Merry Christmas!

This post will cover a little of this and a little of that. Primarily because I am at my grandparent's house currently and internet access is a little... shaky. The good news is - they have it. The bad news is, it's pretty slow and is really only set up on their computer. Because of this I'm not going to bother to try to break this into multiple posts or get pictures up right now. That will just have to wait until I'm back in high-speed territory.

First off, last Friday Ryan took me to a new contestant bar for the best bar burger in baltimore competition - The Perry Hall Inn. I have to give him props - it was much better than the first place. It was definitely a dive bar and the clientele was... interesting, but really that's the kind of place I like, so it works. It's also about 5 minutes from the house which is good for me, but possibly not the best place to make an after work hangout because it's further from other people. Mostly I think Ryan wants it in the running because he used to be a regular there and has some pull with the staff. Hey, that's alright with me. I like when bartenders are nice. And Ryan's told me some fun stories about the place, so we'll see. The search will continue because two bars is just not enough to base a competition off of, but it's certainly in the running.

Then Saturday morning, I took off for the farm (aka my grandparent's in Indiana.) I am used to driving on off days (the day before most people take off or the day after most have to be back at work), but for whatever reason I chose to drive on the Saturday before Christmas this year. Let me tell you - it was a bit insane and I now know why I drive on off days. I have never seen the roads like this and was amazed how many people were at the oasis. There were literally no parking spots and lines out the door. Needless to say, Irie and I pretty much drove straight through without stopping.

Yesterday was a relatively low key day. Just some shopping and cooking and general catching up with the fam. And then today was our big Deetz family Christmas. I got the great task of dressing my cousin, Davey, up as Santa Clause (pictures will follow) in the antiquated santa suit. Despite a few tears in the suit and a pillow that was a little too square to be a belly, the little girls (all under the age of three) all seemed to enjoy getting to see Santa in action. Ever since then Lily's been telling everyone (with a note of disbelief), "Santa came today." It's definitely more fun to have little ones around at Christmas time.

Tomorrow morning will be the smaller family Christmas (Dad, Zander, Lily, Carl, Kathleen and me) and then I suspect we will be found playing some ice hockey out on the pond. In theory the ice is thick enough to stand on, but Carl did fall in earlier today. Dad claims he wasn't listening to instruction. I forsee some hypothermia in at least one of our futures. :-)

Some favorite memories from the festivities this week so far include:

• Lily standing at the basement door looking outside calling, "Santa, come inside and give me presents. I have a special donut for you. Santa...."
• Lucy, after receiving a stuffed reindeer from Santa, telling her parents, "Santa brought me a reindeer. That's what I've always wanted."
• My dad receiving a shirt from Santa that says, "Mom likes me best." A long standing family joke.
• My grandma asking me if I met my new boy at church. And me responding, "No. Actually it was at a pub crawl."
• And just the general way that stories spread around this place. It's simply amazing.

Can't wait to share pictures and the future stories to come. In the meantime, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good-night.