I'm SO Excited!

For the first time since I was 16 (9 years ago!) I'm going to be spending Christmas down in Arizona with Grandma M! AND--get this--I'm not just spending the 26th-1st down there, nope, this year we're leaving the 23rd (will get down there the 24th) and will make it back to Iowa on the 3oth or 31st.

In some ways I am very, very, very excited, because I haven't spent a Christmas at Grandma's place (by Phoenix) for so long, but in other ways I'm sad. All of my friends will have the holidays off, Bubs will have the holidays off, and I won't be able to see them. It will also be the first time ever that I won't spend Christmas Eve with my dad's side.

Bubs asked me if it was weird not having snow for Christmas, and I said, no, but that's because every other time I spent my Christmas break at Grandma's we went AFTER Christmas, not before. So, yes, I might miss the snow for one second as we're coming out of midnight mass, but I know that it will be waiting for me back here in the Midwest when I get home. And, the Christmas culture is much different down there, and there is sunlight!

Plus, a day in Mexico finding my favorite cooking vanilla and cloth dolls will make me forget all about snow.

I do hope, however, that I get to spend NYEve with Bubs, like we did last year...