7:01 p.m.,
Dec. 27, 2003
Well, I'm home from Tampa. My parents moved there in February, and I finally saw their house. It's cute. It's a little bungalow on a stream about a mile and a half from the Gulf of Mexico. (They live 45 minutes north of Tampa). It was an enjoyable, relaxing trip, although it was entirely disconcerting to wear short sleeves and sit outside on Christmas Day.
Also, we went to Busch Gardens. We rode this crazy roller coaster that basically spun us upside down and around for three minutes. I don't remember roller coasters being quite so...intense, but all the same, it was fun. I also saw a lot of animals and kicked some bumper car ass. All in all, it was a pretty fun day.
And I finally saw Return of the King, which I loved. I almost can't wait for next Christmas when the extended version comes out. I will be first in line. I can't really give much of a critical opinion of it, except I loved it and I still cried at the end, even though I knew what was coming.
It was also nice to spend some time with my family. Now that I'm married, I alternate holidays with my husband's family, and I never realized how much I missed spending Christmas with them until last year. (Of course, last year was the Worst Christmas Ever, so it might be unfair to say it was just them not being around that made me sad.)
I'm glad we came home today, though. It'll be nice to have one non-travel weekend day to get some stuff done around the house. Tomorrow is Keith's birthday and theoretically, we are celebrating it. Oh, and I have a freelance assignment due. Then three days of work, a party and I'm off to New York for a few days!
Oh and my Christmas load was pretty good: Gift cards for Keith and I to share for Borders and Home Depot, a huge gift card to Best Buy for us to buy a DirecTV and Tivo (yay!), some candles, some wall sconces, a basket of Trader Joe's goodies that we're sharing and an iPod (that was from Keith.)
It was basically everything last Christmas wasn't, which goes a long way to erase all the nastiness of 2002.