Vacation isn't always what you hope it is

Every year, I seem to have plenty of vacation left over affording me the opportunity maximize the vacation the last week of the year.

My company usually gets 2 days off for Christmas and 2 days for New Years. This year, for example, using 4 days of vacation, I haven't been to work since last Thursday and don't go back until next Wednesday.

Not to complain too much, but this vacation ends up being more stressful then it needs to be. First off, I love the build up to Christmas, the food is fabulous and its nice to see relatives I haven't seen since last year. The problem? We have 3 family functions to go to. We end up driving from our home to a family get together an hour a way on 3 separate days. I end up driving each trip. Did I mention that all of them are in the same town? Ugg.

The hustle and bussel of Christmas can just be a bit much.

Christmas went well. I'm pretty sure everyone got what the needed and wanted for Christmas. Over at my photography blog, you can see what I got. I'm really excited for the new lens. I can't wait to see what I can do with it.

We must be getting old. We have no plans for New Years Eve. Nada. We even have a babysitter. What are we thinking?

There is a contest for a blog makeover contest at the Chronicles of a SAHM. NapWarden is offering to use her special powers with Photoshop to provide a complete blog transformation. We have just a few days left in the contest and I'm proud to admit they have perfect attendance. I've submitted my comment every day since it started. I've also got one of the longest comments in the contest. You really need to go over and read it. It's a new twist on the classic poem, "Twas the Night Before Christmas".

Me and the girls have been going a little stir crazy this week. We've been pretty much inside our home since Christmas day. We went out to the mall tonight for a little while. That was nice, but it's been too cold and snowy to venture out to much.

One particularly cool thing that happened this week was I won my first somewhat major poker tournament. I actually have 3 blogs. I did this to separate the 3 facets of my life and allow me to write about each part in their own context. Plus, each blog has a different audience. Some of overlap and others really don't care about poker. Last week I played in first blogger tournament. Yes, poker bloggers have their own subculture and tournaments. The Mookie is one the major blogger poker tournaments held every Wednesday night. Most of the major poker bloggers participate in this tournament every week. Well the big news is a played it this week and won it! It was one of the most exciting poker tournament of my life. The highlights are over at my poker blog.

Coming soon...my New Years Resolutions! Any suggestions?