Back to the Real World

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Some of our Christmas cookies.

I know I haven't really been around for the last two weeks but I was enjoying time with the family.  Since my husband is a teacher, he was off for 2 weeks, too.  We had a great time with the kids.

Christmas was great.  We had all 3 kids, 2 of my sister in laws, and 2 strangers (college graduates that are biking across America) at the house for Christmas.  I was a little leery at first about having 2 strangers in my house but it was great.

For the first time, I didn't drive myself crazy trying to do too much for Christmas.  Out of necessity, I only spent about $150 on all of the gifts for Christmas.  However, you couldn't tell.  The whole family got loads of clothes (thanks to the pound store at Goodwill).  Also, I made loads of gifts.

My kids were shocked when they got home because I hadn't done all of the Christmas baking.  I waited until everyone was here to help.  It was a great way to spend time together.  We made all kinds of cookies, bread, rolls, etc.

Christmas morning was very interesting.  We lost power to a storm that decided to roll through Christmas morning.  We weren't able to fix breakfast.  So, we called around and ended up ordering breakfast from Waffle House.  It lessened the stress on me, too.  After hanging out for awhile, we had Christmas dinner at a cousin's house, and then went to see Les Miserables.  I loved the movie.

Unfortunately, my oldest had to leave the next morning.  She dropped off our two new friends off in Baton Rouge on her way home.  They were headed to New Orleans.  They are going to work there for a little bit to earn some more money for their trip.  After that they are headed to the West Coast.

The rest of our little vacation was spent moving furniture, and decluttering the house.  We got rid of so much stuff.  We still have quite a bit of stuff waiting to be moved out.  Most of what is left my son and daughter are taking.  We were suppose to take a truckload of stuff to Mississippi to my daughter but it rained so much that it didn't happen.  Hopefully, one of these weekends, we will get it moved.  My son was suppose to move this month but that isn't going to happen either.  He will take some of the stuff soon but the rest will have to wait until he gets a new place.

We finished painting the dining room and entry way, too.  I finally got the dining room table cleaned off.  It has been great because we have not only had several meals at the table again but we also played Scrabble with our youngest.  We must have played 4 or 5 nights in a row.

I think the last two weeks were some of the best.  We not only got loads of stuff done but had some great times together.  The only draw back was all of the rain.  Then I finally watched the news last night, and saw that it is going to rain most of the week.  It looks like after this week of rain, we might end up with over 8 inches of rain for the year.  It is definitely a wet 2013, so far.

Now, I guess it back to the real world.  I got a little bit done on the blog this morning, several loads of laundry done, cleaned the kitchen, cleaned the spare room, cleaned part of my daughter's room and a couple of other things done.  My husband and daughter went back to school.  So, I guess we are getting back to the real world.  I am a little glad to get back into a routine but I will miss some of the quality time.  Hopefully, we will be able to still get some quality time in.

How was your Christmas & New Year?  Do you have any New Year's Resolutions?  I have resolved to not have any resolutions.  I never end up keeping them.  I do want to get healthier and spend more time with the hubby.

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