Post Ho Ho

So here we are, looking at the aftermath of another Christmas. The relatively warm rains came in yesterday and cleared away most of the snow, which by that point was looking like a sad, poop-flavored sno-cone.

Christmas Day was spent snowed in (since we couldn't get the cars out of the driveway before Friday). Doug, Ann, Gavin & Michelle came over for breakfast, prezzies and family time. Then our family visitors took off to other locales before the new snow came in. We just hung out at home, then Raechelle and I prepared a nice sit-down Christmas dinner for the four of us. Ham, broccoli and mashed potatoes. Yummy.

By Friday, being snowed in had lost much of its romance, and it felt more like being shackled to one spot with manacles of ice and snow (which would actually be pretty easy to break, when you think about it, but I'm not being literal). Fortunately, with some digging and some gumption (gotta love the word gumption), I managed to get Sportacus up the hill and onto the skating rink of our street. Once out onto the main roads, things were okay. I met Ron at Elliott Bay Brewery for lunch - it was just the ticket to be able to stir a bit less crazily.

I got back to find that Rae had been able to get Ruby up to the street as well, and she took off for a few hours for some dinner and Jamie time while the kids and I did an old-skool pizza-movie Friday night, just the three of us.

(The girl & me at Bamboo Garden, Seattle)

Yesterday was kind of a trial by fire of sorts. Up to SCCA in the morning so that Rae could show Dan around the shoot location for a PSA project we're working on. The shoot I will have to miss because I'm flying to WV to meet the future in-laws -- but more on that later). Then back home for a Goodwill run and grocery shopping for dinner. Then back downtown to Bamboo Garden for a holiday dinner with my stepmom, brother & SIL, siste, neice, and our four troops. Then Kayleigh stayed with the others for a production of Wizard of Oz at the Seattle Children's Theater while Tyler, Rae & I came back home to clean up and prep for company.

Is your head spinning yet? If not, it will be...

So at 6PM we welcomed Steve (Rae's ex) and Stephanie (his girlfriend) over for a nice dinner of pesto, salad, garlic bread and wine (and finished off with Jamie's cookie donations to our household - thanks Jamie!). We laughed, we chatted, and we all got along really well - they are both fantastic people and I'm happy to know them. How crazy is that?

At about 8PM, Stephanie left for home and Steve left to go pick up Heather from the airport. Rae was hoping to have had more time to visit, but Heather's flight from Tucson had been delayed. Meanwhile, Gavin dropped Kayleigh back at home. At about 9:30PM Steve showed back up with Ms. H. herself, and there was much rejoicing. The kids were really social too. It was good to finally meet after blogrolling each other and being Facebook acquaintances for so long.

At about 11:15, We packed Rae's bags into Sportacus, dropped Heather and Ruby off at Stephanie's (where H is staying), and I drove Rae to the airport for her red-eye to Houston. She texted me shortly after 5AM Seattle time to let me know she'd landed safely and had actually been bumped to First Class (no upgrade necessary).

After sharing my home and bed with my now-fiancée for the last 2 months straight, it was odd sleeping alone last night, but I will re-adapt to the state of temporary single-parenthood once again and have a nice holiday week. Already the calendar is filling up, so very likely the next six days will fly by, and by Friday evening I will be in Pittsburgh being retrieved by said fiancée for the three-hour drive into West Virginia. There I will spend another six days, meeting my future in-laws, helping unpack from their move, and likely having more snowy fun.

And that's just the opening salvo for our already-packed January calendar. It's not even here yet, and already 2009 promises to be a very active year.