[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: The Holidays are Coming. Let's Share Peace and Goodwill Throughout the World! #22889

I posted earlier but we must have had a bad connection because it didn’t go through. We had a nice Christmas and the little ones liked their gifts. Then last night one of the furnaces went out and this morning the other one did too. So we had to call in the furnace guy at double time only for him to tell us that we are out of gas. We have propane gas and two furnaces-one for each floor of the house. We prebuy the propane to get the best price and are supposed to be on an automatic refill system. They say they filled it December 2nd which we just can’t believe. First of all I don’t remember seeing them here and second there’s no way in the 20 years that we have lived here that we would have used a full tank in three weeks! So right now we are sitting here with space heaters waiting for them to come refill the tank. They will check for leaks because as I said we shouldn’t use that much in that amount of time especially with such warm weather. Then they have to come in and bleed the lines so there isn’t an explosion when they start everything back up. I hate all this stuff with the gas-it makes me so nervous. So they are not even apologizing-just trying to tell us that it is our fault. I think they said they made a delivery but they didn’t. I guess when you prebuy they become complacent. Anyway, say a prayer that we don’t have a leak. Thank Goodness this didn’t happen yesterday with the kids here and preparing Christmas dinner. The oven is electric but I needed the stovetop for preparing the baked beans and kugelis.
I love the time after Christmas when all the decorations are still lit but all the preparation and the hustle and bustle is over and we can just be still and enjoy the gifts of the season.
Hope you all had a wonderful day. Brent said that they are expecting a snowstorm in NM of all places!
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: The Holidays are Coming. Let's Share Peace and Goodwill Throughout the World! #22817

Merry Christmas to all my Quacker friends. Can’t believe that it is here after all that prep. Greg and i just got each other silly gifts this year so he says he will win the Quacker prize for the worst gift from your husband. We will see. Now Kendall has strep throat. I hope I keep avoiding it through some Christmas miracle. She had no symptoms at all-just kept getting a stomach ache so Jenny finally took her in for that. Apparently, that’s also a little known side affect of the disease. Go figure.
We went to our Christmas Guitar night Wednesday night. It’s always such a lovely evening-the calm before the storm of Christmas. Spent Christmas Eve cleaning and prepping for the big day. Adam worked and Jenny and the kids went over to her inlaws. We just had a quiet evening at home watching Christmas movies.
I hope all of my Quacker friends have a wonderful day surrounded by those they love. We will miss our NM son but have great hopes that he is back on the path to happiness.
Hugs and Love to all my Quacker friends. Thanks for being there through thick and thin.
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: The Holidays are Coming. Let's Share Peace and Goodwill Throughout the World! #22730

Hi Colleen,
I’m thinking that you are right-when you open up the freezer door it lets the warm air in and then the freezer has to work harder to cool it back down. So I don’t get Ron’s theory at all. He needs to get an different hobby, I think. lol
I have a double oven and the top one is self cleaning but the bottom one isn’t. I have no idea why they couldn’t make them both self cleaning. Obviously the top one gets the most use for that very reason.
I have been seeing a lot about the Steve Harvey fiasco. I often wondered what would happen on one of those competition shows if someone accidentally read the wrong name. I always would think I wouldn’t want to have that person’s job for that very reason. Well-in the big scheme of things I hope it just all blows over and it doesn’t affect his career negatively. Anyone can make a mistake so I hope he is easily forgiven. It’s not like anyone died or was injured by this-that would be a different story so i hope they cut the poor guy some slack.
I have not seen the new Star Wars movie but I hear lots of good things about it. Adam’s middle brother saw it already and loved it. I saw all of the first three and then they made the three prequels but i think I only saw one of those. I saw the original three so long ago that I barely remember much about them. I feel sorry for anyone else who released movies last weekend-it was hard to go up against all the hype of the new Star Wars.
Have fun visiting your Mom today and have a safe trip. Does she go to someone else’s house for Christmas Day or does she stay home?
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: The Holidays are Coming. Let's Share Peace and Goodwill Throughout the World! #22728

Hi Adele,
My mouth is watering looking at your delicious cookies. The pink and green ones look so festive.
That’s nice that Tillie has her own kitchen. So she has like her own inlaw type of suite. That’s what we wanted to do for Greg’s Mom in our basement but she didn’t want to be down there so we converted our den/office into a bedroom for her on the first floor. She had a TV and stereo in there and her bed and recliner but she never really went in there except to sleep. She much preferred being out in the rest of the house with us. Now much as we did love her; having another adult in the house all the time with you in the same room didn’t give us much privacy so at times that was difficult-but you do what you have to do. So I always recommend the in law suite situation if you have the space to make it work. It affords everyone a bit of privacy.
I hope the sore throat is feeling a bit better today.
Well Piper’s birthday was actually yesterday and when i arrived to babysit she was wearing her birthday suit. lol I finally wormed her into some underpants. it’s a good thing that it’s been a warm winter otherwise I can’t see how she wouldn’t be freezing running around like that. Speaking of that i see that Boston might have 70 degrees for Christmas. What weird weather!
Those Minions are really cute-who doesn’t love a character who uses a fart blaster? Some of those children’s movies have several layers of humor both for adults and kids. They can be so clever. I understand that Inside Out is really good too. Haven’t seen it yet. I, like you, love anything that makes me laugh.
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: The Holidays are Coming. Let's Share Peace and Goodwill Throughout the World! #22725

Hi Barbara,
Will your family’s schedules allow you all to get together on Christmas Day this year? We found out that Brent has decided to stay in NM recently and won’t even be making the trip up for the holidays like he originally thought he would be doing. So I ended up packing up a little goodie box and sending it out to him. You and Colleen shouldn’t worry about the envelopes under the tree. I think the adults and older kids much prefer the money or gift cards anyway. It’s the little ones who like the actual presents to rip into. I have not seen the commercial about honoring your elders. If only that were really true. It seems like the older we get the more invisible we become. It would be nice to live in a society like some of the eastern cultures where the elders are respected because of their knowledge and experience of life. We live in a very youth oriented country. Even many of the older people go through much trouble and expense to look younger. I guess we would feel that it was easier to grow old gracefully if we got some respect. To quote Rodney Dangerfield. Okay I’m jumping off my soapbox now or rather stepping down gently so I don’t break a hip. lol
We’re having prime rib and a small ham over here as the little ones prefer the ham and we are always happy for the leftovers-even though I do also send Jenny home with food too. I might be amending some of my side dishes since Brent and his friend are not coming now. I will shop tomorrow and make the final decisions then.
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: The Holidays are Coming. Let's Share Peace and Goodwill Throughout the World! #22682

Hi Adele,
The cookies look Deeelicious! as Piper would say. Love homemade cookies!
I hope that the sore throat will pass quickly. When I get that it is usually the first sign of a cold.
I remember that hand washing. When I took care of Greg’s Mom I washed my hands so much that they used to get raw in the winter months. I was always trying to be careful not to transfer any germs to her. We don’t want to make the older folks sick that’s for sure. Does Tillie have her own kitchen?
We all have too much to do this week to let a bug or illness get us down.
The people that run ONP actually have been on the news and they have received awards from various organizations like the Red Cross. There are tons of volunteers who work hours and hours. We only do a teeny tiny little bit. If we lived closer to where all this takes place we would be able to volunteer more but it is a drive into the city every time something goes on and that just doesn’t work for us.
I hope that you will get to see JJ and Aizen sometime over the holidays. Good thing you have other Minions to help. Speaking of that Greg was getting into watching the Minion movie at Jenny’s and then we had to come home. I guess I will have to get him Despicable Me and the Minions to watch now. lol
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: The Holidays are Coming. Let's Share Peace and Goodwill Throughout the World! #22680

Hi Colleen,
I’m sure everyone will love their gift cards if that is what they asked for. It doesn’t make for a nice big pile under the tree though. I guess Ron will have to get a bunch of stuff for you to make the pile bigger. lol I got done wrapping most of the grand’s stuff. They had some oddly shaped packages this year.
I hope that your stomach will feel better soon. Thank goodness Melissa will be there to help. You are right-until they do it themselves they have no idea how much work and time it takes to put together a holiday meal. i think the older the kids get the more they learn to appreciate all that we have done for them and the family.
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: The Holidays are Coming. Let's Share Peace and Goodwill Throughout the World! #22637

Hi Colleen,
I hope that you will feel better soon for the busy week ahead. I will have to look in our WalMart for those dumplings but it is kind of a small one and they do not carry a lot of things.
After the little kids concert they usually have Christmas cookies for them to decorate and another table with a craft for them to make an ornament or something. Some of the little girls have really fancy dresses on.
Speaking of that during Piper’s party yesterday all of a sudden she went in her room and took her clothes off but Jenny said it ended being just for a wardrobe change as she wanted to change dresses. I thought maybe she wanted to be in her birthday suit at her birthday party but i guess she was just like one of those people that host an awards show and she had to do a change in wardrobe. lol
We had a nice dinner with our friends last night. We exchange Christmas gifts so we ate our dinners and then did our gift exchange. I think everyone liked what they got. It was nice to catch up with them after their busy season of working on ONP. They hosted about three hundred people this year. It had to be moved to a bigger ballroom.
The next fundraiser is a thing where they have all these chefs coming in and preparing their specialties and you can try them all. I would really like to go but it is on a Monday night in February so I doubt that we can make it with Greg’s work schedule. I’ll bet it will be delicious.
I guess you and I have a lot of wrapping to do this week. Sunday I hope to get lots and lots done.
Gail

[Gail Norusis]

in reply to: The Holidays are Coming. Let's Share Peace and Goodwill Throughout the World! #22635

Hi Adele,
Well Piper and Jenny were feeling better today so that was good. The birthday party was at lunchtime and fortunately Jenny ordered mostacholli and rolls and I made a huge tossed salad so she didn’t have to do any extra cooking to prepare as she had been sick all week. But she was feeling better today and they were planning on going to her work Christmas party Saturday night.
Hope you enjoy your “new” viewing of Groudhog Day. You can just picture me and Greg in all those places instead of Bill Murray and Andi McDowell. lol Ever since they made that movie there they have a groundhog festival in that town on Groindhog day too.
I bought a set of those bags for myself and for Jenny. She loves them as they make her limited time to wrap so easy. She was showing them off to her friends yesterday at Piper’s party too. I imagine that she still wraps for the kids as they like to tear open presents but i think she used them for everyone else and maybe some for the kids little stuff.
Finally got word from Brent that he will not be coming for Christmas now. He was just going to take the time off between when the last job ended and the new one started but he was afraid that he would run short of money if he did that so he took a construction job in between and now just has Christmas day off. I’m sorry we won’t see him but I don’t want him living from hand to mouth either and he probably wouldn’t have had the money for the trip here anyway so it’s better this way. He says that he is happier than he has been in a long time so we are glad to hear that. I think passing that 2 year mark since Kim’s death is kind of a landmark on your way back to wellness. I think those first couple of years are the worst. When he was in NM before I got used to not seeing him for long stretches of time. Then they moved back here and it was nice that we could get together with him and Kim to see a movie or go out to dinner and you get used to him being close again. So now it’s a new adjustment all over again. We just want him to be happy and healthy and secure. We miss him but we want what is best for him too.
I haven’t heard from Debbie but did get an ecard from her so I know she is thinking about us.
Your welcome-glad looking for the oplatki lead you to find those books for Tillie. Sometimes a meandering path will lead us to just what we needed to find.
I have read that about the temptations on the Q boards. Just like anything else things have good reviews and bad reviews and some people love the things and some hate them. If you want to learn more go to the Q website and go to forums and type in Temptations and see what discussions come up and read about it there. I wonder too if the change in temperature from refrigerator to oven will cause the breakage. I always like to take my casseroles out of the fridge and let them warm up a bit before putting them in the oven. You could also read the customer reviews and see if there are any complaints there.
I’ll bet your house will be smelling delicious this next week. I may have to amend my Christmas menu for less people. I am thinking about what changes I may want to make. I’ll figure it out during the week.
Gail

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