Christmas is back in the box, and the return to normal begins tomorrow when I go back to work. The kids will be off school until next Monday, though. The break has been pretty low-key, not much travel, not much drama, which is good. The last week at work before break was pretty busy but I left Friday at around lunch time, and I’ve been off since then. We’ve kept sort-of busy over break, although nothing earth-shattering, and we weren’t really busy all day long much either. I finally did some Christmas shopping for Beth on Monday the 24th with the kids; we got her a crock-pot pressure cooker and a new electric skillet (yes, it was what she wanted) then we looked all over town trying to find somewhere for lunch that was open on Christmas eve. Our church had a Christmas Eve service later on. We did presents on Christmas morning. Alex’s big haul was a smartphone. That and a couple game accessories was all he wanted. I’m keeping him on the same plan so that won’t cost me any more than it does now, at least. Missy got a bunch of Dr. Who merchandise, some art supplies, some clothes, and some DVDs. Natalie got mostly clothes, poetry books, and her big thing was a weighted blanket. Beth’s haul was mostly the cookware. Mine was some clothes (a collared shirt, socks and underwear) most notably a leather jacket. I love that she wanted to get me a new jacket since I ripped the suede one last year but I really don’t like the jacket she got me. Anyway, we had a big Christmas dinner at home (turkey and everything) afterwards with Mary Jane over, then in the evening we all went to see the “Aquaman” movie and drove out to look at the Christmas lights up in town and in the park downtown. The day after Christmas Beth took the girls out to get their nails done, so while they were out Alex and I went to Fort Wayne to visit Mom/Grandma. She is declining even more, it seems, this time I’m pretty sure she didn’t know who either one of us were and she wouldn’t speak to us or get up from the chair she was in. She didn’t seem to know what to do with the card or presents (the Pettits sent her a box of chocolate candies, and we got her a new blanket) that we gave her. Thursday the whole family went out to Pottery Bayou. Missy found a Tardis bank so she painted that, Alex did a cupcake jar, Nat did a paintbrush tote, Beth did a Christmas tree with a space for votive candles in it, and I for the first time ever painted something myself. I did a ball ornament, painted a little decorated Christmas tree in a pine forest with a big star in the sky overhead. Missy had guitar lessons in the afternoon. On Friday, we all headed to Michigan for the day to visit family. We stopped to see Judy and Neill first at the lake house, where Beth did some additional prep for dinner, then to the Pinksters’ where the whole family gathered for a big dinner and dirty bingo afterwards. We all had brought something or other (I brought the half a globe I won at Beth’s work dirty bingo, plus a Moe’s gift card) and Beth and I both ended up with some sort of art supplies which the girls really liked and took home. On Saturday, sorry to say, I returned the leather jacket. To lessen that blow I took some of the money for it and went shopping. I didn’t find anything I liked a Kohl’s where she got the jacket so I went to Goodwill next and found two really nice long-sleeve shirts for work for a total of $6. Missy was invited to a murder mystery sleepover at her friend’s church on Sunday, which she really enjoyed. She’s been pretty fed up with some of the kids in our church’s youth group lately and I wonder if she’d prefer to go to the youth group there. Or both of them maybe, since I think they meet some other time than Wednesdays. After we picked up Missy on Monday morning we all headed to Indy for the day to go shopping at IKEA. Mostly because Nat needs a new dresser, but we would up spending a lot more than just for the dresser. But we did get a new dresser for her which seems really nice. We also picked up some cookware and candles and batteries and mats and stuff and things. Just right back home after shopping. Afterwards we spent New Year’s Eve at the Jones house, also with the Lancasters and a few other families we don’t know. We had all the standard fare, plus played a bunch of card games most notably Cockroach Poker which is really fun and we liked a lot. There were so many kids running around that anything other than card games like that wasn’t going to happen. We stayed until just after midnight….Today is New Year’s Day. I ran in the Winona Lake Polar Dash 4-miler this afternoon, finished in 35:30, 3rd in my age group. There must have been around 70 people running. I started running again over break just before Christmas, it’s amazing how much I’ve lost since the Veterans’ Half 6 weeks ago. About 4.5 miles was all I could manage…..otherwise today I got the Christmas tree and decorations packed up, and got to work on assembling Nat’s new dresser….also over the break I’ve decided to get something done with the ceiling in the living room. When we were having the roof done in 2014 the drywall on the ceiling was damaged a bit so I repaired it and mudded over it, one time, and never sanded or painted. I know Beth has wanted me to get to it for a long long time, so now I’m doing it. And while I’m at it, I’m also fixing several other imperfections in the ceiling and walls so we can get things ready to paint. The house desperately needs that, everywhere. We can’t do it all at once though, so I’m going to start with the ceiling in the living room because that’ll be the hard part and take the longest. So, I’ve been setting up a scaffold out of sawhorses and an old closet door and getting out the sanding attachment on the Shop-vac….