jimsjournal
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Christmas at Home -- 12/24/01 | |
It is so good to be home... I'm even beginning to shake the jetlag and exhaustion of the trip. Fortunately I had done my Christmas shopping before I left -- primarily using the Internet, so almost every day while I was gone FedEx or UPS or the Post Office delivered a package to our house and my email was filled with shipping confirmation messages. (Now all I have to do is wrap them.)
[Apologies to Nofify list readers; you've already read the following paragraph; feel free to skip ahead to the next paragraph.] My flight got in a little bit early! They told us wewere early... then they said but Logan was congested and traffic control wanted us to hold for twenty minutes or so... then they said never mind, we had clearance to land... and we did... and I got through immigration fairly quickly and my suitcase was one of the first to come along on the baggage carousel... and got through customs quickly... zipped out to the taxi area, driver opened the trunk and I put my stuff in and went around to get in the cab but the door was locked... so I waited for the driver to unlock the door... and then realized that he had locked himself out of his cab! There we were... waiting for someone to come and get the cab open... I had been thinking that maybe I could get to South Station and catch an earlier train and get home two hours earlier than I had expected but now time was ticking by... Finally got the cab unlocked... still had time to catch the train... get to South Station, huge slow line at AmTrak ticket windows but, after fifteen minutes in line I got my ticket and got onto the train with almost five minutes to spare...
I was really out of it on Saturday... I had planned on going for a run but as the day wore on, I wore out... just totally exhausted... During the course of running a few errands, buying some food, etc., I rented Bridget Jones' Diary but only watched about twenty minutes of it on Saturday night... Nancy and I paused the movie while I woke Jennifer up (for her 3rd shift job) and I was just too tired to watch the rest of the movie that night. (We watched the rest of it last night -- very funny -- Nancy and I both enjoyed it.)
Yesterday Nancy and I went to Ames (a discount chain, primarily in the New England area, although they also cover much of New York State) because they were extending Geezer Day to Sunday and Monday because of Christmas (also probably because they are in Chapter Eleven again and are struggling for sales)... oh, you're wondering what Geezer Day is? On Tuesdays they give an extra ten percent off everything for customers age fifty-five and older... There was not much we really needed or wanted, but we still managed to pick up fifty dollars or so worth of stuff... Christmas wrapping paper already half price, etc. We did look at slippers for Sean, funky funny furry slippers, but then decided that he probably didn't need them -- yes, so naturally, an hour or so later he commented to Nancy that he really needed a pair of warm slippers now that he was moving to the basement! (So I went back later and bought them.)
Basement? Yes... he came up with this idea while I was gone that he wanted to move to the basement -- so he would have more room when his friends are over, etc. -- and Nancy told him "wait 'til your father gets home." *grin* Well, I thought it wasn't such a great idea... his room is nice and warm and could be pleasant and the basement is chilly and concrete-floored and... well, it's a basement... but he's sixteen and if that's what he wants... sure, go ahead... So the past couple of days have been a whirlwind of activity for him -- he had already cleaned up one end of the basement in anticipation -- moving his stuff down there ("stuff " = computer and tv and Nintendo and CD player and stereo tuner and amplifier and an incredible assortment of speakers and subwoofers and wires and cables and...) He's leaving his bed upstairs -- telling us that his room can now be a guest room and also a place for Nancy to do her lesson planning and homework correcting without having piles of work in our bedroom -- this kid really needs to go to law school as the first step in his political career, he is so glib sometimes in explaining how everyone will benefit from his ideas, he isn't doing things just for his own benefit, this is really an altruistic action, one that will benefit the entire family, perhaps even the entire human race... *grin* -- Jennifer had been using Sean's old bunk bed in her room, dating back to last December when her friend Lia moved in with us; Lia moved back in with her parents at the end of the summer, so Jennifer had been wanting to go back to using her full-sized bed now that "the girl's dorm" was back to being just her room -- so Sean took the bunkbed down to the basement and we set Jennifer's bed up (she says after a year of sleeping on the top bunk she now feels almost as if she is lying on the floor) -- He's split the bunkbed apart, using one as his bed and has the other set up as a couch, so with an easy chair plus two beanbag chairs he can accomodate several visiting friends.
So... all I have to do today is wrap some presents... run out to return that video... maybe get in a jog on the treamill, lift some weights... find something for dinner... go to church tonight with Nancy... sip a cup of tea or a glass of wine in front of the Christmas tree... get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow we'll be up in the morning to unwrap presents... then I have to toss a turkey in the oven... we're having Christmas dinner at Nancy's mother's house... the four of us plus Nancy's mom and eight or nine others (two sisters and their significant others and teen-aged children) and I'm roasting a turkey to bring plus stuffing and gravy... Jennifer and Nancy have baked incredible amounts of cookies... Jennifer brough a bunch of cookies to work last night, apparently a big hit with her co-workers)
I've got to watch my cookie intake... when I got home Friday night I had a dish of cereal and took a shower before going to bed... I got on the scales after my shower and figure that either I had just eaten four pounds of Oatmeal Raisin Bran cereal or I gained weight in France... so I've got to be careful this week...
Happy holidays to one and all....
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