Merry Christmas!  Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

My parents decided to make the trip out to our house after all. They drove out last Thursday with a slight delay in their trip as Dad exited the freeway a bit too soon. They were driving around in western Howard County in farm country. Fortunately they had their cell phone and were able to call and double check directions. Of course it was dark and raining. But they made it and we have been keeping them busy ever since.

Before they arrived we were busy preparing the house for their visit. Tom spent his first day off on Weds moving our spare bed down to the basement and cleaning/vacuuming. He also dragged our old hot water heater down to the street for pick up. I sweet talked the Monday Night Football guys into helping Tom carry it up the stairs and then called the county to have it picked up. We had to wait a whole month though until they had an open time to come pick it up. (And we are still waiting for someone to come out and do the repair on our roof). It keeps raining and we keep getting put on hold. He also spent a day assembling a new computer system for my parents. They have relied on Tom to update their computer systems and their last hard drive finally called it quits. Tom was not able to update it any more, so he ordered a new system. He also had to order himself a new monitor as his own quit on him too.

He had the day to himself as Scott was finished with school at noon and went home with his best friend Sammy. He stayed overnight since he is not going to be able to spend the holiday week visiting as his friend was heading out of town. I was busy that afternoon at my two work parties. Both my rehab department and the Home Health department which I cover for had scheduled their holiday parties on the same day. One was from 3-5pm and the other party was from 5-8pm. We saw patients in the morning, and then headed out for lunch at a local restaurant. I then left and headed to another restaurant for dinner and gift exchanges! I enjoyed chatting the night away with one of my old OT coworkers from St Agnes hospital when Tom and I first moved here to Maryland. She works part time at Charlestown, but I rarely get to see her, let alone sit and chat.

I was a bit upset with Scott's school since they scheduled his school holiday concert on Monday afternoon. Usually they schedule the concert on the last half day before break. Tom and I have not missed a concert since Allison started Kindergarten. This was the first concert we missed. Tom was just too busy on Monday, as was I at work and we could not leave for a 2pm concert. Scott was pretty much performing for the whole event as he sang several songs with the choir and he also sang with his class. On Monday night I was out hunting down a tshirt for him to wear at school with a Christmas theme. I could not believe how limited the Christmas supplies were this year. I finally located a Grinch tshirt in the mens dept at Kohls that was acceptable to SCott to wear on Tuesday for his holiday party. (I couldn't talk him into wearing the Christmas Story tshirt-I Shot My Eye Out!). Turns out he won a small prize for his shirt(complete with a blinking Christmas tree pin)! I also had to pick up some party supplies for his school party and a party at the Boy Scout meeting. And wrap up a few gifts for his teachers.

Allison had a full week of school and was busy with studying and homework every night. Tom got her to her piano lesson on Thursday night while I was waiting for my parents. . She also had the opportunity to play one of her Christmas songs at school in her piano class. The instructor held a small recital in the auditorium and invited the school administrators. Allison played last and everyone loved her version of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen".

Friday I drove my parents over in their Explorer to Costco to fill up on cheaper gas and do a little shopping. I needed to pick up some dessert for Christmas dinner, but we also enjoyed sampling all the food items and picking up a few last minute Christmas presents. Tom had Scott off to his gymnastics class that night.  Earlier in the day, Mom and I got some grocery shopping done plus a few errands that I had to run-the bank, the post office and trying to get a photo copied for one of my high school buddies to send out her Christmas card.

On Saturday we had a few last minute grocery items to pick up, but mainly I was busy wrapping presents for Santa. I also made an early Christmas Eve dinner that we had at 5pm before heading out to the 7pm Christmas mass. We invited our neighbors to join us at the cathedral on the campus at my work place. We have a beautiful chapel, full of Italian marble and lots of statues and a very enjoyable Christmas mass with Fr. Leo. Our neighbors really enjoyed the experience. Not terribly crowded, beautiful music and beautiful decorations. I always enjoy seeing a few of my previous patients too. When we arrived home we had some dessert and opened a few gifts sent from friends and relative out of state. Tom then entertained the troops with "Its a Wonderful Life" while I finished hauling all the presents downstairs. I left the Santa job of placing the gifts under the tree for Tom. I was too worn out.

Christmas day the kids were anxiously waiting for Grandma and Grandpa to wake up. We finally sent Cookie down as a morning wake up call at 9am. After a quick breakfast(Scott learned how to make breakfast casserole) we dove into the gifts. Allison is so happy to have lots of items with her favorite cartoon character, Invader Zim. She plans on attending a comic convention next summer in LA as we are planning a cross country drive. So she received several tickets to the event. SCott is ecstatic with his IPOD and video games. Although he did receive some boy scout supplies-a new hiking backpack and tent.  I am looking forward to seeing "The Addams Family" musical and Neil Diamond next year as Tom picked up some tickets. Tom is looking forward to a family outing to Hershey next week to see the Hershey Bears Hockey game in his new Hockey sweatshirt.