Christmas Eve
After a week of excessive snow, the weather has gotten all weird on us. Today it got quite warm and started to rain. This was good for clearing the roads of excess snow and ice, but kind of damps the spirit of the season.
My cold has devolved into the never-ending, hacking cough, which I have to medicate constantly to keep under control. At this point my ribs hurt from all the coughing! I try to think positively about getting better, but so far it is still with me.
We were supposed to drive into Toronto to spend Christmas Eve with the family, but the weather and road conditions made us change our plans. We were also supposed to go to church somewhere with Bob and Dave, but my coughing and general malaise put an end to those plans as well. Given the weather, I don’t think anyone really wanted to go out anyway. Nevertheless, Bob and David did come over and we spent a very pleasant evening around the gas fire nibbling on cheesy things and drinking wine.
Early in the evening I was able to connect to both my brother in Wisconsin and my sister in New Jersey on iChat. Randy was having a party that included my sister Dawn and her family, as well as my Aunt Jean and her son Billy Joe. In New Jersey it was Christine with her two kids, Jamie and Paige. Unfortunately, Judye and Joe had left Chris’ place before we were able to make the connection.
I have to say I really enjoyed the silliness of the three-way connection with my family. Everyone was talking at once. The NJ contingent had some serious lag (natural with a 5 year old system!), which made for some hilarious dialogue. All in all it was great time. It is funny how connected I feel to my family after all these years. Technology makes it possible!
We opened some presents Christmas Eve. Robbie was pleased to get his four-slice toaster. He has no patience for toasting bread in the toaster oven. He may save a minute or two with the toaster, but it does take up another square foot of our limited counter real estate. But another upside is that the toaster oven won’t get so dirty so quickly from toasting bread.
This year Robbie went all out getting me gifts for some reason. I love the attention and thoughtfulness. I got a fireplace stocking full of useful, little gifts as well as a fancy clock/thermometer which we will either hang on the 3rd floor or outside on the north wall of the house. And of course, he found me a long sought-after Wii Fit. I hope we both find the opportunity to put it to good use!
Tomorrow will be a full day preparing for guests, and cooking the big bird we got for dinner. I hope we can manage to have some fun too amidst all the work!
Merry Christmas, everyone!
My cold has devolved into the never-ending, hacking cough, which I have to medicate constantly to keep under control. At this point my ribs hurt from all the coughing! I try to think positively about getting better, but so far it is still with me.
We were supposed to drive into Toronto to spend Christmas Eve with the family, but the weather and road conditions made us change our plans. We were also supposed to go to church somewhere with Bob and Dave, but my coughing and general malaise put an end to those plans as well. Given the weather, I don’t think anyone really wanted to go out anyway. Nevertheless, Bob and David did come over and we spent a very pleasant evening around the gas fire nibbling on cheesy things and drinking wine.
Early in the evening I was able to connect to both my brother in Wisconsin and my sister in New Jersey on iChat. Randy was having a party that included my sister Dawn and her family, as well as my Aunt Jean and her son Billy Joe. In New Jersey it was Christine with her two kids, Jamie and Paige. Unfortunately, Judye and Joe had left Chris’ place before we were able to make the connection.
I have to say I really enjoyed the silliness of the three-way connection with my family. Everyone was talking at once. The NJ contingent had some serious lag (natural with a 5 year old system!), which made for some hilarious dialogue. All in all it was great time. It is funny how connected I feel to my family after all these years. Technology makes it possible!
We opened some presents Christmas Eve. Robbie was pleased to get his four-slice toaster. He has no patience for toasting bread in the toaster oven. He may save a minute or two with the toaster, but it does take up another square foot of our limited counter real estate. But another upside is that the toaster oven won’t get so dirty so quickly from toasting bread.
This year Robbie went all out getting me gifts for some reason. I love the attention and thoughtfulness. I got a fireplace stocking full of useful, little gifts as well as a fancy clock/thermometer which we will either hang on the 3rd floor or outside on the north wall of the house. And of course, he found me a long sought-after Wii Fit. I hope we both find the opportunity to put it to good use!
Tomorrow will be a full day preparing for guests, and cooking the big bird we got for dinner. I hope we can manage to have some fun too amidst all the work!
Merry Christmas, everyone!