Homecomings

It's been a busy week between packing & traveling from the sultry Southern swamp to the Great White North. No, we're not staying in the town where we grew up, but I feel heartily welcomed anyway. So far, people have been kind & cheery in every store I've been in & even at the YMCA this morning the staff was polite, though they couldn't get my 9 year old competitive swimmer any water time before we head back south. (So she gets a real vacation from EVERYTHING!)

We had to alter some plans due to weather considerations, but aside from that it looks like all's well & I hope it continues to be so. Hubby has immersed himself in a home improvement project my brother's progress has been stalled on. It's a bear to scrape up old wallpaper, but when you're also working numerous overtime hours plowing snow, it's well nigh impossible! My sister in law was thrilled that my 9 year old got her 2 year old cousin busy decorating cookies with her yesterday long enough for SIL to take a shower in peace. My parents' dog goes out with the kids every time they venture into the white stuff; he's a chocolate lab & loves to tunnel under it while the kids are riding a toboggan.

My youngest (the 9 year old), who last spent a Christmas up north when she was about 2, has received quite the firsthand education about dressing warmly, driving carefully, & why salt is spread everywhere on the roads. She also witnessed plows sparking against pavement while we drove farther north of NYC & closer to my brother's home, which worried her at first. She was elated to get out of the car at the Connecticut welcome center & wanted to make a snow angel right then & there, even though it was about midnight & I was sure it'd be snowed over by morning. (I convinced her to wait until we arrived at our destination in the northern part of the state.)

iFeliz Navidad!