Attitude Adjustments and the Holidays

The holiday season was such a nice one this year. It was the first time in 5 years that I've been home for Christmas. Due to circumstances beyond my control, I am unable to be with my entire family for the holidays. Because of that, most years I just stay in Omaha and celebrate each holiday with the "family" I've adopted down here. It's fun but it's just not the same as blood relatives, however it's better than spending holidays alone.

This year my uncle and aunt from Arkansas also made it home. It was such a pleasure seeing them. My plan was to rent a car and come home for Christmas but I ended up taking the bus because of some complications with the car rental company. Since it was Christmas the prices of rentals had trippled so the bus was really the only option left.

I was pleasantly surprised that the bus trip wasn't bad at all. The bus leaving Omaha was 30 minutes late, however it ended up being a blessing in disguise. We were to have an hour layover in Sioux Falls but the layover ended up being only about 10 minutes. I thought a 10 minute layover was VERY doable. We arrived at our destination 20 minutes earlier than scheduled and that made me very happy. It was nice to be able to just relax and take a nap on the trip instead of stressing out with the drive. I may just invest in taking the bus again when I have an extended weekend.

Once we got home there was a great welcome of family. During the course of the day all of my siblings had come to visit mom. I got to see all of my nieces and my 2 nephews. Cuddle with the newest nephew who is absolutely adorable and talk with everyone. It was so nice to see everybody. Every time we all get together, I realize just how big the family is starting to get.

My nieces and nephew are a trip. Gregory doesn't get to see them often and they all had a great game of hide and seek going. One of my nieces, who is especially cunning found a hiding spot in one of my suitcases. We were all giggling out loud that the older boys couldn't find her. We were all giggling at her as she was giggling out loud when they cried, "We give up Desi, come out!!" She knew she had them beat. Of course others tried the suitcase trick but that can only work once. lol It was so great to see them all playing together and having a good time. It was nice to see that Brady wasn't getting on Gregory's nerves and I think Gregory actually enjoyed his younger cousin this time.

On Monday we all went sledding. My sister, sister-in-law and I went out to supervise. It felt so good to be out there and it brought back so many awesome childhood memories. All of a sudden I felt like I was 15 again and out there with my siblings and cousins having a good time. As most of you know, I ended up in a pretty nasty crash with my niece and we both got hurt. However my shoulder is feeling like it's on the mend now and hopefully Desi's goose egg is starting to subside.

I spent the rest of my vacation trying to cook some meals ahead for my mom and Carl, and by doing their laundry. I feel bad that I live so far away and can never help out. This was my opportunity to contribute so I made the most of it by cooking and freezing 4 or 5 different pans of stuff so they hopefully don't have to cook for a couple of weeks. I think I did about 10 loads of dishes but it was fair because I dirtied most of them. Gregory was a big help too with helping to clean the kitchen since my arm was feeling so bad.

Before we knew it, it was time to come back to Omaha. My brother Mike was kind enough to offer up a ride home as long as I paid for the gas. 4 hours, a great lunch and a gas tank fill later, he was on the road on his way back to South Dakota. He saved me a ton of money by doing that and I am very appreciative that he was off work and willing to help me out. Money was pretty scarce at that moment.

So here I am at the end of Christmas vacation and it's back to school tomorrow. I'm sad vacation is ending but happy to be getting back to a schedule again. Now we have spring break to look forward to! :o)

There's more to write about because my mom gave the coolest Christmas gift known to man this Christmas. She gave us kids each a piece of our childhood, but that's another blog that will include photos and an explanation.

Goodnight and sweet dreams!!