Today’s Business: 2011-12-24
Today’s Activities
- Shower. DONE.
- Cat duty. DONE. Cat duty involves cleaning the litter boxes, bagging the excess, feeding, and house cleaning cat dirt of all types.
Log
10:00 AM: We’re up.
09:15 AM: Facebooked for several minutes. Friend count: 614 (up two). Fan count: 114 (unchanged).
10:20 AM: Worked out on the treadmill for 50 minutes, walking and jogging approximately 3.15 miles and burning off roughly 400 calories, for walk 111 in 2011.
03:30 PM: Spent the past few hours house-cleaning and setting up drinks for part 1 of 4 of our family’s annual progressive dinner, to be held here at my home from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM this afternoon. I’ve purchased a couple bottles of “real” champagne (the stuff that contains alcohol), and 4 bottles of sparkling grape and berry juices of various types for the kids and non-drinkers. I set out a deep green tablecloth on the kitchen table and atop that, placed the champagne glasses, bowls of pretzels, peanut butter-stuffed nuggets, and mixed nuts.
04:00 PM: The progressive dinner begins here. Sister Christine and her family were the first to arrive, soon followed by sisters Diane, Jojo, and Mary Ann, in that order. It appears, by the count of champagne glasses used, that we have approximately 20 people toasting the holiday season right now.
05:00 PM: As we prepare to head to the next spot (sister Jojo’s home), sister Mary Ann brought her dog’s crate in to my living room. He’ll stay in the crate until we finish with the rest of the dinner. I do not anticipate any problems with the cats bothering him, as they’ve remained hidden and out of sight through the past hour. They’re probably in the basement. However, I’ll close the basement door just in case they become emboldened after we’ve all gone, and decide to venture into the living room and stir up the dog.
05:05 PM: Leaving now for sister Jojo’s.
06:30 PM: Sister Jojo was charged with providing snacks and horderves, and she rose quite well to this responsibility, offering bacon-wrapped mini hot dogs, a homemade snow-man cheese ball, several kinds of crackers, veggies and dip, and assorted pops and beers. Cousin JewellAnn and her mother joined up with us there, and sister Jojo’s house was definitely overflowing with good Christmas cheer and fellowship. Nice. Now, it’s on to sister Diane’s for an evening salad. More later.
08:00 PM: Sister Diane offered two different salads (an Asian spinnach salad as well as a more American salad with romaine lettuce, veggies, spices, and oil. She also provided numerous types of candy and drinks. Her house, done up in traditional country style looked every bit the part of the warm Christmas home. Her Christmas tree in her living room, she adorned with white lights. In fact, her entire theme was white in this and recent years. This is in stark contrast to the blue light theme that I implement at my house each year since 2008.
08:15 PM: Now we’re all heading to the final stop in our progressive dinner; sister Christine’s place for some lasagna, green bean casserole, cheese balls, crackers, and some left-over food from the previous places. However, I’m too full to eat anything else; except for perhaps some candy of course. My sweet tooth is turning me into a glutton.
09:30 PM: Some of the adults watched football in Christine’s garage while others mingled in the kitchen. The kids played Monopoly in the dining room and several of us watched a Christmas movie in the living room on Mom’s old television.
10:00 PM: Cousin Jewellann gave my sisters and me each a bottle of pure maple syrup in the shape of a maple leaf. Neat. Plus, she wrapped each flask in a micro-fiber cloth that can be used for dry-dusting around the house. Then, outside that, she encased the cloth-wrapped bottles in a green handkerchief-style cloth that depicted many colored swirls, circles, and other shapes. A very practical gift, even once the syrup is gone. I’m sure I’ll keep the bottle and refill it from my maple syrup stash that I’ve been building over the past couple months. I love that stuff!
11:20 PM: We rode back to my home with sister Mary Ann and husband. [Emmy] is going to get to bed a half-hour or so past her bedtime tonight. But I don’t imagine that that will affect the results of the sleep study very much in which she’s participating.
11:30 PM: [Emmy] is heading to bed though the hockey game has not yet finished.
12:05 AM: The daily traffic stats from yesterday for my blogs. The monthly keyword hit count for this run is 860, down from 863 at last check. The record high for this dimension remains at 1788. The next goal: 2000.
12:10 AM: Again, I’m having trouble sleeping. So I’ll stay up and blog and surf around on the Internet until I’m ready for bed.
02:00 AM: I’m heading to bed. More tomorrow. Good night.
Received Mail and Shipments
None today.