Christmas has come and gone. We spent the first couple of hours at the house, did our gift exchanging, and then loaded up and spent the day with my family. We'd made some cookies and pies and what not, so we had some fun getting all that over in their constituent single pieces.
We started the day out with my brother and his family. My parents were there already, and the girls were already wide-open. One of my nieces had received a keyboard and sound system with microphone, and of course it's dangerous to have a microphone around me. ("Smith, party of four, your table's ready." Or "Last call. Bar's closing. Last call.")
During the visit my mother took me down the hill to see my grandparents, who were very happy to see me again. My grandmother, I'm happy to say, isn't in quite as bad a shape as I'd feared, and my grandfather hasn't changed a bit. One of my aunts and an uncle were there; the uncle hadn't seen me in a while, and, well, he wanted to talk. A lot. I tried my best to parry his quasi-political comments with light one-liners, and managed to succeed to a certain extent. (C'mon. It's Christmas. I don't want to talk politics to begin with, and certainly not on this day.)
Before too long, the proceedings moved across town to my parents' house, and the four of us spent a happy afternoon together. Since I left home, my parents have gone from buying big "wish list"-type items to giving us a bunch of little surprises, like books and DVDs and gadgets. Their batting average has been pretty good, too, if not downright inspired at points; some of the books are these collections of trivia, and I get sucked into those. One of our joint gifts was a wireless weather station, and it's been a source of endless fascination ever since.
There was also the annual orgy of food, and it not only meant that we got stuffed over there, but we also brought back a lot of food for later. That's how we spent the evening, eating leftovers. We also managed to eat up all the candy that was sent back with us, too. I'm surprised we got to sleep that night.
It was a low-key Christmas, but in my mind, that's the best kind to have. I hated to see the day end. On the other hand, we'd have plenty to keep us busy the next day.
We were up bright and early so we could get on the road. We were going to see my in-laws in Tennessee. This, I knew, was going to be fun anyway; we play well together, and our ideas of humor are similarly twisted. It's seldom boring when we're together.
The only real problem with the journey was that Interstate 40 is still closed at the North Carolina/Tennessee border. This meant a lengthy detour on some winding two-lane roads. (I say "problem" as a term of reference; it added time to the journey, and one or two roads were kind of adventuresome, but the views were priceless. I love the mountains, and mourn how overdeveloped certain areas are getting.)
We finally got where we were going. The family was happy to see us, and we spent the evening unwinding and telling stories. On Sunday, we went out, had some lunch, then engaged in some commerce...perhaps we were taking our lives into our own hands doing this the Sunday after Christmas, but it turned out for the best. Hubby's brother got a craving for a radio-control helicopter and bought one, which meant lots of fun that evening. We also went to a Target and to a Wal-Market, looking for post-Christmas clearance bargains. (I took the occasion to get some non-Christmas necessities. I didn't want to miss the opportunity to avoid a later shopping trip of my own.)
Then, on Monday, it was off for home. We took a different route back, taking I-40 to I-81 and then to I-26. On the way out of Knoxville we stopped at a gas station for fuel and a snack, and I was amused by a sign in the window citing the health department's mandate that all customers must wear shirts and shoes, and ending with the sentence: "We apologize for any inconvenience."
We got back home safely. The house was fine, the mighty tiger was very happy to see us, and it was good to be home after a busy few days.
I spent Tuesday getting the house cleaned up. After the Christmas rush and not enough time to see about it, the house needed it. But, believe me, that's nothing worth writing about.