A Very Merry Speedy Christmas

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas with their friends and families. I sure did. My husband finally got home from visiting his family in southern California on Saturday night. He had been gone since Tuesday and I was enjoying all the heating and repair drama by myself. Plus a crowd of animal spectators. Sometimes I think about the great variety of behavior our animals see from us. We spend a great deal of time with all of our animals and they see us at our worst and at our best. You wonder if any of that sinks in, don't you? Anyhow, it was great to see my (very tired) husband and we had a lovely little Christmas morning in the cozy cabin, wood stove stocked to the brim. I got EXACTLY what I wanted, which was a radio and speakers for the Bomber. I enjoy me some NPR and ipod usage, and not having that option was surprisingly irritating to me. I can only sing to my chihuahua for so long. My trusty husband had the radio and speakers under the tree. He also upgraded our phones, so Redheaded Endurance has officially joined the current technology phase. I went from my basic military grade flip phone to a Samsung Galaxy Something or Other. An Android smart phone. Needless to say I went bonkers on it on the drive over to the coast yesterday. I planned to do the driving since the husband had just gone 800+ miles over the week but he insisted on taking the wheel so I got to veg out on the smart phone. First things first: install free Scrabble and Words with Friends applications. I must confess. I love word games. My family often played the board game Scrabble at nights growing up and I've followed it lovingly into the digital age. It's kinda awesome to have my dorky word game habits available at my fingertips, at lightning speeds. It scares me that my phone is more efficient and capable than my desktop computer at home. But that's the way things seem to be going!

We had a very nice time at my parent's house for Christmas dinner and present opening. The gathering consisted of myself, my husband, my sister, her husband, and their 4 kids (new baby in tow!), along with my granny, my step-granny, my brother, and my parents. The only portion of the immediate family missing was my brother and his wife and baby, who were celebrating in their hometown down south. My step-granny hadn't been to a holiday gathering in years so it was very nice to see her. She has a hard time figuring out where she is and who people are sometimes. I have truly never been around this is an older person before and it was a bit of a shock. She is very healthy and physically well though, which is a blessing. My husband is so good with kids, he was telling riddles to my nieces and nephews and granny was getting in on the action. We had a delicious home-grown roast beef dinner (Yorkshire pudding--heaven!) and an entertaining round of opening presents. I must say my parents instilled the orderly, one person at a time, present unwrapping tradition very strongly in me. It's so funny to go to Christmas with kids and see the unbridled enthusiasm and impatience. I almost remember that feeling! It was good fun and my husband and I got an awesome awesome present from my brother and his girlfriend: A BBQ! We love to BBQ all summer long our cheesy cheap BBQ is about on it's last legs. What a fantastic present and we can't wait to put it use. We had drawn my sister's kids in the Secret Santa drawing so brought along a little pile of goodies for them. I loved hearing my niece exclaim "Oh it's JUST what I wanted!" when she opened her doll.

We were supposed to spend the night at my brother's house but to do so we of course had to pack everything into the car, and then drive right past our turning to head for home. The anxiety dog, aka Wilbur the wiener dog, had barfed and whined his way over to the coast. Now, getting gas, fully packed, on the road, Wilbur and his chihuahua sidekick were peacefully passed out. With freezing nights at home, the heater-less house, all the animals, and already being on the road, we just decided to go for the 4 1/2 hour drive home. We cleared it with my brother and off we went. I wanted to spend some time with my brother but we had a lot to take care of at home and avoiding the holiday traffic and another miserable ride with a whining wiener dog was too tempting. We made it home about 12:45 and mercifully slept in this morning. Now it's time to do some chores around here, need to get in some more firewood before the possible rain comes. And some day soon..ride?

 

"Merry Friggin' Christmas"