Today went quite well.  I made an egg casserole for lunch, lasagna for dinner, and snickerdoodles with hot chocolate for dessert.  We have a tradition in our house, we make hot chocolate on the first snow.  But we no longer get snow until January now, so now it's either the first snow or Christmas Day, whichever comes first.  Technically we eat chimichangas and hot chocolate on the first snow, but we skipped the chimichangas and had snickerdoodles instead.  

Mother was a good girl.  She did try to get more cigarettes out of me than normal, but I gave in and gave her two extra, but that's it.  She needs to learn to smokes less.  I am trying to whittle her down to nothing eventually to get her ready to go into assisted living, since you can't smoke there.  But she's obstinate (what else is new).  I got her down to 11, but now she's begging for more, so I went back up to 12 again.  I'll leave it at 12 for a bit until I feel she'll be ready for 11.  Then eventually 10, and so forth.  She used to smoke 20 (a pack a day) and she's almost half that, so that's something.  

I gave her four huge holiday bags filled with gifts today.  She was opening gifts for so long and just kept saying it was too much...yet, it was all stuff she needed.  She did say thank you, so that was something.  Although she did tell my husband and our sons that "real men don't eat quiche" while she was eating the egg casserole I made. My husband replied "good thing it's not quiche then, right?"  It was so weird.  She was trying to make joke, but instead just came off sounding like an asshole.  We all thought it was funny though, just not to her face.  It was awkward and weird when she said it LOL  What was said was "Men don't eat quiche."  I replied "Lots of men eat quiche."  She replied "Well, real men don't."  We were all just like....um....okay?  Wtf was that about? Haha!  

I hung out more with my mother today than I have in years.  It wasn't fun, but it also wasn't horrible.  So that's nice.  

My kids, hubby, and I spent the entire evening playing the entire game of "Cards Against Humanity".  We joked that we played the whole thing that now we never have to play it again and should sell it.  Funny, I just bought it from a resale shop and we played it all in one sitting.  We've played it a billion times before, though we play on "Tabletop Simulator" on Steam with the expansions, which makes it more fun.  

The most fun part of the day was getting into bed and seeing my cat had come into my room and unleashed a torrent of piss on my blanket and sheets.  That smelled great.  Good thing I have a waterproof sheet on my bed for just such an occasion.  AND (I feel like such a grownup saying this), I have TWO SETS of each!!  So if one gets barfed on, pissed on, or whatevered on, I have an extra set.  I am so adulty.  Though never again will I leave my door open.  Like EVER.  I don't want to rehome my cat, she's 13 and she loves pissing on things (our counters, for one).  She's not sick.  She's always done this.  Back when she was young, she'd spray, like a male cat.  Sick!  Dis cat, tho.  Wtf.  I love her, and I cannot fathom seeing her leave our house, but YUCK!!  I am buying a new mattress anyways, but still.  The fucker.  Sigh.  

My son got me the Bob's Burger's 3 album set (with a bonus 45 that's white!) and my hubby got me some Fantastic Mr. Fox stickers and a Coraline dash dancer.  I got all movie/TV related stuff!  All my favs!!  

Okay, I am off to listen to my audiobook and go to sleep.  I am so tired.  Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight :)  

Merry Christmas Eve, ya'll!  I hope it's going well for you.  My day has been uneventful, just the way I like it!  

Sure, I got testy with my mother today, over the fact she keeps fucking with my stuff (I had to tell her to knock it off).  I find that I have to keep putting stuff in my room because she thinks she's entitled to mess with my things, which makes my room a fucking mess.  BUT I've had enough.  My room looks like a disaster zone and that's it.  I am done with it.  She will leave my shit alone and if she doesn't,  I will store shit in the basement and she'll have no access to it at all.  From now one, that's where the crackers and cereal will go, because my bedroom is not a fucking pantry.  This time, she was getting into my open-air drawers and pulling out all my Ziplock bags and removing the boxes and letting the bags just fly all around the drawer.  Not only that, she stole like 50 of my 100 bag pack.  She didn't even ask first.  So I had to tell her to knock it off.  

Also, she said today "I miss cooking a turkey for Christmas" and I almost burst out laughing.  But I did reply "I don't".  Her turkey was dry, undercooked, and she was a BITCH whenever she made any holiday dinners.  Why would she miss that?  I sure fucking don't.  Because she loves being a bitch, that's why.  Now, she has nothing to do at all, and that's just the way I like it.  

The kids are mulling some wine right now.  I am going to make the Stove-Top chicken casserole and we'll be getting all the gifts together in bags for tomorrow.  We're listening to Christmas music and I am baking bread from scratch (it didn't rise!! I think I killed the yeast on accident).  We'll have hot cocoa later and maybe play some board games.  It will be nice.  

Tomorrow I'm making lasagna and garlic bread (I am having tortellini--as I can't handle all that flavor with my acid reflux) and we'll be opening gifts.  My mother has a HUGE amount of gifts, many of which are things she just needs, but some are things she'll like.  It'll keep her happy for a bit.  She yelled at me the other day and threatened me (like her old self), but she's calmed down since, thank goodness.  

I've been making YouTube videos (of my dogs and of an idea I am trying out).  I've also been reading and starting a new scarf I'm knitting--I also found a new hat pattern for crochet I'm going to try).  I've been feeling so much better, I only have a tiny bit of pain left, and I hope it stays that way.  

I hope 2024 brings good health and happiness for everyone reading this (and writing this! ha!) and everyone else, too.  2023 was hard for my family, we lost three dogs and had health issues.  But I am hoping 2024 will be nice.  Oh, and I don't think we'll ever have a white Christmas here again, as the weather changed like 7 years ago and now it's like 50 degrees each year.  This year, it's been humid and foggy, which is pretty cool, and I hope it happens every year.  But I feel bad for all the kids on break who don't get to play the snow!  Growing up, it was always full of snow by now.  But nowadays, we don't get snow until January and the snow stays until spring.  But maybe we won't even get that?  This is why we're moving north.  They predicted our area will be in the new "heat zone" by 2030.  And it's going to get crazy here.  So, off we go to a state with better healthcare and better weather.  Any suggestions?  We're thinking Michigan or Minnesota.  

Okay, have a great Christmas y'all.  Let's hope mother behaves.  Your mother, too.  

Well, what the fuck?  Mr. Brooks and I were sick for two weeks in November, and now I've been sick for almost two weeks, starting on the 25th of November.  And this time?  It was bad, mainly because I could barely eat for all this time, which make me weak and feel utterly horrible and I ended up losing 15lbs.  I had a bacterial food poisoning called something I cannot pronounce and it had made me sick for around a week.  I have never had food poisoning last that long.  And I never want it again! 

I had two round of antibiotics, the first which fucked with my intestines and my stomach so badly that I had to the ER several times (twice was for dehydration and once for blood in my stools--tmi, I know, but that bacteria will do that to you).  Then on top of it, we all got Covid and then on top of that, I supposedly passed a kidney stone.  And on top of all of that that, the entire thing gave me a UTI, then I got another UTI right away and I don't even know if the second round of antibiotics worked yet.  Holy fucking shit.  I am so done with this.  I just want to get healthy again, be able to eat properly, and stay healthy!!!  I am eating better now, but it's still hard as I get super bloated very easily.  And my digestion is still screwed up.  

Christmas is a few days away and we've barely done anything, and we've been playing catch-up all week.  Now they all expect me to make lasagna for Christmas, and I can't even eat it!  Ugh.  At least my husband gets 4 days off of work, and hopefully we'll all not be sick or in pain or whatever.  I just want to have fun.  I feel like I am being punished for something, yet I don't know what.  

Anyways.  

Mother is back to her old self, giving me digs at everything I do for her.  This is isn't big enough.  These aren't right.  Blah blah blah.  I don't even care.  I just care about getting and staying healthy and having fun with my family.  

Christmas is in a few days, she has the most presents.  She gave me a list to take her to the store to go pick out $100 worth of scratch and win tickets (lottery) and she doesn't know it yet, but I am never buying tickets again.  They never win and the last time she won?  She used the money to give her to BFF Christmas to go buy her contraband behind my back.  So nope.  No more cash for her.  So, I went to the resale shop yesterday with my youngest and my hubby and we all bought stuff for ourselves from her to give us.  Granted, I didn't get myself anything, but we did get my hubby things and my oldest and I bought her a ton of shit.  Why?  Because I like buying gifts for people, esp. when they are easy to buy for.  AND they are all things she actually needs.  I will buy stuff for my youngest and myself tomorrow.  I would have today, but after going to the store and a doctor's appointment with my hubby, I was wiped and had to come home and take a nap.  Getting my strength back while having so much to do really sucks.  

Though, I did feel great for most of the day, so that's good.  

Also, I am drinking lots of water to help any lingering UTI symptoms flush out of me.  So, a large of my day is spent peeing.  Which is a good thing right now.  

I am still tired, even after my short nap.  So I am playing a video game.  When I am done, I will finish my book that I am almost done with and then I can start another one.  I could have read it in a day, but I was so tired yesterday, too.  We did decorate for Christmas the other day, so that was nice.  I never thought we'd get it done.  My youngest son helped me do everything, which was amazing, otherwise we'd still have autumn/Halloween decor up.  Each day I am getting stronger and eating more, thank goodness.  I still have pain my urethra, but I hope that goes away soon and I don't get another UTI for a long, long time.  Taking new medication gives me massive anxiety, which is something I had to deal with the entire time I was sick.  It was not fun.  

Okay, off to go play my video game.  And maybe if I feel better, I'll bag up some of mother's gifts tonight, but we'll see.  I have like 5 days, so it will get done.  I don't need to push myself.  

Right now I am playing "Child of Light" on Steam, but I am not sure if I like it yet.  It's beautiful, but it's RPG style, which I am not fond of.  I didn't realize that when I bought it.  Maybe if I knew what I was doing better I'd like it more?  I don't know.  I prefer more story-driven and open-world games, like "Life is Strange" or "Horizon Dawn/Forbidden West" or "Dragon Age Inquisition".  My kids call me a "casual gamer", but when I play, I can play for hours on end, so I don't really feel that's all that casual LOL  I hate first person shooters, but anything melee or open world, or story driven, or games with gorgeous graphics I absolutely love.  I also love Stardew Valley and Minecraft.  I guess when I look online for what you'd call me, I found that I am an "explorer" as I am all about exploring maps and storylines.  But yeah, I would still be considered a casual gamer :)  

Okay, off to go wake myself up and make dinner.  Fun!