Post holiday post

Is that redundant?

I hope that all four of you that read my blog had a wonderful Christmas. I certainly did.

We started with our son coming home from college for the holidays. It was so good to have him home again. I miss him so much. His girlfriend came with him - she is so sweet. We made a trip into Philadelphia to see "White Christmas" at the Walnut Street Theater. The show was really great as was our pre-show dinner just down the street from the theater.

Christmas Eve we traveled to my parents' house to spend Christmas with them. We had a wonderful time visiting with them and going to Mass with them on Christmas eve, something we don't often get to do. After Mass, we sat around and watched "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation." It was the first time that either of my parents saw it and judging by the amount of laughing they did, they certainly enjoyed it as much as we did on our 50millionth time watching it.

We opened gifts on Christmas morning. Lots of little things for our son from us and his grandparents as well as several gifts for my parents. Our big gift to my parents for the past several years has been a donation to their church - it's difficult to shop for an 88 year old and an almost 82 year old, but they appreciate that we make this donation each year as their faith is an important part of their daily life. My husband and I decided to not exchange gifts this year - we have booked a cruise through the Panama Canal in the spring with my parents and I think that's enough of a gift for Christmas, birthdays, Mother's Day, Father's Day, and so on. I'm definitely more of a gift giver than a receiver anyway. Dinner was prime rib with potato filling, vegetables and for dessert, apple pie and Christmas cookies. In the evening, we watched a DVD of Christmas episodes of old TV shows. The funniest by far was an episode of Burns and Allen - why were those shows so funny with out being offensive??

We made it home on Sunday just as the snow was really starting to fall in NJ. Our son had left my parent's house early Sunday morning to visit his girlfriend and hopefully beat the snow fall getting there. Mission accomplished! She will be leaving for a two week class in Italy on Sunday, so we won't see him until he drops her off at the airport on his way home from Connecticut. I'm looking forward to hanging with him again.

The first snow storm of the season gave us plenty to do on Monday and now it's back to the mundane - cleaning, laundry, cooking.

Wishing a very Happy 2011 to all of you.