The verdict on Christmas

For the first time in my entire life, I had a snow on Christmas.  But, I still hate it.   I can hold out hope that once Zi has some understanding of it and my husband finally allows me to spend the night in my own home on Christmas, maybe I will find some way to tolerate it.  I have less hope for ever really enjoying it.

I took down the decorations today.  What a relief!  It is all over for a whole year!  My mood has elevated three levels since Charles stored those boxes in the basement and I vacuumed up the pine needles.  Amazing how strong my reaction is to it being over.  I feel certain that having a birthday the day before doesn't help much.  I also know that spending time doing things that I don't want to do (which seems to be what I get stuck doing most years) doesn't help much either.  I can remember two holidays when I didn't do what everyone else wanted me to do:  one Thanksgiving in Dallas we invited our friends over and ate and drank and talked for hours and one Christmas that we told everyone to stuff it (even lied to some people and told them we were out of town) and stayed home and drank spiced cider.  Both of these holidays were wonderful for me.  The thing is, I do want to see friends and family, just not ON the holidays.  I haven't figured out a way to balance the two things.

Anyway, Zi had a great time.  I found her a perfect little pink tricycle with handlebar tassels.  She is loving all of her new toys, and I've enjoyed having time off with her.  I'll be a little sad when she goes back to school next week.

Here are a few shots over the past week.  

 (This one is, of course, one of my favorites.  It is Christmas day and I was feeling the exact same way. These next two are in Auburn where we spent Christmas Eve through the 26th.)

And here we are back home enjoying all the gifts from Granddaddy and Bebe: