This year was beyond fantastic with the exception of my brother-in-law, herein known as Waste of Space (WoS).
I flew out to Ohio courtesy of Skybus, which cost me $80 roundtrip (they are SUPER CHEAP) and we watched the kids open *1* present then off to bed. Tues we went to church after opening presents to ooohs and aahs. Among my delights was cash from my mom (love it), Ratatoille, Hot Fuzz, Burt's Bees stuff and cute 'homemade' blanket. My niece and nephew and sister made it, with 2 pieces of fleece (black and white with black 'cat paws') with the edges tied together. Its SUPER warm and cozy. Then WoS decided to sleep in skipping ALL the family joy, and when he returned from work that day he opened his gifts and complained about EVERY one. The kids were excited about the Ghost Hunters dvd they got bc he supposedly loves the show but his only comment was "I already saw these". We enjoyed a lovely dinner and watched Cars since I haven't seen it, and it was surprisingly entertaining.
The rest of the week flew by in a blur of activities, taking the kids to the movies (Elijah and mom saw Water Horse which he loved and Hannah and I saw Enchanted which we liked, me for McDreamy as Prince Charming :bueno_bub: )art museum with my mom for a Monet exhibit, the Conservatory (like the Domes), good German food, and way too much post Christmas sales shopping. I wound up buying a 2nd carryon bag for all my stuff. WoS was gone working much of the time, or he spent it (wisely) in his room sleeping. Seriously I've never seen anyone sleep so much.
There were much hugs and tears as I left but it was a good time. Now I just need to sleep for a day.
ETA: one sad point of the trip: Poor Herbert (R.I.P.). My mom found she had a small mouse in her room and set up 'humane' type traps which were just sticky stuff a plastic thing. Herbie (as I named him) didnt' make an appearance till Saturday evening when mom heard him and found him, tail stuck to the trap. He was SO cute, all tiny with grey and brown fur. Anyway, I had Anne get me a plastic bag since they wouldn't touch him ( mom was practically standing on a chair) but I wasn't sure if he was disease free, and I pulled him off. I knew it was too cold for him to be outside, but they wouldn't let him stay inside

so I put him out on the grass. Sunday when we left for church I found him laying dead not far from where I put him. I yelled at my sister which made me feel alittle better.