I am caught up with about half of the journals I have favorited. I have too much to do today to continue reading. I'll have to catch up with the rest of you later.

Today, I should do the following:

-Decide on Thanksgiving dinner menu. The men finally decided that Fried Chicken with all the trimmings was preferred over lasagna with garlic bread and salad. (We don't do turkey as Nana and Grandma don't really like it and the Hubband is terrified of carving it.)

-Work on hand-made Christmas cards because that's what I decided to do and damn it I'm going to do it.

-Clean out Big Boy's closet and sort out all manner of Christmas presents to prove that I am, indeed, 98% finished with our holiday shopping.

-Decide what supplies are needed for wrapping of said Christmas gifts.

-Shoot over to Hallmark and enjoy purchasing far more wrapping than I need.

-Work on remainder of homework with Little Boy.

-Get ready to start normal-life-work-week.

-Start wrapping presents mentioned above.

-Make grocery list for Thanksgiving dinner.

-Start To-Do list for Christmas party (now less than 3 weeks away!)

-Plan what I will eat and when I will exercise this week because I just had a pint of Chunky Monkey for breakfast and that doesn't work if I want to be buff and beautiful. (Instead of just beautiful!)

-Drop dead of exhaustion.

I think I'll be lucky if I get any of this done.

I had worried that spending that much time with the Hubband's family would cause stress that would push us apart, but I find the opposite has happened. Not only do I feel like I've bonded with his family, but the time to go at our own pace has brought us closer. We rarely have those moments when there's nothing better to do than love each other and this vacation was filled with them.

And I know he appreciates my making an effort to not let the family push my buttons.

Example:

The scene is Florida Niece's condo on the afternoon following her wedding. The entire family is gathered to watch her open her gifts. (Easily over 50 or 60 packages.) I offered to help by writing the gift information in the giant wedding notebook thingy. There were several presents without cards and one card without a present that we found on the floor of our truck. (We carted presents over after the wedding.)

Sister-In-Law: "Caribou, keep that card separate because we're not sure which present it goes with."

Caribou: "No problem."

Sister-In-Law: "Caribou, don't write any name next to that package in the book because we don't know for sure who gave it to her. I think it might be this friend or that friend but I don't really know."

Caribou: "Okay."

Sister-In-Law: "Florida Niece, who would give you a fondue set? Why would you want one of those? Why didn't they get you something you registered for?"

Florida Niece: "We DID register for this. We thought it would be fun. They're cool again."

Sister-In-Law: "Well, I can't imagine why you'd want something like that. Who got you those towels? They won't go with anything."

Florida Niece: "They're going in our bathroom after we change the wall paper, Mom!"

Sister-In-Law: "Caribou, that's another present without a card. Don't write anything next to it in the book."

Caribou: "I've got it covered, Hon. Don't worry about the book. We're cool."

Afterward, Hubband's Brother told me he thought I did an excellent job with the book and gave me a big hug. I was sincerely touched.

Little Boy asked us when the next time would be that we visted and we both immediately said, "Never!" But I think it wasn't nearly as bad as I had anticipated.