Pre-Holiday Weekend Wrapup

Argh. I hate hate hate snowy, icy roads. Hate. Especially hills. I have bad ankles and knees, no shoes with good treads, and a fear of driving. Hate hate hate.

I only slightly less hate colds that linger. Cough cough cough. Stacie sounds like a foghorn and is all drippy and can feel the ickiness creeping into her lungs, and is disinclined to go out and do the various and sundry things she needs to do before Christmas overtakes her entirely.

But now that that's all over with...it was a great weekend despite the minor unpleasantnesses involved. Friday I called off work because of my cold and spent the day alternately sleeping, drowning myself in hot tea, taking a gingerbread-scented hot bath, and reading...albeit briefly, it made me feel like a student who's done with school is supposed to feel. We finished decorating, watched several silly home design and fashion programs on TLC, and relaxed Friday night. I was also able to resume work (finally) on my huge and secret cross stitch project.

Saturday we headed north to do various family-related things. I managed my yearly visit with my birth mother and her family...they're all so great and friendly and quintessentially Pittsburghian...nearly everyone, from the grandparents to my 2-year-old half-niece, was sporting their Steelers jerseys, and I had a nice and long conversation with Mary Beth. One of the things I love most about visiting them is just looking at their faces and seeing how I resemble them. I guess it's silly, but having grown up around people I'm not related to by blood, I'm really into the whole kinship thing. One of my big resolutions for next year, though, is to spend more time around them, so I can finally learn all of their names. My birth mom has seven brothers, so needless to say, gatherings can be pretty overwhelming.

After that, we continued to New Castle to visit my parents (the adoptive ones, but usually when I use that term, they're the default ones I'm referring to anyway). I hadn't really been in the "Christmas spirit", so to speak, until I participated in some of my traditions up there...having some good cavatelli, seeing the old familiar decorations, watching "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" with my dad, and visiting Kraynak's (a seasonal decoration store/greenhouse in Hermitage, PA with an absolutely amazing Christmas Tree Lane display). Other happy things: I got to introduce Adam to my godmother and her husband, and in a cool and unexpected twist on "Saturday Night Live", Horatio Sanz sang that silly/cute "Christmastime is Here" song, but since Jimmy Fallon, Tracy Morgan, and Chris Kattan are no longer on the show, he was accompanied by the Muppets instead! Hurray for fun things getting combined. I'm feeling somewhat more confident that everything necessary will get done for Christmas...I'm almost done with my shopping, and especially if we don't go to the Winter Solstice service tonight, I might actually get some baking done. We even got some of our cards sent out (before the holiday, even!) All in all, things seem to be going pretty well.