Who were all these people driving on the interstate at 4am?! Good grief. Arrived in Brandon with my eyes barely open. With both my aunt and uncle awake and my cousin Gary on a club chair waiting to go to the airport, it seemed everything was normal at 4:20am. For some reason when I sat on a stool watching my aunt work in her kitchen, I experienced a tremendous chest pain. I got up and walked, stretched my torso and just forced myself to concentrate on my breathing. The pain went away. Odd.
My uncle drove three of us to a busy airport. I was jonesing for some serious coffee. Where were my buckets of coffee? Angie arrived on time, but her luggage didn't. That happened to her last year, too. I begged for a Venti Caramel Macchiato from Starbucks. We all had some coffee and sat down just talking and me telling dirty jokes. What I loved was that I was able to tell them to my uncle, too. Maybe he was too asleep to censor me? Ha!
My aunt and uncle's ginormous Christmas tree: This is about a 7.5-ft tall tree and at least 4-ft wide. My aunt looks like an elf next to it. I will take a picture of her next to it next time. Hee.
I love watching the lights dance and blink around the tree. Oooh...pretty!
When we got back, Nan was awake and joined us in the sun room to enjoy a traditional breakfast my aunt made called "molly cakes" (essentially fried dough) which we slathered with butter and sugar free syrup. The sausages were good, too. AND THE COFFEE!
The humor and zingers were in full swing. I had accidentally put too much Splenda in my coffee which my uncle noticed and asked me if I was trying to get sweeter. I said yes and he replied, You'd better pour some more. OMG. Angie had gotten up to go inside the house and she yelled something to Gary. Impishly, Gary replied in a loud and horrible rendition of what was supposed to resemble Chinese. Nan was startled and said he had scared her. Gary quick as lightning added, You should see me with an ax. OMFG. We were howling with laughter at 7:30am and had to remember the neighbors were still sleeping in on a Sunday. The sun room is enclosed, but the windows were open to let the cool breeze leftover from the passing storms. My face and sides hurt. I was just glad I didn't choke on any food. Aside from their loving nature, this is the best part of my family: the smartass humor.
Left the gang before around 11am so I could get some sleep. I would miss the visit from my cousin Dave's family which was fine with me. The kids would outsmart me in a heartbeat as tired as I was. They can smell weakness and would take advantage of the fact they are incredibly cute. Little ghouls.
Talked to Tawny on the way home. Her daughter missed a flight from Detroit to Tampa and had some issues getting another flight. She ended up making a flight to Orlando instead. Tawny and Jeff picked up their middle child after midnight. Tawny was happy. Now she won't be able to contain her happiness and will run amok talking about Christmas. Yuk! Expressed my embarrassment to her in what would be construed as the walk of shame from my neighbors. They didn't see me get home late and leave a few hours later in the same clothes, but would see me arriving near noon in the same clothes. Oh, well...
How did I know I was overtired when I got home? I trolled the Internet researching some nutrition supplement and replying to e-mails before finally taking a hot shower and try to catch a nap. I was in sleeping bliss when my phone rang. It was Trish from San Francisco sitting at her favorite deli. We caught up and cackled. The usual. It's been a few hours and I am about to do a two-mile walk. I had an assignment after all.
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