What can I say?

Well, what can I say? I haven't been on in ages!!! Needless to say, I have had a very busy few months. In fact, mentally, I'm still in 2009. So what has happened? Well, for one, I went to my hometown for a couple of weeks to assist my sister in her decorating business and that was interesting, fun and an experience. I never realized just how much thought and time is put into decorating for Christmas for the wealthy and I learned a few things about them.

First, rich people are the same as you and I. Really they are. I know they poop, pee, cough, sneeze the same as those of us with empty accounts but they're not as snobby as you'd expect. In fact, they're rather nice. I was expecting for them to have attitudes and the "old money" rarely had attitude and were probably the nicest out of the bunch. The "new money", you know, the ones who didn't have money but now have money, were the ones you had to watch out for. I think they think they have something to prove and don't really know how to act. Another difference is that "old money" or for convenience sake we'll say "OM", they don't flash their cash. They have smaller houses but inside, oh hell, inside their houses are lavish and gorgeous to say the least. They've got spectacular taste and you'd never know by looking on the outside.

"New Money" or NM, they have the big houses and poor taste. They have something to prove so they're going to show the world their new big house and when you step inside, well I guess they didn't get the memo that all rich people have personal decorators that do their houses.

Another thing I learned is people take their decorations seriously. They have fantastic decorations and the tree isn't for little Suzy's class Christmas ornament, it's for Christopher Radko and his very expensive ornaments. I have to say, a tree done up with Radko ornaments looks pretty damn hot. I guess I'll have to save the kid's ornaments for the kids tree eh? LOL

Okay so anyway...Thanksgiving was great because we were with family and it's always fun being around that lot. The food is yummy, company is good, liquor flowing...what more can you ask for?!?

So then I come back home and it's December 1. Not a moment to sit and relax. Nope. I had to get the house ready for the wine tasting party that was only four days away so my happy ass gets the clothes washed, house cleaned (my husband was awesome and tried to clean up a bit but I still have to clean it my way), and Christmas decorations up. Against all odds...I did it!!

We had our wine tasting party which was a huge success! I think I lost count as to how many people were actually here but I can tell you, everyone had a blast. I truly felt so blessed knowing I had a house full of true friends and having just gotten back from my hometown with my family...well it made me all warm and fuzzy knowing how blessed I am for my family and friends.

So...December 17. That was "D" day. That was the day my in laws were secretly flying in from London. I had prepared for this day since April and kept my mouth shut (which is no small feat!) and now, the day had come.

My husband had gone into work for a place he often freelances for and I was in direct communication with the manager of the company and had worked out with him the time that they needed to keep him occupied. They were to keep him until 7pm which would give me plenty of time to pick them up at the airport at their scheduled time of arrival which was 4:45pm. So, I wake up that morning, check continental.com for the flight status. Sonofabitch their flight is delayed by over an hour! Knowing the flight path by heart from taking it more times than I count, I knew they were going to miss their connecting flight. I was still hopeful but seriously doubtful. If they were delayed by 20 minutes, that might have been okay because they MAY have been able to make up their time, but being delayed by an hour and a half, there's no way of making up that time. Although they had over 2 hours to make their connecting flights, they still had to go through immigration, customs and run the marathon that is Bush intercontinental to get to the domestic flights so they were out of the race.

I had given them my cell phone number to get in touch with me if they were delayed so I was counting on the phone call to let me know if they didn't make their flight. So 3:30pm, no phone call so by 4pm, my BFF Katy and I head to the airport. I had told her that I don't think they made the flight but we both agreed that perhaps we'd better just go in the case that God had personally grabbed the plane and placed it in the tarmac in time for the connecting flight.

We go to the airport, we circle around too many times and finally I decided to go inside and see for myself that they were not in the airport. Sure enough, talking to a lady at baggage claim, they didn't make their flight and were scheduled to get on the mornings flight. Oh man, defeated and sad that I would have to go ONE more night keeping the secret, not to mention the thought of my in laws wondering around in an unknown airport until the next day was unbearable. I was so glad to have Katy with me because she shared in my disappointment and it was just comforting to have someone with you when you're sad.

I decided to get hold of them myself at the Houston airport to see where in the world my lost relatives are and managed to get a hold of my sister in law. I was so happy to hear her voice and know they they were okay! She told me that all of the other flights were full and that they had given her the option to go to San Antonio and without hesitation, I told her "GO!". I know they were worried about how far I'd have to drive to get them but it didn't matter at this point, I wanted to get them home where they could be comfortable.

Katy was sweet and let me drop Simon off her and I had to make up an excuse to my husband as to WHY I had to drive to San Antonio. I had told him that my cousins (of which he thought were the visitors coming in) were stuck in San Antonio and I had to go and get them. So I hear that my in laws were landing at 9 something so I'm off to the airport. Turns out, that plane too was delayed! Oh the luck! So I wait until 11 and FINALLY see them! Darren had called me a couple of times and I was out of lies. What the hell was I going to tell him? I was out way later than I expected and by this time, the only acceptable thing I could have told him was that I was either arrested or in a wreck and I know he'd be worried so I did what I had to and ignored the calls. We hauled ass home and by this time, most everyone had fallen asleep in the car because they had been up for probably around 24 hours and finally made it home.

Knocked on the door and my poor husband was waiting up for me. When he saw his family, he was speechless!! He had a confused look on his face and when he saw his mom, it finally sank in! Everyone was tired, but happy and it was priceless.

We had a wonderful two week visit with everyone and I was so happy that this was a true surprise to my dear husband. We went to Fredericksburg, ice skating, all around Austin and got some much needed family time. Our Christmas was wonderful with all the kiddos around and truly a wonderful experience.

Unfortunately two weeks came and went by rather quickly but we still have my mother in law which is awesome. Now, I'm starting to feel like I can finally relax and get my mind and body back in sync.