Home ...Ahhhh

After a rushed run up to Christmas and an indulgent (lots of food and drink) and exhaustive trip to my parents we drove home today. In the end I had enough pajamas for the little kids and girls in the family. I ran out of fabric for the guys. From comments made I do not think they would have been too thrilled with them anyway so it was for the best. Once at my parents I made pumpkin pies and finished up measuring waists for elastic to finish off the bottoms.

We arrived on Wednesday on the late side as we stopped off at my cousins along the way for dinner. We had a good visit with my aunt and my cousin's family. We then finished the 5 hour drive to my parents. On Christmas Eve we did a bit of shopping to Walmart, the local farm supply store (I do love a good farm store!) and finished up buying stocking stuffers and last minute presents. We also stocked up on groceries for the next few days. The rest of my family left for Christmas Eve services while David and I took a much needed nap and chill out of a bit of peace and quiet before the hub bub began again for the evening and Christmas day (we are not church-goers and I will leave it at that).

Christmas day was good. Santa was good to Grace with a full library of horse related books (a great gently used find on Craigs list), half chaps, a western snap shirt and a horse-head book end. Her granny found her a non-apple mp3 player and big-ear headphones (saving her from a deaf adult life). Her other grandma provided a Wii game and her aunts and uncles gave her a game for her DS.

Granny, Grace and I went together and got my husband a Wii fit (he is, as I type, doing step aerobics on the thing). He has been gagging for the thing for over a year and even tried to wangle one by saying we should get it for Grace. He was kind of surprised when he opened it and found he got it. He also got a load of cooking gadgets and the Julia Childs cookbooks.

David and Grace bought me a bamboo gadget for my computer. It is an attachment that will let me write on the computer screen with a pen stylus. I will be able to draw or work math problems right onto the computer instead of typing or trying to do so with a mouse. I haven't tried it out yet but I am kind of excited to give it a try. I also got a lovely tapestry from Wales from my Mother in law (granny). A lovely coffee table book with short biographies of different mathematicians and moccasin patterns from a Cherokee artist that I was wanting to try out from my three older daughters. My mother gave me a cool lamp to hook onto my sewing machine to make it easier to thread the needle and see my work. This will come in handy for the quilt i have promised to make this year.

All of my daughters, spouses and my grandson were at my parents. My sister and brother in law were there with their two children. My brother, his wife and their three children came for Christmas day. In total this was 19 people.

I had pretty good restriction although not as good as at Thanksgiving. Grazing was still a huge issue and I am frankly a tad scared to get on the scale. I am under no illusions that I will have finally gotten to the 100 pound mark this week that is for sure. I will be lucky to save myself from a three pound gain. I am fine with it though. The visit was at times pretty stressful and each holiday and eating struggle teaches me a little more about my eating issues, causes and triggers. Every blip has changed from a swan dive back into bad habits to a controllable learning experience that I will conquer. That was never the case before the band!

We stayed through Sunday and drove home this afternoon and evening. We hit a bit of snow and Ice along the way but David's truck did well getting us back to our much appreciated coastal weather! I am sitting in front of my warm and toasty gas stove on my comfy couch watching David's backside move up and down on his wii board. I am not sure how long this will be amusing!! but just now it is pure relaxation and contentment.