Christmas Eve

Santa comes tonight (for the dog) and I'm so excited.  He's happy all day long, squeaking with joy while he licks his new toys.  (We are all adults, so we're not as exciting lol.)

I majorly screwed up the pies.  Hopefully, the "real" pie is okay.  The "preview" pie went crazy ... overflowed, practically started a fire, burned on top, didn't cook apples.  OMG.  What happened?!?!  5 hours running the oven on self-clean.  All is well this morning.  The upside - I didn't have to contend with "preview" pie cravings.  I switched the temperature (to turn down part way through) ... maybe I missed entered it.  I also baked more cookies - those were fine.

My neck is a big old pain still.  Headache galore - Advil like crazy.  It doesn't help that I need to spend the next 3 more days in the kitchen.  I've been going to bed early to be able to relax my neck.  Tonight is a problem since my youngest didn't request off work.  Dinner will be late ... maybe around 8pm.  That's going to be a problem for my head and neck.  I'm not sure how it's going to shake out.

Today is a workout rest day.  I'm happy to have it.  Yoga was nice yesterday - what my body needed.  Mostly stretching, a little "effort" and some meditation.  Christmas is a home lifting day.  Perfect timing!!

In other good news -- presents all wrapped.  I did some yesterday and hubby finished it off.  Awesome "to-do" off my list.

Today is final grocery store run (for stuff for Monday) and in the kitchen preparing.  My kids LOVE food traditions and (unfortunately) the foods I started making for the holidays are all a pain-in-the-butt lol.  Ribs (messy and have to be sliced raw ... I worry for my fingers every year ... knock-wood), apple pies (messy and lots of prep), mashed potatoes (lots of prep - including bacon making, etc), individual choices of cookies.  Every year I suggested something new (with my hardest sell) and get struck down.  Guess "sales" aren't my thing!  Sometimes it makes me smile (when it's not the holidays) and other times I can't wait to have it finished (now).

I need to focus on my HAPPY over the next few days.  I don't feel well and that's making me grumpy about the tasks at hand.  But it's Christmas and HAPPY (outside of a bottle of wine) should be easy to find.  Wish me luck.  Merry Christmas.