Christmas Week

The following saying was posted on FB:

Toby took a half day last Friday. We worked on Christmas presents. I mean we went out to the barn and made several Christmas presents. I made five necklace hangers. First I cut five pieces of 1x6 about 16" long. Then I routed the edges. Having never used the router, Toby had to show me how, but I'm a quick learner. Then I sanded the boards and coated them with polyurethane. Then Toby drilled five holes in each board. I could have done this - I can use the drill press. Next, I put five knobs (ordered from Amazon) into the drilled holes. The screws were extra long, so Toby cut them off with some sort of grinder. Then I added a hanger-doo-hickie on the back of each board. Ta-da! I made really cute necklace hangers. All the while Toby was building a wooden box to hold 24 bottles of beer. The box had our brand burnt on the outside ends of the box and a bottle opener too. He did an amazing job. He gave the box to our son. Since they make beer together, it is good to have something nice to carry the beer. Of course they save old boxes, but the cardboard boxes fall apart eventually. The wooden beer box was really nice.

Saturday we spent the day getting ready for our Christmas Eve party. Cleaning house and cooking pies was a big part of the preparations. Finishing our homemade Christmas gifts was another important part. Both of us were pretty worn before the party started. But the party was really nice. Instead of our usual talent show, we did karaoke. I think we have pretty well exhausted all the talent. Singing was fun - still no real talent there. Well, Alan was pretty good and was so was Ali. The rest of us just sang anyway. I did a horrible rendition  of "Unchanged Melody."

Sunday we went to WF, picked up the mothers, and went to my brother's house for steaks. The food was excellent. My mother was not a happy camper, but Toby's mom was great. My SIL gave all the ladies a scarf for Christmas. Mom didn't like hers and said so - several times in several ways. I don't think anyone was upset or hurt by her remarks. It's just the nature of the disease. After the mom's were taken home, I was able to sit out in the backyard of Pete's new home and enjoy the company of family. It was really a nice afternoon.

Monday Toby had a list of things he wanted to do. He asked me if there was something I wanted to do - something for Christmas. I wanted to see a movie. So, after doing lots of little things around the house, we went back to WF to see "Rogue 1" with Jesse. It was a good time. It reminded me lots of the first Star Wars movie. The fact that Carrie Fisher died the next day, well, that was sad.

Tuesday Toby took off another day - his last day of vacation for the year. We did things around the house again and went to the GGs house to put together Bo's other Christmas gift - a work bench from Harbor Freight. We also made a trip to WalMart - yeha! Then we went home for a quiet evening. I finished a book I was reading.

All of this Toby-time has really thrown me. I feel like it has been a really long weekend with Toby home. It has been good, but I'm not used to having him around so much. This morning was strange to have to make his lunch and send him off to work. Whatever will I do with myself - evil grin.