Post-Christmas

It has been a few days and I thought I would give a bit of an update. I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas--great gifts, good food, and fun times with loved ones.

The grandkids really liked what they got from us. I was so glad to hear that everything was a great hit. I also got an unexpected bonus: one of the gifts managed to FINALLY drive C out of her mind. We got the baby a Hide-n-Seek Eeyore and C had to disable it by the time it was unwrapped: it drove her crazy! I had to chuckle cause I was beginning to think there wasn't anything I could do to annoy her. Terrible to be happy about being able to annoy a person, hey? :)

On Christmas Eve we spent time with some very good friends. The visit was so enjoyable. I really love that that visit has become such a tradition for us. Long may the tradition go on!

We got a very unexpected--and pleasant--surprise on Christmas day: A and her fiance came to visit. They got here just in time to have dinner with and they spent the entire evening with us. She went through a lot of the stuff she still has here and managed to take quite a bit out of this house--YEAH!!! The visit went well and not much was said about The Parents, which kept me from having a meltdown. She did mention a few things that I chose to ignore until I could ponder them at a later time. And once I pondered them, I cancelled them from my mind.

While Christmas is the season of giving--and I LOVE to give gifts--I have always had a particular fondness for receiving. And I am very lucky that I have a husband who likes to give me gifts. And he likes to give jewelry. This year was no exception as he gave me two wonderfully beautiful pieces of diamond jewelry: an 'o' necklace and an eternity ring. He sure knew how to put a big smile on my face this year!

So, after the last paragraph, now I will do a little rant against the hubby. I love him dearly and he is so very good, but sometimes he drives me crazy by being TOO good. Case in point: today we received a thank you card from The Parents. I couldn't figure out why, so I mentioned it to K. He said it must be for the card "we" sent--I NEVER sent them a card. I said that it was a little bit of overkill to send a thank you for a plain card, to which he said that he put money in the card as a Christmas gift to them. I quit giving them gifts of any kind several years ago--don't need to reward their behavior toward me. This, of course, caused me to have a meltdown and I asked if there was anything else I should know. Of course, he also gave a card and money to our godchild. Now, that completely sent me over the edge. I spent the month before Christmas busting my ass looking for all of the ingredients needed to make a special bracelet for her--this in addition to the Christmas ornament we always give and another little bracelet I had purchased. I'm sorry, but I figured that was more than enough for a child we see once every year or two--a child whose parents have disowned us. (This is The Brother's child and he no longer considers me his sister.)

Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows I have hated Christmas for as far back as I can remember and this year I actually, almost, kind of didn't hate the thoughts of living through the holiday. And this Christmas was by far the best I have had in a long time. This is why the events of today have me so bummed out. But, I will get over it--hopefully sooner rather than later. I am trying my hardest to get past this and I'm sure all will be well again in a few days. So, on that note, I will sign off. Have a good rest of the week!