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December 21, 2013 - 2:02 a.m.
"christmas caroling"

Hey Journal!

This morning I got up for work and headed out at the usual time. I took an alternate route to work today because I had to stop at the printer to pick up some business cards we had ordered.

I got there a few minutes before 9, picked them up, and then headed to work.

I had a lot more stuff to do with this week's payroll today, and this has been the longest week of payroll EVER! It just won't end! I think I've opened up the reports more than any other week's reports all year long! It's the bonuses and Holiday Fund!

I also got an e-mail from Toys for Tots telling me their location! FINALLY!! Unfortunately, this year they were a lot farther away from work... they are over in Bohemia by MacArthur Airport! (More on that, later!)

The soup of the day was Chicken Noodle again, so I had some of that. In the afternoon, Steve wanted to go over some stock stuff and so we talked about that for a while.

For lunch, I had leftovers from the buffet of the holiday party that was here this afternoon. It was REALLY good. I had pasta, string beans, bread, and potatoes! It was perfect for today!

The day was kinda dragging and I had nothing left to do, so it worked out well that I had to deliver the toys. I left work at 3:15 and headed over to the address I had been given. It took about 25 minutes to get there, and since it was in the direction of home, I decided I wasn't coming back to work.

I got to the address I was directed to, but there was no sign of the Toys for Tots! I drove up and down the street but couldn't find ANYTHING! I found a building with the same street address, but it had two other companies in it. Finally, I decided to drive around the back. Sure enough, around the back there was a door with a Toys for Tots poster taped to it. They always are in the most sketchy locations and look like the most fly-by-night operation!

This year, however, they did have one thing going for them... instead of creepy guys with hoodies, they had people dressed in military gear. That made me feel a little better about it. They came and took the toys from my car, and I told the man that we had a hard time finding them this year. He said he wished they had more volunteers to man the phones better. He was nice, thanked me, and said Merry Christmas ... so this year was already a lot better than the past ones!

When I was done, I headed home. I had to change and get ready to go caroling, so I hurried to do that, but I got the idea to make the sugar cookies that Dan had purchased a few weeks ago to bring to my cousin's house!

Dan had put them in the freezer, so they were hard as a rock! Dan's mom suggested putting it in some warm water to help it unfreeze quickly. It worked pretty well! I followed the instructions and made 1/2 inch slices, but they looked kinda big, so we made them a lot smaller. Even at that, they came out really large, so I can't imagine how big they would have been the first time!

They came out pretty good! I put them on the cooking rack, and then Dan's mom put them on a little tray to bring with us.

When Dan got home, he got changed and we left around 5:30. We got to Dan's house at about 6:25 and we had a little time to kill before caroling. Dan was in the shower, so we hung out with Jackie and the baby! She was so cute and was smiling like crazy at us!

I held her for about 15 minutes at the most, and when I put her down I went to look at my phone and I couldn't lift it out of my pocket! It was insane! My hand was trembling just trying to lift my phone and press the button!! I must have pinched a nerve or something...it lasted for about an hour, too! It was crazy!

At 7:00, we headed over for caroling!!! I hadn't done this since middle school (I think that's when it was) and I was pretty excited to do it again. Mostly because it's so random and weird and crazy! What a fun idea!

We didn't actually start caroling until about 8:00, so we just hung around their house and had a couple of drinks before we went out! It was super hot inside, so we had to stand outside for a while, too! It was a perfect night for caroling... it was so warm and nice out!

When we finally got started, we had little candles that were glued to CDs. They looked really nice, but unfortunately it was a bit windy outside so they kept getting blown out! Eventually, I had to ditch mine because the wax had gotten all over my glove and it wouldn't stay lit. I put it in someone's newspaper mailbox. Sorry!

We went to several houses, and unfortunately it seemed like there weren't that many people home. The ones who did answer seemed to enjoy it a lot. It's always fun to see their reactions because... how do you react when a mob of people with burning flames comes to your door and starts singing at you!?

One woman went inside and got us a box of chocolates... a Hershey's Pot of Gold! Woop! (Not that I like that... but I do like gifts!)

When we were done, we went back and had some hot chocolate and cookies. It was a nice time. One of the couches they have in their house is my Grandma's old living room couch! I was quite surprised to see it again... I thought it was gone forever!

There was a good turnout of carolers this year... Dan's friend Keith wasn't there because he moved to Chicago, but his sister had a lot of friends over, and it was a good crowd.

We left around 10:30 and headed back to Dan's house. It felt much later than that, but that was good because we had time to hand out and stuff. Jackie and the baby were sleeping and Jackie's parents were staying over, too. We went in the basement and hung out down there for a while! We watched a TV show that Dan wanted to show us, and then we played the new Ducktales Remastered on the XBOX!

We had a little trouble with that, though. The XBOX drawer wouldn't open at all! My cousin said it had always worked fine until then, so we figured it might have gotten jammed. We tried to open it up, and it was really really stuck! Dan got tools and we finally got the drawer out! It came flying out, actually. We got it to start working again.... like the drawer went in and out, but it wouldn't go in all the way, so the game wouldn't come on!!

In the end, we wound up putting the game in and then jamming the drawer closed! It worked, and the game came on! Woop!! It's really cool... It's basically the same exact game from when we were little, just new graphics and the music is updated. It was a lot of fun. They also added a map on the pause screen which is pretty useful because in the original game it was really easy to get lost, especially in the Transylvania level!

After that, we were getting pretty hungry so we went to Wendy's to get some food! I got chicken nuggets and a chicken sandwich. Mmmm! It hit the spot, especially since we really didn't have any dinner!

We ate in the car and then we headed back and dropped Dan off at his house around 12:30.

We got home around 1:15 and now it's time to get to sleep! It's been a long day! Tomorrow we can sleep a little later and then have to get up to move our belongings out of the basement to get ready for Dan's parents' Christmas party and then we're going to the movies with Re!

Until tomorrow...

Goodnight. :)