I just got the official word on Kip's Christmas visit. He'll be down after work Friday night and will stay till Sunday evening. But, as I expected and knew would happen, the new girlfriend takes precedence and they will be at her parent's house for Christmas Eve and day. It was bound to happen. But, as I told him, I'd rather see him with a girlfriend than at my house on holidays. Really. He's a great kid and it's nice to see him with someone. If, in the long run, they decide to get married, then we'll have to work something out so that we get to share them on alternate holidays or something. The really hard part is that Emily is allergic to cats so she can't stay overnight here like she could at her parent's place. Yeh, there would be that, wouldn't there.

I'm about to swing into some serious cookie making this week. I didn't think I was going to do cookies but...uh, er, something called to me. I believe Bill would call it "Tradition!!!" First on the baking block will be mincemeat cookies. Maybe that will get Amy out of my fruitcake. It's unbelievable how little of it we have left. Not totally of her doing, I must admit. Second up for cookie baking is..., I dunno yet. I wanted to make some kind of fudge this year. I haven't made fudge for a long time. That's not really a cookie, though, is it? Oh, maybe I'll make Spritz cookies next. A chocolate kind. I'm not liking how my cookie press is working so I wasn't looking forward to doing those kinds of cookies again. But, Tradition!!! Other than that, I'm not sure what else I feel like doing. Amy and Todd made sugar cookies a few days ago and Todd took them to work. He came back with a couple plus some other ones from his employees but there weren't many.

Seems they have an ornament contest at Time Warner each year. Last year, Todd won first place and got some kind of $200 electronics for his computer at home. This year he got 2nd place and received $75 in cash, which they desperately needed. They've got new car payments to make so are a bit low on the extra money now. The new car is really nice, though. It's not totally new but it is a 2004 Honda Odyssey mini-van. They got it for less than we got our new 2004 Honda Accord DX last May. Amy knows how to get the deals.

Bill and I thought we would be heading down to Floida next week to visit Lizzy and Alan but those plans got scrapped two months ago when Melynda and Serge realized that they wouldn't be able to afford the travel from Montreal to Florida. All six of us were going to get together at Lizzy's and have a fun week. That would have been lots of fun. Mel and Serge are hoping they might be able to swing it in February after they get their income tax figured out but I seriously doubt they'll be able to do then. Bill and I are going regardless. He hasn't taken his vacation yet for this work year. His work year is from March to March so he's gotta take it before March. Florida is the destination because he wanted to help me alleviate some of the winter depression I get. I agreed with him wholeheartedly. I've been wanting to do this for years. That one winter that I lived in Florida before we got married was marvelous. I didn't have the winter effects at all.

Well, I suppose that's enough of the ramblings for this episode. Pretty much all I have left to do for Christmas is wrapping some presents, baking cookies, and planning the holiday menus. With Kip coming down this weekend that will be the holiday menu I have to plan for. Amy has an 18 pound turkey in my deep freezer so that will probably be what we center the meal around. Man, she's got to get that out of the freezer to start thawing pronto.