Wow the Holidays went Fast!

This year the holidays seemed to consume more of my time then usual. Work has been extra busy so I picked up a little extra time. I worked the Christmas Eve as the on-call person. I was extremely lucky to have that position this year. My friend who does the schedule thought I was doing her a favor and really I feel like she did me the favor. I am lucky to work with a group of women who are able to work through difficult things without sacrificing another’s happiness. Because I work in an area of nursing that requires us to work over all the holidays sometimes it is very difficult to fit work in and be able to visit with family and friends. Lynn my hat is off to you because you make it work every year.

I was able to make it to see all our family members unfortunately Gerard was not. I feel like he gets cheated every year because unlike me he has to work unless it is his regular scheduled day off. Sunday we went to his sister's house and had a great time. Although we did get suck in about 3 hours worth of traffic that made the trip about 4 1/2 hours long when it usually that's us about 1 hour and 15 minutes. This is where we exchanged gifts and you guessed it Gerard's mother got a GPS. We all tortured her since Thanksgiving that she was not getting nor needed a GPS. Honestly, I am glad she got it because they do take quite a few road trips to here, there and everywhere (Ah to be retired).

AM (That is Ann-Marie's nickname) got a digital picture frame and all the attachments for it. I wanted to give her something that I knew she would like and want. Along with this gift I spent 10 hours at Wal-Mart scanning old photographs of Gerard and me onto a CD for her. Gerard hated the idea but I loved it. Now AM has a bunch of pictures of him. I also scanned every old picture of my family and had them put onto CD for each of my sisters. The grand total for each CD with 200+ pictures was $2.47 but the memories were priceless.

On Christmas morning I opened gifts with Gerard when he got home from work and boy was Santa good to me. Then I proceeded to my sister’s house we all go there because Aristotle is still so little and she is 8 1/2 months pregnant. My Mother and Jackie's in-laws were staying over at her house for Christmas morning. Well the funny thing that happened was when Aristotle woke up he came down the stairs all excited and started asking "Is Aunt Joy here?" not "Did Santa come?" They have it on video and apparently it is really funny.

I hope everyone had a healthy and happy holiday. I am not sure exactly what next year will bring but I know in my heart that good things will happen. My family is growing in many ways I will soon be an Aunt for the eighth time and I am still very excited. When Aristotle was born we were all afraid that there was going to be such a large gap in the ages of the cousins but now my baby will fit right in between Aristotle and the new little guy and nothing makes me happier.

P.S. I would have posted sooner but I have been having a problem with my Internet connection.