Saturday, December 30th
I got together with Grandma and talked about when we could have Christmas with Angela and her kids. I told Grandma that the Saturday after Christmas would work best for most of us because it was the weekend, and it would be easier to meet up. I also added that the sooner we pick a date the easier it would be for people who do work on weekend to make sure they got it off. She planned on having a Christmas get together on that Saturday and told Angela to let the kids know.
Last year we planned everything out, I got Grandma a turkey and a bag of potatoes and the weather decided to give us an ice storm. It made traveling anywhere unsafe. We had to make the decision to stay home and possibly to it some other time but sadly, we never got together to make it up.
I got Grandma a turkey again and bought her a bag of potatoes. I also let her know that I would be making a pumpkin pie for dessert. The end of December got really busy. Erika and Zac decided to go to Vancouver to have Zac's side of the family Christmas because we were all gone at the beach house during actual Christmas, so they wouldn't be there. Doug decided he was going to frantically move out of our house and move in with his girlfriend. Sonya and Doug were kind of pompous about it. It rubbed everyone the wrong way, so they weren't going to be there. Derek's situation was unknown, but he probably wasn't going to be there either.
Ben and I got our stuff ready and headed over with the bingo stuff and the pumpkin pie.
We got over there around 2ish. We parked out of the way and went inside. I asked Grandma if I could help her with anything, but it looked like she had most stuff pretty much done. She hollered at everyone to come and eat food.
I went in behind several people and grabbed a little bit of everything and made sure I had a fork and a napkin before I went to the table in the dining room. I sat on the far side of the table so everyone else could get in and out easily, especially Grandma once she got her food and sat down. We chatted with everyone while we ate. Mom, Angela and Jeff ate their food in the living room for some reason.
Afterwards, we helped Grandma clear the plates and put some of the food away. I got the bingo box and started getting that stuff out. I got a couple more prizes earlier that week to replace the old ones that have been sitting in the box since 2022. Some of the stuff in there like the candy needed to be thrown away. I got out the bingo cards, the daubers, crayons and markers (if anyone wanted to use those instead of the daubers), the bingo cage with the balls and the plate that you sit the balls on once they've been called out.
We got all situated and I knew we would only get through half a dozen rounds before everyone got bored and wanted to do something else. We did regular bingo, postage stamp, four corners, picture frame and finally blackout. We had several winners from each round. I was happy to yell out bingo twice and to get my prizes. We did this for about an hour before people got bored. We helped Grandpa clean up the bingo stuff. I packed up all the extra cards, bingo cage and the daubers and tried getting them back into the container. I had to rearrange stuff a few times, but I got it all to fit back in.
We made our way to the living room to visit and watch the Lions and Cowboys game. We talked about fantasy football and one of my players, CeeDee Lamb just went off in receiving yards. I was going to annihilate my opponent that week. This was the last week of playoffs, and I needed big points from my players. I was in the championship game in both my leagues. The game we watched in Grandma's living room literally came down to seconds and you could tell that the NFL needed the Cowboys to win to keep the home winning streak alive. So many NFL primetime games have ended in controversy this year.
After the conclusion of the game, everyone grabbed their stuff. thanked Grandma for hosting and headed home. Ben and I went over to Megan's house for a bit afterwards and then got home around 11:00 that night. I did a few things to get ready for the next day before we went to bed. I can't believe it's already the end of December, I feel like 2023 just started.
Sunday, December 31st
I really didn't want to get up, but Bev talked me into going to a geocaching event, 123123 or Say Goodbye 2023 (GCAGC43) that morning at Kettle View Park. I struggled getting out of bed at 8:30. Ben said he didn't want to go and stayed in bed sleeping. Seriously, who has an event this early in the morning?
I took about 10 minutes to get myself ready, out the door and into the Escape before 8:45. I was hoping to get there as soon as I could since parking spots at that tiny park go rather quickly. I managed to find a parking spot and walked up to the covered area just as 9 a.m. hit. I stood next to Bob and Bev, who were also bundled up like I was. About 20 people came including cachers from Seattle and Puyallup, that is quite a drive to get to the South Puget Sound for an early event. We signed the logbook and then chatted with people we knew and talked to some people who were new to caching or to the area.
We were there for about a half an hour. The Dips thanked everyone for coming and to enjoy the last day of 2023. They wished us a happy new year as well. Bob and Bev wanted to get the cache that was nearby, Welcome to the Neighborhood - Briggs Village (GCAGC3P), so we hopped into our cars and drove to the cache location. We got out near the coords and looked. It was a bison tube hanging from one of the trees. We got our names on it, and Bob and Bev had a few errands to do while they were in town. I told them I would see them later.
I drove back towards home and stopped at Safeway to get some maple bars because they sounded good. I was in and out of Safeway quickly. I stopped by the Walmart for a couple things for that evening's dinner, chili and corn bread. Our plans changed. We were supposed to go over to Heather's sister, Caroline's, house for NYE but we were not anymore. I asked Ben if we just wanted to host it here and he said sure. We invited Josh, Heather, Del, Nicole and Megan. She said she was going to come for a bit and bring Miles. I said that was fine. I got home around 10:15 and made Ben get out of bed.
He ate his maple bar while we watched some wild morning football games. I really needed my players to do well so I could win both of my fantasy leagues I was in. You bet we were watching the Fantasy app like hawks, no pun intended, the entire day.
I spent most of the afternoon putting stuff away, cleaning the kitchen, steam cleaning the mattress my brother stunk up for two years, while Wade helped me, and Ben helped by cleaning up both bathrooms. Halfway through vacuuming the entire house, my vacuum of six years finally died. Seriously?! What else is going to break this year? I had bought it during a Black Friday sale in 2017...during the last normal year of our lives. I ran to the Hawks Prairie Walmart really quick and purchased a new one. I blamed my brother and his dog hair on why it had stopped working.
I managed to finish the vacuuming before it got too late. I told our guests to be here around 6-7 p.m. We watched the Seahawks game against the Steelers. It was so a winnable game. I am not sure why we gave it away. We desperately needed that win to stay alive in the playoff race. We dropped the game 30-23. We were officially mathematically out of the playoff race. Now, as Doug would put it, time for "chaos ball" and wrecking games for other teams trying to make it into the playoffs.
As it got closer to when people were supposed to arrive, I started the corn bread and chili. I made sure they were both gluten free so Nicole could have some. I set the dining room table with leftovers from Christmas, the pie, the cookies and left up some of the decorations. I bought some NYE and some 2024 decorations a few days ago.
Josh and Heather brought a charcuterie board, Nicole and Del brought over some chips, dips and some gluten free crackers and Megan brought over some cranberry bliss bars - she claims she ruined, but we all thought they tasted fine. We dished up, ate and talked about funny things for a while. Nicole and Del brought over a bunch of games, so we played those for a while. Megan and Miles went home around 9:30 and thanked us for inviting them over. We continued with some of the games up until it was almost time to ring in the new year.
Nicole made sure we had grapes, black eyed peas, slips of paper to light our wishes on fire and drink in our toast glasses, among the other things we do when we are together to celebrate. We counted down as we watched the Space Needle in Seattle light up. We did our midnight stuff, kissed our significant others, and celebrated. Ben and I were, let the busyness of 2024 begin!
Happy 2024!
Next Adventure: New Years Day
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