So, if you just celebrated Thanksgiving, did you have a nice holiday?

If you didn't, did you have a nice Thursday?

The kids, their au pair and I arrived home Thursday night after nearly a week away visiting relatives in more northern locales. We enjoyed snow flurries, learning a Russian card game called Durac, eating too much coffee cake and TimBits, and hearing about my 80 year-old grandmother's new boyfriend. It was a lovely vacation in every respect.

Still, it's nice to be home. I missed my own bed and my own kitchen, however ill-equipped it is. And after Brainiac told me about the holes he cut in the ceiling above my desk (ostensibly to fix a leak from the bathtub above but he sounded as if he enjoyed making those holes so much that I'm not at all convinced it took him the three tries he claims it did to find the leak - I think he just wanted to cut more holes in the ceiling) I knew that much work would be required to put the house to some level of order for the upcoming holidays.

So with post-trip laundry underway, a kitchen enhancement project about to start, boxes of all sizes siting about waiting for me to unpack their festive contents, four pounds of butter thawing for the first batches of Christmas cookies (chocolate chip, crinkles and probably pizzelles since I have a lot of eggs on hand) and a glass of wine at my side as I type I feel very ready for Advent.