oh there’s no place like home for the holidays

If Santa’s Deer don’t make you laugh, nothing will.

I am home, and home is lovely. Charlotte is lovely. I forget how pretty this city can be, especially at this time of year when the trees are covered in lights. Mom, Dad, and Katie met me at the airport last night. I was so excited to be in Charlotte and to see my family that I was smiling like a loon as I speed-walked up the concourse and practically jumped down the escalator to the baggage claim. I spotted them just before they spotted me. I thought about sneaking up on them, but I couldn’t wait any longer and started waving. HOORAY for being home and seeing my family. Brian was out last night but came back home today. I haven’t seen David yet, now that he has his own apartment in Charlotte and doesn’t live at the house over the holidays. Mom says he’s coming over for dinner tomorrow night.

I had lunch today at Maggiano’s with my family (Katie and Mom), the Easts (Mrs, Caroline, and Catherine), the Mickles (Mrs and Jennifer) and the Diehls (Mrs and Bekah); it was a mother-daughter thing. The food was yummy and we had a nice time.

Afterwards, Mom and Katie and I wandered the mall. Mom had a few specific things to do and buy, but Katie and I succeeded in getting her off track several times with side trips into different stores. Southpark has changed so much in the past couple years. There’s a new wing now that Nordstrom’s is there, and the mall itself has become so frou-frou; I can’t afford to shop in at least half of the stores out there! I don’t even recognize half the mall, so it felt a little weird, like I was in some other city.

Katie and I went for a nice run when we got home. I think we went just over 4 miles in 49:00. Slow! But we were talking the entire time, and if you’re able to carry on a conversation, you know you’re not pushing too hard! Oh, and there are hills here. Stupid hills. There’s one nice thing about running in Houston — lack of hills! Then again, without uphills there are no downhills, and I do love running downhill. That’s how it goes, I guess.

After our run, we went with Mom and Dad to a different mall for…more shopping! I picked up a present for my cousin Laura, and Dad looked for boots. He is the most methodical, pickiest shopper I know, so of course we left with no boots for Dad. He’s funny though. He has a beard at the moment that scratched my face when I hugged him after I got off the plane last night. I think it makes him look old, so I encouraged him to shave.

Tomorrow I have a few more Christmas presents to take care of, and Grandmother arrives. Friday morning I’m getting together with a few old high school friends. Saturday is Christmas, and Sunday we’ll be going up to Chapel Hill for the day. It looks like I may head to Atlanta for a few days over New Year’s, since I’m basically helpless to resist Kent’s full-on assault in trying to get me to visit. The boy is relentless. Seriously.