Beth and I have finally come to a place where we're willing to de-clutter, I think. We got rid of a couple pieces of furniture last weekend by leaving it at the curb with a "free" sign on it. First an end table, which I left out and was gone by the time I looked again. Then an old dresser, which I left out and got to watch a couple from one of the apartments (I assume) try to get it into the trunk of their car. Anyway, moving furniture around to paint got us in the mood to get rid of stuff. We did a lot of cleaning out the green room, and Monday a lot of junk got hauled away. We took a huge load to Goodwill too. I also took Mom's jewelry leftovers to Snyder's in town, and she gave me $50 for a bunch of pieces. The rest was junk, so I tossed it. But she said she'd also look at the antique postcards I have from Mom/Grandpa, and she took then all for $25. Plus there was some stuff (a gold fraternity key (?) and some foreign coins) in Dad's stuff that she took for $24. So I got $99 total for some of my parents' stuff! Not a bad haul, it made me so happy to get rid of it.

I came up just a bit short in the "Fresh Outta Bed and Head to Head" tournament finals on Tuesday. I got up early and everything for it. It was within my grasp, too: I went up 2-0 with the first 2 questions, then there was one I had no idea on, she beat me by a red hair buzzing in on the next, and I guessed wrong on the last one, so I ended up losing 3-2. Dang it. Oh well. Try again next year.....

So Christmas. It was pretty low-key for us, as it has been for a while. No travel or anything, and mostly getting presents for everyone on Amazon again. Beth's big thing was a bread machine (from me, which she bought herself); mine was new sweatshirts and sweatpants (which were too big and I returned); Alex's was video games and accessories (natch); Missy's was books and a new guitar case; Natalie's was new boots and stuff from Beaded Peacock. Beth made a nice Christmas dinner for us all (we also invited over Mary Jane). It was supposed to be a turkey that we had had in the freezer for a couple years, which we were finally going to get rid of. What actually turned out was that it was just a big chicken from 2017. But it was still just fine, so we had a chicken dinner instead. Chicken, veggies, potatoes, rolls - and cheesecake. We drove all over looking for a cheesecake on Christmas eve, but we arrived at Kroger just a bit too late, at Wal-Mart just a bit too late (they closed early-ish, I think. Alex got to go home from work early and they sent him home with some goodies. We couldn't get in to get a cheesecake when we picked him up), but Meijer had some. So we had a nice dinner and a nice cheesecake on Christmas.....

The day after Christmas Missy and I started painting her room furniture. She had wanted to paint her bookshelf the same yellow we used for her room last spring, but we'd run out. So we finally got some new paint yesterday and started on both the bookshelf and her chair, which she had painted yellow and 'distressed' but she didn't like the distressed look any more. So just a good coat of paint.....Today we all went to Fort Wayne to spend some Christmas money at the mall. The kids all hit their favorite stores, got a bunch of stuff (Pop Figures for Alex & Missy of course), and we ate dinner at Red Robin.....

I played (and won) "Fresh Outta Bed and Head to Head" three times this week. I was supposed to start last Thursday, but the radio station was having technical difficulties so they had to make up time this week. I won all 3 (which were all in the tournament) so I will be playing again next week for the championship. There's a big trophy, an Echo dot, and a bunch of CDs as the prize.....The painting in the house is finally finished! Except for the one spot in the wall behind the TV where I had to fix a nail blister that bothered me. It just was so so visible after painting. I got satin finish paint, but it seems more glossy than I remember satin paint being. Anyway, Beth also wants to paint the kitchen in the same colors since we like it so much. There's plenty of the teal left over for it, I think, but I'm out of the gray. So I'll get some more gray, finish the wall behind the TV, and start on the kitchen. Probably after Christmas. We're also waiting for Christmas to be over before we put everything back up on the walls, and we'll review what pictures will stay up, and which ones will go.....Iris spent the night at the vet last week. She apparently ate a little mesh bag, and she has seemed to be in some kind of distress when using the litter box lately. Trying to go and then not. Doing that several times in a short span. So we were worried there was a blockage or something. The vet kept her until she could get a "sample," which took all day and all night, apparently, but there was nothing that seemed to indicate an infection or stones. So it might be stress.....We've got all our Christmas shopping done, mostly on Amazon again this year. This year especially, no real desire to go into big crowds.....All our Christmas cards are delivered, mostly at church. All of the ones that we hadn't seen in the past 2 weeks and we still had their card, we hand-delivered today by driving around town from one house to another, with Missy driving. She only has around 8 hours more to go to get her license.....

 Christmas season has really started up. Early this year, maybe, at least by our usual schedule. We already have the tree up and decorated, and other decorations up in the living room (mostly figurines of snowmen and Christmas trees). Last Tuesday the kids and I all had a fun time on the church scavenger hunt: starting from the church, we drove all over town looking for things on the list, taking pictures of them, and texting them back in to Bob. We started out just finding particular sets of big decorations in town (there is this one house on Market St that is all lit up, for example, or the front of the DePuy building), then driving around finding a manger scene, the words 'Merry Christmas' in lights, a tree lit only in blue, that sort of thing. All 3 of the kids and I had a pretty good system going on after a bit: I drove, Alex and Missy had a flashlight and the list in the back and kept track of what we'd found and what to look for next, everyone kept their eyes peeled for whatever we needed, and Natalie would jump out, get the photo, and text it in. We also had to go around the lights in Central Park finding particular things, and the one thing that prevented us taking first place was not finding the "hungry wise man," which was one of the traveling magi who, if you take the picture from the right angle, appears to be pointing straight at the McDonald's. We drove around furiously for 90 solid minutes (our time limit), then got back in time to get one last thing on the list which was a selfie with someone named Bob. After everything was tallied, we had come in third place. Great time was had by all.....the painting on the accent walls is just about done. The one in the dining room is done, anyway, and just the living room walls to go. Beth and I have moved all her cordial glasses out of the curio cabinet so we could move it, and everything is pulled away. I should be able to finish it up within a couple days.....Today Beth and the girls and I drove a long way out of the way to get a Chicago dog (actually only to Syracuse (Indiana))...

Things seem like they are getting back to the pandemic-normal, with both Alex and Missy finally off quarantine and back to school - even though Monday and Tuesday were e-learning days. Alex is back to work since black Friday as well, and already racking up some good hours......Natalie's 18th birthday (aka cheesecake day) was Thursday. She doesn't want to do birthdays anymore, so we'll do cheesecake day, I guess. She wanted to go to Fazoli's for her birthday dinner, so we did. We headed to FW, ate at Fazoli's, and went back home, where we had cheesecake. Beth took her shopping at the clothing and makeup stores as well.....Alex and I got his application for Digipen Institute started (at the last moment for the no-fee November), so we're on the way to getting this college stuff taken care of, finally.....I have the gray painting in the living room and dining room finished now, except for one more nail blister I kept seeing after it was finished and I had to go back and fix. It looks really good, very clean, very modern. I painted just a bit of the accent wall in the dining room and it became apparent quickly that it was much too green. Unfortunately you can't return custom mixed paint at Menard's, so we had to pick another color and hope we got it right that time. We stayed with the teal, but a much bluer teal, which looks very nice so far (I only have the wall edges and corners painted)......one reason I had to finish the painting in the living room quickly this week was so we could get the Christmas tree up. It's up, much earlier than last year, but still undecorated.....