Could it just be swollen and a little sore, Kat?

YAY, JZ! No more Rage Nurse is an Awesome Thing.

Yes, Amy, I hope that is what it is. That's what I'm going to claim. Or else I'm going to panic.

I have a bottle of codeine in the kitchen. WHEEEEE! Good times?

Tomorrow I'm making all the cookies because we are doing a cookie exchange on Friday at yoga. No seriously. One of the many things I love about Jenny's classes.

I'm glad to hear Grace is home.

So since my parents couldn't make it (and my mom is one step away from needing to go to the hospital for IV antibiotics) I've been doing the shopping for her and myself. OH MY GOD. And I need to wrap these presents and do an inventory to keep track of what is from whom. But we have a 3.5 year old who WON'T GO TO SLEEP. FREAKING ENERGIZER TYLER. D is having a sleepover at a neighbors' just for this purpose. We're self-medicating in the meantime. Sleep, child!

Also? Possible whopper storm now projected to maybe hit MD the day I return. Late at night. My car is in the longterm uncovered lot. I didn't carry my heavy winter coat. I know there is no shovel in the car. I'm not even sure if there is a broom. SHOOT ME NOW.

But cookies baked, SIL girlfriends coming over tomorrow night for nibbles and gift exchange, then D's bday, then xmas.

SLEEP CHILD.

Get me to Oklahoma, Allyson, and I'd do it twice. Once for you, and once for my grandpa, Oklahoma working man and union member, who although long dead, probably hates both Coburn and Inhofe in absentia. (Ok, maybe three times, once in tribute to Jim Garner, too.)

Yay, JZ! Soon you will be FREE.

Peace and strength and packing ~ma to everyone! Geez.

I am motivated by you all to give thanks to the holiday gods that I no longer live a whole day's drive from my sister's house (where holidays happen). A mere two-hour drive does not require serious packing. I can throw presents, a change of underwear, and my pajamas into the car, set out a couple bowls of cat food, and go. It is such a relief.

You know, it just occurred to me, after fifteen years of driving to my sister's house for various holidays and trips at least three times a year, that it might be smart to leave a change of clothes, pajamas, and some toiletries there.

You know, it just occurred to me, after fifteen years of driving to my sister's house for various holidays and trips at least three times a year, that it might be smart to leave a change of clothes, pajamas, and some toiletries there.

I totally do this. It was accidental at first, but now I actually think about what I should leave behind.

A mere two-hour drive does not require serious packing.

A mere two-hour drive also means you can hatch an escape plan if you need to without it being quite so obvious. Thanksgiving I was just tired and over it, no drama, but Saturday morning I was all "yeah, I have theater tix tonight so I'ma have to hit the road by about 2." Tickets were for Sunday night. Nobody needed to know.

A mere two-hour drive also means you can hatch an escape plan if you need to without it being quite so obvious.

God, yes. Back in the years when drama was running high, I would lie about having to get back to New Jersey and leave, and stay in a motel just to get away. Things are much better now, there's been no drama at all the last few gatherings (knock wood), but it's really nice to know that I CAN leave if I need to and get myself right back home.

Kat, my sister had a similar surgery for scarring from a tracheotomy and her throat was sore and her voice raspy for a week or so.

FOUR MORE HOURS with her for the entire rest of my life.

Yay!

I am joining an elf union next year. I just wrapped all my sister's gift for her husband, and all my parents' gifts for the family, except for mine. (And I bought my own present anyway...I don't know why we're bothering with the charade.)

Also, my mother is in a place where I am not sure if she has dementia, I think she may just be crazy. She made us just go and exchange the shirt she bought for my brother for the third time because "it had too much white around the collar." Oy!! Anyway, whatever is wrong with her, she still refuses to admit she's got any problems.

Gah. That fire this morning? 17 firefighters injured, 8 critcally. Two died. (One of them is the husband of Daley's personal secretary, it turns out.)

Again, for a defunct dry-cleaners. Horrifying. There were, apparently, between one and two hundred firefighters at the scene trying to dig people out. It was shift change, so a lot of people showed up who were on their way home.

The fact that it happened today just compounds the tragedy. God.