Slow Yet Busy Holiday

The Holidays seem to be that time of year when everything seems to slow down and speed up all at the same time. The kids get out of school, we take time to spend with family and friends, there is always something yummy to eat around the house (right now I seem to smelling a baking pie), people try to teach the dog to sing... [okay, that is just me - but there is definite singing happening in homes and around town] and so on. Yet, at the same time, shoppers flood stores from early in the morning till late at night, businesses are trying to close their inventories for the year, and "rush hour" seems to have turned into "rush half-a-day" with all the congestion that is on the roads.

This year, my family celebrated Christmas five days early. Everyone was there except my son and estranged husband, who reside over 1200 miles (1900 kilometers) away and the only non-coupled members of the family were my daughter and me. This year, though, unlike last year, we brought Snickers with us as the resident male member of our leg of the family. Please, nobody tell my husband that his temporary substitute is a very snuggly, significantly younger "man" with full hair who loves to play and follows me around like a puppy dog.

The Christmas party, like last year, was in my younger brother's living room [pictured above] and, like last year, everyone brought a dish. A small army might happily have been fed with all the food that was there, but we forgot to invite one. Everyone had to take home some leftovers from everyone else so that could dispose of the food.

After dinner, we opened gifts from our annual "Secret Santa" gift exchange. The guideline this year was $25 maximum, so we had some very creative gifts and a lot of good laughs. It was about 9:30 pm when Anne suggested we break out a game. That was when I reminded her that she had school in the morning and we did not have time to play a game. It is a good thing I spoke up, though, because it seems the other members of the family (most of whom have full-time jobs) had also forgotten it was not yet Christmas and they had to get up for work in the morning!

That was when everyone packed up to leave.

Tomorrow, Christmas eve, many of us will gather again for dinner at a restaurant. Then, on Sunday, Anne and I will spend the afternoon with my newly adopted family. After which, I will likely come home and be depressed that my husband and son are not with us for the holiday, nor will my husband's local family likely even contact our daughter with warm holiday wishes. (Hopefully, I will get to bring home a few pieces of pie as "comfort food.") The day after Christmas, though, we will travel again to our project house to do the last couple of items necessary before we can have the safety inspection done -- and that will definitely perk me up with anticipation for my impending summer move. (Yippee!)

Like I said, it is the time of year that is slow enough to take time to do things with our families, yet also seems to be when our lives pick up speed.