Call off the search parties folks, I'm back (for the second time).
That's right, we're 
back from our Christmas vacay at "Heaven on Gulf Blvd," which, much like the REAL heaven, lacked internet access (that's my guess, anyway). Internet access difficulties aside, the holiday season was completely fabulous; spent the same way so many of my trips to Florida tend to be spent - helping my mom do all of the things she typically needs to get done. This time around, said "things" resulted in us pulling an all-nighter on Sunday as we put the finishing touches on everything that needed to be done prior to her vacation. All-nighters with Mom are fun... turns out that we both get a little silly after 20+ hours without sleep. :-) It also turns out that staying awake all night makes me the most chipper person in the car on the way to the airport at 4 am... and the most incoherent person at 6 am as the flight attendant is explaining why our flight out of Pensacola has been delayed (I'm still a bit unclear on that one).
back from our Christmas vacay at "Heaven on Gulf Blvd," which, much like the REAL heaven, lacked internet access (that's my guess, anyway). Internet access difficulties aside, the holiday season was completely fabulous; spent the same way so many of my trips to Florida tend to be spent - helping my mom do all of the things she typically needs to get done. This time around, said "things" resulted in us pulling an all-nighter on Sunday as we put the finishing touches on everything that needed to be done prior to her vacation. All-nighters with Mom are fun... turns out that we both get a little silly after 20+ hours without sleep. :-) It also turns out that staying awake all night makes me the most chipper person in the car on the way to the airport at 4 am... and the most incoherent person at 6 am as the flight attendant is explaining why our flight out of Pensacola has been delayed (I'm still a bit unclear on that one).Did I get sidetracked? Maybe - not sure if this had a true beginning or end point. Anyway, as I was saying, this totally terrific vacay ended up being like so many of my previous trips to Florida - with great intentions to see some friends and catch up which never actually pan out. With the exception of the one person who seems to understand how the Mack women work when they get together and knows how to make sure our visits actually take place, I didn't get to see any of the people I was supposed to. Long story short - Shannon, Barbara, Heather, Ms. Buckley and anyone else I missed - MY BAD - my days in FL flew by faster than I would have ever thought possible.
Speaking of the holidays, I'm sure some of you are wondering if and/or what I decided to get my hubby as a gift. Wait for it... a ping-pong paddle and ping-pong balls. It's true - I wouldn't lie to you guys. Explanation: there's a ping-pong table at his work and sometimes he mentions how he wants to play, but can't find any balls ("that's what she said") or a paddle - so now he has his own that he can keep in his locker. A bit crazy I know, but it shows that I listen when he tells me various things about his day, right? That's gotta stand for something.
As for everyone else, I spent so much time trying to figure out my transportation issues, what to do about my Mom's birthday (12/24) and other various things that I neglected to get gifts for the other fabulous people in my life (seems like there's been a lot of forgetting stuff around here on my part, huh?)...SO if you end up with a gift or card in the mail from me in the next few days, please consider it to be a New Year's gift and not a Christmas gift (thereby making it on-time)! AWESOME!
