Aack! Don't read the prior entry

I'm not quite going to delete it, but ... just too damn depressing!

Christmas was very nice, by the way. We have teenage boys, so the thrill has waned, somewhat, with the passage of time ... though Andrew still gets hyped up about gifts. (I think Austin does too, he just feels like he can't say it since he's all grown up at 16 now)

I was at the point of being sick and tired of the Christmas music. And yet, when I woke up on the 26th to discover it wasn't being played anymore ... what a sad letdown that was. New Year's isn't even here yet! Our Christmas tree is still up! Let the magic continue, a few more days at least.

Andrew enjoys unwrapping, to the point that I always wrap some of the most mundane gifts and place them in stockings and around the tree. Possibly winning the prize in the least significant, yet wrapped, department were the $1 boxes of caramel corn under the tree. Then there was also the beef jerky, a favorite of Andrew's. I even wrapped all the gift cards, separately, some disguised in boxes with a random book to weigh them down.

There was a theme going with Austin's gifts this year, as with Dwaine's. For Dwaine, it was lots (and lots) of brightly colored Mexican ceramic animals in acrobatic poses, ready to crawl and slither all over the backyard pergola. For Austin, about six wrapped packages were actually a set of tools and a nice bag to store them in. So it was, ooh! aah! Another set of tools! Which is it this time -- a set of wrenches, or ... a set of something else? (Sorry, I can't even think of other tool set names, I am so mechanically useless.) Then -- wow! Is that a lizard, or a frog? Oh, another frog! (for Dwaine's gifts)

I've been nursing a cold this past week, so that was my excuse to totally stay out of the kitchen. Not hard, because Dwaine has become quite the master chef of late, especially with regard to holiday meals. For Thanksgiving, I made a sweet potato pie and green bean casserole (Fresh green beans, so it wasn't just a matter of can-of-this and can-of-that!). He made everything else, including a lemon meringue pie that unfortunately was runny. That recipe, his mom's, needs tweaking.

So for Christmas, we had a giant roast beast, mashed potatoes (a holiday staple), green beans from Bill Miller's, and various accompaniments brought by family members. Really, it was quite a simple meal. There were 10 of us this year, including Dwaine's friends from work, Doug and Kat, so a fairly small crowd.

My birthday is next week. I think we'll go to the Magic Time Machine, since we only went once when the boys were small. The kids (both of them) went to the zoo with me last week. That was quite a coup -- two teenage boys, even the 16-year-old, at the zoo! We all loved it and shared fond memories of all the times we had gone before. The boys had a lovely time baiting some fish, feeding them fish pellets right over the giant open mouth of a hungry alligator snapping turtle.We were there about 20 minutes, and Andrew did not want to leave until the turtle caught a fish. So he was overjoyed when suddenly, its giant jaw clamped shut and it clenched down hard on one of the largest fish! It was just too gross for me to watch, once I saw chunks of fish floating to the surface from the muddied depths. The boys watched for a while, giving me detailed updates because they know how squeamish I am.

Tax season is right around the corner, and 45-50 hour workweeks! Jan. 15 through April 15, then it will be over. Actually, in the world of public accounting, this is quite reasonable compared to 70-plus hour workweeks, year-round. But still, for someone who worked part-time for many years, it will be an adjustment. I think I'm ready.