A Vacation From My Vacation

I was thrilled when I found out a few weeks before Christmas that the college was going to be closing for a couple of weeks and that I would be getting a nice long paid vacation. I was going to have very little to do but sit in my cozy little house and read for two blissful weeks. How silly it was for me to think that things would be so simple. There wasn’t one day when I was allowed to sit quietly and do nothing. Part of that is my own fault, I did invite my little brother to come and stay with me for a week. My list of activities included:
The annual Glauser Family Christmas Eve Party
Chris’ dear little grandpa has a party every Christmas Eve, which is quite involved. There is a dinner, a genuine Christmas pageant with family actors and costumes and singing, and a visit from a dirty little Santa who had a penchant for having married women kiss him on the cheek and slapping his wife on the behind. Chris cousins are a riot and I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time.
Christmas Day
Much of this day had been planned out by Chris’ sweet mother who loves an excuse to have all her family around her. We had brunch together and then went bowling before going home to open presents. We waited to open presents until one of Chris’ brothers got off work. Chris’ mom had gotten us all Utes Sugar Bowl tee-shirts to wear during the game. Every time one of us opened our shirt, there would be a chorus of Utah Man before someone else was allowed to open their next present. We all then went to see a movie before going home to bed.
Boxing Day
Okay, this is not an American holiday, for me, it’s just a nice way of saying the day after Christmas. My mother taught me the term (being from New Zealand, she knows all about Boxing Day). Anyway, the day after Christmas we went with some friends to the Red Iguana, which was featured on one of the Food Network shows that we like. It was excellent and then we went bowling once again (I know there seems to be a theme of bowling among my holiday activities what can I say).
The Week After Christmas
Now some of these days do run together. We, of course, went to church two of these days. Jordan came up with Jeaneah when she came back from visiting the family. We went to a couple of movies (yet another activity theme. I think I saw more movies over the break than I’ve seen in the past six months). We went out to eat several times, one of those times visiting Chris’ new office down town and taking him to lunch. His office is very nice with a great view, which is better than his previous office which was always freezing and had a great view of a brick wall. We watched the Sugar Bowl with a group of friends, of course wearing our Christmas Sugar Bowl shirts, and cheering the Utes on to a fantastic victory over a much too cocky team who thought that playing the Utes would be a cake walk. My dad came up to visit for a couple of days as well. We went out to eat with him a few times as well.
Before I knew it, it was Monday and I had to go back to work, and while the vacation was great, I’m glad to be back at work so that I can finally get some rest.