I’m fried…but it is a good fried, I think.  For the first time in my adult life, I’m not dreading anything about Christmas.  It’s going to be a tough day because mom and Aunt Frances are gone…Katy says that is big…huge…Grandma sat in the corner sweet and oblivious and grinning trying to get Daisy on her lap…and Aunt Frances talked non stop…they are going to be missed…but I also don’t have to get them in the car, get them out of the car, get them settled, get their dishes ready, get them to the bathroom, cringe in case someone said something that might be interpreted wrong by them.  Why I took that job on, I have no idea…then do the whole thing over to get them home.  I’ll never forget the Christmas eve that we took them home and mom’s sewer had backed up in her basement…He spent many hours hauling “stuff” out of the basement…then the girls couldn’t flush so they spent the night at our house…one in the recliner and one on the sofa because there is NO WAY we could have gotten them up the stairs into a bed…I think that was with 3 dogs and only 1 cat…I laugh to think what it would be like now with 3 dogs and 5 cats…

Christmas was always mom’s holiday..she did it up big…she spent a lot of money, bought a lot of gifts, always had dinner and Christmas at her house…there was no other way.  She apologized for that one year and said she felt bad that she had never let me start having Christmas at my house to start a tradition with my kids.  We had a tradition, we went to grandma and grandpa’s house…When his family was all still together, we would go to his mother’s house in the morning and for dinner and then my family in the afternoon.  His mother would never even think of budging on having Christmas…even the year that his sister couldn’t make it from South Dakota until afternoon…had to have presents and dinner at noon…there was no room for change!!  His mother is a whole other Oprah show…

Christmas has always been very important to me…but it is going to be different this year…not bad just different..I’ve always had to bend in the wind or I would have been flattened a long time ago…so bring it on.

Merry Christmas or just Happy Holidays for those of you who prefer that verbage.

Until next time….