Energy

Tonight, I went onto the local power company website to see if they had our current bill listed on there. I am curious since we have been quite bright this holiday season with all of the lights. They don't have the current one on there, however they had this cool, handy-dandy energy calculator to figure out where you spend your energy dollars.
They use the stats from your actual bills and then ask you questions about how many rooms in your house, what appliances you have, what type--gas/electric, square footage, how many levels you have, your heating/cooling system, year built, etc...
After that, it takes you to the next page and shows you a few colored graphs as to where the energy dollars went and how you compare to other homes in your area on usage. We were in the greenest area of the graph for usage on both electric and gas--which means we use about the least possible I guess. I was definitely glad about that! That even factors in my Christmas light season from last year! We use most of our energy dollars in heating our home--no shock there!
I thought we were pretty "green" as far as energy usage in the house, but now I know. That makes me glad. The energy efficient light bulbs do work as do the other things we've implemented. I go "green" to save "green". Anyway, I just thought it was cool and I had fun with it. Check your local power company's website and you just might have the same little charts and such! It's quite informative. I failed to mention that on the bill, it even shows you all of the different reasons the bill went up or down.

Laundromats

Do you ever see something while driving and a thought pops into your head? As I headed home from work today, I passed the laundromat. I pass it every day. I saw a lady lugging her laundry basket out the door and my mind raced back to the days where we lived in an apartment and had to go to the laundromat. It was awful to go and we very much disliked it. The last time I had to go, I was 8 months pregnant with Aliyah and it was summer. We lived on the 3rd floor of the apartment--no elevators. I remembered hauling that stuff up all of those stairs and kind of despising it. It's one thing we do not miss! The other thing I hated about the laundromat was that it was a smokey type-of place unless you went on smoke-free Wednesdays or whatever day that was.
Anyway, as I passed that laundromat, I couldn't help but be thankful for having a washer and dryer and not having to visit laundromats anymore!
Other than my thankful thought of the day, it was Monday. You know what Mondays are...the day to immerse back into work --particularly after a long holiday weekend. I loved the holiday weekend so much that I didn't want it to end. There is still work to be done at home--dishes, thank-you's, Christmas decs to put away, and more. Some things may or may not get finished tonight, it depends. I may just want to sit and chill, or I may feel productive. Either way, I'm looking forward to another holiday this week and spending more time with my sweetie-pies (all 3 of them). We are planning another trip to near-Chicago for New Year's. Apparently, we feel the need to go that way once a month or more as this will make 6 months in a row now! Josh plans to get some extra food from PF Changs so he can have some when he has a craving. He craves that worse than a pregnant lady craves ice cream or pickles--lol!

Winter

The only redeeming quality about winter for me is Christmas. Ours was wonderful. At times, it seemed quite busy, but we were able to do all of those things that we had in mind. Somehow, we managed to clean/straighten the house between each set of guests that arrived to celebrate. Christmas celebrations are definitely kind of messy (a good messy). There are so many new things around in the living room, wrapping paper, dishes, cameras out, extra coats, Christmas clothes, Christmas cards--you get the idea.
Josh worked for part of the day on Christmas Eve. We took a later lunch and then someone stopped by--the girls had lots of fun! We left early for our Christmas Eve service--it fills up very fast. It was beautiful with lots of carols and readings. A great start to celebrating Christmas. The children go up front and one of the pastors reads a children's Christmas book. It was called "The Animals Christmas Eve". This was a wonderful book for Aliyah as the children got to make the sounds of the animals during each part. We came home and the four of us opened gifts. There was much to do to get ready for Christmas day. The gifts we had opened had to be straightened, the house cleaned, the food prepped, table set, table/chairs put upstairs, gifts put out for the girls, and a couple of gifts to wrap. WHEW--we made it to bed at 1:30 am.
Christmas morning was fun as we had breakfast and then proceeded to open gifts and have dinner. We mingled and then Josh's dad & his wife came over. Following that, we visited my aunt & uncle & cousins. Everyone had fun and ate some yummy food. Josh's grandma lives nearby my aunt & uncle so we visited her on the way back. Since she lives in an assisted living facility, it was rather warm inside...by the time we left we were feeling sleepy. The cold air outside fixed that problem rather quickly.
Once we arrived home around 9 pm, the girls went to bed and Josh and I chilled out on the couch--a book for him and the computer for me.
Yesterday, we did some shopping--more returning than shopping. Everything I looked at was cheaper before Christmas and now it is much more picked over.
Today, we had plans of going to a place near Chicago, however the weather forecast of heavy rain made us decide otherwise. After we left and went to lunch, I was very glad we decided to avoid the trip to Chicago. As we were driving along the interstate, we experienced what I called "hurricane rain". This rain was so hard that it was white and visibility was about 0! I was driving and couldn't see anything except for the occasional brake light of the car ahead of me and the signs--only as we were right at them. We couldn't see the lines on the road to even pull over. Josh told me to put on the flashers since we were driving slowly. Everyone was going slowly at that point--maybe 30 at best. It was very scary because when you go from around 70 all the way down to 20-30, you don't know what those behind you are doing/seeing or not seeing for that matter. Thankfully, we got through that safely. I couldn't help but thank God and breathe a huge sigh of relief.
I am very happy to say that we are experiencing a HEAT WAVE! All of the ice and snow has melted, but we are having TONS & TONS of rain. It was 64 at one point. That is at least a 50 degree swing from what we have been experiencing. It has been a cold winter already and it's not even January. I opened a couple of windows for a short time this morning to circulate some fresh air =).
Gotta go--there is work to be done again!

Elf

Here is what happens (and really did happen) when a new Christmas tradition goes over too well...
Last night, Aliyah came to talk to us with a very sad look on her face. Josh was trying to cheer her and told her Christmas is only 2 days away. She looked down even further and replied, "I know, but I don't care about presents and stuff". He asked her what was wrong and she ran off to draw a picture. She's really big into drawing pictures.
She returned with a piece of paper with her first and last name on one side and on the other was a picture of "Taggie" our Elf on the Shelf--Elf. She had gone to where he was sitting and looked at him to draw--oh so cute!! She did mention that she didn't get all of his eye details in the picture--so funny. We knew then that she was going to be sad that Taggie doesn't return after Christmas Eve until next Christmas season.
She went to bed, and later I heard sobbing coming from her bedroom. I had Josh call her upstairs so we could talk to her. Yes, she is sad that Taggie is leaving and will be cold and a myriad of other things. Josh tried to tell her that Christmas is only 1 day away and there would be presents and fun. The one day away thing made it worse because that means Taggie gets closer to leaving and she doesn't need any presents. Then she got really heavy hitting with this..."Christmas isn't about presents anyway, it's about Jesus being born, and spending time together with your family". Josh told her that she would get presents anyway. She continued to sob--you see, Aliyah gains attachment to certain things and they are pretty deep attachments. So much so, that she would in reality give up all of her presents so Taggie would stay at our house.
I told her she could make Taggie a card and draw pictures. She thought of all of the things she thought were cool about Taggie and she will make the card today. She is even going to ask Taggie if he will stay somewhere in our house. This, is what happens when something goes over way better than you ever expected--that's what happened with our new Christmas tradition.

Bustling

There was much to be done today work-wise. It always seems there is before an extended weekend. Add to that the whole Christmas holiday and there were gifts to wrap and things to be purchased. Today, I went to Wal-Mart for the first time in 7 months! It definitely reminded me of all the reasons that I choose not to shop there personally. If others want to shop there--cool by me--I just don't care for it.
We had many laughs along the way at Wal-Mart--mostly at the crabby people. What else do you do when you stand in line at the deli for twice as long as it took you to gather a whole cart-full of stuff? People cut in line, the lady behind the counter was oh-not-so-pleasant. Of course, my mission was to be OH-SO-PLEASANT and find the humor in this crazy time. No reason to get crabby, it just makes it worse on everyone. After she finished huffing/snorting and plopping the meat onto the scale several times, we were on our way. The checkout line girl was "happy" sort of as well. She was so happy that the bag of sugar made a big thud as she threw it in the bag--more laughter from me. The soda was pretty tough as well as she struggled to find the "handle" in the 12 pack rather than just pick it up. The water was dangerous as apparently it was too heavy for her to fully lift and set down once she scanned it--another thud--lol! Mind you, this wasn't an elderly cashier or a little tiny one that couldn't lift--guess she just didn't want to trouble herself. On our way to the parking lot...through the slush/freezing rain we plodded. I forgot to mention that we attained great muscular exercise as the cart was too heavy to turn the corners and it took two of us. We were missing two things--a rolling pin and powdered sugar. WMT ran out!
On to pick up the girls and to Kroger. The slush/rain/sleet had worsened and not a parking space to be found. I was kind of asking myself if I was crazy on the way inside. With little trouble, I found the things needed for Christmas feasting...more summer sausage, cheese, Chex for party mix, juice for Christmas morning, egg nog for my little dark-haired mouse, and a partridge in a pear tree.
We went back to the pretty little brick street with the Christmas-village looking homes to soak in some more Christmas beauty.
I'm glad to be sitting inside with the ambiance of only the Christmas lights typing at my computer after all of that!
Nothing exciting in the mail--not even any Christmas cards =(. I think less people are sending them this year--IDK. Hubby is at work so not much going on here.
Tomorrow is my favorite day of the Christmas season. Christmas Eve feels so magical to me. It seems that the lights shine differently, children's eyes sparkle, and few things can compare to singing those Christmas carols by candlelight at the Christmas Eve service. I absolutely love Christmas music of all kinds and somehow for a few moments...those Christmas carols can take you back for a taste of Bethlehem on that night so long ago!
Merry Christmas!! Go make some memories and soak it all in this Christmas. Love to all!

Chuckles

I thought it would be funny to share some things that made me chuckle on this cold day.
1. apparently, the girl (Janene) on the radio is working 24/7--not really, but she was in the late evening last night...then this morning at 6 am when we were leaving, and then again at 5ish tonight. Poor girl--she must be the only one that's not on vacation. My voice would be tired after all of that talking.
2. the server at Chili's tonight thought that he had to fill our drinks TO THE TOP--literally every time and proceed to walk gingerly with them to the table =).
3. the girl who brought out our food said the following, "when I was making this, I thought of you guys" uh-oh...she didn't even know it was us who ordered it but she somehow did...lol!
4. when we were at McD's for breakfast this morning, an employee (working behind the counter) was putting cookies in her pocket from the cookie display. She did this ever so slightly so that no one else noticed. I pointed it out to Josh and my point was proven when she proceeded to reach in her pocket to mess with the cookies several times. I mean--it's not funny she was stealing the cookies, but you don't really expect to see a grown adult stealing cookies and putting them in their pocket. I did let someone know that she was putting cookies in her pocket.
5. Josh and Aliyah skipped down the aisle in Old Navy today--like some jolly Christmas scene. Yes, he does do silly embarrassing things once in awhile--comedian at heart. We NEVER really go there, but we went there to kill time until another store opened up.

A measure of success has been achieved in finding a few gifts for Josh. I won't mention them here since he does read this from time to time. Yay! I will say, since he knows that I shopped at Banana Republic, I found a great deal there. Something that was regularly $98. for $28!!
Happy winter weather if you are into that sort of thing--not me. I'm dreaming of pool floats, water, and hot sun!

Ice

Ice Baby! As I begin typing, it has started. They are predicting one inch of ice. One thing is for sure, I am glad to have the heat on a regular basis since the electrical issue has been fixed!
The plan for tomorrow (if there is ice) is to clean the house, do some laundry, and finish wrapping gifts. Josh is sanding the soffit and will hopefully be painting tomorrow. He also has big plans of making Party Mix and Puppy Chow. Party Mix is a yearly tradition for us and he has not made any yet this year. Other than that, maybe a little chillin out time.
We have certainly enjoyed having some extra time together as a family before the holidays. It gives us a chance to "soak it all in". Up until this week, we have been running around in a dizzied hurry trying to do stuff that needs done. Josh and I got to go see "Four Christmases" today--cute movie.
Hoping for minimal to no ice!