Merry Christmas to All!

I hope that this finds all of my friends, known and unknown, happy, healthy, and having survived another Christmas season with the inlaws. OK, yes, the *inlaws* statement only applies to those of you with inlaws that must be survived. If you have wonderful inlaws, then I hope you thoroughly enjoyed your holiday!

I ran up to West Virginia for the huge get together of my mother's family. It was fun. My sister and I stayed with our parents at the Tick Farm in their camper. They were thrilled that we decided to stay with them. We had a good time, and saw some famiy members that we hadn't seen in a while.

This must have been the year for first husbands to re-appear. The Christmas gathering was held at my aunt's house. Her son and his family was in for just a day and a half before he had to go back to Virginia, where he's stationed. Since he wasn't going to be there very long, she invited his father over for the big family thing. They've been divorced for quite some time, so it was surprising to see him there. He fit in pretty well. It was hard to look at him and remember the uncle that I used to think walked on water, though, knowing now what I didn't know then. Time heals a lot of things, though, and I think I detected a hint of wistfulness in him a couple of times, like he missed being part of our family, crazy as it is and such. Oh well.

I missed the gathering at Jack's parents. I've had the flu, or something pretty darn similar, for the last couple of days. While the thought of sending some of the little darlings home with germs was entertaining, it wasn't the friendly thing to do, so I stayed home while Jack went to represent our twig of the family tree. He says that his dad really liked the Banana Bunkers and claimed they were the best gift he'd gotten, and his mom just kept looking at the family tree. It's good to know that you don't have to spend a bank full of money to give a gift that is appreciated.

Speaking of way cool gifts, Jack did his part to help me get fit - I am now the proud owner of a mini-stair stepper. It's small enough that I can leave it next to the TV. I figure if I use it during half an episode of Law & Order a day, I'll get in my half hour of cardio, which is a half hour more than I'm currently getting. We have a treadmill that lives in the basement, but it's dreary down there. The treadmill doesn't see much action, no matter how much I vow to spend time with it, and it's too big to bring up into the living room.

Jack also gifted me with a gift certificate to Hobby Lobby and my favorite hairdresser, and a music stand to make practicing my flute easier. He also fed my digital scrapbooking craze with Photoshop Elements 6. Yay!!!