Christmas
We had a lovely, if stressful, Christmas. My brother made it out from New Jersey, finally, after practically the voyage of Odysseus. HIs flight from NJ was 2 hrs late, so he missed his connection in Chicago (on Friday). The airline couldn't guarantee him a seat again until Sunday night, but he was on stand by for every flight until then. Finally, I did a little Internet searching, and my mom bought herself the Christmas present of a one-way first class ticket for my brother on United, so that he finally made it home on Saturday night. Yay United!
Besides last minute baking and shopping, it was nice to have the family together. We even managed to see friends a lot too.
gottasing came over on Wednesday night for a nice dinner, we had dinner with
kdmorin and Blake on Thursday night, dinner again and games on Friday, this time with
kdmorin and
red_goldilocks and family, then Christmas Eve spent crazily wrapping before my mom's Mexican Fiesta (mmmm . . . homemade tamales and all the fixin's), then, of course, Christmas. This was the Girl's first Christmas where she kind of "got" what was going on. We had some gifts unwrapped from "Santa" (the whole cast of Sesame Street in stuffed animals, some puzzles, and some bath toys) sitting out, which she jumped on. Then we did the present exchange the Suskind way, where we go from youngest to oldest picking a gift for someone else and then watching the open it. It takes a long time but is fun. The Girl really got into the opening part, and even showed interest in the actual gift. Her favorite thing was the Disney Princess tea set my mom got her, though she has since disected just about every other thing under the tree for her except the clothes.
I got some nice jewelry ( a "T" necklace from B, earrings from his B's dad), a couple of nice bags, a couple of nice jackets, a tote bag with Dudley on it, and lots of funny t-shirts. Also a couple of DVDs and books I had asked for. Overall, as usual, an overwhelming, but nice, Christmas.
The poor Dude has been a cone-head since Friday, when we finally had his cojones removed. It was time. He is very talented, however. He has managed to figure out how to lick his nether regions despite the cone. He also managed to remove it. Mostly he just looks pathetic, but a couple more days and he'll be free.
kdmorin is evil, however. She taught me and my mom this card game, Hand and Foot, that we are now addicted to. We have been playing it constantly since Saturday, and we're talking about a regular weekly game to satisfy our addiction, to be played in conjunction with B's D&D game.
Other than that, I've just been trying not to think about work. I was on call until Monday (despite being on vacation starting Thursday), so managed to put in a good two hours of work on both Thursday and Friday. I'm not on call anymore, so I'm trying to avoid the whole work thing, but it is hard. Just let it go!!!!
I hope all of you out there had a wonderful Christmas (or whatever). Here's a Clara picture to celebrate the season.
Besides last minute baking and shopping, it was nice to have the family together. We even managed to see friends a lot too.
gottasing came over on Wednesday night for a nice dinner, we had dinner with
kdmorin and Blake on Thursday night, dinner again and games on Friday, this time with
kdmorin and
red_goldilocks and family, then Christmas Eve spent crazily wrapping before my mom's Mexican Fiesta (mmmm . . . homemade tamales and all the fixin's), then, of course, Christmas. This was the Girl's first Christmas where she kind of "got" what was going on. We had some gifts unwrapped from "Santa" (the whole cast of Sesame Street in stuffed animals, some puzzles, and some bath toys) sitting out, which she jumped on. Then we did the present exchange the Suskind way, where we go from youngest to oldest picking a gift for someone else and then watching the open it. It takes a long time but is fun. The Girl really got into the opening part, and even showed interest in the actual gift. Her favorite thing was the Disney Princess tea set my mom got her, though she has since disected just about every other thing under the tree for her except the clothes.
I got some nice jewelry ( a "T" necklace from B, earrings from his B's dad), a couple of nice bags, a couple of nice jackets, a tote bag with Dudley on it, and lots of funny t-shirts. Also a couple of DVDs and books I had asked for. Overall, as usual, an overwhelming, but nice, Christmas.
The poor Dude has been a cone-head since Friday, when we finally had his cojones removed. It was time. He is very talented, however. He has managed to figure out how to lick his nether regions despite the cone. He also managed to remove it. Mostly he just looks pathetic, but a couple more days and he'll be free.
kdmorin is evil, however. She taught me and my mom this card game, Hand and Foot, that we are now addicted to. We have been playing it constantly since Saturday, and we're talking about a regular weekly game to satisfy our addiction, to be played in conjunction with B's D&D game.
Other than that, I've just been trying not to think about work. I was on call until Monday (despite being on vacation starting Thursday), so managed to put in a good two hours of work on both Thursday and Friday. I'm not on call anymore, so I'm trying to avoid the whole work thing, but it is hard. Just let it go!!!!
I hope all of you out there had a wonderful Christmas (or whatever). Here's a Clara picture to celebrate the season.