MyrnaLynne

Wow, sweet photo of Atticus and a new photo of Jason and KaDee - must be almost Christmas! Because we are getting presents!

Sorry I've been slammed since Thanksgiving; hurt my back/shoulders/neck shoveling heavy wet snow right before, still had to cook and bake when I could hardly move, then as soon as T-day was over, had to shift gears for Hanukah (which starts TOMORROW) And Mr ML managed to hurt HIS back doing stuff too (sawing, carrying heavy things) so we've been quite a pair -- feeling seriously like OLD FOLKS! A year of not working and staying home (two for him) and I'm seriously out of shape. He was jogging and playing basketball but then he hurt his knee and then it's been to cold, too wet etc, so he hasn't done much either. When you're old, your fitness disappears almost immediately if you don't keep it up.

I had almost no presents for anybody. Did a whirlwind shop on Cyber Wednesday; think I have everything now except for a few more presents for Mlette. Sent off many boxes.

My son's wife broke a bone in her foot and had emergency surgery on Friday - her other foot already had a broken bone that didn't heal up but she didn't want surgery on it But she is diabetic, and foot stuff is tricky with them, so she has her reason I suppose. She is home and came through the foot fixing okay, but I don't think she's the most cooperative patient. My poor son...

Oh and nobody in Mr ML's family was hosting Christmas, but my nephew finally stepped up and invited everybody (his mother did) so now we need to go find Yankee Swap gifts and bake stuff and drive to his farmhouse in the country, a long drive south of us on christmas. Hope the weather won't be awful. So far it's been fine here, after that one (back breaking) snow. We were fine with nobody was having Christmas, but..

Have to finish decorating, have to get the Christmas card mess off the dining room table, have packages and cards to mail.. Tis the season. Drives me crazy when one or two boxes arrive and suddenly there is NO room for anything.

Oh we also switched to Xfinity/Comcast the day after Thanksgiving, so that was pretty exciting. Our long time email went away, and we have all the new modern TV bells and whistles (our phone has caller ID too) and for way less money than we paid the old company. Win win win.

keepsmiling7

Good to hear from you ML.......
Sorry for all of the "old folks" ailments. You could belong at our house. We didn't get to travel to Houston for Thanksgiving as planned, hubby couldn't travel and now he has pneumonia. He's at home and not in the hospital, but is very weak.

Now the mad rush getting ready for Christmas as time allows. I'm doing lots of cyber shopping too. Sure make it easy, but I do miss getting out to see things and people.

Hi PODMOM.......how is your beach Christmas planning coming along?

podmom

ML Goodness I'm sorry about your and Mr MLs aches and pains and especially about daughter in laws foot. She has been a handful I did cyber shopping on black Friday and cyber Monday too. Felt good to get some Christmas shopping done and get bargains too. Good to see you!!! Our JOFs board has been slow without you

keepsmiling Sorry about your hubby. I hope he recovers well. That can be scary Sorry you missed the Houston trip. You yourself are so active. You are our role model here!

Regarding the beach Christmas...the fake white Christmas tree came here the other day. It is going to be very different from what I am used to that is for sure. Used to live and tons of colored lights. I was just now shopping on Amazon to find gifts for Tommy. The kids have so many toys already that it is hard coming up with stuff. I agree about the mad rush now being on ..it just gets really busy.

Emily came for a visit with baby Margot this weekend.. Came to my house in PA Thursday then we went to Liz for Friday and Saturday...come back to my PA house after dinner Saturday...baby and I in the back seat. Emily left this morning and Margot slept the whole way. Felt like a miracle because I worry for them when Emily driving alone! Sometimes babies with no one in back seat cry for long stretches Her husband went to visit a friend for the weekend so she got to come to us which was so nice. Anna Lee is SO SO good with her and so excited to see her. She cried when the baby had to leave. It is very hard emotionally for me to have her not live close plus having this husband that is less than easy

ML I was shocked to realize Hanukah was happening already! I hope your week is lovely.

MyrnaLynne

Thanks! Hanukah came so early this year, I had like a week to get ready after Thanksgiving and it was a whirlwind. But halfway through Hanukah now, got one last thing for Mlette (and something for me ;>) - Was SO upset, I went to spend my 'Kohl's cash' and it expired yesterday! Like flushing $15 down the toilet. Oh well..

I'm pretty much recovered from my strained neck/back/shoulders, but arthritis in my hands is bad suddenly and one of my knees is giving me trouble. And Mr ML, being a man, decided lifting weights was just the thing for his sore back (and made it worse)

keepsmiling sorry hubby has pneumonia! That is very scary stuff and leaves a person weak as a kitten. Good that he can recover at home and doesn't need the hospital. Prayers for his recovery and getting Christmas ready.

That's so nice how Anna Lee loves baby Margot. Such sweet grandkids. I hope Margot is doing better in the sleeping department. That's too bad the new son-in-law is difficult.

Little Debbie (speaking of DIFFICULT) had surgery on her foot - I hope she heals up okay as people with diabetes are slow healers. Oh I was SO mortified, my son wanted socks (well his wife wanted us to send him socks) - sent him a pack of white socks - turns out they were for BOYS! Nowhere on the label did I see they were boys socks.

Oh the fake white tree would be a change (like Melania's blood red flocked trees everyone is making fun of - lol). Well, it will be 'beach Christmas' in stylish new renovated beach place, so I guess has to be, um, stylish?

Lovely funeral in TX today for Mr. Bush. And then I thought, they'll have to do all this stuff for our current president when he passes, and he SO doesn't deserve it! Such a terrible man

podmom

I'm glad your back etc is feeling better but I know how you feel. Just something is always achy now

MrMl has energy we will give him that. Maybe not common sense on that decision though.

Gosh I hope Debbie heals ok too. I know feet especially are a problem for diabetics. Does your son complain ? Maybe he loves to be needed. I hope anyway.

The beach house is so light and bright that a green tree might not look right. Now I would have probably gone with green flocked with white but we will see.

I wasn't fond of those red trees but I feel for Melania... I can't imagine being her in any way. Especially walking in those way tall heels

I thought the Bush funerals were really well done and inspiring. I even shed some tears.

I wonder how the coverage was in Texas? Even more wall to wall I bet.

I came down with a sore throat last night so I had to leave Liz's this morning and take my germs with me. I hope it goes fast. I'm supposed to attend our ladies Christmas brunch tomorrow morning. I'm not going to go unless I feel a lot better.

keepsmiling7

ML......you certainly have lots of family activities going on. Will your son be able to come visit you anytime during the holiday season? That's so bad about Debbie. Is she doing any better now?

PODMOM.....sorry you got a sore throat. But you were smart to get away from the little ones. My hubby is still recovering from pneumonia. We go back to the doctor again Tuesday.

You were correct PODMOM, we did have wall to wall coverage on the Bush funeral and I watched a lot of it. I have been to the Bush Library several times and am anxious to go back and see the grave sites. Three of my grandchildren have graduated from TX A&M and my oldest granddaughter was in the Corp. as she was a member of the A&M band. Very impressive military style.

Today my brother-in-law is visiting so we are having a great time catching up.

podmom

keepsmiling Very cool about your grandkids going to Texas A&M and the one girl in the corp I love military bands and all the formal marching etc. Very impressive and inspiring.

I'm glad you are having fun with bro in law! I hope Drs visit goes well with hubby and that they get him on the road to recovery!!

ML I just saw that FF had a 20th anniversary thread and that you were made mention of for being one of the highest post count ppl. I really enjoyed your post over there. Good job

I posted a thank you post on it. It has really been a joy knowing you all these years and now having keepsmiling join our little home.

We still count you as family Wen and Mezz

podmom

we need a little Christmas

keepsmiling7

Thank you PODMOM for the Christmas post. That's just what we needed!

podmom

You're welcome keepsmiling

MyrnaLynne

I think they asked me because I was one of the older posters who was still around FF.

No, my son isn't coming to visit. He was up here for my Dad's 'unveiling' service in September for a week. It's too bad, because he has vacation time he needs to use up before the end of the year, but her can't leave Debbie home in a wheelchair with two bum feet. She sent my daughter a photo and one foot was in a 'boot' and the other one was bandaged up! He went out and got her a wheelchair, but it doesn't fit through the doorways so he has to pick her up and move her around (and his back is hurting from that, too). He tries not to complain about her (and her crazy family) but I don't think he has too many other people to talk to down there.

Hanukah wrapped up very nicely, and I had to de-decorate and put everything away pretty quickly because Friday Mr ML is having his poker night (and they use the dining room table). He originally picked Dec 7 for the next game and I said absolutely not, it's the middle of Hanukah and the table is going to have presents and the Hanukah menorah on it! So he wisely rescheduled it for a week later.

Yes, I loved all the pomp and military ceremony at Mr Bush's funeral, and the huge choir and all the singing. I didn't know they had a daughter who died at age 3 of leukemia Such a sad sad thing. (And then they had those two stupid sons - LOL). He wasn't a perfect president in all areas, but seemed like a decent honorable man born for service. Not like You Know Who - yes, I can't imagine how Melania lives with that guy, or all the public scrutiny and criticism. She didn't sign on for being First Lady, she just married a rich (creepy amoral rude) business guy.

Hope your sore throat didn't blossom into anything bad PodMom, lots of bad germs going around this time of year.

Mr ML's latest project is cleaning out the basement. His ne'er do well sister stored stuff there 'temporarily' - 20 or 30 years ago! (after being evicted from some apartment or other)! We're throwing it out or donating it. I'm over being mad about it at this point (if we'd charged her storage fee for it, we'd be rich now - ahem). Anyway, it's a damp spidery basement and anything left down there gets ruined except stuff like rakes or shovels. Out it does. Tiny start of clearing the place out, in the least painful area! He keeps coming up and saying "Did you know there's an electric typewriter down there?!" Or whatever he says. No, how would I know what crap she stuck in our basement 30 years ago? SIGH.

keepsmiling7

It's a busy, busy time for everyone. Hope everyone is well and making good progress with holiday projects.

MyrnaLynne

It's pretty quiet here - the lull between Thanksgiving and Hanukah getting over and waiting for Christmas to happen (at somebody else's house). All I have left to do is bake some cookies and make some vegetarian stuffing.

I went through a slew of ordering stuff after Chanukah got over - Went through the mail order catalogs I'd set aside, ordered stuff, threw out the rest of them - Now I have three packages of things to mail back! Wrong sizes, wrong colors, just wrong. I got these cute winter hats for me and my daughter - they were ridiculous looking on us! We both looked like the Cat in the Hat in them. Plus the navy was actually purple and the red was an orangey red. Nope! Back they go.

Ekua

Merry Christmas 🎄 lovely ladies! Wishing you all the best for a lovely holiday and wonderful new year!

⛄️❄️🎄🥂🍾

MyrnaLynne

Merry Christmas! We had a very nice day at my nephew's farmhouse; his significant other gal is a wonderful cook and bubbly person and their place is so nice. So nice of them to host the family. Food was great. Yankee Swap was fun (no lousy gifts, hardly). Long drive to it from our place though and a lot of traffic going home and I always wonder how much all the other drivers had to drink before they left their parties!


Made it home alive! Yay!