It's a New Year

Evelyn spent most of the day de-Christmasing the place after Jen and Matt and the kids left around 10:00 a.m. I paid bills and got the checkbook up-to-date while giving an assist here and there to Evelyn who was rearranging some of the winter-not-Christmas snowmen and other decorations. I made us big salads for lunch, and we walked after 2:00. With a temperature close to 50 degrees outside, I decided it was the perfect afternoon to take down the lights outside. It took me longer than I planned, due largely to an extension cord wrapped and tangled all around itself in the garage. It took me at least 15 minutes, maybe 30, to get it into a manageable coil that would fit on the shelf in the garage.
All the lights and extension cords and portable outlets are put away in the basement. The only thing that remains is the Christmas tree inside, which I'll tackle probably Saturday morning.
They're predicting a couple inches of snow, at least, for the morning and cold temperatures all weekend. So I'm glad I got the outside stuff done today.
It was the second holiday in a week I've spent the whole day without leaving the house. Really, t's a nice way to have a holiday.
For dinner we cooked a couple of steaks from Omaha Steaks the Aulens had sent us for Christmas. They were really good, and there are more in the freezer!

Miles and Nina posed on the streetcar
in the Cincinnati section of Museum Center. 

Today's picture was taken yesterday. We spent the afternoon at the Cincinnati Museum Center after a big pancake and bacon breakfast at home. The museum was open a little later. We left just before 6:00 and then headed to the Chinese buffet on Tylersville Road. The Johnson kids love going to a Chinese restaurant, and this one is pretty good. The place was packed, and we had a good dinner.
Then we headed home to play Apples to Apples before retiring to the family room to watch Argo on DVD (Jen had brought it with them). Evelyn made two huge bowls of popcorn for us to munch while we watched. The kids hadn't seen the movie, and I was glad to see it a 2nd time (the first time was a year ago at the movie theater). Then we tuned into NBC and watched the ball drop and wished each other happy New Year together.