Tech Support Happenings – The Sunday before Christmas, The Wife and I went over to her BFF’s place so I could help set up BFF’s new computer. The whole thing went together fairly well with minimal issues. It was kind of fun introducing the BFF to the wonder of velcro straps instead of zip ties for cable management.

Christmas Eve Happenings – The day of Christmas Eve was The Wife and I making some excursions. For some reason, I got a wild hair up my butt for some mead. I don’t really drink, maybe a glass or two a year. But I felt the desire for honey wine. So, we went to liquor store to find no mead. Can’t really complain, as demand spikes up around this time of year, and I can’t see it being a high-volume item for a liquor store. Surprisingly, I found some on Doordash and picked up two varieties. There are days I love living in the future.

After dinner, we opened our advent calendars. The Wife and MIL found one of those “men’s advent calendar” that had a bunch of little survival tools. Some of them will end up in my sling bag or work bag. Most of it will end up in the hurricane kit.

Christmas Happenings – Christmas started with our normal pancakes and relaxing. Then it was doing some prep for our overnight guests, whom we had to go pick up before dinner. The Wife’s Niece and the Grandniece agreed to stay over Christmas night so we could get an early start to our Day-After Christmas adventure. The main course for dinner was a very good lasagna made by SIL. There was a lot of food, a lot of chatting, a lot of the Grandniece opening presents and playing with her new toys. And a lot of left-overs.

The Wife Is Best Wife Happenings – Earlier this week, one of my coworkers sent me a text asking if an address in Parrish was near me. My response was Yes, if I was at home, but I’m at the office right now. Seems there were a pair of bikes being offered for free at the location, but since the coworker lives in Tampa, she was hoping I was at home and could just swing by to make sure the bikes were still there. Since The Wife is off this week, I asked if she would be willing to swing by and check on them. The Wife graciously agreed and then brought the bikes home so the coworker can pick them up from Ward Manor. She is the best wife.

Zoo Happenings – The Grandniece has been asking to sleep over for a while. So, we agreed on them sleeping over Christmas night, and we would take Niece and Grandniece to ZooTampa the next day. The Wife and I wanted to go back since our excursion last summer was cut short and I missed the Florida section. When we got there, we opted for ZooTampa’s “pay-for-a-day-get-the-whole-year” special for all four of us. Heck, even if we go just once more, it’s kind of paid for itself. The neat thing is when we were driving in, the was a big panel truck with the ZooTampa logo on the back. Turns out it was a manatee being delivered to ZooTampa for rescue/rehab. This time we brought our collapsible wagon, on the idea that the Grandniece would be riding in it. She did a little, but it was nice being able to drop all of our stuff in the wagon and cart it around. It did mean there were times we had to swap off so everyone could go see the animals. It also meant that I really didn’t need to swap out my sling bag for the backpack. But lessons learned. Needless to say, by the time we dropped Niece and Grandniece back at their place and made it home, we were exhausted.

Weight Happenings – Not happening. I overindulged pretty badly over Christmas week. I’ll get back on the scale after New Years. I always hate the first week getting back on program because I have to retrain my stomach that it doesn’t need to be full all the time. Although it was well after Christmas that I realized I never had my usual chocolate orange this year.