post christmas blog

Christmas was a mix of nice and incomplete. The trip up was nice, sunny and warm. The first night was fine though Carol and I did force the family to eat a hot bowl of Mexican veggie soup (real good if anyone wants the recipe let me know, it does not have to be spicy-hot). The next day Carol, one of her sises (the other was not able to come due to family health concerns), and their mom went shopping. All three of them came home exhausted and grumpy. I stayed at the home we were using and relaxed, a nice little treat for me and, I believe, for Carol's dad. He rarely gets anytime to himself anymore. Christmas morning we all had a great breakfast and enjoyed opening gifts (well they did, I still do not find it my most happy hour). It started to rain early Christmas morning and by the time gifts were done we were getting worried. We went back to the rental home, cleaned, and left. I still feel bad about leaving in a rush like that. But if we had not we would have been stuck there for another 2-3 days.

The drive home was stressful. By the time we made it to Hot Springs, the trees were icing. A fierce rain continued for the next two hours (about Hope AR I believe) before quitting. We then had an hour of no rain before it began again. Around 3:00 PM it began to snow and by 4 we were considering a hotel. But, we persevered and managed to get home after 7. The 6 hour trip took us about 8 so slow, but not as bad as it could have been.

The rest of the holiday was quiet. We both hung out and watched rather dull stuff on Netflix, relaxed, and tried to stay warm. It has been rather cold here lately.

I went back to work last week. Nice to be making money again. My schedule won't get back to normal until after the 21st of this month, but I am still putting in my full hours.

We are thinking about moving this spring or summer so I have not been doing anything with the garden (sounds like a great excuse to me!!) though I have thought about it. I could be planting some things right now if I were more energetic.