Aside from a quick run on Tuesday, I’ve really been doing nothing but lie around the house since we got back Christmas morning.

OK, so I still sat around all day today. But tonight I ran again before dinner, then quickly showered and dressed to go out. My friends from the Chorale got together for a nice Christmas/New Year’s dinner together.

There were nine of us, and we ate at a restaurant on the water (indoors, of course, it is winter after all. Though my daffodil sprouts seem to think otherwise.)

Last night I decided to finish my work after all, so I’m free and clear. It feels good to have some time off.

Though, I should actually try to accomplish something tomorrow … we’ll see!

The past two days, I’ve slept late and lounged around most of the day!

I was beginning to feel like a cat again. It seems I keep falling into states of laziness. Actually, I strive to do it as often as possible, since I’m usually pretty busy!

Though, I turned on the laptop and have been working most of the night. I hate that there’s been a pretty big project hanging over me, affecting my ability to completely become a cat.

It’s moving along nicely. I’m not quite done, but I think I’d rather relax with a glass of wine than continue working into the night.

Maybe I’ll just tie up a few loose ends and be able to quickly finish tomorrow …

I’ve already ranted about people going too far with their holiday decorations.

Tonight I saw a neighborhood where everyone decorated tastefully!

We moved our run tonight to one of the runner’s neighborhood. We usually run a few routes through the community college. Mostly parking lots, totally boring, but at least it’s well lit and safe. During the spring and summer, it’s still light out so we can vary our runs. But for now, it’s dark and we’re limited.

The school is closed for the holidays, so not all of the parking lots are lit.

The neighborhood run turned out very nice. We did a four-mile loop and got to admire all of the neighbors’ decorations. It was surprising to see (despite the trend) very few inflatable monstrosities — just carefully-placed lights and a few light-up lawn ornaments.

The most ‘done-up’ house had a lit-up Christmas tree above their entryway!

There were no clashing colors, no offensive blinking, no armies of giant inflatable lawn decorations … just a lot of nicely-done decorations!

There is always so much anticipation going into Christmas. Baking, shopping, decorating and sending out cards begins weeks in advance. Of course, I’ve also got “sing in concerts for three weekends straight” on my list, making it much more difficult to fit all those things in!

Then on Christmas morning, all presents are opened in a few quick minutes and Christmas is over for another year.

I at least like that we have quite a few phases of Christmas. This year, it started early when we opened our stocking gifts at my mother-in-law’s house in November.

Friday night (part 2), we exchanged gifts with my brother and sister-in-law before our trip. We also had to open gifts sent by mail from my husband’s family so we could report back when he called either Christmas Eve or today.

Of course this morning (part 3) we opened presents from my parents. It seems like that happened days ago, not 12 hours ago. Travelling will do that. We had a flight back at 4 pm today.

After a quick dinner was the grand finale (part 4) where my husband and I exchange our gifts. He always complains about not knowing what to get, but always does very well. I do have to exchange a sweater this year because while it looks like a normal sweater, it has goofy dolman sleeves that seem to be a trend this year. I just don’t get it. Hubby understands, and agrees that it’s goofy. Too bad it wasn’t really obvious until I tried it on!

I got some really cute earrings, though! Good job, honey!

We crammed so much into our weekend, I’m just exhausted now. I’m glad to be off work for a while. Though, tomorrow I probably will try to tackle those last two projects due this year so I can actually relax, rather than worry about the work I have to finish.

In case anybody is concerned, the wise man’s head was glued back on in time for Jesus’ arrival. It was a clean break. That wise man seems to be accident prone — he was already missing fingers from a previous mishap!

We just got back from our traditional Christmas Eve dinner — sushi! We’ve been doing it for a few years now.

It used to be Chinese ever since I was a kid — which was passed down from my mother’s family as well. When the Chinese restaurant we always went to closed, we switched to a different one, and shortly after it switched again to Japanese.

My parents won’t eat sushi (they get Japanese dishes instead), but we “kids” all split a few trays.

Delicious, but I’m very full now!

Once dinner settles, we’ll have leftover desserts from last night (including a very yummy egg nog ice cream that I really want to make rum or whiskey floats with!), and then it’s off to bed.

We wouldn’t want Santa to pass us over because some twenty- and thirty-something children are not asleep!