Well, it is one week til Christmas Eve. Am I ready for it? NO NO and NO. We are pinching pennies this year (a nice way to say we are sooo POOR…lol) and I am making all our gifts. HHmmm, with the exception of a few small ones. Tommy, Raf, and my brother Jeremy are all getting jammies. Jammies are simply scrubs in wild fabrics. They are also getting robes. Tommy picked out some flannel that has flames on it for Raf’s robe. Raf always says he is “sooo hot!”, so Tommy thought it was appropriate. My mother and my mother in law are both getting capes in crushed penne velvet. Mom’s is cranberry and Marie’s is gold. Mac, my father in law, is getting his usual gift card to the Outback. He loves that place. As for my beloved husband Tommy, I was finally able to get him something he has been wanting for a while…..a MP3 player. When RadioShack had them on sale the day after Thanksgiving my mom went and picked one up for me. He is going to be so surprised.

Monday, the 18th, was Zoe’s birthday. She is a year old. Tommy says she is no longer a puppy but now a dog! Why then does he continue to call her Zous puppus??? Our vet, Dr. Mike, says Zoe is getting so fat. Tommy says she is just healthy. He said she is going to be a tick—big body with a little head. He is such a silly man.

This weather is absolutely crazy. We went from temps in the 60’s to the upper 20’s and then back to the 70’s all in the space of 10 days. Is it any wonder that we all got sick. Raf is to blame though, he got it first and brought it home. He missed three days of work. Tommy ended up having to work a double one of those days. Boy was he ticked. Then, just as Raf is starting to get better, Tommy gets sick. Why is it that grown men always revert to being small children when they are sick??? I could probably make a fortune if I could answer that question. I have been fighting off the bug for a few days now. So far I have done fairly well. Unfortunately, my sinuses laid me up for several days. Started out with a migraine, (dang do I hate those) and then went straight to the eye and ear area. A few years ago, I had my jaw dislocated and now every time my sinuses flair up, that area is the most painful. It took me a while to convince people I didn’t need to go to the dentist; it was my sinuses making my teeth hurt. I was finally able to prove it to them. Now they just hand me sinus meds and it soon fixes everything. I think now though that we are all on the road to recovery. Raf is back at work. Tommy took one day off and slept the entire time. And me, I’m still taking meds swearing I’m not gonna get sick.

December started off with a bang. Friday, the first, was my birthday. I turned 41. Am I getting old or is everyone around me just getting younger? My mother in law called me at midnight on Thursday to sing me Happy Birthday. I was already sleeping so Tommy didn’t wake me up. She called again the next morning. Tommy got me a new digital camera and my mom sent me fabric for a skirt and a jacket. Who knows when I will have the time to make me anything. Other than Tommy telling me as he was going out the door to work that he would eat there, which meant my birthday dinner was a lonely bowl of cereal, it was a quiet day.

Tommy only gets two days off for Christmas and they are his normal days. We will be making a whirlwind trip north. On Sunday we will make the six hour drive to his parents house and have Christmas with them, Then on Christmas Day we will drive an hour and half east to my family and have Christmas with them. Late that day, we will make the five hour drive home. Tommy then has to go to work on Tuesday. I will need to sleep to two solid days after that. Much to Tommy’s dismay we are taking the dog with us. He wanted to leave her here with Raf, but I said no way, she goes.

New Year’s Eve we are having an open house. It will mainly be people from the hotel where Tommy and Raf work. Several people from the surrounding area in the French Quarter are also coming. It should be fun.