Love the sentiment, JoAnn, but it's what I've been doing for weeks, and I'm pretty darn sick of my house.

I need to get my sickly self ready to depart for Maui next week. DH and I started some kind of 'flu' Dec. 8 and are still coughing. I'm on my second round of antibiotics, having'failed' with prednisone. We haven't had flu since the early 1970's. This is very different, with much slower recovery. Had the flu vaccine and both pneumonia vaccines. Still got *this*.

There is none of that sit around and lie around the house stuff for me. Now we prepare for our New Year's Eve Cookout and after that, we have the February birthdays. I hope all enjoy their holidays.

Sue

We have a tradition of going out to dinner with a neighborhood couple. We go back to one of our houses for dessert.

I'm following Maxine's advice. Stayed up until 1:00 a.m. cleaning up last night after having some friends in for dinner. I don't bounce back quite as fast as usual. Haven't even unpacked the dishwasher. DH just brought me the last cup of eggnog. Even better two days later! Watching some of the many Christmas movies I taped. My next step might be to finish off the last glass of sparkling rose' from last night. That on top of the last cup of eggnog should finish me off. LOL

I had a fabulous Christmas with myself. First time.... since the divorce. Cooked what I wanted, ate it too, watched some corny Christmas shows, read a little, knitted a little...

Today I took the rest of the medicine cabinet apart, drove the car out of the garage, and spray painted the cabinet in the open garage.

Looks good. Will post a picture when it is back up.

Tomorrow my daughter comes over, and we will see....

New Years eve will be spend just like all other evenings... but the first day of January, at 1:11 PM the local first bike ride of the year will happen. Looking forward to hang out with friends.

No big plans for a while... but once spring is here... watch out. ;)

Moni

I didn't do anything for Christmas, and don't do anything for New Year's Eve. I have never liked going out on New Year's Eve, and now I am in bed by 10 pm usually. I have made a list and I am already working on it. My immediate plans include getting in touch with my doctor and discussing my hip pain with him.

I cooked turkey and dressing and a few of my husband's favorite foods yesterday. I didn't get around to baking another fruitcake, but it is in the oven now.

I'm still floating along from all the memories of our Mid-December family reunion. Few decorations to put away....how easy at least, when you just have tablecloths, towels, and a Santa to put back into the front hall closet! Done...but memories are forever!

Cleaning up after Christmas dinner., tomorrow heading to Annapolis to the Military Bowl!!! Temple vs. Wake Forest... staying overnight and shopping the next day!! going with DDs' so will be a great time!! then home and out to dinner with friends Thursday night, out to dinner with DS & BIL, friday night., taking decorations down between Friday and Saturday. New Year's day is still up in the air... phew, busy week!!

I as sick all Christmas and today is my first day outside the house. It was fun watching the kids open their gifts, but would have been better had I not been so sick. The family went out to another kinfolks home for prime rib, and I stayd home and ate a piece of toast ACCCK.

Just got back from Wal-Mart for some discounted Christmas gift wrap and laundry detergent. Got my wrapping paper half off. Also remembered a couple other things I needed to get. We got back from watching a movie, going to make a post about it in a minute. Now washing my bedding. Lauren and Alex spent the last two nights here, Lauren shared my bed with me and it had dog hair all over it. She left the door open sometime yesterday and of course one of them was rolling all over my nice white bedding. I have to work the next 3 days so I'm trying to relax and stay off my ankle as much as possible. It is hurting and still swollen...nearly two months after I sprained it. New Years eve we have reservations at a sushi place Lauren is working at. First time in some 30 years that I have been out on that night. Lauren is working and Alex is too, so it will just be me and my two exchange students...and occasionally Lauren when she has time to stop by our table. Oh, and am a little annoyed they already have valentine day stuff out on the racks in the stores.

I have a long post-Christmas To Do list. One of the items is to get going immediately on selling the remainder of the laboratory glass that belonged to my late husband. I sold a lot of it this year but need to keep plugging away. Another (good housekeepers will cringe at this) is to methodically deal with the clutter I boxed and put upstairs in order to have a neat house for Christmas--files I was working on, books, photos that need to be put back in albums, small items to sell on eBay, and more. I am going to do this! Really! :-)

If I do anything at all on New Years it will be to babysit for my two grandsons. Last year my son and daughter-in-law went to a party down the road, within walking distance.

Robert came down suddenly with a ferocious bug of some sort on Xmas Eve, even had a fever of 102.4 yesterday evening. I kept a close watch on him through the night and doctored him to the best of my knowledge. He's doing so much better this afternoon and is sipping on some hot broth right now.

So, no plans in the near future for us, that's for sure!

(I'm sure that I will be next.)

On New Year's eve, we're going to a friend's house for an evening of movie viewing. They have a theater set up in their basement with a 10ft screen and projection style video. They supply all the homemade pizza we can eat until we are stuffed, and there is salad and popcorn, too. Its also a fund raiser for a good cause.

We were supposed to bring the shack out for ice fishing but the ice is not safe for driving on yet and not staying in the shacks. We get together with about 6 other couples normally on the ice. Hopefully it will happen in mid-January. I'm probably the only one that likes the cold this time of the year. Since our plans fell through, we'll probably get together somewhere with those same couples. There was talk of setting up the shacks on some property but we don't like to do that if we can't fish. We will go out, just not sure where.

I'm doing last minute packing and will be getting on a plane to San Francisco on Wednesday afternoon to start our vacation. We'll be in San Diego for a week before getting on the cruise ship later in January. Can't wait to get started!

Just back doing the normal routine. We haven't gone out or to a party for New Year's in about 30 years. We just watch a movie on TV. For a celebration we have a snack of gourmet cheese and crackers and Martinelli's sparkling apple cider. At 9PM we find a channel on Directv that shows the ball dropping in New York and toast the new year than go to bed.

We have not had our family Christmas gala yet; it will be on Sunday, Jan. 1. Since our family is so huge, my house is much, much too small, so we have it usually at a motel in the next town. They have a large meeting room, plus family loves staying there with the pool and all. But this year, they are remodeling so other plans had to be made. We will be renting the Community Center, located across from my house. We used to have our family Christmas on Christmas Eve, but so many of the bunch had to get back on the road in order to participate in other families' gatherings that we decided to have ours on a different weekend. It's worked well for us. Local DD and I had a lovely supper and watched a movie.....very low key but happy.

My christmas isn't quite over yet. I cooked for my mom's gathering on the 22nd. And this Wednesday, I'll be cooking all the food for my sister's christmas party that she has every year with the half of her husbands family that isnt psychotic. She was going to do it christmas day, but she ended up going to the er with a kidney stone,and one of her kids was sick as well, so she moved it. I always cook everything for any family party,and there are a lot. I'm also going to cook for her new years eve party. But I'm making it the day before since I have to work that day. New years eve night,I'll probably be asleep by 6:30. Everytime I have to work a day shift (5am-5pm) I get so drained that I go to bed right away and sleep like a rock all night.

I myself spent christmas day sleeping until 3pm, when I got up and went to work,and spent that night(5pm-5am) taking down and packing away the massive amount of Christmas decorations I put up at my office every year. Luckily, my delightful coworker,who worked the day shift, was kind enough to unwrap the ceiling tiles and took down all the icicle lights I had clipped to the ceiling for me. So that saved me a couple hours of work.

I must say,I will be glad when all the craziness is over, but I get really sad the day after Christmas when they stop playing christmas music on the local radio stations. (I know, some people WAIT for that day,but not me) :( Time to bust out the audio books again I guess.

Once everyone leaves, I will start to undecorate and pack things away slowly. We don't do anything special on New Year's. I don't like to go out and we don't drink much anyhow. A few years ago, my sister wanted to get rid of a few bottles of almond flavored champagne. I liked it and she did not. So that became my drink as I sat up to watch the new year come in all by myself. DH does not like champagne.

Dd came down with something akin to rotavirus at bedtime on Christmas Eve so I've been washing bedding for the last two days. I decided to postpone our Christmas meal. May make it tomorrow if no one else gets sick.

I got Ancestry and Newspapers.com for Christmas so I'm driving dh crazy. Found some pictures and stories I haven't seen before. Going to rejoin the gym in the next month and do some exercise.

Adella, how do you like newspapers.com? It sounds like something I would enjoy! Thanks.

Where I moved too, they are doing a prime rib dinner for New Years Eve and I bought meal tickets for a couple to join me in the dinner and then at 7:30pm, they do entertainment and then at 9pm they toast with champagne and then its over.

Today will be the baptism of my first great grand. It takes place at one and then a lovely meal at my daughters home.

Dh is sick, has a cold. Peeka the cat has mild ear infections, he gets them every winter. So.........lots of nap time, cuddles and warm blankets for everyone. I'm doing laundry, making a pizza.....renting the next movie......then we start the kitchen remodel. Did I mention, I painted the whole outside of my new house and completed 2 bathroom tearouts & remodels? It was a horrible pink, now it's tan.....a little slowing down is fine with me.

Another big dinner planned for Jan. 1, which is also my sister's BDay. I will cook some special things Wednesday and Thursday--my son and DIL couldn't make it for Christmas (he had to work), so they will arrive on Thursday, stay overnight, then leave on Friday afternoon. My best friend's mentally challenged sister will arrive early on Friday morning, and stay until Sunday evening.

DD and SIL, who live with me, are planning a day trip with their two young sons on Friday, and my younger DD will be here Thursday for the belated Christmas mini-celebration, stay overnight, and return for dinner on Sunday. I think that's what's happening. ;)

Yesterday was like a late spring day, and today is looking just as gorgeous, but a little cooler. I spent all last afternoon outside, hosed down door mats, mopped mudroom, and washed dog bedding, and took a walk along the fence line. Today I have been trying to catch up on human laundry. DD, SIL, and grands are getting ready to leave for Christmas celebration with SIL's family, so this afternoon I will go out and enjoy the nice weather again--maybe take a walk and visit with my favorite neighbors.

Chisue and others with a cough that will not go away, please try 1/2 teaspoon organic honey mixed with 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon. Take it every 4 hours. It does the trick every time and even cured the puppy when she came down with kennel cough. What a heartbreaking sound that was.

Really, truly, this works better than RX and OTC meds.

lovemrmewey I've had mixed results with newspapers. I found things for one line in Oklahoma in the 1960's and a few things for early 1900's Kentucky that don't show up on Chronicling America (a free site). Chronicling America had better hits for me. Arkansas is a bust as far as my lines go. Arkansas is always behind in technology so I may have to send someone there to the library. Some info is better than none. I probably won't renew the subscription.

Medical studies from Childrens hospital Pittsburgh show a teaspoon of honey does just as well if not better for a cough than OTC cough meds.

DH and I will be spending New Year's Eve ourselves. No grandkids this year. We will have a cheese plate along with shrimp. New Year's day we have our ribs and hotdogs with sauerkraut for dinner.

Is the honey and cinnamon or just honey eaten straight or combined with a cup of hot water?

This afternoon I gathered up all the leftover cookies, candies, fruitcakes, zucchini breads, tangerines and a quart of egg nog and put them in a basket and gifted them to a friend's family. I figured if it's in the house I'm going to eat it, and I am on overload as far as sugar and goodies. Most were gifts to me, so I essentially re-gifted. The family was very surprised and grateful. Don't get me wrong, I too am VERY thankful for my friends and neighbors who think of me during the holidays. And I eat my share!

Now to detox. Back to nice big green salads and lighter fare. However I did buy some sauerkraut perogies for New Years. I buy perogies at the local farm and organic foods store - so good. Have yet to try the sauerkraut filled ones so this will be a first.

I use honey & vinegar, it stopped my DGS from coughing, he didn't want any more of that stuff! I kinda like it. :^)

sheilajoyce_gw: I just dip my spoon into the honey and either sprinkle some cinnamon on it or swallow a cinnamon capsule. This way your throat gets a nice coating. Both honey and cinnamon have antibiotic properties to them, taste great, and are more affordable than the nasty OTC stuff.