This year’s holidays have just been strange. We celebrated Christmas with Daniel’s mom on the 16th — way early — and aren’t having Christmas with my family until the 29th. This basically means we’ll be celebrating Christmas for more than two weeks! Very bizarre.
Anyway, I’m writing this from my dad’s recliner on my brand-new laptop (thank you Daniel-Santa), enjoying a little quiet time at my parents’ house while Daniel and my mom wrestle with computers at her office. We spent Christmas day yesterday driving up with a trunk full of stuff and Rags the Hound in the backseat. This was the first time I’d tried to drive somewhere on Christmas day, and I’ve decided that non-Christians (or others who opt not to celebrate the holiday of Christmas) have really missed a fantastic capitalistic opportunity by closing on Christmas day. Our house is in complete disarray due to DIY projects galore, and we haven’t cooked food in our kitchen in weeks, if not months. So, when we left the house around 1:00 yesterday afternoon, the first task was to seek out sustenance for the road trip ahead. Jack in the Box, bless them, was open — and stuffed to the gills (both inside and in the drive-thru) with people who had similar motivation. They were, sadly, the ONLY option available, but we were all too happy to give them money. On the way up, finding things that were open was extremely difficult. Basically, the only options were those located inside gas stations — not exactly ideal.
Nevertheless, we made good time and are both happy to be here. The rest of the family is coming in over the next couple of days, and we’ll all be assembled for the big Christmas extravaganza on Saturday. Wheee!
I’m happy to have some downtime away from home, where I can focus on relaxing and getting some much-needed research work done away from the usual distractions that come from being at home. Next week will be a frenetic week of getting ready for the new semester, so this is my last big respite.
Hope you all have had a wonderful holiday, whatever you choose to celebrate (even if it’s just having a couple of days off)!