When It's Over (Sugar Ray)

The holidays are, for the most part, over. Okay, I suppose we still have New Year's Eve to look forward to, but for all intents & purposes, it's over.

Christmas Eve, I worked til 3p & then came home, cooked a little stuffing (no, it wasn't Stovetop, though it was cooked on the stove top) & then headed over to Steve & Airi's for a Christmas Eve potluck. It was just a small crowd as David & Katherine couldn't make it out due to other family obligations & I guess Popeye made Trina sicky-poo. Boo! Here's a few pics from Xmas Eve.

Christmas Day was supposed to be very low key this year. In fact, I posted about the rules that Jeff & his father came up with & shared with me. Unfortunately, someone failed to include the other McCarthy Women in the rules. These were the rules as set forth by the McCarthy Men:

• Limit spending to $50 on each of the other two couples (his folks, his sister & boyfriend) so that only $100 total gets spent on each other
• Go out to dinner on Christmas Day somewhere (I'm a bit skeptical if this really happens)
• Each couple volunteers in some way (either by donating money, time or gifts) & lets everyone know what they did at Christmas dinner.

The key tab there is the first one. We wanted to tone down Christmas this year to 1 - save some money & 2 - to not go overboard buying things that nobody needs/wants. The first gift we open was from Erin & Aaron & it's a $100 gift card for Travelocity. I am in NO way nonthankful for this gift, but what about the rules? So, I ask Jeff, "Uh, Jeff.... why didn't they follow the rules?" He looks at the card & the questions go flying. They (mom & Erin) say they never heard about the "rules". Faster than you can say Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Jeff was on the laptop buying a gift certificate for Hawaiian Airlines for E & A.

Merry Christmas everyone... and next year, how about a bit more communication, eh?

Today, I am thankful for:

1. No more Christmas music on the radio
2. Leftovers (thanks to everyone who donated to our fridge)
3. Returning 2 gifts (so far) with ease
4. Grey's Anatomy, season 2
5. Pat being back at work

What irks me today:

Today, I was annoyed with the girl behind the "fine jewelry" counter at Macy's. I had a pair of earrings to return & had approached one of the counters & after interrupting the employee from her conversation with the other girl to ask if I could "return these here", snottily, she replied, "No, you have to go over there" and pointed to another counter. Man, she was so 'tudey.

P.S. We had a wonderful ham dinner at home (with spinach salad, cheesy potatoes) and TONS of cookies, bars, jalepeno pepperoni sticks, chex mix, cheese & wheat thins, artichoke dip & another kind of cracker, hummus & yet another kind of cracker, Maureen's famous garlic dip & chips). What a spread of food to munch on all day long!