Grumbleeze

I love Christmas! When I was a kid I was the first one to wake up Christmas morning; when I had my own kids at home, I was still the first one to wake up Christmas morning. Now I sleep in Christmas morning but get up early the day of our family Christmas party!

...and what a party! Most of us were here... and we talked with the Bug on the phone! Good snacks... good food... good people...what a formula for success! Yes Jan... and Susan..... mishaps happened!

• I discovered purchasers no longer get pieces of paper to show they own Series EE government bonds! The grandkids who get bonds for Christmas only got letters from grandma explaining they own them... I do not like this system!
• I started to print the traditional family calendar (on Christmas day to give away the next day at our party)... and discovered my brand new color inkjet cartridge had no yellow!!! Bummer... this means I'll have to mail them all out after I get a new cartridge, if the printer works, because...
• yes, on party day we tried to print something and the whole printer went crazy! Does this mean we need a new printer... not just an ink cartridge? We shall see.

Oh! ...and we are now a full digital camera family! Everybody was clicking away... I chose not to because we pool our pics anyway, but did get a couple of my own anyway.

Windy and Sharba both went digital this Christmas season. Stop by and see what they are doing! Sharba even has a separate site for her photos and Windy just started one... don't forget to leave a comment and bug them if they don't add pics often enough! Sharba, show us Petey!

...and now for a bit of Monday Madness
Sorry... I missed a couple of weeks!!! This will probably not happen again, at least for awhile. For some reason I was busier than usual. Who can figure?

1) Which holiday do you celebrate this time of year? Christmas... yes I still believe in Santa Claus!
2) Do you begin shopping for gifts earlier than Thanksgiving, looking for the perfect gift? If not, when do you begin? I try to get all my shopping done in one day. This year that day was determined by Meijer, our favorite all-purpose store. Meijer management determined Thursday (the week before Christmas) for 5% off all groceries and 15% off all general merchandise if you used their credit card. On top of that they provided a coupon for an additional 15% off the whole bill. Not enough? They also offered a $10 off coupon with new owners of their new credit card. Hubby & I shopped our butts off!!! ... and that was after a half hour physical therapy for yours truly! We were pretty much done all at once and for once in my life I enjoyed shopping!
3) Do you only purchase gifts that you know are perfect for the recipient and if you don't find that gift, do you just get anything? I try to purchase the perfect gift but it's not easy when you have people who buy what they want when they want it! Sometimes I have to 'settle' because some are even harder to shop for than others! This year I did a good job and still underestimated a couple of sizes. ;-(
4) Did you receive or give any "obligatory" gifts this year? Hey Bug! I just answered that one!
5) Do you decorate your tree as evenly as possible or do you skip the areas that are not visible? If I can't see it to decorate it, you can't see it's undecorated... right?
6) Do you like multi-colors on your tree or do you prefer monochrome? Multi- is very good!
7) Did you bake "traditional" cookies, frost them and decorate them? or did you cheat and buy the ready to bake kind? I no longer bake Christmas cookies. I already turned that tradition over to my kids!
8) Are you the host of a holiday gathering? which one? family, work, friends Family... once for Thanksgiving and again for Easter... then usually we try to have at least one biggy in the summertime.
9) With whom do you spend the holiday? We spend the actual Christmas Day together, just like we started... franknsherle! The family Christmas takes place on a weekend after... normally. This year it was actually the day after! I kind of like that the best. ;-)
10) How did the holiday turn out? Perfectly? funny mishaps? miss anyone? Now that's a trick question!!! Janice, you are always with us no matter where you are! The phone conversation between you and all of us kind of makes it easier too! Thanks for doing the calling this year. We love you! Now I'm going to do a blog about my Christmas mishaps!

Thanks Jan! Good questions! Feel free to help Otto anytime!

Furthermore, I'm still feeling a bit