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Home for the holidays

Sorry it's been so long since I posted. It's been a bit of a crazy week since then. Gretchen came to visit for the weekend. We went to a Gala at my work, which was fun mostly due to the wine, food, friends and a couple of decks of cards. It was fun to get dressed up and have an excuse to wear heels. Something like this certainly helps to accentuate the age difference between you and the rest of the faculty/staff. But we found our place and carved out a kid's table and made the best of it.

The rest of the weekend involved finishing up my holiday shopping. Usually I don't quite leave it this late, but I really feel like December snuck up on me this year. I still don't believe tomorrow is Christmas Eve. I forget how much I hate holiday shopping traffic, but having Gretchen along made it survivable. :)

Monday I was back at work (a little late due to random insomnia night) getting ready for the fall semester and watching the impending weather forecasts with a close eye. I was supposed to see my family on Christmas Eve/Christmas in my neck of the woods. The first Christmas I didn't spend at my parents' house. The mass being said in my grandfather's honor was Christmas morning at his home parish just 30 mins south of me. But as the weather forecasts got worse, it was looking less and less likely my parents would make it this far south. So I did the only logical thing and came to them. So that's how I ended up taking Tuesday off and driving back to my parents' house Monday night. I'm really glad I did as we ended up with a good 4 inches of snow here on Tuesday which would have been ugly to drive through on the 90 miles of county highway between my place and theirs. I'm not sure when/how we're getting to Iowa for Christmas with that side of the family, but at the very least it will be in my parents' 4-wheel drive SUV! It might mean leaving my vehicle in Janesville for a few days, but I can survive for a little while without :)

Hope you are all safe and healthy somewhere this Christmas Eve Eve!

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