Surviving Married life over the holidays December 28, 2007

There is no way this can work perfectly with any kind of planning. Just go with the flow, don’t stress out, and be happy that so many people want to see you and spend time with you over the holiday season.  Christmas Eve: left at 2:00, made a quick stop down town, and arrived at Matt’s father’s house at 4:00.  I met a lot of Judy’s family that I had never met.  All boys.  People are hoping that Laura, one of the cousins-in-law, will be having a girl.  Things were too crazy and I was eating too much to take photos.  Left Matt’s dad’s in the midst of the party at 7:30 to head to my parents’ house.  Christmas Eve Part Two: 8:45: my parents’ house.  Nice and calming.  But there were too many presents even after we had all agreed to “tone it down.” We opened stockings and stayed late before we went home to rest up for our return in a few hours.This is Christmas “toned down:”Christmas morning: First stop, Dunkin Donuts, 9:30 am.  Bought: Box O Joe and a dozen donuts.  Arrived safely at rendezvous point (parents’ house) at around 10:00 am. Nannie was there, we were ready to dig in.  There was general pandemonium and excitement, with a few eating and bathroom breaks, for about 7 hours.  Holy crap.  Oh, and by the way, this is my first blog post from my new elegant and beautiful mac laptop.  Love it.  Lots of fun was had by all.So we decided to extend Christmas to the 26th.  Mom, Dad, and the boys came over with dinner (good thing because our fridge was once again empty).  Andrew was a doll and tried to be my own personal IT person.  He should have charged me by the hour.  Pandemonium ensued, as always. Dec. 27th: The “seeing friends who no longer live in Philadelphia but are here for the holidays” started last night.  This will continue on Saturday night as well.And soon to come: Dec. 30th: hopefully visits with two families, the Joslyns (cousins) and the Craggs (Matt’s Mom).Then I guess it’s New Years and I have to go back to work.  Holiday vacations are tiring.