I have had a most wonderful holiday with my family and friends and am most certainly not looking forward to going back to work! I was awfully sick and felt like 10lbs of shit in a 5lb bag for the week before Christmas but once I got home and got under the care of Dr. Mom all that started to get cleared up. There is no match for the TLC of Dr. Mom! I had caught a cold from the infested little germ bags I take care of this time of year, which quickly escalated into a raging virus, sinus infection and ear infection. After going to the Dr. on Wednesday he gave me some antibiotics and sent me on my way. Well by Friday I still couldn't breathe through my nose, I was deaf in my right ear and I still felt like bag of crap. So Saturday when my mom picked me up she knew I was in need of some motherly love. She took me home, fixed me up and I have been on the road to recovery ever since.
Despite the the illness I went out for an awesome light tour with the lovely Borgel family Friday evening. We did this last year and it was one of my highlights of the season! Darin is a crack navigator and knows all the sweet spots for looking at lights all around the HRM. We started our tour with hot chocolates in hand, and Christmas music on the stereo in Dartmouth. We have come to the conclusion that it is the middle class families that decorate the most. Just because you are rich doesn't mean you take time to decorate your obscenely large mansion, or even hire someone to do it for you. The low income families, well they have bigger fish to fry then Santa on the lawn. So it is the middle class suburbs you need to hit if you want a good light tour. We looped around cul-de-sacs and drove up and down side streets, faces glued to the window to see the sparkling lights. The houses and trees looked most festive with the recent fallen snow. We saw a lot of slightly decorated houses. A few things in the window, a strand of lights on the gutters, etc. I like seeing the beautifully done houses just like anyone else. The houses that take care with the placing of their lights, the carefully hung wreaths and spot lights that warm the cockles of your heart when you see the perfect little house. But what I live for is the real tacky, Griswold's type landing zones with a great big Wal-Mart special inflated on the lawn. I love me some tacky Christmas lights! I also love critiquing the lights with my fellow onlookers. I think we should go public with our critiques, and start naming names. Maybe start an annual publication of who's hot and who's not. A few of the comments from this year include; "It looks like they didn't know what to do with the lights, so they just threw them everywhere." "That house looks like some sort of Bordello in Vegas!" "I love the old style lights that let off enough heat to melt the snow on top of them......and burn your house down." Next year I am bringing a recorder in the car with us and I will transcribe our notes for the general public. The two winners of my favourite tacky Christmas lights goes to a house in Dartmouth, well a half a duplex, with inflatable figures as tall as the house. And my favs house in Fairview with the music lights and many animated features. The house in Dartmouth looked hilarious with the two big figures and multitude of lights filling their half of the house. It looked doubly as funny because the other half of the house was barely decorated while their neighbors looked like Christmas threw up on the lawn. Can you imagine being their neighbours?? Haha! The house in Fairview is my all time favs, and winner second year in a row. This house is no stranger to the decorating. They have lights often timed to music they play, presents that open and shut, and angel that moves her lighted arms, a waving Santa and so much more! Each house only has a small square footage to decorate but boy oh boy to they make the best of it! In all seriousness tho, as tacky and hilarious as these houses are to look at, that took some serious time and effort from the home owners. I say good on them for delighting the hearts, and senses of the passerby. We all love Christmas lights on a crisp evening! Thanks again to the Borgels for taking me on the tour, I smell and annual tradtion starting :)
Then Saturday morning my Ma came and picked me up and took me down to the farm for some good rest and relaxation. I spent Christmas eve there and on Christmas day we packed the car full and headed down to Bedford to my sisters for Christmas dinner and opening presents with the boys. It was very nice to have the whole family together for Christmas. Because of Marcus' visitation with his father and they way they divide holidays he wouldn't be coming back to the house until after 6 on Christmas day. I must say Jackson did extremely well and only opened one present from Santa and waited to open the rest of his gifts until Marcus was home. Not an easy feat for a 4 year old, but he did so well. As soon as Marcus walked in the door Jackson ran and gave him a hug and then made a B-line for the tree and grabbed the biggest box with his name on it. The boys were vibrating with excitement, and now it was time to open presents. I think it is so funny how different the boys are. Marcus has always been very anticlimactic and not easily excitable. So when he opened a gift he really liked you heard, "Oh awesome, that's really cool." Where as when Jackson opened a piggy bank he was yelling and throwing paper saying, "THIS IS THE BEST CHRISTMAS I EVER HAD!!" So very different! They were very grateful and excited about all the gifts they got, and I am sure it will be a great couple of weeks playing with all the new stuff they got. After presents we snapped a few family pictures, and a few silly ones too. I think the silly represents our family. Through tough times and good our family tries to not take things to seriously, and have a sense of humor about us. I am so thankful to be able to have the relationship I do with my family despite and ups or downs we may have faced. After all the Christmas events we headed back to the farm where I spent the following two days relaxing and spending time with my parents. Now I am back in the city, and getting ready to head back to work and I am satisfied and happy with my holiday.
Before I go I wanted to write about my travel to do list. I recently posted about this on facebook, but I thought I would put it on here too. You see before I was leaving for the summer the lovely gals at PPCCC made me the best going present I have ever had. Since they knew I would be traveling to NZ they all got together and made me a list of things to do while I am there. They are written on a card and placed in a photo album for me to take with me. I fully intend on completing as much of this as humanly possible, and would love for anyone who wishes to contribute to do so. Once I am away I will start ticking things off the list, and you can bet there will be blogging and photos to accompany these. So put your thinking caps on and let me know if you would like to add to this list. At a later date I will be posting the whole list for people to see, but I am open to suggestions before that.
Anyway, Happy Holidays and all the best in the new year!!
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