Friday we got up and packed (late) and went to meet Rocky and fiance for our second annual Christmas Eve tamale lunch. But Polvos had no tamales! None! Drats, our tradition is already down the tubes. But we did have a nice lunch and good conversation. It was cold cold cold so we ate indoors.

A cold trip north took us to Mark's Mom's first. We were going to join her husband's family for their annual gathering, but the party-giver ended up in the hospital with pnuemonia so the party fell apart. So it was nice that we were there to have Christmas Eve with Mark's Mom and her husband. We had a really nice visit. We ate a wonderful ham dinner and opened presents and visited.

I told her about Mark driving me nuts when he was cleaning the cabinets in the kitchen when we needed to be wrapping and packing and she gave me a couple of examples of his compulsive father so I would know where he got it from. I can see why she divorced the man!

After dinner we dropped by to see an old neighbor of Mark's who often babysat him as a child. I don't think we'd seen her since our wedding day. She and her husband were thrilled that we stopped by and we ended up having a three hour visit with them. It was fun and they were really sweet. That was the nicest thing we could have done for someone on Christmas Eve.

We got up to the folks about 1 a.m. and they were barely still up. We put the present under the tree and all went to bed. Everyone was worn out.

Yesterday was Christmas day and it was so pleasant. We slept late, had coffee. Finally got up and going and then my sister and her husband and two boys came up from Dallas. We made a wonderful turkey and ham lunch and we ate until we were stuffed. Then we opened a million presents. We had been giving no gifts (except to the boys) through the last few Christmases, but that all fell apart this year. There were lots of gifts. I felt a little guilty because I didn't give much to my sister, but I guess it kind of makes up because we did give a lot to the boys.

We got wonderful gifts and generosity was everywhere!

We all settled down and watched Napoleon Dynamite and laughed through it. Mark and I laughed the most (along with the boys) since we had seen it before.

Mom and Dad got a "new" computer so then we finally got around to setting it up for them. I used my PC Relocating software but it was very hard to use when there was only one monitor and I don't think it moved anything. By that time I didn't much care and just wanted to get them online and done. We did that. They don't keep files on their computer and don't use it for anything except email and solitaire, so they aren't too hard to upgrade.

My sister's family went on home and we stayed up a while longer fiddling with the computer.

This morning Mark replaced Dad's kitchen fluorescent light. It has been falling down and a mess for years and Daddy had bought a new one. Bless Mark for installing it. The stupid fixture came with almost everything you needed, but didn't tell you you needed molly bolts. You couldn't do it without the molly bolts. Fortunately, the neighbors had two that we could permanently borrow. Thank goodness... I know it would still be waiting to be installed if Mark hadn't been able to do it. Dad just can't do that sort of thing anymore.

We hit the road and stopped in Hillsboro and went to a few outlet stores. I did get a gift for the intern that graduated from UT in Decemeber. I've been wanting to get him something nice and I did. We ate lunch and then at Waco moved over to a side road because the highway was so congested.

In Belton we got back on 35 and came on home. It widens out to 3 lane near there so it got better.

We're home now and the kitties are happy we are here and so are we. Tomorrow the maids come so I need to get ready for them. I would like to get the tree down, but I don't think I have the energy for that tonight.

Maybe if I had another piece of fudge...