Christmas in Cleveland

Christmas was nuts. Most of it was wonderful, but it was nuts.

I flew home from Boston on Christmas Eve (that's where the show was), and everything went extremely well. I should have known it wouldn't last.

I spent a few hours running errands when I got home, then went to my mom's to wrap gifts, and do our exchange with Alisa (my step-sister) and Megan (my bro's girlfriend). We of course hit the liquor cabinet before the festivities began. What good is Christmas without vodka and wine?It turned out to be quite the Snuggie Christmas! (The Snuggies were not people's "main" gifts, but they were fun fillers). I recently saw an episode of How'd You Get So Rich, and the guy who created the Snuggie was on. He's like a billionaire at the age of 20. Now I see why.

Around 4:00 in the afternoon, I went to go pick my grandfather up for our yearly trip to Gamekeeper's, our favorite local restarant. I think I knew everyone in that bar- I love going there on Christmas Eve! We spent about an hour there, visited with friends, and then went to his house for our Fuller get-together.

Bethanne made an excellent pot roast for dinner, and my dad had tater tots and sloppy joes. So festive. We do an white elephant exchange at his house, but with good gifts- not junk we don't want. I wound up with a gift card for The Cheesecake Factory, and my Uncle Paul wound up with the steaks I bought.

Christmas morning, we went back to Poppy's house for breakfast, and wound up with quite a scare. He wound up being fine, but he kind of lost it for a while and couldn't respond to us or move. So we all wound up at the hospital on Christmas day. We knew he was OK when he asked the nurse if she would like to come to his house for Christmas dinner. :)

Next it was back to my mom's for our exchange with her and Ern and the three of us, THEN off to Kubach's house. Um- check out my cousin Kelly's killer Christmas outfit:

Heather just had a new baby two months ago, so between her, and Brendan (three), we were of course entertained all night. We pick names on my mom's side, and I got some great stuff from my Aunt Susan!

I had booked my return flight to Boston for Saturday at 7:30pm. I HAD to be back at work on Sunday. Not an option. Guess what? All flights were cancelled! They thought maybe they could get me there on Monday or Tuesday. They didn't even give a reason, but it was the same day that stupid terrorist tried to pull one over on the flight to Detroit. Soo..... after being awake all day, I went and rented a car at 8pm and started the 10 hour drive back to Boston. It literally rained the entire way, and most of the drive was so foggy I couldn't see more than a few hundred feet in front of me. Eight hours into it, I was in serious pain (not even getting into that), and wound up at a hospital in Springfield, MA for six hours. Then I finished the drive to Boston. It was a hell of a night and two days, let me tell you. I didn't sleep for like 40 hours or something insane like that.

But after it was all said and done, I am SO happy that I was able to go home. Bethanne was home from France, Brian was home from L.A.- we were all in Cleveland. I'm so lucky to have a family that gets along so well, and that wants to make the effort to see each other as much as possible. I have promised them that I will always be home for Christmas. Let's hope I can keep that promise!