Had a nice Christmas even though it meant traveling on Christmas Day which I hate. I just want to stay home.
Christmas Eve day we finished our shopping including an "emergency" trip into Hartford to the Italian bakery there. We got a call from FIL two nights earlier that he had been unable to find Torrone, the candy they ALWAYS have at Christmas. The store in Westchester Cty where they usually get it had closed down. COuld we try to find some out here?? HA! So off we went and spent over an hour in line waiting our turn. No way was I standing there all that time for one box of candy so we ended up with two boxes, a lb of store bought torrone to compare with the commercial stuff, some made with pistachios instead of the traditional almonds, 3 lbs of ameretto cookies and a panetone.
We spent Christmas Eve at my parents' house (one town over), opening gifts and having dinner with them and my brother and his GF. Then we went to church. In the morning we did gifts from Santa and each other and had a yummy breakfast of French toast made from the pantetone from the Italian bakery. We then packed up and headed to NY to my in-laws for two nights. Overall it was a good time. There are always aggravations, but this year they were not aimed at me for a change. My SIL and her family were there from Iowa. BIL had just torn a ligament in his arm requiring surgery. The fact that he did this snow boarding meant he got lots of grief about it. The cast was driving him nuts and he got no sympathay what-so-ever. My niece is 14 and has recently gone from being a vegetarian to a vegan. Her father isn't thrilled about it but mostly everyone just accepts it. She still moped around almost all week with her nose in a book. She barely had a conversation with anyone. I couldn't even get more than two words out of her about her horses. My nephew is 16 and 6'1". My MIL doesn't believe in snacking so there wasn't a whole lot to eat between meals. And while we were there she only served two meals a day. The out of town in-laws all slept late so MIL served a late breakfast then a meal at 3:30-ish. When nephew started hanging around the kitchen looking for things to snack on she snapped at him. She also sniped at him constantly for mumbling, turning lights on so he could see to read while stretching out on the sofa instead of moving to the window, slouching, you name it. The child could do no right. And this kid has always been the apple of her eye. It was not fun to be around. She begged us to stay another day but looked very relieved when we said we had to be back for church Sunday morning.
Ugh, if you made it through all that..... it really wasn't as awful as some visits have been. It's just hard to see family aging and not quite accepting it. MIL complains constantly that FIL doesn't wear or won't turn on his hearing aids, when the fact of the matter is, she can't hear well anymore either! While they appreciated the trip we made to get the Italian candy FIL still had to comment that it was the soft kind not the hard kind and seemed to think we should have tried harder to find the kind he wanted (even though his teeth couldn't handle the hard kind if we had been able to get it!)
It was such a relief to get home! We've been cleaning and organizing since we're all off from school for a bit longer. My son has new toys that we need to find space for. He was disappointed that he didn't get a puppy even though we told him we'd asked Santa not to bring one yet. He did decide just yesterday after we'd been doing some breed research that the West Highland White Terrier he HAD to have might not be the best choice. He did get a book for kids about dogs and he's been looking through it with me. We were reading about breeds and Irish Setters have now caught his eye. They are supposed to be super playful and good with kids and other animals. I pulled out some old photos of my grandparents Irish Setters and he's now hooked. I really think it will be summer before we're ready to even look for a puppy so he'll probably change his mind 10 more times before then.
Tonight was a trip to UCONN for the hockey game. We went with his Cub Scout Pack. Way too late for the littler ones even though it's vacation. He crashed as soon as we got home. Hope he sleeps late tomorrow!
