Ringin' in the New Year ... Grand Kids, Kohl's & Kenny's

I was out of bed near 730am in anticipation of the arrival of the grand kids as well as the new year now just a hours away. It's also worth mentioning how good it felt to sleep in my own bed after four nights away. That feeling never gets old. I prepped a pot of coffee then checked the weather. It was 44 degrees under cloudy skies. Because it was Saturday, I didn't plan any calisthenics. I planned to play on the  computer and sip coffee until run time.

Lindsey dropped the boys just after 8am. They both seemed happy to be at our place and asked if they could play the Wii once the kids were up. Yes, once the kids are up. Until then, I put a movie in for them to enjoy. I chose Ratatouille. They sat surprisingly quiet watching the movie for about 45 minutes all the while I did some writing for my blog.

Mindy must've gotten up around 9am. Shortly after she was up, I prepared and left for my run, the last of 2011. I ran just three miles and was still feeling the effects of skiing 5 days in a row. My legs were spent. They weren't sore or stiff, but lifeless and tired.

Once Jacob and Bella were awake the kids played in the basement and then the XBox in Jacob's room. Landon was excluded from a lot of the play. I'm thinking it was 11am or after when I whipped up a ham, cheese, and spinach omelet for Bella, Mindy and I. The boys ate leftover HV pizza, but then asked for scrambled eggs after finishing the pizza. Jacob wanted scrambled eggs too.

Soon after our late breakfast, Mindy, Jacob and Rocky left to run a series of errands, including taking back a few Xmas gifts. Mindy needed to stop by her mom's first to pick-up the receipts. I'm thinking that they were gone for more than 2 hours. Of course, I had Bella and Landon home with me.

As expected, Lindsey got off work early and was there to pick-up the boys around 330pm. Mindy apparently called or texted that she would be dropping Rocky once their shopping spree was over. Mindy called me shortly after Lindsey left to measure my willingness to have the boys over night. Jacob apparently wanted Rocky to stay all night. I didn't mind. Mindy said she would call Lindsey and have her bring Landon back. I then suggested shared my desire to run to Kohl's to see if they still had that jacket I wanted. Mindy suggested we make the run together and have Lindsey keep an eye on the kids for an hour or so.

I'm thinking that it was near 430pm when Mindy got back to the house with Jacob & Rocky. Lindsey and Landon showed up around 5pm. It wasn't long before Mindy and I headed off to Kohl's in the Accord, its first such use since the Thursday before Xmas. Traffic around the Hilliard shopping area was moderately to heavy. But we weren't in too big of a hurry.  Kohl's was fairly busy, too.

Mindy and I went our separate ways once inside the store. She went to make a Jacob related return while I headed to the men's department to look for that Free Country Jacket I had my eye on before Xmas. At first pass it didn't appear that they had any, but after making a second pass I found that they had two, and both mediums. I was thinking I wanted a large since I would most likely wear it skiing with two thick layers underneath.  I tried it on wearing a light sweater and my thick winter fleece. It was a tad snug in the arms but otherwise fine. It was originally priced at $100 but marked down by %50, or $50. But I also had an internet coupon good for 15-20% off depending on the total amount spent.

I really don't need another jacket, but have been looking to replace my light ski jacket for the last two years. I carried it with me as I went to find Mindy.

I found Mindy in women's coats. She's in the market for a new ski jacket now too after the zipper broke on hers while at HV. Their inventory was pretty much picked over. She couldn't find anything she liked that also met all the requirements she was after, like zipping inner pockets, water proof, and attractive.

We moved on to look at snow/ski pants for both kids. We found some for Bella that match the colors of her ski jacket. They were regularly $50 but on sale for $22.50, of course they'd be even less with our coupon. We headed to the boys department next where we bought a pair of snow pants for Jacob. He's only 11 but we had to buy XL/ 18-20. They're really cool and match/clash with his new jacket. We got Jacob some new daily wear socks too.

Mindy picked out some new underwear for herself and then browsed a few other items, but picked out nothing else. We headed to check-out where we waited patiently in line behind two others. Our total outlay was something like $110 after accounting for the sale prices and then our coupon. Our overall savings, which Kohl's likes to point out at checkout, was $160. And according to the clerk, more than our total bill. I quipped that we would've saved even more had we stayed home. We all laughed.

We were gonna walk next door to Dick's to look for a new pair of ski gloves for Bella but they turned off their lights just as we were heading to our car to drop our bags. No biggie. It's not like we're going skiing in the next couple of days. Instead, we simply headed for home.

As we neared the house Mindy suggested we make a quick stop in the corner Convenience market to buy some scratch-off lottery tickets with our Xmas lottery game winnings. Why not? We bought $20 worth of scratch-offs and then spent $2 on the night's Power Ball drawing, which was sitting at $20 million.

On our walk back to the car, we were first approached by a 20 something male asking for directions to Toledo.  I was a bit leery but gave him quick directions while also keeping my distance (about ten feet). When he asked for further clarification Mindy quickly offered greater detail all the while I was using exaggerated body language to get her attention to move away from the seedy looking stranger.

Just as we turned to get in our car another 20 something male, who was also in the Convenient store while we were, asked if I would be kind enough to give him a jump. I reluctantly agreed. He was parked right next to us in a beater pick-up truck. I noticed a missing bumper and the tires had cords showing. He had jumper cables ready and did the attachments at his end. I insisted on doing my own. Didn't want him monkeying with my car. It still wouldn't start. Sounded like a started/solenoid problem to me. He shared that he came from Reynoldsburg. Something didn't seem right with him either. I kept a careful eye on him until we gave up on the jump thing and left him there and headed for home. Once I was back in the Accord, Mindy shared that she had 911 dialed and was ready to press call if he tried something.

We arrived home around 7pm. Lindsey was watching TV. Apparently Jacob, Jake, and Bella were already at the neighbors, where we planned to spend our New Year's Eve. Early on, we thought we'd be spending it with the Shultz's just as I have for many of the past 15 or so, but we hadn't heard from them. Furthermore, a glance across the pond revealed a dark home. I wondered if they might've headed home to Norwalk or possibly even made a trip to Manhattan and Times Square.

We weren't home too long before we gathered our stuff and headed to the neighbors. We offered Lindsey the opportunity to join us but she declined citing the need to get a good night's rest in order to be at work early the next morning for overtime. When she headed home, Mindy, Landon and I headed to the neighbors, but not before I diverted across the street to get a quick photo of our house in Xmas lights.

Just two other couples at the neighbors, Mike & Julie and then Josh & Rachel. All the kids were upstairs, the boys playing video games and the girls doing who knows what.  I brought the jug of Barley's Pale that I bought last Friday night, December 23rd. It was still fresh. Mindy brought wine and a whole assortment of kiddie champagnes. Chrissy laid out a spread of hand to mouth foods, including cheese, meats, dips and crackers.

After a beer, Kenny suggested we head to the basement to shoot some pool. Sounded good to me. Josh and I were partners. We didn't fair to well, either. These days, I pretty much suck at pool. Was getting pretty good back in my single days. Oh well. We still had fun.

While playing pool, Chrissy hollered down that their two pugs got out and wanted Kenny to go after them. He & I suggested she enlist the help of Jacob, who excels at such endeavors. She wasn't pleased and seemed to hold a grudge for the duration of the evening, or until just before midnight. Mindy & Julie were out on the back deck chatting. I headed out briefly to see what was up. It was a lovely star filled New Year's eve with the temperature still around 40 degrees. As a matter of fact, it didn't seem like New Year's eve at all.

Just as it usually does, the waning hours went by quickly. Soon it was time to ring in the new year. We kept a loose eye on Ryan Seacrest (Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve) through most of the evening. These day's (post stroke) Dick's role has been minimized to just a few brief cameos. With 15 minutes to go, I rushed home to get two bottles of cheap bubbly. Aside from Mindy & I, no one else expressed interest in champagne, though the kids wanted the kiddie variety.

We rang in 2012 at the stroke of midnight ET. :) What now? We hung out with the neighbors for perhaps another hour. Mindy was getting loopy from the wine and now the champagne. She eventually slipped off quietly to the sofa and fell asleep. I cracked open a rocket of Hoppin' Frog's Doris the Destroyer Double Imperial Stout after polishing off the entire growler of Pale Ale. It was really good. I believe we've had that sitting around since last winter, a gift, I believe from Bob I.

Near 1am I figured we ought to be heading home. I woke both Mindy & Landon (all the other kids were already at our house playing and having a sleep over) and headed home. Landon pissed himself while sleeping at the foot of Jake's bed. Mindy was still buzzed, but managed to get Landon changed into PJs before plopping down in our bed. I made sure all the kids were settled before jumping in bed myself. The boys (Jake, Jacob, and Rocky) were in Jacob's room playing XBox games. The girls were giggling in Bella's room. Good night and happy new year -  Wahoo!