<p>Be the one who sees the future for your family: Does son pop the question to the girl? Does D get into Harvard Med school? Do your inlaws finally speak to one another? Does Grandma get run over by the reindeer?</p>
<p>My prediction: Having 4 adults over 50 drive from LA to Dallas in a Suburu Forester will not end happily. Hope I have enough good beer on hand when they arrive!</p>
<p>My mother in law will gloat (that’s really the only word for it) about Obama’s victory and disparage Bush - and my republican brother in law on the other side will have steam coming out of his ears…</p>
<p>My Christmas tree will fall 14 times, because I plan to have it up for 2 weeks and we have a 6-month old feline “teenager” in the house. Otherwise, it will be uneventful.</p>
<p>I’m with BunsenBurner. We have 2 new cats this year. One adopted from the local humane society in February and another that came home under D’s car in May @ 5 weeks old!</p>
<p>They are like juvenile brother & sister. Everyday I’m greated by another ornament and/or bow in a different part of the house.</p>
<p>Other than that D will pine for BF until she leaves for his house on the 29th.</p>
<p>We will move into our retirement dream house in February and have my son in to assist and celebrate a beleated Christmas. Early in 2009 will probably decide to have heart valve repair/replacement surgery. Yuk-hopefully it will not delay the spring golf season too much.</p>
<p>LOL Bunsenburner, our new 6 month old terrorist is going to be a force to reckon with. DH got the tree up and told me to go and look at it to make sure it was straight. When I walked in, the tree was shaking from top to bottom…and right in the middle of the tree (up about 3 feet) was baby Wilson looking out innocently at me. Thank goodness for the spray water bottle, the source of discipline for every kitty infraction. </p>
<p>Other than feline interest, there will be much jockeying for the car, which will leave me wheel-less…</p>
<p>Son will be admitted to his first choice school (it’s a match anyway) with just about enough merit aid for us to be able to send him there. That will be followed by a flury of second and third visits to the top three schools to figure out where he might possibly succeed. Daughter will pester us endlessly for her own car.</p>
<p>We will have all three surviving parents at the house next week, so hopefully I will survive! We are plus one VERY energetic kitten as well, I have been making sure he gets nowhere NEAR the poinsettias.</p>
<p>If D is not done with all of her supplements this weekend, there will coal in her stocking!</p>
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<p>My kitten is a water cat, and a spray bottle does nothing for her. She just stares at the nozzle with the “Bring it on!” look on her cute kitty face. She drops her toys into her water dish and tries to get them out splashing water all over the kitchen floor!</p>
<p>Okay, back to perdictions :)</p>
<p>I want a kitten. My kids want a kitten. For years Husband said he was allergic, but then his mom ratted him out and said he wasn’t. He still doesn’t want a kitten.</p>
<p>This will be a very different Christmas for us. It’s the first one we will not spend at home or with family. But H did not have a real vacation last summer so he is very happy to get away. The only one compaining at all is D who will just be returning from a semester abroad and is a bit upset we will not have a traditional Christmas. (She does not do well with change at all – likes everything predictable).</p>
<p>Missy, I didn’t want a kitten either. I LOVE cats, but already had accumulated 5 adult cats! Then this little squirt rode home under my D’s car and both H & D insisted we keep her. Now I can’t remember why I didn’t want a kitten. She makes me laugh every single day. Laughing is very healthy!! :)</p>
<p>I predict that my father will criticize me for having neither snowboots nor a watch, even though my Christmas gifts from my mother are those exact two items.</p>
<p>I also predict that I’ll eat better than I have for the last month. Mmmmm, mashed p’taters.</p>
<p>I predict that despite all the complaining, I will secretly treasure the 36 hour round-trip car ride to visit my parents for Christmas, because there’s not very many times when it’s just the 4 of us together any more. My kids will put on a good face despite being away from their friends/gf/bf, because they know their grandmother is seriously ill. They will also break all records for texting - there will be smoke coming out of their cell phones.</p>
<p>Too much food and shocked look on S’s face when he realizes that he just got a car (my dad went with the 2002 VW. Sssssh!). My sister will barely contain her *<strong><em>iness at just the thought of the car, although her two kids already haven’t gotten cars from our parents. (My sister and *</em></strong>y are old friends that often renew acquaintance during the holidays).</p>
<p>Then, off to in-laws and the usual dose of cheer and dysfunction. I adore some of these relatives and, well, don’t adore others. But everyone usually is on their best behavior.</p>
<p>Grandparents will ask mezzo-soprano granddaughter to sing. D will sing Bach,Faure, or Schumann. They will pull me aside and ask—“Four years of music school—why cant she sing a REAL SONG”</p>
<p>musica: gotta love it.</p>
<p>Having my son home from his first year away at college is nice. He is in a great mood but I can tell that he is already missing the intellectual and social vibrancy of his college. Daughter is glad to have big brother home as she said she was tired of “entertaining the parents”. Putting up all the Christmas decorations tomorrow, getting the tree, and taking the picture for the Christmas card. I am sure we will get some useless gifts from parents and my sister will do some toll painting that ends up in the garage. Looking forward to Christmas day at my wife’s family. Mother-in-law will play piano and will hand out all the musical props for the Twelve Days of Christmas. Wife’s parents have many friends and acquaintances so they get about 250 cards. We go through all the cards and rate them on the most pretentious and the saddest letters of the year. New Years Day is watching the games and I make my famous chili. January 3 its time to put my son back on the plane and he starts quarter number two on the fifth. Now its time to start working on my daughter’s colleges. She has narrowed it down to 21 schools with half on the East Coast. First trip to look at some end of Janauary.</p>
<p>For me, time will continue to FLY as we hurtle towards Christmas. For 10-year-old D2, time is c-r-a-w-l-i-n-g. My goal is to get everything done and enjoy the days leading up to Christmas. I have to stop getting side-tracked by ‘non-seasonal’ projects, like re-grouting the shower…</p>
<p>lafalum-- 36-hour car trip?!
Where to – the North Pole? :)</p>