The best thing about yesterday...

... is that I never have to do it again.

The best thing about today? I have a lunch date with Lara. And also? It's Sunday so the new Target sale ad is out. I was going to wait until after Christmas to try to buy a new Christmas tree but they're on sale this week at Target. The pretty, pre-lit ones. Hmmmmmmm.
It would be really cool to have a new tree up and ready to decorate when Bean comes home tomorrow. We could even bake cookies or something. I have been actively unpacking in the living room and am making progress. If I do not come home from my lunch date (and Target) and take a long nap I might finish the living room today. That would rock. I was up late with the husband last night, though, and was up at early-as-fuck-thirty this morning for work.

My father in law is not settling in well at all. My husband and his mom are more or less inconsolable. From a "social worker" standpoint everything looks pretty typical and the nursing home is nice and clean and they seem to be pretty good about cleaning and changing the patients. From a family member standpoint it is scary and he is not getting individualized attention and he's alone and scared and wants to come home.
Everything that can be done is being done and it will all be over soon... it's sad that that is the most comforting thing I can say to either of them.

Right, so Merry Christmas?

I have completely lost track of who I have and have not bought gifts for. I bought the coolest thing for my brother (who is seriously impossible to shop for) and then I drew his name in the family drawing... I should back up - we meet Christmas Eve in the afternoon with my mom's family at my grandmother's house (well, my house now) for a late lunch and then we exchange gifts with them. We draw names at Thanksgiving and only have to buy for one person. It's sort of nice. Then later that night we go to my parent's house, minus the grandmother and the uncle we don't like (who is married to the aunt we do like) to exchange gifts as a family. So this year I drew my brother's name and need to buy two gifts for him... which would be fine if he weren't so impossible. He's 20, buys clothes at thrift shops, has very eccentric taste in music and doesn't read or watch DVD's. The husband drew the uncle that we don't like and so I also have to come up with something for him. Maybe a nice sweater or something. Bah humbug.

Here's the other thing I don't like about Christmas - and then I'll stop complaining about it, I promise. You have to buy gifts for people you don't want to talk to, let alone spend money on. That uncle, my sister, my dad (the bad one, not the good one). And then there are people I want to buy gifts for, but I don't want them to feel like they're obligated to reciprocate.

I need to cook something. A ham or some other wintery comfort food. Maybe some chili... We bought a membership to Sam's Club yesterday - that was our afternoon diversion. It was way to early in the day to start drinking heavily so we went in for some retail therapy. It was also "sample Saturday" so we got a snacky bonus, too. We were fairly restrained in our purchasing, but I did buy a ginormous box of brownie mix. The husband was like a small child at FAO Schwartz. He saw a gallon jug of Frank's Hot Sauce and I thought he was going to break out in song. As diversions go it was pretty good. Strange, I know, but effective.

I think I am going to buy that tree. And I'm going to focus on the living room today. We could really use some holiday cheer at home. And while I'm at the Super Target I'll buy something hearty that needs to be simmered for dinner.