Wednesday, Elves were here!

I came home to new faucet set up.  The one that was done at the time the kitchen was remodeled was a piece of garbage, in fact we had replaced the sprayer twice already.  This is a beautiful Moen and I love it  I am sure it was done by the neighbor whose babies we watch. Ignore the dirty sink and dishes elves must have left those also:).

     We had a wonderful Christmas with our two younger daughters and grandson.  It was a very busy few days let me tell you.  We arrived at D#2's house in the early afternoon on Thursday last.  Our grandson was a hoot and so excited about Christmas.  Our daughter was deep into trying to get her house ready and cleaned for Christmas eve dinner. She and I worked hard on Thursday to hang fresh bows and clean bathrooms and decorate.

     They have been in this house less than 3 years and it is a huge house.  She has been trying to pick up things to decorate with but as the house is massive, she has not nearly enough to make it a Christmas house. As we are Swedish we are big into Christmas.  She did have a lot of my moms old decorations and that was fun and I know mom would be thrilled to know that her things are loved and used.

     I encouraged daughter to decorate with things that could be recycled.  We picked many evergreen boughs (free) and used then to decorate all over.  We strung them together and added ornaments that were mom's.  I also picked up 4 boxes of candy canes to drip from the boughs on cupboards, and chandeliers. This way the boughs can be burned or will break down and the candy canes will be eaten.

     I encouraged her to go to second hand stores for any decorations she felt she was lacking. I did help her purchase some towels as all she had was beach towels.  You know you make choices.  I also purchased a 12 piece place setting of cheaper silver ware and  my  Lil sister purchased 12 nice Christmas napkins for her to use this season.  I will make her a good set of napkins for next year as I did not know she didn't have any. It bothers my that she does almost all the  family functions for that large family as her house is set up for entertaining.  But they (family) will use roll after roll of paper towel and plastic silverware, and paper plates.  That is such waste.  I can understand for the kids and with a large crowd, but if your know you are going to have large groups over and over, investing in silverware and cloth napkins is a money and environment saver.

     We had over 40 people to feed Christmas eve and we exchanged white elephant gifts sang karaoke and ate ourselves sick.  I only had a few hours of sleep Christmas night as I took Lil sis to the airport at 4 a.m. to go see her daughters in St. Louis.  But I did get a good 4 hour nap in Christmas day!  Then the girls and I went to Bohemian Rhapsody, which was fantastic.  I wanted to cry at the end.  It was so moving.

     Today hubs and I and B (D#3) all went to D#2's work and had our teeth cleaned.  I do have a cavity under a

Dahla horse cookie jar I received from Daughter #3.  I love it!

filling that was done by a doctor earlier.  I had complained about it since it was done but know one (2 different dentists) could find anything.  So that has to be taken care of.  B had extensive work done as her enamel was destroyed on her permanent teeth from antibiotics given to her when she had toxic shock.  Hub's and I went back to daughters to pack up and I cleaned up the kitchen and great room AGAIN.  I did not want daughter coming home to a messy house.

     The only bad part about the holiday was that my grandson was very very sick.  High fever for at least 3 days and just out of sorts for the whole Holiday. So daughter and her husband got very little sleep. It was a blessing that Lil sis and I were there to get so much of the work done for her.

     Hub's and made it home about 2:00 and it took me 1.5 hours to unpack and get things put away.  There is no food in the house ready to cook, so I made grilled cheese for dinner.  We are leaving again on Saturday for about 5 days so I don't want to buy anything and will make do.  I am glad to be home for a few days.

     I will tell you all about my loot tomorrow.  Did you have a wonderful Christmas?

Kim