christmas with my parents

I didn't think they'd actually do it, but my parents actually gave up a Texas Christmas to spend it with us at the cabin. Of course leading up to the long weekend, I was receiving phone calls from my mom to verify that the cabin indeed had heat and that she wouldn't have to go in the snow. Check and check. I think it's been almost 8 years since I had Christmas with my family.

They arrived last Thursday and I whisked them away to the cabin for a snow-filled weekend. Considering that we had my parents, my sister & her husband, my brother and four dogs in the house, it was actually a pretty mellow few days. No real gift exchanges as Rick and I "gave" each other our snowmobiles for Christmas.

I was excited to have our Christmas meats (ham & prime rib) come from the local butcher and we picked up some fresh pies from the bakery in town. My brother-in-law willingly took on the responsibility of making the dinner, which was nice since most of my family could care less about cooking. :)

My brother Richard got to break in my snowmobile and seemed to really take a liking to the sport. I stayed back at the house instead of going out on the snowmobile so that the boys could all have their turn at riding -- including my dad.

We also donned some snowshoes and walked around the woods behind the house. Dad had a chance to explore on his own and then later in our quest to find a sledding hill, we all set out with snowshoes and an inner tube, only to be disappointed by the lack of speed from the "hill" we selected.

As promised, Mom stayed back at the cabin the whole time. But she seemed to be quite content just relaxing there, so we were ok with leaving her behind.

With Rick's mom living about 10 minutes away, we thought we might have an opportunity to introduce my parents to her. My youngest brother met her briefly when Rick stopped by her place one night, but we could never seem to get Linda to commit to meeting my parents. Not surprising, and probably just as well. She's the one who has to live with regrets, not me. Given how infrequently my parents come out here to visit, that may well have been her only opportunity to meet my mom & dad.

So the 'rents left this morning and I'm back at home getting things organized and taking care of business here. Planning to head back out to the cabin for some New Year's R&R in a few days.

I must say, this is the first time in a long time where I've actually taken time off work during the holidays, and it's been so nice to just chill. Here's to a long, drawn out week to delay the inevitable of going back to the office in January.