New Year's Eve-2018

Here's how our last day of 2018 looked-

Morning- We were all still in bed when my cell phone rang. Of course I knew it wasn't the middle of the night- natural light was pouring into the room- so I wasn't too alarmed when it rang. When I answered the phone, I guess it was apparent from my voice that I had been in bed prior to answering the phone. I was actually awake when the phone rang but I was still in bed. The caller was one of my brothers who felt awful because he thought that his call had awoken me. I assured him that wasn't the case but he didn't believe me because he said he'd call me back. We talked later in the morning. 

After talking to my brother, I finished a book that I had been reading. Donnie and Abby went to the gym in the late morning while Alyssa and Jacob continued to sleep. (This winter break has been a DOOZY in terms of going to bed super late and then sleeping in super late.) When Jacob woke up, he went to the Y. Donnie and Abby arrived home and Alyssa and Abby played/ hung out together. 

Late Afternoon- Before we left the house for an early dinner, I decided to run to the grocery store for a few items. Kroger wouldn't be busy at all, I thought (quite erroneously, as it were) as I made my way there. Goodness, Kroger was PACKED. I tried to quickly move around the store to the aisles that I needed to be in. (A decent percentage of the shoppers in the store were in the liquor part of the store and since I didn't need to go in that area, I was not too impeded by the sheer number of people who were in Kroger.) I paused in the Christmas clearance aisle. Christmas décor was marked 70% off while candy was listed as being 50% off. My "clearance IQ" is pretty high and something didn't sound right in that some of the Christmas items were 70% off while some were only 50%. I asked a Kroger employee if the candy was only 50% off or if it, too, was 70% off. The employee scanned a bag of candy and remarked that all of the candy was 70% off. YES!!! Unfortunately (well, actually, fortunately), the candy was fairly well picked over- there were no popular items like Reese Cups, Twix, etc but there were plenty of M&M's and novelty type candy. I quickly loaded some items in my cart, finished my shopping, and settled in for a fairly long wait in the check out line. 

Shortly after I arrived home, we left the house for dinner at Cheesecake Factory. Eating at CF on NYE has become a tradition and we all look forward to it. We arrived close to 4:00 pm. We did not want to wait (we are not patient people) and have noted through the years of dining at CF on NYE that the best way to avoid a line is to arrive well before 5:00 pm. Had a nice dinner and some of us had dessert at CF. 

Evening- Abby had plans to go to her boyfriend's around 8:00 pm. Her boyfriend was hosting a get together with a group of school friends. As for Jacob, we'd asked him earlier in the day what his plans were for the evening and they appeared to be nebulous. "I'm working on them," he responded on a couple of occasions when we asked. I think he was getting up the nerve to ask us and wanted to wait until the last possible minute to ask us for permission for what he wanted to do. His friend Malcolm had invited him to go to Miami (where Malcolm is a student) where Jacob, Malcolm and some other young people would spend the last evening of 2018 figuring out world peace. Well, maybe not figuring out world peace but they certainly had nothing illicit planned (per Jacob). 

Alyssa, Donnie and I spent the rest of 2018 eating sweets, playing games (Wheel of Fortune and Don't Take My Word) and turning the TV on with a few minutes to spare in 2018 to watch the ball drop in Times Square and being thankful that we were not in New York at Times Square (the weather there looked less than ideal). 

My preference would have been to be in bed by 12:05 or so but we had to pick Abby up at 1:00 so my bedtime was delayed until well after 1:00 am.

The weather was crazy warm and rainy. By the time I took this screen shot of the temperature the rain had passed. But it rained most of the day.

Don't Take My Word!!

My dinner at CF- and my lunch for the next day. I had filled up on bread before my food even arrived :). I cut that burger right in half and saved half of it, along with half of my fries for the next day.

One of my Kroger clearance purchases... it's hallow inside but still there's a decent bit of chocolate.

These were part of my dessert on NYE... I crushed some of these and some cookies to add to the rich milkshake that I made. It was so good.