Christmas

Had an AWESOME Christmas! Mom and dad were up from Iowa, and my sister hosted the festivities again at HER place (I was able to escape back to MY place, periodically, for solitude and calm-ness!).

We did our traditional Christmas eve church service and fondue dinner (steak AND cheese), opened presents, and I spent Christmas eve night THERE, so that we could get up Christmas morning and do the whole stocking and brunch thing. It's a GREAT tradition, and was a really nice time.

Mom and dad left Christmas day to get back to Iowa. Mom had hip replacement surgery on the 26th. It went well, and she's already home. She SHOULD have stayed in the hospital a day or two longer, but the doctors said she could go home if she wanted, and dad wasn't in the room at the time to say "maybe we need to stay one more day", so mom checked herself out, and they drove back to Tingley (mom is NOT the best patient in the world...!).

December 26th Robin and I did our annual "after Christmas shopping blitz". I met her at 6:30, and we were at the new SuperTarget on Cedar Ave. waiting when they opened the doors at 7:00. The WAY cool thing was that no one else really THOUGHT about hitting THAT Target, so there were only THREE other people waiting at our door (as opposed to 30 or 40 at other Target's in years past). The store wasn't really ready for us yet (still moving stuff to the clearance section...can you IMAGINE??!!), but I was able to find some good stuff.

We also went to the Hallmark store, Northwestern Books, Bibelot, Barnes & Noble, Seasonal Concepts, Restoration Hardware, and Shop in the City. I FINALLY got home around 1:00 in the afternoon (after MANY cups of coffee), and was, pretty much, comatose for the rest of the day!

Now I'm just waiting for New Years to get here, and am eager for things to get BACK TO NORMAL! I LOVE the holidays, but, since the "decorations and hoopla" start in the stores around HALLOWEEN, am SO ready for it all to be over by the time it gets here!

I took most of my decorations down the day after Christmas, but left the tree up (because of Duane's insistence that it's too early to take it all down). The tree comes down New Year's eve day, and then things will seem more "normal".

Hope YOUR holidays were FABULOUS, and that Santa was REALLY REALLY good to you! Happy new year!