The holidays are over

It is hard to believe that two weeks have passed by so quickly.  It all started on Saturday the 21st, when the CFO and I rolled out of bed, got into the already packed CRV and pulled out of our driveway at 3:20 am.  Leaving early in the morning turned out to be a brilliant decision, as the light rain that was falling when we left ended up leaving a quarter inch of ice on the streets in Bloomington by the time that the sun came up that morning.  We got out of town just in time.

We managed to shave some time off the drive to Virginia and made the trip in a little over 11 hours.  No matter how you cut it, 11 hours is a long time to sit in a car.  At least we had 80+ albums saved on the USB drive that we plug into the car's stereo to keep us entertained.  It is really nice because you never know what song is coming up next when it is set on random!  We arrived at the CFO's parent's house in time to rest a bit before her mom's annual Christmas dinner, where she served 20+ friends and family fried oysters and ham.  I skipped the oysters and stuck with the ham.

The rest of the week heading up to Christmas was a blur of activity, beginning with me having lunch with a past co-worker who now lives in the area and then going to a University of Virginia basketball game with the CFO's dad.  UVA has a beautiful basketball facility and I was happy to see them win, something the team has been struggling to do this year.

The Christmas eve church service in the small stone church where we were married over 7 years ago was nice, right up to the point when the candle that I was holding during the candle lite portion of the service dripped a long run of hot wax down my hand.  Those little paper rings that slide over the candles provide a false sense of security, as the slits in the paper provide numerous options for the wax to find your hand!  Some one needs to design a better device for this task!

After church we went over to the CFO's cousin's house for more good food and to exchange gifts with the extended family.  As always, we had a good time and ate way too much food.  We also got some nice gifts, everyone was way too generous.  While sitting at dinner, the CFO's brother's fiance, who was going to spend Christmas morning with us, asked what time she should show up at the house for the morning gift exchange.  "The earlier the better" was my response, as I grew up in a house where everyone was awake and opening presents well before the sun came up.  We settled on a 7:30 start time, which is still too late in my opinion.  I am still working on getting them up earlier... baby steps.

The CFO and her brother passing out the gifts

She arrived on schedule Christmas morning and we all enjoyed a morning full of gifts and breakfast.  Everyone got a lot of nice stuff, the CFO especially.  The most touching moment of the whole morning was when the CFO opened a shoe box sized gift from her brother and his fiance and found a small ring box inside.  Inside the ring box was the setting from her grandmother's diamond ring with the CFO's birthstone sitting where the diamond used to be.  Her brother had taken the diamond from the ring and put it in a new setting when he proposed to his fiance, so now each of them have a piece of their grandmother's ring.  I'll admit that I shed a couple tears when I saw the CFO tear up when she opened the box and realized what was inside... what can I say, I do have a soft side.

Part of my gift pile, evidently I was a good boy...

For some reason, the CFO thinks that it is OK to give me vases as gifts...  While I like growing the flowers that will go in them, giving me a vase, especially a HOT PINK one, is pushing it a little...

 

The CFO also gave me this nice stainless steel, double walled, insulated, 40oz water bottle from hydroflask.  While it was stupid expensive, it should last for years, it keeps things cold (I've had the same ice in it for two days and counting while it sits on my desk at the office) and  it doesn't "sweat" when cold liquids are inside.  My old one sweated so much that I had to put it on a paper towel when it was on my desk or it would leave a puddle of water from all of the condensation.  That one has ruined a few papers and magazines when I forgot to pull it out of my bag when I got to the office in the morning.  Worse yet, when you picked it up to take a drink, the condensation would dribble down off the bottle and, inevitably, land on your pants so that it looked like you peed yourself.  Who knew that a water bottle could garner a whole paragraph?!

Once the Christmas celebration was wrapped up (or unwrapped?) our focus and activities shifted to the CFO's brother's wedding that was scheduled for the Saturday after Christmas... I haven't pulled any photos off my camera yet, so I'll save that topic for next week.