Tuesday, December 30, 2008

My last week or so

So you may be asking yourself, "We've been getting frequent weather reports, but what has Jen been UP to this last week?" Allow me to catch you up:

* Christmas Eve: after all of our last minute shopping (some of you do Black Friday; we do Christmas Eve), I stopped by Nee's parents house to spend some time with her and my second family. When you've been best friends with someone for 26 years, their casa becomes your casa. Plus, you know, it's always fun to get the "you're a dumbass" love life speech from a whole different group of people. ;) And, Nikki has already mentioned this on her blog, but in case you don't get over there: Renee can bake. I mean, BAKE. Her basket of goodies is my second favorite thing about Christmas, other than Christmas Day (see below). LOL: I'm crazy for Renee's goodies.

* Christmas Day (Thursday): everyone descended on Mom and Steve's house for Christmas-palooza. By "everyone," I mean 9 nieces and nephews, 4 sisters (plus me), and a couple of significant (or not so significant--ha!) others. All told, there were 18 of us. It's absolute chaos--and it's my absolute favorite day of the year for exactly that reason. Plus, the shots of Pucker that have been a part of our stocking for the last 4 years or so don't hurt, either.

* Friday: I saw my daughter, who turns 16 on January 6. (I think by now most of you know that I got pregnant very, very young and gave her up for adoption--but it was an open adoption so I still get to see her and stuff. She found out the truth about who I am just a couple of weeks before I moved to Florida. We're actually very close now and are more like friends or sisters.) Anywho, that visit went well. It was great to see her, and she's becoming a beautiful young woman. I'm very proud of her. I do wish that I was able to have more one on one time with her, instead of her whole family being there, but...you gotta take what you can get. Maybe some day.

* Saturday: Missy, Nik and I tore up the town. HELLZ YEAH!! For example, we went to Steve and Barry's, Target AND Denny's--ALL IN ONE NIGHT. We're crazy, I tell ya. I spent most of Sunday recovering. ;) Word.

* Monday: went to Katey's to see her kids again before I leave. Not seeing her kids and Missy's kids too often is definitely the hardest part about living in Florida. We made tacos, and then I got her kids all riled up right before bedtime and left. You know, typical cool aunt stuff. ;)

* Tonight: in addition to watching out for another snow storm (only 1-4 inches though), I'm heading out to dinner with Kish and another friend from high school. It sucks that I only get to see her for a couple of hours but somehow, we manage to cram a LOT into one dinner. =-) And in the meantime, I'm packing. I want to be pretty much ready to leave before dinner tonight. I'm doing that last bit of laundry, too. Packing to go home will be significantly more difficult than packing to come here, because--of course--I have accumulated a lot more stuff since my arrival. So packing will actually be quite a challenge...perhaps I should actually START, then, instead of just blogging (be-logging) about it. Yes, I'll definitely give that some thought and consideration.

Barring the first few days when I was snowed in and slowly going crazy(-er), this trip home has definitely gone by quickly. I always feel torn at the end of my trips, because on one hand, I'm sad to leave everyone, especially the little ones, and being home reminds me of how much I miss everyone when I'm in Florida (even if it's just acting stupid with my sisters). But at the same time, I'd be lying if I said I'm not excited about getting back to the warm weather in Florida and my friends and my life THERE. (And did I mention the warm weather?)

So...thanks, Michigan, for another great Christmas. I'll see you this summer.

5 comments:

Jen said...

Packing is not going well. I already have one box being shipped to Florida because there's no way it'll fit in my suitcase. And there's still all the clothes in the dryer to fit in.

Will they allow wrapped presents to go through security at the airport? I had to put one in my carry on because it is NOT fitting in my suitcase. Grrr.

Jen said...

And I get to drive MYSELF to dinner. Whoo hoo!! Mom's been driving EVERYWHERE since I got here. It's like I'm 12 again. I could have rented a car, I guess, but that's a lot of money considering everything I've shelled out recently, including $300+ for the plane ticket, $350 for my broken tooth, Christmas presents, $100 for my crazy pills and the $100 for the requisite street drugs necessary to get through 11 days of Mom and I living together in the same house.

And those are just the drugs for my poor STEPDAD.

LOLOL

Nik said...

LMAO!! Well, I hope you got your shit together by now, cuz you should be at the airport at the time of my writing this. I'm glad you had such a good time and I usually don't miss you, but I actually will this time. hehehehe j/k We had so much fun, seriously. Hope flights go alright for you and let us know ya made it home okay.

Nik said...

Renee's baked goods = instant girl wood.

Renee said...

I'm ROTFLMFAO over the street drugs for Steve and Nikki's girl wood :-) HHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I love you guys.

I don't think they allow wrapped gifts through security, but I'm not positive. I guess you'll find out when you get there. Ooh, maybe you'll get to have a cavity search! That would be good times. And a good story to blog about when you get home ;-)

Thanks for the baking compliments... I hope my "goodies" made up for my totally embarrassing grandma, LOL.

And I hope you and Kish (and Jen H?) had a great time at dinner! I wish I lived closer so I could have tagged along :-( Where'd you guys go?

Can't remember what time your flight was, but I think you're probably on the plane now... hope it's an uneventful flight, unless you get to join the Mile High Club. That would rock. And let us know when you get home! Hugs.