Whine & Cheese: Christmas '07: The Results Post

For those of you celebrating, hope you had a very nice Christmas... for those of you who didn't, cocooning for one of the few days when the outside world (well at least in the U.S.) seems to shut down for business... though there are plenty of people working too!

Had a very nice couple of days. Todd's parents came up from Tucson and everything went quite well. Now, I think myself and Todd have a pretty good relationship, but the last few holidays where family was involved were... shall I say, a bit tense (made even worse by Johnny Mathis cheerfully singing that "it's the most wonderful time of the year"). But with a couple of years experience under my belt, being aware of my past pitfalls and triggers, simplifying things (mostly involving the mega-meals)... pretty much not putting the pressure to over-achieve... made it a relaxed and glare-free holiday... though I'm guessing 3 bottles of wine over the 2 days were probably quite helpful in lubricating the relaxation cogs and wheels.

Though, at the moment, it all feels like a dream. This morning, I woke up to an empty house (if myself ... and four animals... can qualify as "empty"). Todd left before sun-up to meet his parents in Tucson (they left yesterday afternoon)... before heading over to New Mexico for a post/inter-holiday visit with the rest of the family for the remainder of the week. So while Christmas did go well, it was still tiring... and it will be nice to decompress from all the pressures and expectations that did build up to the big day. Thankfully, I have some "unofficial" vacation time (yet another nice thing about being self-employed, is not having to "show up" or fake it if there's no urgent work... or no work at all!).

Got lots of good stuff... electric razor, shirts, calendars, books (of course!), leather jacket ... and, the always welcome... gift cards and cash! So, nary a complaint in sight!

~~Hopefully, I'll be getting a belated Christmas gift this week...~~ The scratch on my Cooper didn't quite get done before Christmas.. ~~but, from what they told me last week it should be back later this week~~. I just got a call from the car shop... so it sounds like I should have my car back this year... ummm, barely... December 31st (it's been there since the 12th). The silver lining is that at least Todd will be back (and still "off"). I was going to attempt to be self-sufficient and started exploring bus routes and schedules... and while it could be done, it was bordering on a tad too adventurous for me (an almost 2 mile walk just to get to the first of two bus routes!).

I guess that's it for now... after taking Christmas Eve and Day off... I have to get back to hitting the books for the final days of my reading challenge. While having reached the "challenge" of 10,000 pages back in October, I still have a hundred or so pages to go for another numeric milestone.