Recap

Where to begin? The week of hell went well. No bad snow, whew. My parents house was nice and relaxing. Got together with friends, enjoyed some Wii, and played with the babies and kids of my friends, which I always enjoy. Christmas was weird without my grandfather, but it was still a nice, fun day with the fam. I got the husband XM radio. Awesome not to have DJs and commercials and he can listen to all the Mets games. He got me a portable DVD player, which I really wanted. We watched HP5 on the flight back home - nice to take up a couple hours doing something fun (I was disappointed with the movie though).

The long drive between our parents house was uneventful. We drove through Scranton and sang The Office theme song. I miss that show.

The in-laws house was fine. Good to see them and his friends. At one of his friend's house we were there when his 9 year old found out there was no Santa. I feel a tiny bit responsible since I stated the conversation about how hard it is to get a Wii and asked how they got it for their son. His friend explained when and how his wife bought it as she was giving him dirty looks. The Wii was from Santa, whoops. Luckily their son kinda had a hunch so it wasn't some terrible, traumatic experience. It was memorable.

While visiting his other friends, I got my best Christmas gift. His friend Sheila is an artist and for years I've been admiring one of her original paintings. She made me a painting based on the original. I love it. I was really surprised and I literally cannot take my eyes off of it. Thanks again, Sheila!

I made another new life rule on the trip: I don't want to travel to any place where our XM radio doesn't work. Unfortunately, it doesn't work at the in-laws, but I can't exactly stop going there. But with that exception, I'd like to keep up the new rule.