Happy New Year!

We just got home from visiting the Mother-in-law Saturday night & I had to work today, so this is the first real chance I've had to sit down & post!

So obviously we're having a really wild & crazy New Year's Eve!  Randy is over lying on the bed, watching videos on his phone, Angel went to a party (with strict instructions to stay there for the night or call us if she had to come home!!) and I'm here on the computer.  

FYI, this is my 79th post of the year - so much for my 2018 word of the year "consistent".  

Anyhooo.

 Random shot of the gift I got for my boss at work.  She loved it!

We left Thursday the 20th for Arkansas.  Of course we made multiple stops at Chic-Fil-A while we were gone.  Randy & Angel are huge fans!

 A rest stop in Indiana had a working pay phone! 

So we got to Hot Springs Friday the 21st.  Normally we'd immediately go grocery shopping, since Mom apparently empties her cabinets before we get there.  But this time we got there, unloaded the car, had some dinner, then went up on West Mountain since it was supposed to be the clearest night of the whole trip. 

Stunning!

Saturday we went to Church - after Mom spent a good hour trying to justify her reasoning from leaving her Baptist church for the 7th Day Adventist.  Look, we don't care, as long as you're happy!  

It was a very nice church & service.  It's neat to experience other views - and it was very different from Catholic services!  We got to see 2 new members welcomed in and a baptism, too.  

Sunday we didn't do a whole lot, but after dinner, Angel & decided to go finish up some Christmas shopping!  We drove almost into Little Rock to Kohl's and hit a few other places.  Normally I'd think it was weird that stores were open so late, but it worked out to our benefit this time. 

 The MIL has this 1908 Sears catalog that was kind of fun to browse.

And the buggies were like $35-$55!

Santa visited our kitties!

Speaking of - he was good to us.  Randy got me a pair of hiking poles that'll be great for search & rescue stuff.  He also got me (by request) one of those Flawless facial hair removers that I used pretty much immediately.  Then a new makeup bag & brushes.  Assorted clothes & slippers.  He also got me & Angel both heated seat cushions for the cars.  Angel loves hers since she'd got leather seats.  

The day after Christmas, we went to "take the waters" as usual.  

I'll have to dedicate another post solely to it.

Heavenly! 

Another exciting field trip - Randy had to go to Lowe's to get some stuff for his honey-do list and I for LED spotlights for 50% off!  A couple days later we had to go back and I got 2 more blue ones & 2 green for 75% off!  They're destined to be in the Halloween display next year.

Angel broke 2 of her nails while we were there, so we used that as an excuse to get out of the house for a while.  The random place we chose to go to was a nail BAR!  I'm sure they didn't think she was old enough and didn't ask, but I'm sure if I'd gotten some work done, they would have offered complementary beverages!  They had a whole wall of wine, smaller bottles of rum, vodkas & 2 margarita machines!

Randy always feels bad that it's kind of boring for us when we go visiting (I go every other year at Christmas and on the off years, he goes at Thanksgiving) and it can be but I make sure to take stuff to do & look up places I want to explore while I'm there, and of course go to the bathhouse.  Then he can take care of his Mom's honey-do list and I can do my thing.  And since Angel was able to take off work, I had company!  

We left to come home Friday the 28th.  We had breakfast with Mom & his sister and left from the restaurant.  

Saturday night - not seen is cat #3 on the pillow behind my head.  

I think they missed us!

I thought this was a good tie-in to the Blended Blog's prompt for today.

So in a nutshell - every other Christmas we spend at the MIL's in Arkansas. On the years we're home, we all gather Christmas Eve at one of my sister's houses - I wish my house was bigger so we can have people over!  Then every year since 2009 when Dad passed away, we've gone to Frankenmuth to have dinner at Zehnder's on Christmas Day.  Even tho it's one of the few days that Bronner's (the Christmas Wonderland - an awesome year round store) is closed, they keep the parking lot all decorated & lit up and it's still pretty magical to drive around and look at the lights there.  

New Year's is always pretty low-key.  Randy & I stay at home and flip between watching the celebrations in NYC and Toronto (the benefits of being so close to Canada, we can pick up the CBC on regular TV).  

Have a Safe & Happy New Year's celebration!