So far, the holidays have been absolutely wonderful for me.

DH and I spent the night at my brother's house in Maryland before
driving down to North Carolina.  My brother and I have never been
terribly close -- it's not that we dislike each other, just that he is
18 years older than me and we haven't had much in common.  But
Thursday, something clicked.  Their kids went to bed, and the four of
us -- me, DH, my brother, and his wife -- really started talking.  The
numerous white russians probably didn't hurt.  We were all up till
2:30, and while it did interfere with their getting much work done on
Friday, we all agreed it was definitely worth it.

So we got a late start driving to my parents' on Friday, but we got
there eventually (just DH and I; no one else could take the vacation).
My parents were so happy to see us.

The 24th is my father's birthday, so the morning was filled with
birthday stuff.  In the afternoon, we spent about an hour and a half
walking along the beach.  As we were almost done, we saw dolphins,
several of them.  Not only were they fairly close to land, but they
were jumping all the way out of the water.  What a glorious display.

My family is German, so Christmas is celebrated on the evening of the
24th.  After it got dark, we opened the presents.  It was great fun.
And this is where it gets topical.  A friend of my aunt's is an
artist.  One of the things he does is these animal masks -- whimsical,
usually slightly native american in design.  The people who have them
often stack three on top of each other on the wall, making them look
sort of like a totem pole.

Well, anyway, I had told mom I would love an animal mask for a
combined Christmas and birthday present, but she instantly told me
there was no way, just too expensive.  I said no problem and forgot
about it.

Well.  Mom apparently turned around instantly and called Tim to find
out if he could do one in time for Christmas.  He could.  Mom
suggested a cat.

So I have a beautiful cat mask that surprised the heck out of me.  It
looks Egyptian, not native american, with a long rectangular chin.
When I take some pictures, I will share them here.  There was this
huge box wrapped in green paper under the tree.  Well, to the side of
the tree, because the box was so big.  When I tore off the paper and
saw the name and address on the box, I was shocked.  Of course I knew
right away what it had to be, although not what animal.

We're going to have to ship the box (it's a huge box, filled with
peanuts, with another box inside that and the mask inside that box
covered in foam cut out exactly to the shape), because I can't risk
having it damaged trying to carry it onto the plane.  It makes me so
nervous!  But wow.

Here's the artist's web site, although he has no masks on it:

http://www.timnortonart.com/index.html

My favorite piece isn't on his website -- it's a portrait he did for
my aunt.  It's called "St. George" and is a portrait of her dog
George as, erm, a saint.  You can tell it's George because one ear
flops down, just as his does.  I'm sure some people would consider it
terribly blasphemous, but I think it's awesome.

After that, we had dinner -- mom made a delicious french onion soup.
Then we had steak fondu (cooking the steak on skewers).  I don't think
I've ever actually had fondu, though I know my parents did it all the
time when they were younger.  I'm inspired to get a fondu set myself,
actually.

Today we took our time getting up, and we'll be having ham in the
evening.  But it's just been a great vacation so far.

I hope everyone is doing well, whether or not you celebrate any
particular holiday right now.