Catching Up

Hey,

Very cool sparkly trees! Don't feel bad about not getting any decorating done; I didn't even get as far as the gym, which I actually meant to do. So kudos to you! And so glad to hear you had such a wonderful vacation. 52 people???? God, what on earth am I complaining about?

Our Thanksgiving was good. I'll start low and work my way up...

My parents are serious energy vampires, so by the time they left, I was exhausted. They aren't around much, but they seem to always be needing something. Right now. Drop what you're doing and take care of this. The other thing is that they make plans and change them constantly, with no regard for anyone else's plans. It gets a little (a lot) annoying. Of course, then there's the bro and CC; don't get me started.

Dinner on Thursday was ok - the food was good, but I was so resentful of them (Bro and CC) that I was probably just pissy. I wish I could stop expecting anything more of them than the usual half-hearted efforts to help. I know they don't have any money, which is fine, even if I can't afford it either. (On top of which, my parents invited friends but the only thing they pitched in for was the booze.) So I was all kinds of grumpy (inside) about having footed the bill for a dinner for 12, but I fully expected (silly me!) that Bro might contribute in some way, like doing the dishes or...not falling asleep on the couch right after dinner and staying there until it was time to go home. Unbelievable. Utterly.

HOWEVER!

As for time with my nuclear family, that was great. C, J, JJ and I spent a lot of time together doing fun stuff like shopping, attending the local tree lighting downtown, etc. We also got a chance to kick off our Christmas season with our traditional viewing of The Santa Clause. And it was just us, so we didn't have to crank the volume up over my dad's snoring, or get up in the middle of it to go do something else my parents wanted to do. Yahoo! We had a couple of quiet dinners together and since my folks left early Sunday morning, we had all day to hang around the house in our pjs, drinking coffee and watching tv. That was awesome!

Today I did a little more decorating, but not a ton. I was vegetative this morning, after having stayed up last night until almost 1:00, watching reruns of Criminal Minds. I have no idea why I didn't turn it off. So by 10:30 this morning I was still curled up on the couch in my blanket, nursing my coffee. Finally decided to shower and motivate, but by that time it was noon, which pretty much shot most of my day. Still, no regrets. I needed to unwind, I think.

Tomorrow lunch with KB and car service (oil, lube, etc.) then football in the afternoon. We have some friends coming to visit this weekend from California so I'm hoping to get all the decor done by then, but we'll see. Saturday JJ and E, his best bud, are going indoor rock climbing after football, for E's birthday. I want to go along and take pictures; E's mom is going to climb with them. Yeah, I'm not that adventurous, but it will be fun.

Nothing much going on other than that. I am sending you some pics on email from the weekend; one turned out so well I decided to do Christmas card pictures after all. Originally I was all weirded out about M not being in the picture, but you know what? It is what it is.

Anyway, my resolve to get to bed early tonight is already shot, as it's almost 11 now. I'm glad you have a fun weekend to look forward to, Boston AND chocolate cake...!

Love you,
A