Stupid Weather....

I shouldn't complain about the weather. The temperatures here are bouncing between close to 80 degrees during the day and 55 degrees at night. Not that 55 is so freezing, but when your body is used to 85 and above, those lower temperatures just get to you. I wish the weather would just stay warm..... 85 during the day would be great, and 75 all night long would be purr-fect for the cats so I can keep them on the screen-porch at night.

And the cats.... I keep moving my cats from the laundry room to the screen-porch, keeping them out of the house because I've started setting up for this weekend's Christmas party. Little Mickey Kitty doesn't like to be cold, and 55 degrees to him is freezing. (He takes after me.) Until after the party, the living room, dining room, breakfast room and kitchen are off-limits to the cats. They're staying in the screen-porch during these warm days, and sleeping in the laundry room at night. AngelBoy has his prissy little whiskers in a snit because he can't go underneath the big Christmas tree in the living room now and drink the water out of the pan. For a prissy cat who won't drink water out of a pet bowl unless it's just been freshened up, he sure doesn't mind drinking that sappy tree water.

I may keep the cats and the dog in our bedroom on Saturday night so we can use the screen-porch during the party. It's going to be very warm over the weekend, with 80s during the day, and 65 at night. With that kind of Spring-like temperature, it would be nice to be able to use the screen-porch. Can't do that with the pets out there, but if I put them all in our bedroom/bathroom suite, they should be just fine. With those warm temperatures, I won't need to be piling jackets and coats on top of our bed as our friends come in, plus I can always use the sitting room for jackets/purses if I need to.

We've got 35 people coming to the party, and we could have 40 if some of our friends bring their visiting family members. One more reason to use the screen-porch--- with that many people, the wicker furniture on the porch will come in handy. Which means that I will have to keep the cats in the bedroom starting on Saturday morning so I can get the porch ready. No matter how many days in advance I start getting ready for these parties, there always seems to be a lot of last-minute stuff to do.

I've already had my pre-party meltdown this week..... "Whose idea was this to invite so many people?".... So now I can concentrate on getting ready for Saturday night. We're ordering the food today, from our favorite local Greek restaurant, and tomorrow I'm going to bake two cakes, and I may just make some of those sugar cookies with the cookie-gun thing that was hiding in the pantry. I found a new punch recipe which will have dozens of sweet cherries floating in the punchbowl--- it will look very Christmas-y.

Young Miss C asked us if she could sleep over here after the party and we told her yes. Without a doubt, she will be standing by our front door that night and telling her mom "Thanks for coming!" as her mom goes home after the party is over. We told C she could invite four of her friends to the party, and she decided to invite four of her girlfriends and leave out the boys this time. When the night is over, she will help me clean up while we talk about the party-- she likes that part almost as much as the party itself.

This will be the last party of the year. We're having friends over for Christmas dinner, but eight people around our dining rooom table seems like a walk in the park when you compare that with 40 people coming for a holiday get-together. We haven't talked about New Year's Eve yet, but being that we're having such a big Christmas party, I don't want to have a big to-do for New Year's.

I'm still walking every night.... up and down and around all the streets on this side of our subdivision. I've seen everyone's Christmas lights, and I bring my cell phone with me and talk, talk, talk while I'm walking. Sure makes the walk go by quicker. Next week, I'll have a look-see at the holiday decorations on the other side of the subdivision.

The holidays bring out the emotional ups and downs, and I've already had a couple of tear-filled moments. I get emotional around the holidays anyway, and if something sad or unexpected or nostalgic gets tossed into the mix, then the tissues go flying.