January 4, 2005

Holiday Madness

So, the holidays are finally over. We had something to do every weekend in December, right up until New Years. I'm not really complaining. Having invitations to lots of parties isn't a bad thing. It just kept us on our toes. I will complain about having to go back to work this week, but nobody gets everything they want. Mostly the month and the season went by without any hitches.

We did get one hitch. My parents were supposed to drive down for Christmas on the 23rd. But, for some bizarre reason, Texas and Arkansas (and about 20 other states) got winter weather on the 22nd. I looked up the Arkansas highway dept's website, which had a more or less updated map on road conditions, and it was horrible. All day Thursday many of the roads were still 0% clear. When they did come down on Friday, part of the trip was dangerous (but fortunately, past Little Rock it was ok). They saw many people in the ditches.

Due to the weather the in-laws got held up a little too. They were flying in, and both of their flights were delayed, but fortunately not too long. Their luggage was a day behind them, though (PFFT, airlines, fix your systems already). Still, everybody who was supposed to be there was at our place for Christmas and it was a lot of fun. My brother sent a couple of bottles of wine for merriment (yeah, right. Neither the inlaws nor my parents are in for that sort of merriment).

Still. We actually had a sort of white Christmas. The snow didn't completely melt in our backyard until the day after, but it was gone everywhere else by then. The last week has been temperatures in the 60s and 70s. I've been driving around with the AC in my car. There's nothing wrong with any of that, just the two days that tried to derail a lot of people's holiday plans.

There's just something about the holiday season that makes people go nuts. They go nuts at the grocery store, grabbing every last quart of vegetable broth. They go nuts at the mall, or so I've been told, I wouldn't go to a mall after Thanksgiving if you paid me (unless you were paying a lot, then I'd compromise. The holidays don't make me nuts). They go nuts saying that President Bush is, of all things, not religious enough what with his White House display only having a tiny little baby Jesus. And, of course, the now annual attack on Christmas by liberals and atheists everywhere. Nutty as a fruitcake.

I hope all our readers had a Merry Christmas (or whichever holiday you choose to celebrate, I've heard that Atheist Children Get Presents Day is becoming quite popular), and a Happy New Year, and you haven't already slipped a little on those resolutions.

Published: January 4, 2005
Editor: stacy