Estoy Nueces

How quickly Christmas has come and gone! I am still sitting here in happy amazement that it was happy and fun. After a hard hard year I was afraid Christmas would be a low point but everything went well. Don't suppose the Effexor, Zoloft and Prozac taken by Sis, Hubby and Me had anything to do with this, do you?

Today the weather is beautiful and feels like summer. I put on my shorts and went to the gym to get that early start on the New Year's Resolutions. Well, not really, since I'm sitting here eating Chex Mix and Mincemeat Cookies. The diet will have to wait until all of the Christmas goodies are gone (and, with the amount we have, that may be February).

A quick recap of the holiday. Thursday (12/23) I had my car back with a new clutch and finally could finish my Christmas shopping. I headed out happily to Barton Creek Mall and as I exited the MoPac, my clutch pedal went to the floor and failed to come back. Nice guys pushed me off the road and then another nice man gave me a ride to the mall and I used his cell phone. The car got towed back to the mechanic and they quickly fixed the problem and felt terrible about it (as they should!) but didn't charge anything. I managed to buy some clothes for my nephews before the enormity of the pressures exerting themselves on me became evident----shopping to be done, no car, lots of work ahead of me too, NO CAR!!! I bought a Cinnabon to comfort me. Then I dumped an entire Diet Coke onto the Cinnabon counter. Bad went to worse.

But things got better. I worked some and later in the day when my car was ready, the sweet D-boy took me to dinner (turkey and dressing and those fabulous yams at Threadgill's---big thumbs up). Fun to see the families that were gathered at Threadgill's. Odd mismatches or groups that you knew only got together as a unit for the biggest holidays. One family immediately reminded me of Robert Earl Keene's "Merry Christmas from the Family." Long haired hippie kids next to redneck beer-bellied Uncles and gum-chewing, big haired step-mothers.

Got my car back and went back to work and finished up. Then made a midnight run to Walgreen's to finish shopping. What a dismal bunch are in Walgreen's at midnight on Dec. 23. I imagine Christmas Eve is even worse. A water purifier, a clock radio, makeup and hair stuff for me, and I'm ready for Christmas.

I came home and wrapped presents and listened to Christmas music and packed a bag. Late late night. Went to bed at 4 a.m. exhuasted, but still with sugarplums dancing, etc.

Up early Christmas eve and off to Tyler. Stopped in North Austin to visit my grandmother. She was feeling pitiful and I wished there was something I could do to make her happier and healthier. There wasn't. She didn't even open my present while I was with her.

On to Tyler (did I say this was the SHORT version of our weekend?). Visited the other grandparents and saw the sad sad state of Granddad. He's had several small strokes this year and mostly sleeps and is uncommunicative. Sad to see him and sad to see Grandmother trying to take care of him.

On to the in-laws house in the country. A wonderful dinner there of tortilla soup and tamales.

On through the night with nothing but Christmas songs on the radio. I kept switching stations and happened upon Band on the Run. I said, "Since when is Band on the Run a Christmas song?" Happily, we left the radio there the rest of the trip.

Late arrival at my folks near Denton and they were still up wrapping presents. We visited and ate cookies and fudge (typical Christmas Eve for my family) and went to bed.

Christmas Day was so pleasant. The turkey was just through cooking when the oven broke. Dressing couldn't be cooked in the oven (we made a reasonable facsiimile on top of the stove) and thank God the pies were already cooked. The sister and husband and nephews all came up bringing sweet potatoes and bread and more goodies and tons of presents. They had already had "Santa Claus" at home and the boys were quite thrilled with their new Nintendo game and saluting G.I. Joe. We decided to eat lunch before the gifts were opened, a decision the boys were vehemently against. A great lunch, fun presents all through the afternoon and then pies, pies, and more pies.

My sister and I took a walk around the block with the parents and the younger nephew. Beautiful cool day with leaves everywhere. The husbands crawled off to nap or read and the older nephew was glued to the Nintendo.

Through the evening we watched "You've Got Mail" on tape ("now that is a chick flick if I ever saw one" was the comment from my husband). It was all exactly how Christmas should be. I was so glad we spent two nights at my parents and didn't have to rush off to the next relatives house. Reminded me of the Christmases we used to have in the Panhandle.

Sunday morning we got up and headed to Dallas. We spent the whole afternoon with my mother-in-law and her husband and D-boy's brother. There is usually a lot of tension between the two sons and their mother, but things were almost tension free through the whole afternoon. We had another wonderful turkey dinner and opened presents and laughed and told jokes. D-boy and I crawled off and had a great nap, too. Nothing like a nap after a big turkey dinner.

Later in the evening we headed home to Austin and saw lots of pretty lights on the way.

Lord, this was a boring accounting of a really wonderful weekend. Now I'll need to get into my New Year's Resolutions and how I'm going to improve as a writer!

Now it is back off to the salt mines and a LOAD of work to be done well before the New Year.