Tag Archives: christmas

Yikes. Just tried getting caught up on my LJ friends list. Urg. Well, I tried.

Everyone’s asleep, even Hobkin.

But I’m wide awake.

Got back from seeing Matthew’s folks yesterday. The drive was a bit grueling toward the end so I spent most of my birthday crashed out on the couch, recovering.

We sent Hobkin to his godmother’s for “Christmas camp” (she has 10 skunks herself–many of them rescues) during the time we were out of town and I was quite anxious about him. But, as it turns out, he had a blast playing with her crew and, though quite happy to see us, from all reports had a great time. It’s such a relief having someone we trust so completely to watch over him for us.

Then we drove to Illinois. Straight. Twelve and a half hours in a car. We made excellent time, though. Showed up on their doorstep (forgetting about the time zone change) at 6:45 AM. Heh. Ooops. They came shuffling to the door in their housecoats, looking rather bleary. It was very cute. Did I mention that I really love Matthew’s parents? We shooed them back to bed and did the Christmas elf thing, unpacking all the presents and setting them under the tree.

Matthew kept his nocturnal hours for the most part, so I got to spend a lot of time chatting with his parents in the morning as we waited for him to wake up. The recent economy has not been good for them. They had a lot of investments that have lost a lot of money. I’m worried about them, especially since Matthew’s father isn’t in very good health.

They talked a lot about moving, which they need to do. The house is too big for them to maintain and they have too much stuff. And therein lies the problem. They really need to get rid of stuff, and they’re having a very hard time doing so. So much of it has sentimental value, plus Matthew inherited his packratitis from them.

I’m also really sad at the idea of Christmas not at that house. I learned to love Christmas in the house Matthew grew up in. It’s going to be hard when that changes. But Christmas is where the loved ones are. No matter where Matthew’s parents end up, it’ll be joyful.

Because of the funky date situation (Christmas on Wednesday, agh), and that we were on the road during Christmas proper, we opted to prolong Christmas (we’re still in “Christmas” actually). We opened our presents on Saturday. I loved everything I got!

Continue reading →