Oh What Fun It Is To Ride

"Oh what fun it is to ride in a four-door Saturn sleigh"

Driving home from Christmas time in Minocqua was hazardous. The roads were slick to begin with, and a lovely blanket of snow began falling in the afternoon. Due to some miscommunication, we weren't able to leave for home until nearly five in the evening, so it was dark when we were driving. Because we are cautious drivers, we averaged about 40 mph the whole way home. Luckily, many of the vehicles on the road had the same idea, so it's not like we were impeding the flow of traffic.

More memories from Christmas:

Realizing my sister's son is looking more and more like a little boy and less a baby every day. He's growing up! He turned 1 in November.

Speaking of Gage, the entire family was shrieking with laughter when he opened his favorite present: a box of kleenex. The back story is kind of self-explanatory... he loves to pull out tissues from the box. He'll keep doing it until he's buried in fluffy white clouds of kleenex. So he got his own box for Christmas, and he started pulling them out with glee right away.

My oldest nephew realizing the hard truths about Christmas as a teenager. Your gift tally goes down a great deal once you start getting fancy gadgets and other costly items. He pouted a bit and fussed because he only had a couple of boxes to open while all the little kids had at least four. I was reminded of the Christmas when I got my first discman when I was 14 or 15. I was mad because it was my only present until my mom pulled me aside and explained how much it cost and that they couldn't afford to get me anything else. Quality costs money, and that discman is still in operation over a decade later.

Realizing that the little slide that my brother left outside was for Ben. I don't know how I can explain just how much Ben will love that slide. His first daycare had a couple of indoor slides, and he would spend all day going down. We are so excited to have one of our own. We didn't have room in our car to bring it down, so my sister and her family are going to drop it off some time today. I haven't told Ben that it's coming, so it'll be a wonderful surprise.

Going "shopping" in the basement with my mom. I got a few more snowmen figurines/dolls to add to my brand new collection. So cute. I'll post pictures of them later. We went down there for me to pick out a rag rug for me to have by my front door to put wet shoes on. I ended up with an armful of other items as well. I love shopping in her basement.

Visiting with my sisters at the dining room table at dinner time. We gathered around with our kids for dinner and had a nice chat.

Very nice time. I don't think Ben understands the Christmas thing yet. I think he just thinks that we saw our family and got lots of new toys. Next week when we have his birthday, he'll get more toys. Once this "toy season" is over with, he might be disappointed that the festivities end. I can only look forward to next Christmas when he might have a better understanding of the season and what it means and all the hoopla.