The Whirlwind that was Christmas and New Years

We find ourselves safe and sound back in London, and I am already looking forward to sleeping in this weekend. If it weren't for telecommuting, I'd really be in trouble. We arrived around 8:30 local time yesterday morning and somehow managed to get our bags stuffed into a taxi and headed home. The day was rather lazy - we unpacked most of the bags, although we haven't exactly put everything away yet. Mich and Maggie took a three hour nap, while Dalton and I vegged - me with a book, Dalton with the Gameboy (both a blessing and a curse). The kids were in bed at 8, with Mich and I going down before 9. I woke up first this morning... at 9:30. So, we were clearly tired.

I don't want to recap everything that's gone on the past week or so, but overall it was enjoyable, and very tiring. I am sure there are those who think we could have and should have spent our time differently than we did. I can only apologise to anyone feeling that way. With limited time, we tried to make room for all our friends and family, and we didn't succeed - there were still those whom we failed to see at all, and those with whom our time was quite limited.

At any rate, I personally am very much a "traditionalist", and I enjoyed going to IPC for the candlelight service of nine lessons and carols on Christmas Eve. We've been going there as a family for some twenty-odd years now, and I still cherish it as a valuable part of my Christmas. The family has greatly expanded from when we first started going back then and we needed basically two whole pews to accommodate us this year.

Dalton and Maggie really enjoyed seeing their stateside friends, and Dalton says "Cully-cun-moo" to his craziest friend ever. Maggie gives hugs to all.

New Year's Eve was an interesting one to say the least. To be honest, Mich and I haven't had a significant New Year's Eve in several years. There was the year we went to a New Years party, and we sat around talking with friends until around 2 in the morning - but nobody realised that New Years had come until 12:30. Recently, with kids, we'll have heavy hors d'oeuvres in the evening, manage to stay up until midnight, and then go to bed. This year, we got to blow kisses to each other from across the plane.

I haven't gotten around to making my New Year's resolutions yet, at least partly due to the hectic pace of the last few weeks. I actually do make resolutions, although, like most, I don't always succeed in keeping them. However, I do like to sit and think about them, and use the resolution process as a way to reflect on the year past and perform a "self-assessment" as it were. I am thinking about resolving to post more often - although I hesitate to do so, as some of you out there might hold me accountable to that.