Merry Christmas
Well, all the presents are opened, and the little one is napping. The older one is on the floor in a pile of toys reading a book. I learned a few things in the last couple days, some good, some bad.
Of the good, the best is that my brother is doing really well in school. He is better plugged in the world now than me and it's nice to see him getting all political about something that he was uninformed about a couple years ago.
The bad is that my grandma's alzheimers is progressing faster than I had thought it would. She has been preyed upon by salesmen, and she has had some erratic behavior as of late that worries me. Well, it amuses me, but it worries me too. The latest is that she took $27K out of the bank after hearing all this stuff on the news about problems with banks and figured she should take some money out in case the banks fail. Of course, she remembers the last time the banks failed, so maybe it makes more sense to her than it does to me, but she lost the money in her house. She didn't remember where she had put it and then she started to panic. My mom went over and found the money and then made her take it to the bank and put it back in her account. At the bank my grandma forgot why she was there, forgot her SS#, her account #, and got all rattled, and thank goodness my mom was there to get it all straightened out. In the meantime all these bank customers are staring at the old lady with the big fat wad of $100 bills. They're lucky they didn't get mugged.
We sent the "Santa gifts" ahead to my mom and she was great about wrapping them and getting them under the tree, but she accidentally wrapped one as a gift from Mom and Dad and so my wife made a letter from Santa and explained that Avery needed to go to the store to buy one of her gifts. And then she put $30 in there. I'm not sure I like that, but what's done is done. Avery got plenty of presents, Santa and otherwise, and I don't care if Avery got one less present from Santa and one extra from Mom and Dad.
Emily had a great time and was the precious Darling the whole time. She was so cute handing out presents in her X-mas dress. And then later she was curled up on my lap with her thumb in her mouth being very content with Dad.
Scott LOVED the laptop. He complained about how slow his laptop was on the way from the airport, so he was very happy when he opened his present. It was in a laptop bag, so at first he thought he just got a laptop bag, but when I directed him to the back pocket in the bag to find the laptop, he was elated. I wish he hadn't had to go home so soon. This is the first time and only time I've seen him in 2008, and I doubt I'll see him again until Thanksgiving next year.
Overall, I had a good time with everyone, and now I get a few days in AZ to try and meet up with a few friends before we head home.
Of the good, the best is that my brother is doing really well in school. He is better plugged in the world now than me and it's nice to see him getting all political about something that he was uninformed about a couple years ago.
The bad is that my grandma's alzheimers is progressing faster than I had thought it would. She has been preyed upon by salesmen, and she has had some erratic behavior as of late that worries me. Well, it amuses me, but it worries me too. The latest is that she took $27K out of the bank after hearing all this stuff on the news about problems with banks and figured she should take some money out in case the banks fail. Of course, she remembers the last time the banks failed, so maybe it makes more sense to her than it does to me, but she lost the money in her house. She didn't remember where she had put it and then she started to panic. My mom went over and found the money and then made her take it to the bank and put it back in her account. At the bank my grandma forgot why she was there, forgot her SS#, her account #, and got all rattled, and thank goodness my mom was there to get it all straightened out. In the meantime all these bank customers are staring at the old lady with the big fat wad of $100 bills. They're lucky they didn't get mugged.
We sent the "Santa gifts" ahead to my mom and she was great about wrapping them and getting them under the tree, but she accidentally wrapped one as a gift from Mom and Dad and so my wife made a letter from Santa and explained that Avery needed to go to the store to buy one of her gifts. And then she put $30 in there. I'm not sure I like that, but what's done is done. Avery got plenty of presents, Santa and otherwise, and I don't care if Avery got one less present from Santa and one extra from Mom and Dad.
Emily had a great time and was the precious Darling the whole time. She was so cute handing out presents in her X-mas dress. And then later she was curled up on my lap with her thumb in her mouth being very content with Dad.
Scott LOVED the laptop. He complained about how slow his laptop was on the way from the airport, so he was very happy when he opened his present. It was in a laptop bag, so at first he thought he just got a laptop bag, but when I directed him to the back pocket in the bag to find the laptop, he was elated. I wish he hadn't had to go home so soon. This is the first time and only time I've seen him in 2008, and I doubt I'll see him again until Thanksgiving next year.
Overall, I had a good time with everyone, and now I get a few days in AZ to try and meet up with a few friends before we head home.