Relative Something

It’s all over for another year. The grand Christmas-palooza that Cyndie’s family puts on starts with a dinner on the eve and then breakfast and presents on the day, followed by time for a nap before an evening meal and games. Dinner on the 24th occurred in an event room at the senior living complex where Cyndie’s mom lives.

The younger volunteers were racing to roll doubles to steal the present before the person ahead of them was able to unwrap it while wearing oven mitts. The presents were wrapped with multiple layers. Cruel.

Cyndie and I made the drive to the cities and back three times in the two days. We took advantage of the car time to hear more mind-blowing episodes from The Telepathy Tapes. So fascinating.

When we got home after the Christmas Eve dinner, already after our normal bedtime, Cyndie assembled the caramel rolls she would bring to breakfast the following morning.

After leaving them to raise over night, she put the pans in the oven in the morning while I took care of horse chores.

We drove some extra miles to get to the house that her brother, Steve, is renting on Lake Minnetonka while his house is being rebuilt after the fire.

Between the exquisite food served at each of the three meals and the irresistible sweets offered for dessert, I violated any measure of appropriate caloric intake and blissfully consumed more yummy goodness than I should have.

Santa (Marie) brought me a new pair of chopper mittens! Wasn’t I just raving about those…?

It was a holiday of pure love among loud family conversations, gift exchanging, some singing, and fancy feasting.

Today feels like a big sigh of relief, now that the events and repeated commuting of the last 36 hours are behind us. It’s always a lot of fun, but part of me feels a little extra appreciation to be home again and returning to our normal routines.

The hard part will be convincing my body that it needs to return to normal calories now.

.

.