The Merry Part

It was nice to be home for over a week. No vacation is ever long enough, but this one didn't seem as rushed as years past. We drove down on the 23rd and spent that night at the Boss' mom and step-dad's house. Ususally, I only see my In-laws for a few hours when we make trips home, but this time I stayed overnight and spent most of the 24th there. We had their traditional Christmas Eve pizza dinner and exchanged gifts. It's always hard to figure out what gifts to get them. This year the theme was their Granddog and I think it was a hit. I also got to spend some time with them on Christmas Day because I accidentally left a bag of gifts for my family at their house and had to drive back up Christmas morning.

I spent part of Christmas Eve at my family's house and then trekked over to Nell's parents' house for the traditional get together. There are a bunch of us that have been friends since elementary school and we've always spent Christmas Eve at their house for at least the past ten years (maybe more?). After her parents' guests had gone, we all made like elves and put the toys together for the kids that were from Santa. Definitely a movie moment and a lot of fun.

We did family Christmas late on Christmas Day. My Sis had to work a 12 hour shift because unfortunately, criminals do not take the holidays off. (I should probably clarify the previous statement. My sister is not a criminal. She's a supervisor for 911 dispatch.) Every year my parents set a $20 limit for gifts, which I think is funny because no one ever stays within that limit. I'm really psyched about the bird feeder that Santa got me for our backyard. Even though I started my Christmas shopping really late this year, I did pretty well with the family gifts and managed to find 4 or 5 things for each of them.

I made a day trip to Athens the week after Christmas. Spent time with some friends and also visited Bear Hollow, where I was a volunteer zookeeper. Lucky for me they were having open house during the afternoons that week and the Director was there. It was great talking to him and catching up on what's been going on with them since I left. They've gotten more funding and the city is paying more attention to them. They have some new enclosures going up, work is almost completed on their new building that will house offices and kitchen and medical areas, and they're also trying to become accredited. Most of the animals that I worked with back in 1998-99 are still there, and I was so happy to see them all again. I'll post pictures once I get around to it.

The Boss and I drove back on New Year's Day. We both had to be at work on Monday and knew that if we waited and drove back on Sunday, we'd lose most of our sanity. Traffic wasn't too bad and we got home between 9 and 10pm Saturday night. Went to bed right after we unloaded our luggage and The Kids, and we all slept in until about 2pm on Sunday (Yes, even The Bird).