Christmas Recuperation

Though it is my second favorite holiday (Halloween being numero uno), I am glad Christmas season is coming to an end. This is the third straight year where it has really kicked me in the ass.

Three years ago I had a horrendous New Years Eve that really put a damper on the whole season - and the first week of the new year. Last year I got a cantankerous flu bug about a week before Christmas, and I wasn't right for a few weeks. This year Christmas Eve was great as was Christmas day. However, around 8 pm the previous 48 hours of stuffing my fat face full of all kinds of sweets, chips, dinners, hams, potatos, and other goodies caught up to me.

It wasn't good.

When I finally crawled out of bed around 4:30 on the 26th, I felt a little better. But then a sinus cold hit and knocked me back on my ass.

Gotta love the holidays, right?

The kids have been at their dad's this whole time, so it's been really quiet around the house. Thankfully, Gail, Kristie's mother, has been here most of the time.

She is currently living with her brother who is dying, but he treats her like a child and picks on her relentlessly. In one horrifying instant he told Gail not to yawn since it reminds him of a vagina opening and closing! What kind of person says that! Let alone thinks of it! Or says it to/thinks it about their sister!

I told her to get the hell out of there as soon as possible.

But the problem is that she pretty much retired and sold her home to move in and care for him. However, her brother has never married and has no children. He has never lived with anyone before. Gail has not lived with anyone else either for quite some time too. They have not been able to adjust to each other. Instead they just annoy the hell out of each other.

This week she began looking for apartments. She actually found one in town here. We are hoping she moves in before the relationship with her brother is completely ruined.

Despite all of that stress, she has livened things up around here. Kristie and I have played more games than we have in a long while. I think the current count is about 10 games of Phase 10. Kristie has won the majority (as usual) with Gail winning a couple. I won my customary one game (as usual).


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Since I've been sick, I have not gotten much work done. I always have the best intentions of doing all of this reading and grading and planning over Christmas break. It never happens.

This isn't good since the end of the quarter is only three weeks away. In some respects it feels like I haven't done anything with my students. I am willing to attribute that to the new curriculum and my uneasiness in it. But give it a few more years and I'll feel like I'm getting something done. I hope so anyways.


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Here are some pictures from Christmas Eve at Barb's --

Barb and Arnie. One gag gift we got them was a George W. Bush calendar which counts down his final days in office. Dad would have wanted her to have that.



This is my niece, Amanda, who is going to good old BSU to become a math teacher.



Here is my nephew, Matt, another BSU alum, who is now a computer tech person at Digi Key. It is safe to say the highlight of the evening at Barb's was Matt recounting how while in an accounting class he witnessed (well, I guess he didn't witness it since he was scribbling down notes when it happened) his professor's pants drop to his ankles. He was an older, skinny chap who was just lecturing and writing on the board when - whooosh - down they went. Could you imagine? Just hearing Matt's voice while recounting it sent me into a roars of laughter.



Here is my God-daughter Ashley. She is a sophomore at Red Lake County Central. She also had us laughing with some stories about their trip to Texas last summer.