So This is Christmas

I mess with this blog more than I actually post in it.

Of course, it's almost more fun to mess with the template than actually write. I just tried a few things . . . I feel very powerful when I change a font size or the background color. So basic, I know. Anyone with any web design experience would laugh at me. But whatever. I feel empowered.

So, Christmas has come and gone. I have some pictures up on Flickr (my other new thing). It was another fun year, despite the fact there were only three "young adults" there this year. (As opposed to six plus three spouses) The rest are married, and this was an in-law year. And this year, for the first time ever, I felt like Florida was my vacation spot . . . no longer home. I haven't actually lived there for any length of time since 1999, but I spent most of my life there. A bunch of things contributed to this feeling, I think . . . the fact that I haven't been there for a year (longest time ever!!) and that I drove down with family instead of spending down time with just my parents after the others had gone. And my parents have moved out of the house I grew up in, although that was the case last year.

But the thing that really sums it all up is the smell. I'm sensitive to smells, good or bad or neutral. As a kid, everyone's house had a smell . . . not a candle or potpourri or cat pee, but some kind of distinctive combination . . . except for my house. My house didn't smell like anything. But yesterday, when I was unpacking, I noticed that my stuff smelled. Like my parents' house. Distinctive, not unpleasant, but definitely there.

My PA house doesn't smell like anything at all.