No place like home for the holidays

First things first -- Here's the Quote of the Day. This is from a book I saw at my dad's, a Jeff Foxworthy redneck joke book:

"You might be a redneck if you think that Roe vs. Wade has to do with boat ownership."


Well, I got back in last night with no problems. Gotta say Orlando's security set-up is much better than the one in Philly, at least the one in Terminal E in Philly. It took us about 45 minutes to get through security leaving Philly, not because it was better than in Orlando but because there were only two lines. In Orlando there were about six and it went very quickly.

Anyway, it was nice to see the family and see Adam. I hadn't seen him in 2 years and he'll be three in February. He's very cute but I think he's allowed to do a lot of things that made me cringe. I can't say anything because I have no kids and parents really don't want to hear stuff from childfree people, but I was surprised by a few of the things my SIL allowed him to do -- bounce on my mother's month-old sofa in his shoes, run around in the restaurant, and her comment about how all homes with a three-year-old have crayon marks on the wall. (My mother said ours didn't and that we "wouldn't have dared" LOL!) He is a cutie, though, and very friendly. He likes to do things by himself and if somebody tries to help him too much he says, "Baby do!" and wants to do it himself.

So, my sister, Tim and I stayed at the Extended Stay in Lake Mary so we had some down time, which is always necessary in such cases. As usual, my mother cooked a huge Christmas dinner and every time we were at the house she was getting us to eat more. She is a darn good cook, to be sure. The day after Christmas we went out to Blue Springs to see the manitees, and I've never seen so many in at once. There were a few there with there little babies and a few with what I call "teenagers." They weren't the tiny brown babies but they weren't full-grown either and were still hanging pretty close to Mama. We also noticed a gator farther out and a clueless large bird swimming around near him. The gator must have already ate because the bird lived, but we were wondering if we were going to witness a massacre. Nothing like a Christmas Massacre for the families watching the manitees.

Sunday night Maureen (sister), Patrick (brother), Tim and I went to see National Treasure. It was pretty decent -- not spectacular but entertaining and fun, and I'll probably buy it when it's out on DVD. I think we saw it the last night it was in the theater, or at least in THAT theater. Then we went out and had a few drinks and appetizers and went back to the motel. Tim and I left the next afternoon and Maureen is leaving tomorrow.

It would have been nice if I hadn't come down with a cold a day before we left, but it was OK. The worst part was flying up there, because I was already congested and when we landed my ears wouldn't pop. A few hours later, after much nose-blowing, they finally broke up inside, but it hurt and I couldn't hear much of anything when we first got in. Coming back it wasn't a problem and they behaved normally. I also thought it was ironic that it was cold and rainy the whole time we were there and only got sunny on the day we left. Oh well, what can you do. At least I lived there long enough to not think it's sunny and warm year-round and brought appopriate clothing. Some Christmases it's very warm, others it's not.

So it's back to work tomorrow. I took an extra day off so that I could rest and unpack and generally do nothing for a day. I cleaned and decluttered a little before I left so that I'd come home to a relatively decent home, and that definitely helped yesterday. I came home and Tim gave me the DVD player he bought me and the extended version of LOTR: ROTK so I hooked that up and watched it last night. There were a few things in the movie that now make more sense after seeing what was cut out of the theatrical version: why Aragorn looks so surprised to see Arwen; how Sauron knows Aragorn's name and what he looks like; why Faramir and Eowyn look so chummy at the end, etc.