Merry Christmas!

I got exactly what I asked for...a new drill. It is perfect!

No, but I gave DGD the Breyer Holiday Horse 2020.

Robo, that’s the best gift! I got a gift certificate for Kripalu last Valentine’s Day...hoping to use it in 2021...

Merry Christmas to everyone! May your Holidays be calm and enjoyable, and may we all stay healthy.

I got a rock.

@schoolhouse_gwagain....as in a precious stone type of rock?? Pics, pls!! Jewelry is always a fine, fine gift!

Not this year......but all my gifts arrived in time and that was a surprise considering all the difficulties the dreaded virus has caused.

And we survived a major wind and rain storm that cut off power around midnight last night. Our 2 day old whole house generator kicked in, the lights came on - and - promptly shut off. We called the contractor and around 2 am the tech on duty arrived and fixed it. Apparently after the install one of the workers flipped some switch when they were cleaning it. The generator came back on and we had heat and lights again. And then the power company restored power to our area. Total run time for generator - 6 minutes.

All in all a wonderful Christmas.

Amazon spoiled a gift to me but it was still funny. With DS living behind us we sometimes get their packages, but not often.

When OK had that bad ice storm in late October we had power except for about 8 hours while 75% of our town lost it for days. My iPad needed charging and my old power stick, one of those cheapie things didn't charge. I lucked out because the power came back later in the day.

I told DS about it and how I can't live without my iPad. End of story. Until a few days later a box for DS came to us, and it wasn't in an Amazon box for some reason, and all it said on the box was "Power Bank." I had no clue what that was, so I called DS & told him a package was here and what the box said.

Later I looked it up because I was curious and that was exactly what I needed for power outages! So I called DS and asked him about them and I told him I'd order one for myself. He said why not let him give me the new one he received for Christmas. Sure!

It took a week for me to figure out the Power Bank he ordered was a gift for me. I played dumb and today over the phone we had a good laugh. He was mad at Amazon. lol

Happy Holidays!

No pony, just a puppy last week! Merry Christmas!🎄

Texan, adorable! my husband would love a new puppy, but our current fur baby likes being an only child :(

Texanjana, I got 4 pounds of fluff last September, he is now 15 pounds of trouble! But, it is the best kind of trouble. Enjoy your wonderful new love.

LOL -no, not a diamond, just a plain ole' rock. That's what Charlie Brown always got when he went trick or treating.

Maire Cate, that is quite a story about your generator! Lots of power outages around me but mine stayed on so I didn’t get to try out the generator. I’d have lost it if it did not work.

Dedtired - I'm glad you haven't inaugurated your generator yet. I can't believe our experience - the generator at our other place has worked perfectly for 10 years.

DH and I both woke up as soon as the power went out. It's kind of funny but somehow we both sensed the sudden quiet. Granted at midnight it's pretty quiet but there is always a slight noise in the background - the soft hum of the refrigerator and the slight whoosh of air coming through the heating vents. Within a minute or two we heard the generator and I turned to DH and said " Thank heavens they installed it yesterday."

Then quiet and darkness again. I though DH was going to lose it. He spent the last week arguing with Amazon about a fraudulent $800. charge and the installer managed to put huge ruts in the yard because he didn't bring skids to protect the grass. My husband checked the circuit breakers in the garage, then went out the pouring rain to check the transfer case but they were OK. I can't imagine what he would have done had the on call tech failed to show. He doesn't handle stupidity very well.

We managed to get a few hours sleep followed by a wonderful morning with our eldest son and DDIL watching our grand daughter rip paper off the packages and then of course - playing with the box, the ribbon, the dog and her constant companion - a little stuffed Snoopy.

Somehow it all seemed to fit in with 2020.

Maire, what an unfortunate adventure. I would have been livid. It’s a good thing that tech showed up although I do feel sorry for him having to come out in that storm in the middle of the night. Hopefully he was paid well! So far mine has run for exactly four minutes during a brief outage, so I think everything is okay. I do have to call the electrician though because I have not heard it do a weekly test.

If bad things come in threes, you’ve now had yours.

I’m glad that all’s well that ends well and that you had a nice Christmas with your family.

Oh I hope you're right that we've had our 3 bad things. I was pleasantly surprised this morning to discover that DH managed to regain his equanimity - he even chuckled a little when he told our son about our excitement.

That's a good sign that yours did come on during the brief outage. Our other generator cycles on every Wed at noon and runs for 10 minutes or so. This new one is scheduled to do a self check every 2 weeks so we haven't had it long enough to be aware whether it's doing it or not.

One of the owners of the heating company who installed it is coming here on Monday to see the yard damage and he's bringing another tech to do a inspection to make sure there are no other surprises.

I hope we all can put 2020 behind us soon.

One year I did receive an actual rock from my husband. I had coveted it for our garden on a walk through the woods and he secretly went back for it. It was one of my favorite gifts. We had such a nice, relaxing Christmas this year.

My MIL asked my husband to pick up a grocery store gc for her to give my SIL. My husband decided to also buy one for SIL. My MIL had SIL pick up the same grocery store gc for us, and my SIL decided to also give us one. What is the point of this? How does exchanging the same exact gift card bring anyone joy? 🤷🏼‍♀️

My pony is exploring the entire house for the first time today. It does indeed sound like a herd of very small horses as the other cats enjoy chasing after him!

Big brother is an excellent chaperone.

That last picture! They’re twins. 😍

I’m another that got a rock for a gift. Well, it was really a lump of coal but not for being bad and not in my stocking. Once a boyfriend and I found a lump of coal and being of the Superman tv era simultaneously said “squeeze it to make a diamond!” This was a fairly regular occurrence on the old Superman shows, when he used his super strength. We both broke up laughing and later he gave me the lump of coal as a gift. I still have it.

I got a day and night to myself with a spa and antique shop trip thrown in - my husband knows me well! Now to pick the hotel!!

I can't even pick out a gift for myself myself. I own too many things already, and how can you give experiences w COVID? But DH did a wonderful job. He decided to give me something silver, since this is our 25th Christmas together. He got me these totally adorbs silver salt cellar spoons, which I adore, and a silver and crystal cocktail shaker. I tried a French Martini at our local bistro and now I'm totally into them and I didn't have a shaker.

Vodka, Pineapple Juice, and Chambord raspberry liqueur, shaken w crushed ice. YUM

HHireno.

One of my kids wanted custom Nikes. But when she created them and put them in her cart, there was no way to transfer the info to me. So she said, what if I just buy them and then you can take that off of what I owe you (she owes me money fr something I needed to put on my credit card for her).

Sure I said. Better yet, Christmas morning we can just sit around on our phones and VENMO each other?

Gift cards are practical but they can descend into mere accounting.

Texanjana, what's the new puppy"s name?

Mtn, French martinis are my favorite!! A former neighbor introduced me to them. Yum. I may need to get the ingredients...

Side note, last night I had this cocktail: vodka, cran-raspberry juice, and cran-raspberry seltzer. A slice of lime would have been nice but I didn’t have a lime.

My favorite unexpected gift was a very simple ruby pendant necklace from the store with the pale blue box. DH and I did themed gifts and that was my “something red.” The “something red” I gave to him was a sweatshirt LOL.

CBD pain cream from CBDMD for my ever still present ankle injury.

I do think it works.

I always forget that dh is always listening to pick up ideas for my gift. I had gone on the David Yurman website and was looking at all of the cute pendants, and randomly mentioned how cute they were. Low and behold, dh got me this beautiful sand dollar pendant on a gold chain bc the beach is my favorite place. I felt very bad bc the pendant didn‘t include the chain and the whole thing was rather excessive, but it is really lovely and I will have it forever. He is a very thoughtful dh! 💕

Mtn-Our pup’s name is Teddy. Foster mom named him and we like it so we kept it. He is a handful!

Texanjana, your Teddy is just adorable!

We have a new grand-dog whose name is Cash (as in Johnny Cash, the Man in Black). He's 7 weeks old and is already trained to ring the jingle bells by the back door to go out to potty.

R u sure? As far as I know it’s standard practice that you would never have a puppy adopted out earlier than eight weeks

Here's a pony I got for Christmas when I was little---Marvel the Mustang! I'm amazed I didn't have my cowboy boots on because I wore those instead of sneakers for the most part.

I'd eventually get my own Mustang many years later. Loving those Mach E commercials with Chevy Chase, and I am considering one. Want to see one in person first, and since I'm teaching remotely again for spring, not driving anywhere anytime soon to warrant any new car purchase.

Got some fun socks--cats, and Dr. Fauci.

Mtn, Yes, I made an error! He’s 9 weeks now. They have had him a week. They were originally were to have one from a litter that was due to adopt the first week in Jan, but someone who was supposed to get a male from this litter asked to wait due to some personal issues, so our son was able to get this one earlier than expected. It was to be a surprise for our grandson and since they had the opportunity to get him before Christmas they took it.

No pony......but a proposal.......

Umm, this is going to require more details! : ) !!!

a lovely sweet proposal by the light of the Christmas tree on Christmas eve... I'm excited about our future!

Congratulations, Sister Sunnie! How sweet!

Gsciencechick - I had a pony very similar to yours when I was around the same age you appear to be in that photo. I called mine "Horsey Boy" because apparently I lacked creativity as a child. Oh, but how I loved him! He was, as I recall, the loveliest and most unlifelike shade of blue.

Sister Sunnie - congrats!!

I had to smile about the rock gift. One year the Mr. and I were out antiquing and I saw an old silver tinsel tree, probably about 3 ft. I admired it a few times, but didn't buy it. A few days later, my husband came home with that tinsel tree. I have to be very careful around him. If I even say that I like something - he wants to get it for me. Now, just liking something doesn't mean I want it! I am like Mt. in that I could not even tell you a gift I want. Oh I can come up with something for the house, but no way will the mr. go for that. It has to be for "me". It was a wonderful, quiet, relaxing Christmas and he certainly does spoil me!

Ocotillo, Marvel the Mustang was the brand name! So, no super creativity on my part. Other than I loved horses which is what drew me to the Mustang car as a child.

Sister Sunnie, congratulations!

I told my now husband for years that I wanted a birthstone ring (April) for Christmas. He got me a diamond necklace on year and a sapphire one another year, but never a ring. So finally I said, "That's it, we're getting married." Romantic right? :)

Congratulations Sister Sunnie, hope you're basking in a post Christmas glow!

Congrats Sister Sunnie!!!

Like everyone else we're wrapping up a chaotic not entirely great year. With the Holiday rush and my retirement(todays is my last day at work) we havent basked yet. But starting tonight we'll be glowing and celebrating ! Thank you everyone.

ooooh Sister Sunnie - retiring and a baby coming! You have alot to celebrate. Enjoy!!

LOL I was confused when i first read that.