Figgy Does OMD Yet Again...At Home, Teleworking, Again

Another year come and gone with Covid still running rampant through the world.  This time there are several variants because the public refuses to do anything about it and it keeps spreading around like wildfire.  It's so frustrating!  Anyway, as of today, I have been at home for 402 working days, teleworking from my living room.  It's been nice, annoying, boring and relaxing all at the same time.  Good thing I have many resources for background noise, or I would have been driven insane by now.  

I spent the year trying to come up with new ideas for elf scenes and found some stuff at the Goodwill, the dollar store, Target and Walmart.  I like to mix it up with new ones and old ones.  Sometimes I combine the new and the old in a scene or two.  It's mostly for my co-workers but I also post them to Instagram and Facebook so others can enjoy them too.  

This is my sixth year doing it and this year I started on December 1st and stopped on December 23rd since that was the last day of work before Christmas.  We had Christmas Eve off.  I tried to have the scenes done the night before since it would be hard to put them together in the mornings.  Some scenes were more elaborate than others.

Here are the ones from this year:

Instagram post:  It's that time of the year again!! Let's bust out some Christmas movies, eat popcorn and cozy up to our loved ones.  Figgy and Russ wanted to start their holiday season off right with A Christmas Story and fresh popcorn.  This movie is a family favorite, and we watch it at least once before Christmas.  #elfontheshelf, #figgy, #russ, #achristmasstory, #youllshootyoureyeout, #notafinger, #christmasmovies, #popcorn

Instagram post:  Woah!!  Russ and Figgy busted out the Connect Four this morning.  When I was a kid, we played this all the time in fifth grade and man, were we competitive!! I hated losing!!  Looks like Figgy just needs one more for the win!! #elfontheshelf, #figgy, #russ, #games, #connectfour, #competition

Instagram post:  Christmas cookie making season is upon us!!  Figgy and Russ got bit by the cookie making bug this morning and even had time to bake some cupcakes.  Tonight, my friend, Lindsay and I, will be making cookies so I thought this elf scene was appropriate for today.  #elfontheshelf, #figgy, #russ, #christmascookies, #treats, #messykitchen, #omnom

Instagram post:  Figgy and Russ decided to go on a sleigh ride through the snow.  I hope we get plenty of snow this winter so we can play in it and make snowmen.  #elfontheshelf, #figgy, #russ, #sleighride, #snow, #snowmen, #penguins

Instagram post:  Russ and Figgy decided to go to the bar and play some darts this afternoon.  I have no idea who's winning.  About 17 years ago, when I was in my sophomore year at WSU, my friend Christin and I, went to an Up All Night event at the Rec Center.  We ended up being intramural dart champions.  To this day, I am still not sure how that happened.  #elfontheshelf, #figgy, #russ, #darts, #dartchampions, #reminicing, #gocougs

Instagram post:  This is the first time since March 2020 that Smalls, our trivia shark, had made an appearance!  He had been starved and fed very well over the almost past two years since we've all been at home.  Figgy, Russ and their diver friend, Jones, helped harpoon the mean bad shark that was trying to eat Smalls.  #elfontheshelf, #figgy, #russ, #sharks, #smalls, #diving, #boat, #water, #harpoon, #gocougs

Instagram post:  This Friday is about self-care.  We've all had a stressful week full of work, getting ready for the holidays, taking care of our families and possibly some of us are dealing with other personal things.  We get busy and forget to relax and reflect.  Figgy is enjoying a relaxing spa bath while Russ is relaxing with a nice hot foot bath.  Please remember to slow down and take care of yourselves however you like to spend your time.  I enjoy reading, blogging, spending time with my people and my kitty Wade.  #elfontheshelf, #figgy, #russ, #spa, #selfcare, #holidayseason, #relaxingbaths, #gocougs

Instagram post:  Figgy and Russ came by the Smurf Village to help with the annual Smurf berry harvest.  It's always a good time when the Smurfs are around.  What kind of family traditions do you have during the holidays?  #elfontheshelf, #figgy, #russ, #smurfs, #smurfvillage, #smurfberries, #harvest, #holidayseason, #gocougs

Instagram post:  Figgy and Russ wanted to do some fundraising for hungry and homeless elves and came up with an idea to sell ice cream and other tasty treats.  they raised quite the funds and donated them to the hungry and homeless elves shelter.  They were thankful and appreciated their kind efforts.  Be kind.  You never know who is dealing with what. #elfontheshelf, #figgy, #russ, #icecream, #treats, #icecreamstand, #icecreamtruck, #nomnom, #fundraiser, #bekind

Instagram post:  Figgy and Russ, took some time off from their busy elf schedules, to play some skee ball and eat tacos and burgers.  This sounds pretty amazing to me for a Wednesday afternoon.  What are some arcade games you and your friends enjoy playing?  #elfontheshelf, #figgy, #russ, #skeeball, #tacos, #burgers, #dayoff, #friends, #fun

Instagram post:  I love the snow so I put up a winter scene in hopes that we will get snow sometime soon.  Figgy and Russ sure enjoy the snow as well.  Better watch out they may start a snowball fight!!  #elfontheshelf, #figgy, #russ, #snow, #igloo, #snowballs, #hotchocolate

Instagram post:  Figgy and Russ joined the Angry Birds in a show down with the pigs.  They caught the pigs stealing their eggs and declared war on them.  *No pigs, elves or birds were harmed in the making of this scene.* #elfontheshelf, #figgy, #russ, #angrybirds, #pigs, #birds

Instagram post:  Grogu was dropped off for a visit while Din Djarin heads out on another bounty lead.  Figgy and Russ's space was infiltraded by Baby Yoda and he got hungry.  He ate one of their friends and they were horrified!  Scene was inspired by my co-worker Debbie and my travel buddy/friend Amy. #elfontheshelf, #figgy, #russ, #mandalorian, #babyyoda, #grogu, #hungrybabyyoda, #elfmurder, #gocougs

Instagram post:  Figgy and Russ went on a short drive out to the countryside for a picnic and to hit a baseball around.  On the way back they encountered a cow.  Do any of you like to go on day drives or short road trips?  I do, especially when I go geocaching. #elfontheshelf, #figgy, #russ, #roadtrip, #daytrip, #asphaltadventures, #cows, #picnics, #gocougs

Instagram post:  Figgy and Russ have been on vacation since yesterday and they continued the fun by having a back yard BBQ with their kitty, Milo.  I wish it was nice enough to go out in my yard to do a few things.  However, this rain just doesn't want to stop.  I miss the cold, clear crisp, dry days of winter.  I hope we get those or some snow days soon!  #elfontheshelf, #bbq, #backyardbbq, #vacation, #onholiday, #hangingout, #gocougs

Instagram post:  Figgy and Russ would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays or Season's Greetings, whichever you prefer.  They also hope you and your family have a wonderful time spending time together.  They will return next December, hopefully, with some now and different scenes.  It will be hard to beat the Baby Yoda scene though.  #elfontheshelf, #figgy, #russ, #winter, #snow, #uglychristmassweater, #santa, #snowman, #presents, #christmastrees, #christmaswreath, #gocougs

Next Adventure:  Christmas Eve

Grandma Karen's Christmas with the Aunt and Cousins and Ed's Birthday Party at the Ram

I saw that December was going to be a busy month, so I called Trish back in late November asking her again when Ed's birthday was again.  I could not remember what date it was.  She said it was the 18th and we looked to see what day that fell on and it was on a Saturday this year.  I asked her if Ed would like to do some sort of lunch or dinner that day?  You know, similar to what we did for you?  She said, he'd probably like that and she said she would ask him and get back to me.

Then Grandma posted something about having a Christmas party at her house sometime near Christmas.  She suggested the Thursday before Christmas in the middle of the day.  I wrote her back stating that no one was going to be able to come.  She asked, why?  I said, because everyone will be at work.  She continued; doesn't everyone have that week off?  I said, no.  Maybe if we were all in high school or college we would.  She replied with oh, well, then when should we have it?  I told her to call everyone and ask their availability since some of us work weekends.  She didn't and just posted it to our Facebook group family chat.  No one would answer her, and it got so frustrating.

Trish got back to me and said that he would love to have a birthday dinner and invite his daughters and their husbands and kids.  She said that Ed wanted to go to the Ram in Puyallup and Trish said she would make the reservations and get everything taken care of.  I told her we would meet them at the Ram.  I already had his birthday present, so we really didn't have to do anything except show up.  

Eventually, everyone settled on the 18th around 12:30.  So we were going to attend Grandma's Christmas party, eat dinner there, play bingo and then head to Puyallup to meet up with Trish, Ed and his family at the Ram.  I wasn't sure if we were going to eat anything there or get an appetizer or a dessert.  I guess we would have to see how much we ate at Grandma's house.

Josh asked Ben if we needed a turkey because Heather works at Costco and employees get free turkey's and Ben said no but then I interrupted and told him that we could definitely use it if they didn't want it.  We arranged to go get it and then I took it over to Grandma's house, along with my extra potatoes, and dropped them off so she didn't have to spend any extra money on anything.  Anything I could scrounge up for Grandma the better.

That day, we got up, loitered around, finally got ready, loaded up the Escape...since it was my turn to drive, had to really convince Doug to come, which he did and he sped off, we loaded the recycle and headed into Rainier.  We made a quick stop at the recycle and then went to Grandma's.  We went in and helped her finish the food and get everything ready for when everyone gets here. Grandma said that Deion would be late, and we could start without him.

Everyone arrived around 12:30, we chit chatted for a little bit and then Grandma said the food was done officially.  She had a turkey, a spiral ham, potatoes, various veggies (both cooked and raw), rolls, Jell-O, desserts and she even made her famous punch.  I filled my plate way too full and ate way too much.  It's hard to not overeat during the holidays.  We chatted with our cousins at the table while we ate a Christmas lunch together.  Everyone seemed to be doing okay.

Angela, Grandma and her kids exchanged presents between Christmas lunch and bingo.

After we were done eating, we cleared the table and got out our annual bingo (we missed 2020 because of stupid Covid) stuff out and set it up.  Earlier last week, I went and bought a bunch of prizes to replenish the bingo bin.  Grandma was the caller and we all got out our cards, some of us working two bingo cards at a time.  I found out the bingo dauber's I bought at the dollar store got weird because they sat for over a year being unused.  Once we got them going again, they worked pretty well.  We played about five rounds of bingo with several winners each.  I won twice.

We picked up everything and helped Grandma clean her dining room table before people started to leave.  Some wanted to go home, and some needed to be somewhere else while they were in town for the weekend.  Ben and I had to leave around 4, to get to Puyallup at a decent time.  First, I wanted to get a couple of pictures of everyone in front of Grandma's tree but only a few people wanted to partake in the picture taking.  I got the most important one done, Grandma, Angela and Mom, then one of Mom and Dad and then Ben and I took a few together.  

We thanked Grandma for hosting a nice party and Ben and I got in the Escape and drove the back way through McKenna, Roy and Spanaway to Puyallup.  We figured it would be easier to go this way than to try and get onto the freeways with the traffic. We did manage to meander our way through the side roads and eventually got to Meridian.  There was a backup at the light, but we did finally make it to the Ram.  The entire ride took us about an hour and fifteen minutes. 

We let Trish know where we were, and she said that they were inside, and they had to wait another half hour to be seated.  Ben found a parking spot, we grabbed Ed's present and our masks and headed on in.  They were all there in the lobby waiting to be seated.  Basically, Ed's entire family was there, and it was hard to remember who was who because there were like 15 people to keep track of...and that wasn't even all of them!  Some of them decided not to come due to personal reasons.  We stood next to Trish and Amy and chatted with them for a few minutes.  I noticed that Trish and I wrapped our presents in the same gift wrap, which we both got from the dollar store.  We giggled about it. 

We were finally seated and taken to one of the back banquet rooms.  We found seats and got settled in.  I had a hard time deciding if I was hungry enough to order something or just like an appetizer or maybe dessert?  I wasn't sure.  I did order some cider and eventually gave in to ordering a Caeser salad.  Ben got a Butthead Ale and pretzel balls with cheese.  We ate, chatted with the people around us and annoyed Amy until she hit Ben with her menu.  We tried to convince her that her non-alcoholic drink she ordered had alcohol in it. 

It was weird getting to know Ed's family.  They were so different than I thought they would be different from how he described them.  He's got like nine grandchildren but not all of them were there.  The ones that were there, the little ones, were pretty rambunctious.  It was time for Ed to open his presents and he liked every single one of them including my Mariner's shirt we found for him.  We were there for about two hours.  We thanked Ed for the invite and chatted with Trish for a little while.  She and Amy were going to head to the mall afterwards.  We told her we were as well. 

We left the Ram and drove across the street to the mall.  We found a place to park, the place was sure busy, and went into Dick's.  Amy had to find a Kraken sweatshirt for her Christmas person which happened to be my Mom.  They were not successful and headed home.  Meanwhile, Ben and I went to the Hallmark Store to find our 2021 ornament.  There wasn't much to choose from, so we had to just pick one.  I had some extra cash on me, so I bought a Cougar one to add to my collection.

We walked through the mall just for fun and ended up at Target.  Ben used the restroom really quick and then we headed out back home.  Traffic was minimal so it didn't take us long to get home via 512 to I-5.  We rolled into our driveway around 8:45. Of course we stayed up way too late watching TV and Ben playing his video games.  

This month will just keep getting busier and busier. 

Next Adventure: Figgy Does OMD Yet Again...At Home, Teleworking, Again 

Erika's Birthday

As we approached December, I knew it was going to be busy.  I texted Erika to find out what she wanted to do for her birthday since it was coming up pretty quickly.  She said she didn't know, and I pushed her to let me know as soon as possible.  She took longer than I wanted to, so I pestered her until she told me.  She wanted breakfast again but not as involved as last year...when we had waffles.

This year, she wanted pancakes, scrambled eggs, hashbrowns and sausage.  I told her that was easy, and I could pick up everything at the store before that weekend.  I asked her if the Sunday before her birthday was fine, and she said yes.  Her birthday was on a Tuesday this year but it's really hard to meet up with everyone during the week when people work until 5 or 6 in the evening.

I wrote everyone an email to let them know about Erika's birthday and what we were going to have.  Emails, so far, has seemed to be the easiest way to get a hold of everyone to give them the information they needed. 

That weekend, I met up with Mom after her hair appointment in West Olympia.  We went to TJ Maxx, the mall and Costco.  We got the majority of our shopping done but still had a couple of things we still needed to get.  I went over to the cemetery to deliver Grammie her Christmas wreath while Mom continued her shopping at Walmart.  I visited with Grammie for about 15-20 minutes and told her about what was going on in our lives at that point and how we got some Christmas stuff together, including a small Christmas tree, and decorated it for Grandpa in his room.  He absolutely loved it.  Afterwards, I went to my friend, Alicia's Christmas party, where we had a great time eating food, hanging out and decorating Christmas cookies.  On the way home that night, I stopped at Walmart to get a few groceries for Erika's breakfast birthday party and then went home.

The morning of, I got up, vacuumed the floor while Ben put dishes away and then started some laundry. We moved some stuff around, brought in chairs, arranged the tables and then started making pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage and potatoes for her birthday.  Everyone arrived around noon. We watched the Seahawks play the Texans throughout the morning.  

Once everyone was here, we dished up and ate our delicious food.  Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.  I wasn't sure how much food to make and hoped that I made enough for eight people.  Which, thankfully, I did.  Everyone got enough food.  We cleared our plates and got ready for Erika to open her gifts.

Back when Doug and Jenn were dating, they went to the Puyallup Fair in September and bought some stuff for people as gifts.  Dad got a poo hat and a couple signs and while we were helping Doug move his stuff out of the house, Jenn handed me this unicorn poo hat and told me that she and Doug got it for Erika for her birthday.  I told her I would give it to Erika when we had a party for her.  I got Erika a Stay Puft Marshmallow T-shirt from the mall a few weeks back.  Mom and Dad got her a table and a unicorn bag we picked up from last summer's shop hop.

After Erika was done opening her presents, she and Zach went home because they had to take their dogs out to go potty and she had to work on her thesis some more.  She cannot wait to be done with it so she can move one from it.  Everyone else stayed behind to watch the end of the Seahawks game, which we beat the Texans 33-13 and then they went home.

Ben and I started cleaning up, we did the dishes, moved stuff back to its original place and then went to Lowe's to get a few things.  We came back, finished putting the house back together, I had the rest of my tuna from Thursday as a leftover.  We watched Sunday Night Football, I did some blogging, got cleaned up and got ready for the upcoming work week.

Happy Birthday Erika!!

Next Adventure:  Grandma Karen's Christmas with the Aunt and Cousins and Ed's Birthday Party at the Ram