloomy out with snow in the forecast, but nothing falling yet.  I can't decide if I should venture out on a bicycle or not.  I'm thinking, "yes", and that will surely get the sky precipitating.

Last night, we had our PEO Christmas party.  Potluck followed by a yankee swap gift exchange.  I ended up with this large platter:

It's a nice ceramic serving platter, about 18" in diameter.  Not something I would choose myself since I don't even know if I have ample space to store it in our tiny kitchen.  I had my hot little hands on more appropriate items, but they were all stolen from me, and in the end, I brought the platter home.  Good times.

So now, to get caught up.  I look around and I see that the house needs attention (always), my hair (perpetually) needs attention, my wardrobe (ugh) needs attention, the pantry (constantly) needs attention, the monster fish tank... 

...screw those evil fish that thrive no matter what.

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