Post Christmas thoughts
While the end of a year, not to mention a decade, is reason for many to reflect and do year end/ decade end reviews, I'm fighting lassitude (I'll blame the day long rain) and can only muster up the energy to write about the past five days.
*This was the first post Christmas where I haven't seen any of my siblings. I felt and still feel sorry for myself because of this. It's strange to not have family over post Christmas and a small Christmas celebration with them. I've never boxed my Christmas china up so fast- there simply was no reason to keep it out with no more Christmas celebrations.
*Partially due to not having guests come into the town after Christmas and some of the preparation that entails, for the first time in a long time, I purposely went out shopping the day after Christmas to get Christmas sales. Normally, I do post Christmas shopping for sales but it's more because I'm out doing grocery shopping or at a store for a different reason and happen to come upon post Christmas sales. This girls said they wanted to go with me because they've never gone shopping post Christmas just for sales. We decided to go early on the 26th to beat the crowds. It worked out pretty well! I got a new Christmas tree for next year at half price. It's a flocked tree that will likely go in the basement. I picked up some ornaments and a tree topper while I was at it.
*We finally went to Jungle Jim's International Food Market in Cincinnati. I'd heard a lot about this grocery store (there are actually two of them in Cincy. We went to the one closest to us in Fairfield). The store is HUGE with over 200,000 square feet. As an example of its extensive offerings- pilfered from its website-, it has 700 different kinds of hot sauces. There are sections of the store devoted to food from a particular region or country. For example, there's an Italian section with several rows of different boxed pastas (in at least a hundred different shapes) and sauces. There was a broad Asian section with huge selection of various rices and condiments. I was very interested in the German section. The area was large but if it carried my favorite candy, Mozarlt Kugeln, I missed it. I may have missed it because the store was crazy crowded. Not unexpected for the middle of the afternoon on a Saturday but unfortunate as it made navigating and looking around that much more challenging. We should have gone early on Saturday but it wasn't our top priority of the day. I'm glad we went and would want to go back during the week or very early on a Saturday.
*We planned our next vacation. We had a dizzying array of choices when we landed (ha,ha) on a destination. Donnie and I both did a lot of research and we had a lot of discussion with the girls about what we wanted to do. I came to the conclusion that one profession that I would do poorly in and not enjoy is travel planning... I don't particularly enjoy planning our own family vacations. I can't fathom planning a vacation for someone else :). Anyway, back to our vacation, I'm really looking forward to it. Having the plans (or most of them) out of the way is a relief and now we just have to waitimpatiently patiently.
*Jacob went out of state for about two and half days to go with his girlfriend and her family to visit relatives. It was a state he's not spent much time in. I'm glad he got to go and do something different, especially since we aren't traveling during break.
*Alyssa got a cookbook for Christmas and has already made two items from it. The book is geared towards kids but it has a lot of practical information about cooking terms/methods in it that I'm finding useful as I peruse it. The two items she's made have been really good. She made pancakes all by herself. They were crazy fluffy and probably the best pancakes I've ever had. I helped her just a little with a chicken dish. It turned out well, too. Best of all, she is excited to try more dishes and learn how to do more in the kitchen. Winner, winner chicken (or anything she makes) dinner!
*As with a good part of the country, we are experiencing mild weather and have been since before Christmas. Temps have been in the 60's for days in a row. We've done more walking than we have
ever, post Christmas. In some ways, I would prefer it to be colder- it doesn't seem like the season when it's not cold. Yet practically, I'm loving the warmer weather.
*As will be a surprise to no one, we are enjoying being out of school. So, so, so, so enjoying being out of school. No early alarms, no homework, days stretched out ahead of us to do activities or to be lazy at home- these area few of our favorite things.
Welcoming this guy into our family tree collection!!
Got some pretty ornaments that will adorn the tree next year and hopefully for many more after that
Jungle Jim's website mentioned samples that were distributed throughout the store. We only encountered one sample, this peach salsa. It was sooooo good that I bought a jar. I wish there had been more samples. Who knows what else I may have tried, liked and purchased? I never would have bought this if I hadn't tried it.
This is the cookbook that Alyssa requested and we got her for Christmas. We got it off of Amazon. Highly recommend for cooks of all ages :).
*This was the first post Christmas where I haven't seen any of my siblings. I felt and still feel sorry for myself because of this. It's strange to not have family over post Christmas and a small Christmas celebration with them. I've never boxed my Christmas china up so fast- there simply was no reason to keep it out with no more Christmas celebrations.
*Partially due to not having guests come into the town after Christmas and some of the preparation that entails, for the first time in a long time, I purposely went out shopping the day after Christmas to get Christmas sales. Normally, I do post Christmas shopping for sales but it's more because I'm out doing grocery shopping or at a store for a different reason and happen to come upon post Christmas sales. This girls said they wanted to go with me because they've never gone shopping post Christmas just for sales. We decided to go early on the 26th to beat the crowds. It worked out pretty well! I got a new Christmas tree for next year at half price. It's a flocked tree that will likely go in the basement. I picked up some ornaments and a tree topper while I was at it.
*We finally went to Jungle Jim's International Food Market in Cincinnati. I'd heard a lot about this grocery store (there are actually two of them in Cincy. We went to the one closest to us in Fairfield). The store is HUGE with over 200,000 square feet. As an example of its extensive offerings- pilfered from its website-, it has 700 different kinds of hot sauces. There are sections of the store devoted to food from a particular region or country. For example, there's an Italian section with several rows of different boxed pastas (in at least a hundred different shapes) and sauces. There was a broad Asian section with huge selection of various rices and condiments. I was very interested in the German section. The area was large but if it carried my favorite candy, Mozarlt Kugeln, I missed it. I may have missed it because the store was crazy crowded. Not unexpected for the middle of the afternoon on a Saturday but unfortunate as it made navigating and looking around that much more challenging. We should have gone early on Saturday but it wasn't our top priority of the day. I'm glad we went and would want to go back during the week or very early on a Saturday.
*We planned our next vacation. We had a dizzying array of choices when we landed (ha,ha) on a destination. Donnie and I both did a lot of research and we had a lot of discussion with the girls about what we wanted to do. I came to the conclusion that one profession that I would do poorly in and not enjoy is travel planning... I don't particularly enjoy planning our own family vacations. I can't fathom planning a vacation for someone else :). Anyway, back to our vacation, I'm really looking forward to it. Having the plans (or most of them) out of the way is a relief and now we just have to wait
*Jacob went out of state for about two and half days to go with his girlfriend and her family to visit relatives. It was a state he's not spent much time in. I'm glad he got to go and do something different, especially since we aren't traveling during break.
*Alyssa got a cookbook for Christmas and has already made two items from it. The book is geared towards kids but it has a lot of practical information about cooking terms/methods in it that I'm finding useful as I peruse it. The two items she's made have been really good. She made pancakes all by herself. They were crazy fluffy and probably the best pancakes I've ever had. I helped her just a little with a chicken dish. It turned out well, too. Best of all, she is excited to try more dishes and learn how to do more in the kitchen. Winner, winner chicken (or anything she makes) dinner!
*As with a good part of the country, we are experiencing mild weather and have been since before Christmas. Temps have been in the 60's for days in a row. We've done more walking than we have
ever, post Christmas. In some ways, I would prefer it to be colder- it doesn't seem like the season when it's not cold. Yet practically, I'm loving the warmer weather.
*As will be a surprise to no one, we are enjoying being out of school. So, so, so, so enjoying being out of school. No early alarms, no homework, days stretched out ahead of us to do activities or to be lazy at home- these are
Welcoming this guy into our family tree collection!!
Got some pretty ornaments that will adorn the tree next year and hopefully for many more after that
Jungle Jim's website mentioned samples that were distributed throughout the store. We only encountered one sample, this peach salsa. It was sooooo good that I bought a jar. I wish there had been more samples. Who knows what else I may have tried, liked and purchased? I never would have bought this if I hadn't tried it.
This is the cookbook that Alyssa requested and we got her for Christmas. We got it off of Amazon. Highly recommend for cooks of all ages :).
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