Bring in the new year
Christmas is over for 2015 and all I can say is "Thank God". I know Christmas is supposed to be this wonderful, magical, enchanting time of year, but for me, it's the opposite of that. It's an incredible amount of work which makes it very stressful. Plus the fact that it takes place during the coldest time of year adds an additional layer of dislike. Yes, I know I'm a scrooge.
Don't get me wrong...I love spending time with my family especially my dad. The problem is that our family is spread out all over the world and our family celebrations are really sparse. I envy those families who are able to spend Christmas together at home. I hope that some day we can have one of those big family Christmases including my brother in Oklahoma and his family who we haven't spent a Christmas with in ages.
After spending weeks picking out gifts for everyone I trusted FedEx to get the packages to Idaho on-time. They failed me. Not only did they fail me, they didn't care that they failed me.
I am glad to report that they yesterday (10 days after they were shipped) one of the packages made it back to our house. Let me tell you about its journey...Colorado Springs to Oakland, Oakland to Salt Lake, Salt Lake to Idaho Falls, Idaho Falls to Memphis, Memphis back to Colorado Springs. Jillian, this one is being shipped via the Post Office to you today so maybe you'll have Christmas some time next week. We'll keep our fingers crossed to see if the other box ever shows up. FedEx refuses to give me a refund for the service they didn't provide. They said they suspended their money back guarantee last week. However, after looking up their policy on their website, it says the guarantee is suspended if the package arrives within 90 minutes of the time promised. This one box is about 10,080 minutes past the promised time. Don't worry, the fight is on with FedEx.
We had a great Christmas despite the fact that there were limited gifts. We did do a last minute Christmas shopping trip on Christmas Eve to buy a couple gifts so that everyone had a package or two to open. Irv got a selfie stick so we got Gramps and Bob to pose for a picture.
Then we went down to the Snake River Greenbelt and had a little more fun with it. Yes, it was cold.
We did a little cooking while up there. My goal is always to stock my dad's freezer with homemade meals in individual size containers. He should be set for a couple months.
Our flight out of Salt Lake was on Sunday morning so we decided to drive there on Saturday afternoon and spend the night. We went out to dinner at a fantastic brew pub, then we wanted to go visit the Mormon Temple.
I'm not a Mormon, but let me tell you this was one of the most breathtaking things I have ever seen. The square was filled with lights and luminarios and all kinds of Christmas displays.
Of course we could not get close to the temple, but it was lit up and looked so amazing.
Our flights home on Sunday went very smoothly; however, my brother Bob did not have that luck on Monday when he left. His flight out of Denver was cancelled because of weather in other parts of the country so he ended up spending two entire days at the Denver airport waiting for a flight home. He has the worst travel luck and I have a feeling we may never see him at Christmas again.
I had a really cool gift from Irv when I got home--Pioneer Woman cookware. I have wanted red pots and pans for such a long time. I love them!
So now life if almost back to "normal". I'm back to work, it's New Year's Eve which means I'll be at work until the accounting department has balanced and closed out the books for the year. Why, you ask? Just in case their computers decide to quit working...one member of IT is required to stay and since I'm the department head I'm going to stay myself. I did bring my gym clothes though so I can at least go down to the gym in the basement and do something useful while I wait for them to finish up.
No New Year's Eve plans for us, but I plan to visit Cheyenne Mountain State Park for the "first hike of the year" which they are offering tomorrow morning. What better way to start the new year than on a mountain trail?
What are your plans?
Don't get me wrong...I love spending time with my family especially my dad. The problem is that our family is spread out all over the world and our family celebrations are really sparse. I envy those families who are able to spend Christmas together at home. I hope that some day we can have one of those big family Christmases including my brother in Oklahoma and his family who we haven't spent a Christmas with in ages.
I am glad to report that they yesterday (10 days after they were shipped) one of the packages made it back to our house. Let me tell you about its journey...Colorado Springs to Oakland, Oakland to Salt Lake, Salt Lake to Idaho Falls, Idaho Falls to Memphis, Memphis back to Colorado Springs. Jillian, this one is being shipped via the Post Office to you today so maybe you'll have Christmas some time next week. We'll keep our fingers crossed to see if the other box ever shows up. FedEx refuses to give me a refund for the service they didn't provide. They said they suspended their money back guarantee last week. However, after looking up their policy on their website, it says the guarantee is suspended if the package arrives within 90 minutes of the time promised. This one box is about 10,080 minutes past the promised time. Don't worry, the fight is on with FedEx.
We had a great Christmas despite the fact that there were limited gifts. We did do a last minute Christmas shopping trip on Christmas Eve to buy a couple gifts so that everyone had a package or two to open. Irv got a selfie stick so we got Gramps and Bob to pose for a picture.
Then we went down to the Snake River Greenbelt and had a little more fun with it. Yes, it was cold.
For Christmas dinner we did something new this year. We had Dickey's BBQ cater the entire meal. Cajun fried turkey, baked potato casserole, green beans, corn bread stuffing, yeast rolls. It was delicious! That will be a new tradition for us to that everyone can enjoy the holiday rather than spending the day in the kitchen. You may notice the crowns on our heads. We have adopted a new tradition introduced to us by Adam--crackers which always have the crown inside.
Jillian and I had a little fun with SnapChat in the evening.
We did a little cooking while up there. My goal is always to stock my dad's freezer with homemade meals in individual size containers. He should be set for a couple months.
Our flight out of Salt Lake was on Sunday morning so we decided to drive there on Saturday afternoon and spend the night. We went out to dinner at a fantastic brew pub, then we wanted to go visit the Mormon Temple.
I'm not a Mormon, but let me tell you this was one of the most breathtaking things I have ever seen. The square was filled with lights and luminarios and all kinds of Christmas displays.
Of course we could not get close to the temple, but it was lit up and looked so amazing.
Our flights home on Sunday went very smoothly; however, my brother Bob did not have that luck on Monday when he left. His flight out of Denver was cancelled because of weather in other parts of the country so he ended up spending two entire days at the Denver airport waiting for a flight home. He has the worst travel luck and I have a feeling we may never see him at Christmas again.
I had a really cool gift from Irv when I got home--Pioneer Woman cookware. I have wanted red pots and pans for such a long time. I love them!
So now life if almost back to "normal". I'm back to work, it's New Year's Eve which means I'll be at work until the accounting department has balanced and closed out the books for the year. Why, you ask? Just in case their computers decide to quit working...one member of IT is required to stay and since I'm the department head I'm going to stay myself. I did bring my gym clothes though so I can at least go down to the gym in the basement and do something useful while I wait for them to finish up.
No New Year's Eve plans for us, but I plan to visit Cheyenne Mountain State Park for the "first hike of the year" which they are offering tomorrow morning. What better way to start the new year than on a mountain trail?
What are your plans?
Comments
I miss having Christmas with everybody as well. It is difficult with everybody spread out. We need to think about how this can happen.
I see people trail running with a selfie stick. I don't know how they don't end up sprawled over pile of rocks.