Thursday Scrambles

Happy Boxing Day!

We'll be spending it on the road heading home.  Getting the car packed to go back is going to be a challenge.  Keith's mother gave me six boxes of junk she had collected.  I condensed it down a little, but it still takes up a lot of room.

Keith and I brought our gifts to each other with us to exchange, thus adding to the car situation.  We couldn't let Christmas Eve go by without present!  And Santa!  We mainly got each other clothes this year, which we both needed badly.  We both wear things until they're shot, and neither of us had bought any new clothes in ages.  An outlet store has been going out of business not too far from us, so that helped our shopping go farther than it normally would.

Santa, however, bought us both tablets!

It's been a good visit.  We got caught in a horrible storm coming down, but the weather has been nice otherwise.  Chilly, but nice.  We've seen all the relatives, spent time with his mom, bought local wine, shopped at Fred's (one of my obsessions), and did a little (unproductive) thrifting.  If we had another day, we'd hit the thrifts in the surrounding towns, but we're out of time and car space.  Therefore, next time.

We also had lovely meals on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  We cooked on Christmas Eve and made an abbreviated version of one of our traditional holiday feasts.  On Christmas Day, Keith's mom made all of his favorites.  It was a feast, let me tell you.

It's also been a time for doing some reminiscing.  Christmastime always makes me think of my mother and all the holiday things she did.  This visit, I heard a bunch of stories from Keith's family that I did not know.   His mom read us a letter from his dad that was a lot about him.   Keith and I have talked a lot about our relationship on this trip.  We've had a lot of Christmases together, all of them special.  This year was a little harder on us than most have been, but we're still rolling on.  His mom was excited about the engagement and happy for us.  Now, we just have to get our ducks in a row with our planning.  I'm truly lucky to have him in my life.  I wouldn't trade our time together for anything or anyone.

Now it's time to go home.  Keith set up a kitty cam in the bedroom so we could keep tabs on the boys, but it's time to see them in person.  Kosh will be in need of some major lap time, for sure.  I was gone house-sitting for the week before we left, then I came home briefly and we both left.  He's not well for that kind of thing.

I've been having too much fun to take pics, so you'll just have to imagine everything.

It's going to be busy, busy when we get home.  I'm off until the 13th, but last night I was figuring out everything I had to do when we get back and realized that's not as long as it seems.

Besides all the unpacking, laundry, putting away, cleaning up and such the usually come with returning from a journey, I  have to:

Get these boxes of stuff priced and to the booth
De-Christmas the booth
Restock the booth
Tidy the booth
Clean the house
Catch up on Days of our Lives and General Hospital on hulu
Go to the New Years big flea market
Read some comics
Work more in the junk room
Hit the 75% off post-Xmas clearance sales to stock up for next year
Price and store that post-Xmas stuff
Have traditional Xmas/New Year's brunch with friends
Write some blog posts
Initiate the Secret Project I mentioned a while ago
Take more loads from the house to booth storage
Take at least one nap or two
Spend some quality time with the boys
Junk with my uncle
Thrift a little
Finish a book that I've been reading forever

Not much of a vacation, huh?  Looks like 2013 is going to end and 2014 is going to start on a busy note.

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that 2014 is bright for all of us.  Talk to you in a couple of days, after we get home!