Over the holidays

Here is how my holiday vacation started on the day before Christmas. I joined the tribe of Airport Pillar Outlet Dwellers (otherwise known as the "AiPOD's"). Unfortunately, I sat at the outlet where someone decided to spit out their gum, and I eventually sat in it.

Yuck.

When I arrived at my parent's place, a lot of people were feeling pretty toasted from the alcoholic spirits, with even my dad calling every few minutes on my drive in to check my progress and joke that if I had any trouble no one wass sober enough to come get me.

Christmas went well. The whole time I was there actually went fairly well. As usual, I tried to stay out of politics and religion.

The only issue I had came down to my scarf.

"Huh?", you might be saying.

Yeah, my scarf was a big trouble maker.

When my family was attending my older nephew's sporting event, my other little nephew is being watched by my sister, my mom, and myself. He's a little rascal and eventually becomes infatuated with my very colorful scarf. So, me being the one to entertain, decided to let him play with it. He's only 2 and a half, so I pull it off my neck and move to put it on his neck when my sister blasts:

"He's a boy, he doesn't need to be wearing that!!!"

Of course, by now, he's touching it and I need to take it away, so he continues to pull on it as I put it back around my neck. My sister finally pulls him back near her so he can't choke me to my own wanted and eventual death.

A few days later at my parent's place, I had the scarf stashed away with my shoes near the door to outside. As we are sitting down at the large dining table, I see my little nephew running around with my scarf around his arms and neck like some flashy boa.

I quickly grab it and tell him, "Little man, you're just wanting your mom to kill me, aren't you?"

I was back in the office today and mentioned this to my boss, who immediately says, "He's 2 and a half. He just sees something really colorful to play with...like a big caterpillar or something. Your sister is just overreacting because of your situation."

Whew. At least I'm not imagining the overreaction.

New Years Eve Day was interesting. I drove my mom 3 hours to the treatment facility, sat with her during her 5 hour treatment, then drove us 3 hours home. We made it home a few hours before the new year entered into our lives. At least the roads were fairly empty most of the way home.

Overall, it was a really nice vacation and I got to see a large portion of the extended family, including some good conversation with my mom on our 6 hours of driving.