Went pretty well. I had a good turnout, and only a few of the invited didn't show up. The Cousin's subs went over well, and were decimated- I really was kinda afraid I'd have half of each or more left! Instead, I don't think there's even enough to make up one remaining. The emergency replacement soup (tm) was two packets of Shore Lunch Traditional Chicken Soup, with the required water and two pounds of cooked chicken added in- not bad, though I should have doctored it a bit- the flavor was a little bland.

What I got for gifts was absolutely not what I was expecting.

It was better!

The Dresden Files game Players book, The Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Two, the Ray Harryhausen Legendary Monsters collection, a novel, 'The Native Star', which is a 'Supernatural Old West' novel which I'll read sometime in the next week likely (still re-reading the Otherworld books!) and a gift card for Barnes And Noble.

Oh- there was ONE more thing... Probably the most surprising: A bottle of scotch! Its a 12 year called The Balvenie, and its excellent.

The cheese went fast this year, and I think I'm figuring out which to NOT get- Swiss isn't all that popular, but the colby, muenster, monterey jack (and variations) and cheddar go fast. So I'll try to keep that in mind for the next party.

Now, its the day after of course. All but one serving bowl are clean, the long table is put away and the trash is out- I should probably vacuum at least in front- a lot of salt got tromped in. I need a bigger entryway!

As to the past few days where I have utterly failed to make daily posts, its been pretty quiet. Mostly it was a bit of cleaning and getting ready for the party. Last Sunday we played in the Wild West game again, and I've a pretty good chunk of notes from which to get the writeup done from. While there, I did get a gift from Scotty G. who couldn't attend the party- an electronic dartboard, which will probably go up in the front room where my pegasus pic is now. That'll get cleaned and relocated when I start some of the 'little' home improvement projects, like painting and the long-promised new carpet.

And that's about it. Happy Holidays to all one last time for 2010!

Today was quiet for the most part, the huge meal from Xmas Eve at the folks predictably knocking me out WAY earlier than I should have actually gone to bed. Thus, I'm gonna be having 'fun' at work tonight staying awake.

This evening I went over to joshuwain's place and watched the first episode of the new BBC series Sherlock, and the Christmas episode of Doctor Who. Both were good, as were the burgers we had for the meal. :)

Now, I'm just settling for a while before I have to go to work. Ick. But, I'll prolly sleep well in the morning.

Naturally, after that huge meal I ended up passing out. From 10:30 til 2:30 I was thoroughly dead to the world. Thereafter I got up... And promptly fell back asleep in my chair for several more hours. When I finally DID get up, I chatted on FurryMUCK for a bit, then got groceries. And guess what- we got MORE snow! :P

Honestly, I love having a white Christmas. I really do, but this... Its kinda nuts. We're in record snowfall territory now. At least the snow blower SERIOUSLY kicks ass now. If I get chains for the tires on it, it'll kick even MORE ass. In about 45 minutes I cleared my driveway, got rid of the ridge the plow left there as well, cleared the ridge at the Monroe end of the alley, cleared the sidewalk and then cleared my neighbor's driveway and walk as well! foeclan... You DO have enough area to warrant a snow blower. Seriously. Maybe not one the size of mine, but the next size down- it REALLY helps a ton.

I'm gonna head to bed shortly, then this afternoon I'll head to the folks for the family get-toigether... And prolly move more snow. Bleah.

I found out that the last gift is currently somewhere in Illinois, and will supposedly be arriving tomorrow. Woot! Also, the one gift I'm mailing out this year is ready for the post office tomorrow- it'll get where its going late, but that's better than never. I'm now done with everything (but the shipping of one and the wrapping of one other). Friday is the get together at the folks, and then on Monday I get to order the subs for the party on the seventh.

Also- one good thing about all the snow, other than the White Christmas thing and the fact things look nice... I get to park in the garage tonight and tomorrow at work. :)

The 1/2 gift got here, so that one is wrapped and under the tree. One left! Also, today I finally slept well- all it took was staying up all night watching the entire Lord of the Rings Extended edition.

The meatballs came out real good- 2# of hamburger and the other ingredients yielded 36 meatballs. I've gone through about half of 'em so far, but I'm almost out of mashed potatoes to go with them- I'm out of egg noodles too. I'll get to the store either late tonight or tomorrow for a few sundries, so that'll be dealt with.

Other than that, I'm still being lazy today. I did get the paperbacks boxed up, but I still need to sort them all. Notably, I'm not all that driven to get going on that- I've a LOT of books.

The plan for next week is as follows- Sunday Midnight I'm back at work. Sunday evening I'm gaming, Monday-Thursday is just work, Friday evening (Christmas Eve) is the get-together at my parent's place, and Saturday I've nothing planned. The last gift should arrive and be wrapped easily before Friday, not that it matters- it won't be opened til the Xmas party.

I should probably do general pickup around the house, vacuum and other little stuff like that tonight too. That's it!

The gorceries are done. The laundry is mostly done, one more load to go. The laundromat run is also done, the quilts now clean, dry and folded. I once again have beer, and I picked up a bottle of Kraken rum that is gonna get cracked and sampled tonight sometime.

And lastly... THE XMAS SHOPPING IS EFFING DONE!!!

Go me. :)

Okay, all the stuff but one thing is wrapped, at least of the stuff that's here so far. Most of the gifts are still in the mail. However, I may have been a stupidhead and wrapped one gift inside another- if I did, someone (and I really don't know who) is getting an extra Barnes & Noble gift card. ;) I'll wrap the rest of the stuff as it comes. The one I haven't wrapped is basically just half of a gift, and will be wrapped when the rest arrives.

So. Got my brother's gift and my nieces dealt with now. Just three or four left, and I'll get those in the next few days. Woot!

The editing continues apace, but I kinda hope the people reading the first draft gimme comments!

I got my first seaonal gift, a card from one of the people I give keys to in the morning. :)

And that's it for now.

The tree is up, and I've two photos of it on my FA site- http://www.furaffinity.net/user/sorien/ . I rearranged the Xmas storage so stuff fits better too. 7 gifts left, then its over but for the wrapping. And the party, which is scheduled for the 7th of January. :)

Today I get the new lights for the tree, and likely I'll start decorating too. I'm going with red I think, and I'm gonna hit a pet shop to find the cat-repellent spray to keep Spaz out of the branches. Maybe he won't screw the tree up this year. I've 12.5 gifts left, most of which I still have to figure out. My brother will eventually get off his butt and tell me ideas for him and my nieces, and I think I've figured out something for the last gift for my dad, but that still leaves four or so that I don't know what to get. However... I've NEVER been this far in my shopping this early before! Woot!

On other things, life is okay. I should make another appointment with the allergist (he wanted me to make a followup), so I'll prolly set that up for next week. And I found out some cool news- several of the series I read have books coming out in January! I'll have NEW reading material soon!