Christmas 2002

Alas, Christmas is over. All of the presents have been unwrapped and the traveling is done.

As part of our premarital planning, Elise and I decided that we would spend every other Christmas is Des Moines with her family and the other Christmases with my family in Cat Spring. This was our first Christmas together in Des Moines.

We bought our plane tickets back in early October, so we saved quite a bit of money. Our plan was to spend December 22 - 26 in Iowa. Because of a family emergency, I had to change my flight plans and didn’t arrive in Des Moines until Christmas eve. Elise’s travel itinerary didn’t change. We woke up early last Sunday and I drove her to DFW to catch her flight. As I was driving back to Temple, I got a speeding ticket in Ft. Worth. I woke up early on Monday, called the Ft. Worth Municipal Court and got information on received deferred adjudication. Hopefully I’ll hear from the City of Ft. Worth soon. We don’t have the money to pay for a ticket and our auto insurance premiums to increase.

I drove to Austin Monday morning to have lunch with my parents and attend a memorial service for Todd. I left Austin and headed to Dallas to stay the night at Jenni’s house so she could take me to the airport at 6:00 a.m. on Tuesday. Tuesday was travel day. I woke up at 5:00 a.m. and got to Des Moines a little after noon.

Steve and Elise picked me up from the airport and we went to the Boeckman house. We had soup for lunch, went to church (which I only do once a year - voluntarily) and drove around town looking at Christmas lights that night. There was a teeny tiny snow flurry as we were driving through Des Moines, so I can say I had my first white Christmas. Needless to say, it was cold the whole time. When I say cold, I mean cold for a native Texan. Those Midwesterners laughed at your narrator’s shivers. If you’re a northerner, here’s a way to impress a Texan in the winter: Take a cup of hot water, take your Texan outside and have him throw the hot water into the air. It vaporizes. I was mesmerized. If you’re a Texan and want to impress your northerner, take him outside in August and show him how to fry an egg on the ground.

We woke up on Christmas morning and everyone opened presents. Then we ate. Then we ate again. Then we ate again. And again. I didn’t step outside on Christmas day. I ate again.

We woke up on Thursday to get ready to head back home. Elise and I had a long layover in Chicago so we sat in the terminal and watched people. That was fun. We saw a young pregnant woman who thought she was attractive enough with-child to let her belly stick out from under her little t-shirt.

Elise and I got back to bustling Temple at 11:00 p.m. We woke up on Friday to go to work. That was stupid. We both should have just taken the day off. I didn’t get anything done at work and I don’t think Elise did either. It didn’t help that no one else was working on Friday.

Friday night Elise and I drove to my parents’ house to spend the weekend with them. We got in at 10:30 and chatted until around midnight. We woke up on Saturday to open presents with my parents. We ate. We ate again. You get the picture. In 2004, I think we’ll just walk to Des Moines so we can regulate the calorie intake/burning ratio.

We slept in on Sunday and got up to eat, sleep and watch football. I washed the Jeep and ate some more. We left my parents’ house around 5:00 and came back to Temple.

So, it’s all over with for this year. Tomorrow is my last day at Scott & White. I’m excited. The new year is looking good for us so far.