Relaxed

Sitting here in the computer room with snow softly falling, I'm dipping my sour dough toast covered in Christmas fig and ginger jam into Christmas cocoa. And I'm dreaming of the Houston weather. Normally I'm not a fan of Texas heat and humidity but today, with the temps hovering near 20 degrees, the wind chill around 10, the snow still piled up everywhere in the city, I'm wishing for those 70 and 80 degree days we had in Houston.

It was a spectacular Christmas holiday full of love and cheer and good times. We ate fabulous food: fresh crab in a buttery casserole, prime rib cooked to perfection, shrimp salad, fried chicken and potato salad, ambrosia with the freshest of melon and fruits, steak, barbecued beef and pork, chocolate pecan pie, key lime pie, and chocolate bundt cake. We had fantastic entertainment: a play filled with sweet music and good acting plus a warm Christmas message, the movie Avatar in spectacular 3-D at the Houston theater where dinner is served with the movie -- a treat we absolutely loved, games of Hearts, Zion-Check, and Sorry. We talked late into every night, sharing the stories of the year, our hopes and fears, and our love. We wrapped presents and then opened presents and we laughed and laughed and laughed. It was simply perfect.

The trip down to Houston was uneventful and so was the trip home until we hit northwestern Oklahoma. Seems from Miami, OK to KC there was a Christmas blizzard while we were basking in Houston heat. The ice on Highway 69 was bad. We did some white knuckle driving for awhile until we picked up Turnpike 44 over to Joplin and followed Highway 71 home. We found Kansas City still buried under drifts of snow and the side streets barely passable. Luckily our driveway had been shoveled out or we would still be parked on the street. The trash men have found the side streets impassable and thus trash is piling up from Christmas orgies of gift giving. The temperatures are very cold and last night we got a fresh layer of snow to cover the ice that had formed.

This morning Hubby ventured out to take me to the foot doctor for a check-up. Luckily we didn't have more than a mile to go and my foot is healing nicely. I need to go for one more follow up and then I should be completely cured. The doctor was not nice to me because I had not been following his orders. Seems because I have an open wound I should have been keeping it bandaged during the day and putting on the special antibiotic oil I had picked up from the pharmacy on his prescription. Except I lost the bottle the second day I had it. And I was supposed to soak the foot for 20 minutes every morning and evening and I didn't ever do that either, especially in Houston where only showers were available. But I'm a really good healer so though the doctor was concerned the foot was a bit red, it still was healing nicely even though I didn't do one thing right.

Yesterday I cleaned up the kitchen, washed all the sundry cups and glasses and odd forks we had sitting around, and we did a smattering of grocery shopping. The frig was empty by the time we left for Houston. Now we have bread and eggs and milk and mushroom soup so we can survive. I baked a frozen ham, too, and got some Swiss cheese and pepper jack for sandwiches.

Hubby has hooked up the Christmas Wii but I haven't read all the instructions yet. That's part of today's challenge. Also I've got a stack of new magazines that arrived while we were away and a new series of mystery books I've started and I can laze happily under my soft quilt, burning my many Christmas candles and cuddling with the boys.

It's good to be home but I miss the love of the Houston family and friends. It really was the most perfect of Christmases!