What I Did on My Christmas Vacation!
- Dec 21: Flew home.
- Dec 22: Shopped til we dropped (nearly literally, I was actually sore the next day.)
- Dec 23: Iowa relatives arrive; we go to airport to pick up my cousin (also an Iowa relative) who was flying in from Philly where she goes to school.
- Dec 24: Generally hung out around the house waiting for Giant Snowstorm to arrive. Storm arrove just as my sister and I were driving home, good timing as always!
- Dec 25: Drove an hour away to my brother's house in Springfield for Christmas. Icy sidewalks led to my 75 year old father falling and landing on his face (actually literally, he thought he broke his nose for a minute.) He is fine, thankfully. I got $140 to put toward my anticipated Wii purchase, the Watchmen DVD, Star Trek DVD, note cards with cats on (am officially cat lady), and a night light that is the Fragile Lamp from A Christmas Story - it is pretty awesome. Held my new great-nephew for the first time! He's pretty cute, I think we're gonna have to keep him.
- Dec 26: My mom had a Boxing Day party. No, we're not British or Canadian. My sister-in-law (who is British) started this last year and my mom loves a tradition, although we didn't do a roast, just stew and chili and snacks. It was fun. I also went to see my BFF's mom's new post-divorce house, and played cards with my family.
- Dec 27: Drove an hour away (in a different direction, pretty much everything is an hour away from my parent's house) to Joplin to visit with my nephew and his family, since we barely got to see them on Christmas day. We saw his new jewelry store, which looks great! They weren't open though, as the first night they were open (last week) some asshole broke in that night and robbed them. They didn't get the good stuff though, and he has insurance, so it's all good, and hopefully they'll reopen this week.
- Dec 28: Shopping in Springfield, and dinner with extended family. Another tradition, my mom's birthday and one aunt & uncle's anniversary are the last week of December, my brother and my aunt's birthday and my brother & sister-in-law's anniversary are the first week of January, plus my parents' anniversary is the last week of January, so we celebrate all of them and everyone exchanges cards.
- Dec 29: Had lunch with my great-uncle, who is 92. He's still mentally sharp, and able to drive himself around, although he's gotten a lot more frail in the last two years, so it's always good to get to see him. It was my mom's birthday, so we spent the afternoon playing Hand & Foot (card game) then went out for Mexican for dinner, then back for more cards. It started snowing again, of course just as my sister & I were driving back to her house. We really have sucky timing. It was a wet snow too, so super slick. We made it okay, but we did stop because someone else had put their car in the ditch, and driven through a barbed wire fence. They were okay though.
And that's pretty much it! Flying home tomorrow (which will be today by the time I get this posted, as my sister doesn't have internet access at her house.)
ETA: Actually that was yesterday, as I was, er, preoccupied when I got home :D