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Well, somehow I survived the holidays! The week before Christmas this year was probably the most stressful holiday lead-up I've ever experienced. Not only did we do almost all of our Christmas shopping in the last week, but my wife and I had a couple of really nasty arguments. With a great deal of effort, everything came together, and my daughters had a great Christmas. I was completely exhausted Christmas night, but somehow still managed to get much of our luggage packed for the pilgrimage to visit my parents in upstate NY. Thankfully, traffic was light on the 26th, and we made good time, arriving at my parents' house in time for supper.
Had a few great days in NY, relaxing with my parents, visiting old friends, watching my girls enjoy the snow! Unfortunately, my wife had to work Friday evening, so our stay was much too short. My wife always worries about traffic or weather delays when we travel on days when she has to work, so we got an early start. Traffic was pretty light until we reached southern Pennsylvania. There, I decided to take the shorter route through the Baltimore area, which might have been a mistake. Almost from the moment I committed to that route, the traffic got ugly. While the volume didn't increase greatly, the drivers were MUCH more aggressive, cutting people off, tailgating, etc. Needless to say, I was extremely happy when we reached Northern Virginia and got off the highway.
My New Year's Eve was spent unpacking from the trip to NY and putting away Christmas gifts. I also spent some time online, updating my BookCrossing bookshelf. I had releases to enter and four new books to register (my mother shopped from my wish list!), and needed to send some Private Messages about some stalled bookrings I had rescued from a friend. After finishing that, I retired for the evening before the New Year actually arrived in my time zone.
Yesterday, my daughters and I took down the Christmas tree and packed all the decorations into the attic for another year. Made a trip to the grocery store to buy the makings of dinner for last night and tonight (my wife worked every night this weekend, so I had full domestic duty for the duration, as she slept all day yesterday and today; last night, I cooked steak with a crab sauce and tonight we had a creamy bratwurst stew that had cooked in the crock-pot all day). I also tried to spend some time playing with my daughters, as it recently occurred to me that I don't spend enough time having fun with them.
Tomorrow, unfortunately, things return to our routine. My older daughter has to go back to school, and I have to head back to the office. I'm hoping that I don't have a pile of bad news waiting on my desk. In fact, I'm really hoping that things will begin to turn around at work, so I can stop spending so much extra time at the office. If so, I should be able to help out around the house more, spend more time with my family, and maybe even get some writing done.
Had a few great days in NY, relaxing with my parents, visiting old friends, watching my girls enjoy the snow! Unfortunately, my wife had to work Friday evening, so our stay was much too short. My wife always worries about traffic or weather delays when we travel on days when she has to work, so we got an early start. Traffic was pretty light until we reached southern Pennsylvania. There, I decided to take the shorter route through the Baltimore area, which might have been a mistake. Almost from the moment I committed to that route, the traffic got ugly. While the volume didn't increase greatly, the drivers were MUCH more aggressive, cutting people off, tailgating, etc. Needless to say, I was extremely happy when we reached Northern Virginia and got off the highway.
My New Year's Eve was spent unpacking from the trip to NY and putting away Christmas gifts. I also spent some time online, updating my BookCrossing bookshelf. I had releases to enter and four new books to register (my mother shopped from my wish list!), and needed to send some Private Messages about some stalled bookrings I had rescued from a friend. After finishing that, I retired for the evening before the New Year actually arrived in my time zone.
Yesterday, my daughters and I took down the Christmas tree and packed all the decorations into the attic for another year. Made a trip to the grocery store to buy the makings of dinner for last night and tonight (my wife worked every night this weekend, so I had full domestic duty for the duration, as she slept all day yesterday and today; last night, I cooked steak with a crab sauce and tonight we had a creamy bratwurst stew that had cooked in the crock-pot all day). I also tried to spend some time playing with my daughters, as it recently occurred to me that I don't spend enough time having fun with them.
Tomorrow, unfortunately, things return to our routine. My older daughter has to go back to school, and I have to head back to the office. I'm hoping that I don't have a pile of bad news waiting on my desk. In fact, I'm really hoping that things will begin to turn around at work, so I can stop spending so much extra time at the office. If so, I should be able to help out around the house more, spend more time with my family, and maybe even get some writing done.
