Bah! Humbug! and Good Riddance

As a matter of fact, I DID take a little bloggy break. I didn't mean to, but it sort of turned into one, didn't it? Good thing I had that precious pic of my babies up for all to enjoy for the week!

I love Christmas, I really do. And generally, even more than Christmas, I love New Year's -- the hope, excitement and promise of a clean slate and fresh start.

This year? Not so much. I don't know how or why, but Christmas stressed me out from the get-go, even though several factors should have made it easier. And New Year's, well Riley summed it up today:

"This year feels just like the last one."

"Yes," I replied, " only now it's cluttered with some other year's junk."

Have I mentioned Christmas hasn't exactly gotten put away yet?

Last week we went to Louisiana on Wednesday -- only after we confirmed that all fever and vomiting was a minimum of 24 hours in the past. My brother and his family were in from Virginia, and they had a little bug earlier in the week. We've done it -- get half-way to Louisiana, someone is burning up with fever, we trudge on, and the whole house goes down in flames with the ragin' contagion -- and dad ends up in ICU half-dead with pneumonia. Seriously, we've done it. We're not going to do it again, if at all possible. So, all seemed to be clear and off we went.

The kids had a grand time -- 5 kids ranging in age from 4 -10, hitting all of the even number ages and Riley is the only "odd" with 9. They played HARD and proved it by smelling worse than my dog the entire time we were there (who smelled great and was well taken care of at Yvonne's Puppy Bed and Breakfast!) Thursday, the last healthy nephew crashed with a fever. We all waited for the projectile vomiting, but it never happened. We have now been home from Louisiana for 27 hours and no one is sick! It's a Christmas miracle!!

Anyway, I always leave for Louisiana with books to read and exercise clothes and grand plans of reflection and productive time. What crack pipe have I been smoking? If you're keeping track, that's 6 adults and 5 kids in the vicinity (although my brother's crew graciously moved from my parent's house and stayed with friends so that we wouldn't have to share bathrooms AND beds). The Louisiana holiday is always a loud, raucous, fun time of togetherness -- but I'm sure you know me enough by now to realize that doesn't exactly "recharge my batteries." But it does bless me immensely to see my kids have such a great time with the cousins. I believe we also visited every Social Security recipient in Ouachita Parish. As the "old crowd" gets older, it gets a lot more demanding to make the Social Security scene!

So, we're home. No, I haven't made any resolutions. Maybe I'll still think on them and get back to you.

I have mentioned before that I plan to start a regular feature here: Fitness Friday! Be looking for it!