It’s been a while since I’ve written anything. I’ll blame it on the holidays.

Early last week my wife and I both started to feel a bit better after battling colds for the better part of several weeks. We had originally decided to stay home for Christmas and have a quiet day for just the two of us. My younger sister had invited us down to her family’s place in Southern California for Christmas, but we declined since we’d been sick and needed to get a lot of things done around the house. As Christmas got closer and we started to feel better we decided to change our plans and drive down to their home on Christmas Eve. It’s a 320 mile drive door to door, but it wasn’t so bad. We didn’t have much traffic to slow us down so it only took us about 5 hours with a couple of stops along the way.

Our visit was really nice. Getting to spend time with our niece (7) and nephew (10) is always a lot of fun. They’ve been wanting a dog for several years now, but it was only recently that Dad finally gave in and let them get one. The day before we arrived they picked up their golden retriever puppy for the first time and were having fun trying to figure it all out. My sister gets the chore of making sure no potty accidents happen, and the kids are in charge of playing with the puppy. It sounds like they have a pretty good deal. They were very excited to show off the new addition to their family. It will be a Christmas for them to remember.

Our visit only lasted 48 hours as we had to head back home the day after Christmas. My sister’s family was heading out on a 7 day Mexican Riviera cruise, and we had to get home to take care of the things we’d been putting off. Now we’re under the gun since we’re leaving on our cruise on New Year’s Day.

Holidays are supposed to be relaxing, but we seem to be busier than ever.