Auld lang syne

Over!

Christmas has come and gone, and though it was great, I'm a little happy it's done. I'm ready to put away the ornaments, take down the lights, throw out the tree and temporarily erase holiday songs from my brain (and if I ever hear "Christmas Shoes" again, there's no telling what I might do). Does that make me a after-the-fact humbug? It never seemed like I was able to immerse myself in the holiday like I used to. I've worked a lot the last week, including getting called in Wednesday and anticipating three more shifts in the next four nights, so that might be souring my mood slightly. Packages we sent early last week to relatives still haven't arrived -- that's not helping either.

Christmas this year was something to get through rather than enjoy. I suppose that's my fault, looking too far ahead again. Christmas morning, when the boys opened their presents, was still wonderful. They had a blast and made out like bandits, and they let me sleep until 6:30 (though it's weird opening presents Christmas morning when it's still dark out, the flip side of late sunsets on the back end of a time zone). Thankfully, I had all of Christmas Eve off this year (after working the last two), but on Christmas day, which I volunteered to work (and always do) thinking it would be an easy shift, overtime and I'd be Christmased out by then, the shift wasn't so easy (for reasons beyond my control) and I didn't really want to leave Wife and the kids. I'm happy the holiday is over, but it did go too quickly.

I'm working New Year's Eve -- no biggie, we wouldn't be going out anyway -- then it settles down again. Bring on 2008.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Summer, Day 8

Today was Memorial Day, and as far as Memorial Days go, this one seemed somewhat anticlimactic. The sun came out after three less-than-stellar days, perhaps preventing the weekend from being a total bust. I worked late last night but was awake earlier than I wanted to be this morning. I fell back asleep and woke up around 10:30 to a thumping sound outside. Michael, Lori and my father-in-law got the rest of the sand in the base of the new basketball hoop, and Michael and his friend from across the street were shooting around. This was Lori's parents' last day in Utah, so we treated them to The Cheesecake Factory at the new City Creek mall downtown. I had the macaroni and cheese burger and most of a piece of Oreo cheesecake (no matter how much I pushed on my sons -- they wanted to share Lori's banana cream cheesecake). The boys and I wandered City Creek a little and came home. The afternoon wasn't much more eventful. Michael and I took Popcorn to the park for about
Read more

Vacation finale

Image
As expected, the last three days of vacation were much less eventful than the first 12. This happens every year -- we get back from Wisconsin for at least one day before leaving for Utah, and it's just wind-down time. And that's OK -- going nonstop for two weeks isn't easy, especially with kids. And vacation is supposed to be a time to relax, and for the past three days, that's what we did. The past few days weren't that relaxing, however. Monday, we met my mom, who is in Chicago this week, for lunch and then to Old Orchard Mall. That night, we met some friends at the new Superdawg (my favorite Chicago hot dog restaurant) in Wheeling. Tuesday, after pondering going downtown, we ended up just seeing the Smurfs movie with my dad. Last night, we went to dinner at a nice little Italian restaurant here in Edgebrook. Wednesday was mostly devoted to getting ready for our return trip Thursday morning. The heat and thunderstorms finally subsided -- this might have been the m
Read more

Nine days after the solstice

Image
The summer solstice was nine days ago, but I'm only now getting around to writing my annual reflection that is supposed to be created on the first day of summer. Nine days ago, I was frenetically trying to finish up work and get ready for a road trip to Denver, where Benji was competing in a swim meet. We got back Monday afternoon, but I was too exhausted to come up to my usual spot in Donner Park. The last three nights were overcast (though the skies cleared a little too late to embark on my quest last night), spoiling the goal of watching the sunset. So, nine days later, I'm finally here. And now that I am, I'm not totally sure what to write about. To say the last year has been a blur would be cliche, and I don't think it's gone faster than any other past year. But I've been struggling to wrap my head around the current summer and, thus, what's really on my mind. I could write about how we're a year away of having two kids in college and being sort of
Read more