Tis the Season

Yesterday, we dropped the boys off at my parents house and headed out to dinner with my brother, sister in law, sister, & brother in law. This is the 4th year in a row that we've been able to do this fun evening, my parents have all the little grandkids (12 & under), while the parents go out to dinner & then we all leave each other to go finish our Christmas business. We had a fun dinner at a steak place & then headed home to wrap up our presents. We are 99% done. Thats quite an accomplishment considering that we have 3 boys, I think. And, today I was able to finish up the wrapping for everyone else, too. For once, I will not be scrambling on Christmas day to get the wrapping done for my nieces & family.
Unfortunately, we woke this morning to no water in our 1st floor bathroom. It seems to have frozen over night. We've had heaters running for the entire day & no luck. The pipes are built into the walls. To get to them, we will have to cut out the walls. Christmas is in 3 days. And, we are having about 25 people over for Christmas eve festivities. Just our luck, of course. And, the beautiful Christmas lights and display that my hubby spent 2 days working on has pretty much been torn to shreads by the extreme wind we've been experiencing.
Also, we decided for some unforseen reason to bring over several more totes and bags full of stuff from our old house that now has to be sorted & put away. The office is a disaster. There's stuff everywhere. And, my cleaning lady (that used to clean for us to pay her rent), quit. The dreams I had of enjoying the days before Christmas are pretty much shattered. Cookies, forgetaboutit. Toilet cleaning & mopping, here I come. What fun, what joy.
On a bright note, I've gotten to spend the weekend w/my family, which I don't do very often. Yesterday, w/my siblings & today, w/kids & everybody out at my brother's house for an impromptu chili supper. I wish so much that we lived closer, it took me over an hour to drive there tonight. I would love to be able to see my mom & dad more often, to be able to pop in & say hi, but that's kindof hard when its a major ordeal to get there. Thank goodness for phone calls & email, but its still not totally the same. Feeling a little melon-colly tonight, I guess.
At least my Christmas star is turning, I can just look at that & smile each time remembering Christmases past. I used to beg my mom & dad to let me sleep in the living room & I would just watch that star, the patterns on the walls & ceilings. Now, I have one of my own. So do my brother & sister. How many families do you know that have a thing for disco ball Christmas stars? Probably not many. But, its Christmas to us.
Goodnight, star.