2 More Days - Happy Christmas Adam!

That's right, Christmas Adam.  You know, Adam came before Eve?  I'll let ya'll think about that for a minute.

I have a cute stuffed snowman on my bed, dressed up in overalls with a bag on his arm filled with snowballs that count down the days till Christmas.  Only I lost the last snowball, the one that has 2 on one side and 1 on the other.  Here he has been counting down the days since December 1st and he can't finish his job.  What a bummer.

Last night I downloaded a new app, Errands.  It's a to-do list to help me keep track of what needs to get done on a daily basis.  I had Any.Do for a while but it wasn't working properly.  Half the time it wouldn't let me put anything in that was too far in advance, it wouldn't repeat tasks, and sometimes would erase stuff.  I'm liking Errands so far, but since I just started using it yesterday I can't give it a proper review.  I'll see how I feel about it a week from now.  I was going through Facebook before going to sleep, and saw that Bare Escentuals has a contest/sweepstakes type deal going on, where someone can win free product, up to $575 worth.  I tried over and over to sign up but I guess there were too many people on the site, so I went in this morning and registered.  I told my daughter about it and she said, "Sign me up too!" so I did.

My day started with my trusty crock pot.  I knew I had outdoor work to do today, so I planned on jambalaya that I could set and forget.  It was in the pot cooking by 8:20 am.  I had my breakfast, 2 slices of bacon and some leftover cornbread with my coffee, then I made the brine for the turkey.  I decided to make a good sized turkey for Christmas Eve dinner that would carry over to Christmas Day because, who wants to be stuck in the kitchen on Christmas?  I like making a big breakfast on Christmas morning, pancakes or waffles, sausages, bacon, the works.  But I don't want to have to be in the kitchen roasting a turkey and making all the fixin's too.  I want to be able to sit back and watch The Christmas Story and Miracle on 34th Street and all the other classic Christmas movies with my kids.  Though I suspect they'll be busy with all their new goodies to be bothered with anything else.

So, lunch in the crock pot, brine on the stove, I got to work in the yard.  I haven't mowed the lawn in about a month.  It's been dry so there hasn't been a whole lot of growth, but the grass was starting to look messy and in need of a good trim.  In the summer, when the heat and humidity are at their highest, it will easily take me 90 minutes to mow the front and back yards.  Today, with the air so dry and a cool breeze blowing, it took an hour.  Instead of coming inside red as a tomato and drenched in sweat, I was covered in dirt that blew up from the ground, and I was pretty dry.  It was nice not having to fight with the lawn mower because the ground was soggy from the rain and humidity.  While I was at work in the front yard my neighbor's little girl came over and gave me the cutest Christmas card with a picture of herself inside.  She's 4 years old now, and just as sweet as they come.  Her grandma told me she was making out her Christmas cards and the little one told her, "Grandma, don't forget the neighbor!"  God bless her, she is a real doll.

Once I was done I came inside and showered.  There was still plenty that could be done, but my nose was not having it.  I take Allegra daily, and it has kept my allergies well under control, but even maintenance medicine can get overwhelmed when there are that many weeds and dryness in the air.  I figured I'd better play it safe and come back inside the house before a severe allergy attack came on.  As it was I was sneezing quite a bit.  My body was trying to get rid of all the allergens.

Yesterday I mentioned that I baked an orange streusel loaf for my daughter's coworkers.  She works at the church office where she attends church.  There is one other girl that works in the office, and all the rest are men.  Nine of them.  She says they attacked the cake.  I can't lie, it made me smile from ear to ear.  I am extremely gratified knowing I put some joy in their tummies ;-).

After my shower I had lunch, then vegged out for awhile.  I watched some videos on youtube, then my daughter and I watched The Biggest Loser on Hulu.  While I was having lunch, a package arrived for my son R from Think Geek.  He loves all the wacky stuff they sell.  When my daughter and I sat down to watch The Biggest Loser, we noticed a new present under the tree.  We were pretty intrigued; who was this for?  I got up to read what it said on the wrapping, and we both laughed:  "To R From R.  No, I don't have to justify buying myself a Christmas present."  My daughter and I both agreed that was a great idea, and we should do the same when our Bare Escentuals order came in.  I went to check the tracking number to see when it would be arriving.  I had received an email last Thursday stating it was shipping that day, but FedEx only showed that a label had been created.  I decided to call and find out if the error was at FedEx or at Bare Escentuals.  Let me just say, they have the nicest customer service people I have spoken to in a long time.  They were polite, helpful, and looking for ways to help me as best as they could, considering the shipping warehouse is not at the same location as their offices.  The lady thought it was very strange that I hadn't received this order, especially when a second order that I'd placed after this one had already been received.  She asked if I would be willing to call FedEx and find out if they had the package.  I agreed, and called FedEx.  Total contrast!  The customer service rep at FedEx literally yawned in my ear as she asked me my name.  How unprofessional is that?!  It annoys me when customer service reps are not at the top of their game.  So many people out of work would love that job!  Appreciate what you have!!  *Rant over*  The woman told me that they'd never received the package from the shipper, so I called Bare Escentuals back.  This time I was told that the label had been created but for some reason the package had not shipped.  Since I placed the order before the deadline I was guaranteed delivery by Christmas (I placed the order on 12/15, and I believe the deadline was either 12/16 or 12/18).  The woman promised to look into it, and have someone call me about having it shipped to receive by the 25th.  Within 20 minutes she called back, but unfortunately she didn't have good news.  She isn't all together sure if the package was picked up by FedEx and not scanned, or if it never got picked up.  The offices are in San Francisco, and the shipping warehouse is in Ohio.  The warehouse had already closed for the day so she couldn't contact them, and there was no way they could ship Wednesday and still receive the order on Christmas because FedEx is closed.  So we are looking at Friday or Saturday delivery, IF there isn't any weather problems.  I could have gotten mad, but what would that do?  It wouldn't get my order here any faster.  I told the girl we'd manage, and that it was alright, and she was so apologetic and grateful that I was being so understanding.

I've put the turkey in the brine and tidied up the kitchen.  My son R is at work, and my daughter A is at the Christmas Eve Eve church service.  There will be another service tomorrow which I plan to attend with my son E.  She has to attend both because of work.  To be perfectly honest, I have done nothing productive after calling Bare Escentuals.  I pretty much just lay around the house.  So really, there's nothing else to tell.  Tomorrow is a new day, an exciting and fun day, and we're all looking forward to it.  Good night and pleasant dreams.