Back to reality

It was tough getting out of bed this morning. Because of vacation days and sick days, I haven't had to wake up before 7am since December 20th. The dog was even sleeping late. I must say that I've been quite the lazy ass over the last 13 days. Christmas was a good time visiting the families but I was extremely happy to get home. I'm just not used to being around many people for long periods of time. Our house is pretty quiet (which I like) so being surrounded by lots of family for over a week is enough to make me long for my happy place.

We started off at my family's main location. Spent a few days there trying to be cheerful while fighting off a nasty cold. I did get to spend a lot of time with my nieces since my sister had to work on Friday. I'm guessing that mini-A had fun with Grandma and Auntie Tosa because she had to be carried out the door by her dad while sobbing that she didn't want to go home. B was helping them carry stuff out to their car and cleverly got mini-A to stop crying by asking for a hug and kiss (but only if she stopped crying). Unfortunately, as they pulled out of the neighborhood, mini-A realized that she hadn't kissed or hugged Grandma or Auntie Tosa and the tears started all over again.

One other memory that sticks out from our visit with the Peoria tribe is the Christmas Eve candlelight church service. It's the same thing every year. Lots of Christmas carols, a minister trying to relate the birth of Jesus to life today, give some money, and light a candle while singing Silent Night. There were a few twists this year. The church now has 2 flat-screen monitors that flash all the prayers and song words so that no one need consult a hymnal or bible anymore. This I found to be a little odd. The other twist was the interim minister - a woman who really wasn't a great speaker. At times, it sounded like she was reading from a phone book. No kidding. You know it's bad if B (the good little Catholic boy that he is) is having problems not laughing out loud.

Christmas morning it was on to southern Indiana to visit B's family. As usual, there was way too much food (but all of it yummy) and lots of people dropping by for a visit. I try to be very social since we don't see a lot of them during the year. It's a 6-8 hour drive from Milwaukee (depending on Chicago traffic) so it's not easy to go for a quick visit.

By the third day, I was so ready to go home to peace and quiet. Thank goodness, I didn't have to go back to work right away. I actually got to relax at home for a while. It was lovely.

My first day back at work has been great so far. I arrived this morning to no network connection. Instead of weeding through an overabundance of emails, I'm typing out this posting. Very productive. It always amazes me how little work I can do when I'm not hooked up to the network.