phew.

Hey!  We survived Christmas!

Never again.

We drove down to Poulsbo Friday (3 hours), spent the night with J's mom and brother, drove to Port Orchard (45 min) and spent the night with my folks on Saturday, drove back up to Bellingham on Sunday (3 hours) so I could work at 5:30 Monday morning, drove back down to Port Orchard Monday afternoon (3 hours), to Poulsbo and back Christmas Eve (1 1/2 hours), to Poulsbo and back Christmas morning (1 1/2 hours), and then back up to Bellingham (3 hours) Christmas night so Justin could work at 5 am the next morning.

I'm no mathematician, but I *think* we spent over 15 hours in the car.  We looked bewilderedly at each other several times this past week, as in, why the heck are we doing this, again?

It's weird to say this, but I think I feel more like I'm on vacation now that Christmas is over and I'm back to work than I did when I was off.  So relieved to have all of it done with.  And -- we'll make far more laid-back plans next year.  Ack. 

Here's a few pics from Christmas (I have no excuses for the boys, who were on a real tear). 





It snowed -- the first time I've seen snow fall on Christmas Day!





We got some fun new games for Christmas -- Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne, and Chess.  I'll probably write about their magnificence soon -- we're really enjoying them.

Hope you all had a good Christmas -- will write more soon.  For now -- time to go to bed and finish recuperating.  :)