Christmas, Computing, Kassie, and Cat Pics

Christmas Brunch

Last Thursday was Christmas!! We had our usual Christmas brunch at Catherine and Ron's :)

Ron did the bacon, pork roll, and hashbrowns.

Kelly made the pancakes.

And I was in charge of the cinnamon rolls:

Time for Presents!

After we all loaded up on fat and carbohydrates, it was time to open presents!

If you're happy and you know it...

...but you're also still half asleep...

...Kevin's still probably going to take your picture anyway.

Liv and Hannah got lots of new things from Grandma and Pop:

And then Kelly and Steve had something for Riley:

The Red Hot Chili Peppers' album Californication, to go with the RHCP poster Riley got the night before :)

"Operation Vinyx Albtop"

Then Kevin announced that he had one more gift for Riley that had "accidentally" been mixed up with the rest of the presents.

It looked like it was just yet another vinyl for her to add to her collection:

Or was it?

Nope. It was a brand new laptop!

All set up with Linux Mint, and complete with a long list of games and software Kevin thought Riley might find fun and useful, as well as a customized wallpaper showcasing a bunch of her favorite things :)

Oh, and... the "hidden molerat" that Kevin worked into the wallpaper with the hopes that it would be a delayed prank that Riley wouldn't even notice until weeks or months later?

Yeah. That took her about three whole seconds to spot:

All the Marbles

And then Kevin and Riley and I had one last present, for Liv and Hannah.

And it was one we were really excited about: A mega sized 250 piece marble run!

The girls had a blast playing with the marbles, especially when we suggested that they charge them up under a light and then take them into the darkness to see them glow:

Kitchety China, the Chinese Kitchen

Over the last few years, we've sort of adopted an unofficial tradition where we do Chinese food for dinner on Christmas Day... mostly because that's the only available option aside from Wawa.

So, when dinnertime rolled around, it was off to 21 Chinese Kitchen:

I don't like ordering over the phone since there's a bit of a language barrier and they've messed up my order in the past. So Kevin and I drove there and ordered in person (by literally circling our choices on one of their takeout menus).

And then we sat in the car for 10 minutes while they made our food.

We had fun making fun of some of the other stores in the shopping center. Kevin wondered whether pilates done on Christmas should be considered pontius pilates:

Then he asked if Nails Shop IV was meant to be taken as a version number, like it was the shop's 4th attempt to make a go of things at this particular location. Or whether there were a Nails Shop I, II, and III out there somewhere that we simply have never encountered:

He also expressed his dismay over the fact that he hasn't even eaten at the original Yordanas Pizza yet, and they've already made a sequel.

The First Noel, The Worst Noelle

Riley and Kassie had been trying to nail down a night that they could hang out and have a sleepover. And as we got to the day after Christmas, it was looking like that evening might be it.

Of course it was fine with me and Kevin. But then when Kassie asked her mom's permission to sleep over at Riley's, Noelle waited HOURS to give her an answer either way.

After the sun went down and the roads had iced up from the mixture of sleet and snow we'd been getting, Noelle finally relented and told Kassie she could come over... if I would come pick her up (because Noelle didn't feel like going out on the icy roads).

I wholeheartedly believe that her hope was that I would say I didn't feel like driving either, and Kassie would be S.O.L. But my new car has four wheel drive, and I'm not afraid of driving in the snow as it is.

So off we went, to the other BUMPIER side of Morrisville, where Noelle likes to pretend that she's better than we are even though they can't seem to even pay their utility bills over there.

We were home again without issue and inside of half an hour, just in time for another dusting of snow :)

But, in addition to waiting so long to give Kassie the okay to come over, Noelle had also sent her over without having offered her anything for dinner!

Kevin and Riley and I had eaten hours ago by that point, so Kassie ended up having to DoorDash herself a pizza to eat!

CAN YOU IMAGINE DOING THAT TO YOUR CHILD!?!?!?!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Saturday morning I had to run out to Giant for a few things. And apparently it's already Valentine's Day! Who knew?

While I was out I stopped at Dunkin and grabbed coffees and doughnuts for all four or us so I could surprise Kevin and the girls when I got home :)

Later that afternoon, the girls and I watched a few episodes of Euphoria in the living room. And then Kevin made nachos for dinner.

Just before dinner was ready, Riley came to me to let me know that Kassie's stomach was upset but she thought I would be mad.

I asked Kassie if she wanted to anything for the pain, or if she wanted me to take her home. But she would literally rather be in pain here at our place than at home, because she feels more comfortable here than she does with her parents.

How sad!!

She ended up feeling better after the girls ate dinner.

And later that night when I "tucked Riley in" (aka said goodnight and gave her a hug and a kiss), Riley came to me a few minutes later and said Kassie wanted to know if I could tuck her in too.

Surprisingly, Noelle agreed to let Kassie stay over Saturday night into Sunday as well, and so Sunday afternoon the three of us watched more Euphoria until Noelle came to pick Kassie up shortly before dinner time.

Metroactive

Sunday night we didn't feel like cooking, so Kevin suggested we use our gift card to the Metro Diner from Joe and Paula.

He and I have been binge watching the first four seasons of Stranger Things just in time to catch the newly released final season. And I guess we've been watching too much of it, because I'm pretty sure we dipped into The Upside Down momentarily while Kevin was taking a picture at the diner!

The food was absolutely AMAZING! We cannot wait to come back!!

Monday and yesterday were mostly uneventful, although Catherine did send us some pictures of Kelly and the girls playing with their new marbles:

And then tonight I made Tuscan chicken with broccoli and rotini for dinner, and Kevin and I cracked open our bottle of Chardonnay from Joe and Paula :)

Kevin captioned this "Joel Gott got got!"

And finally, this wouldn't be an end of the month post without cat pics!

End of the month and end of the year. These better be really good!!

Penny was still holed up in Ft. Persephone from last month, and still wouldn't let anyone in without the secret password:

The rest of us finally staged an assault on her base and liberated her from herself:

Meanwhile, Lucky spent most of December copying Riley and trying to sleep until Christmas arrived.

Is it Christmas yet? No? Okay, bye.

Is it Christmas yet? No? Okay, bye.

Odin isn't even sure yet what Christmas is, so he just did Odin things. Like sleeping on my coat and daring me to call him on it:

But then his entrepreneurial spirit came out, and he realized that there are long periods of time when he's not using his tunnel, but maybe he can charge others for their use of his tunnel:

Sure, I'll let you come through here... IF you pay the toll!

Nobody wanted to pay his exorbitant fees, and eventually he closed up shop and withdrew from the public eye:

That is, until he picked up some chatter that Penny was plotting a coup to take back Ft. Persephone!

Like a fool, Kevin had taught her everything he knows about computers:

So then she just had to bide her time, lurking in the shadows until the moment was right:

And then BAM! She declared herself Queen of the Realm!

I'm in the executive chair? I make the executive decisions!

Odin wasn't sure he liked that logic since it would also mean, I'm laying in a pink blanket, so I'm a girl:

Boys can like pink too, okay?

Penny was forced to retreat back into the shadows until next time:

But the boys got caught in a ray of sunlight, and no cat alive can resist basking in a ray of sunlight:

And that's about it for December and for 2025.