home

I'm home for Christmas. And, to quote God (you know this will be a good one), "It is good!"

We have more family to see, more hours to drive back and forth to get all the celebrations in within these 4 days, but we are where we need to be.

My heart is still. The bills and debt and unfilled-out, tearing-me-down-slowly paperwork are all back in Chicago. They can't haunt me or frighten me here. They have no power to steal my joy here. I will deal with them again when we return (way too soon), but as for now, my heart is still.

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Already, if I wasn't before, I am feeling the holiday spirit. Our cute, little apartment screamed "Christmas is coming" (in a non-tacky completely-tacky(?) way all December long. Our advent calendar was literally a daily surprise and kept us satisfied with a little pre-holiday treat each day to whet our appetite. Not that we needed it; the mound of presents under our tree was giving us enough Christmas spirit alone. We couldn't even wait 7 whole days to open our presents, we just tore into them last week. (And, boy, did Mr. Allen win best-Christmas-gifts-giving-ever this year... Or was it most-gifts-ever? You know both would get me going. And 17 presents later, well, if he didn't have my heart before...) :]

Our plans this weekend:
- 3 present-opening celebrations
- 1 family bowling extravaganza (seriously, extravaganza: snacks, costumes, prizes)
- 1 celebrate-the-bride-to-be-dress-pick-up-appointment with the best friend
- 3 readings of THE Christmas story (at least)
- 1 Christmas day church service
- 1 movie at the theater (or 2 if the first one is depressing, because it's Christmas, and we just can't have depressing movies ending our day)
- 2 pizza dinners (can't go wrong here)
- a WHOLE lot of cuddling, laughing, sharing, living, eating, being with the ones I love

Yes, I'm HOME for Christmas.

And there's no where else I'd rather be.