Workman Family Christmas Party 2009...and other stuff

Caitlin's "new" car.....round 2

(hopefully there's not a round 3, as long as she's on our insurance).
Vanessa and Santa....no this isn't some new twist on the Holy Family
and she didn't get a new baby for Christmas,
just an Itunes gift card.

Caitlin and Santa (a.k.a. Cousin Mike)

So, the Workman family successfully pulled off another Christmas party. These yearly parties have been going on since about 1979-1980. I remember it was the first Christmas that Mom and I were alone....mom and dad had separated and Mitch was on his mission, so we decided to have a family party at our home in Bountiful. Of course, the kids who were kids then are all parents now, so 29 years later, our family party can no longer be held in anyone's home. This year, we were fortunate to meet in my counsin Brandee's clubhouse in her subdivision. There's the core group who lives around the area that are always there, but every year we are fortunate to have a cousin or two in from out of town and it's always fun to catch up. This year a cousin from Cedar City and one from Nebraska were here.

When we first started doing these parties, my Aunt Mildred, who has since passed away from breast cancer, sewed a Santa bag, complete with jingle bells. All the adults would bring gifts for their children from Santa, and someone would go out, jingle the bells, and leave it on the porch for the kids to find. Alas, the growing number of children and, therefore, presents, put a strain on Aunt Mildred's santa bag, so somewhere down the road we ended up getting a Santa costume and recruiting various male family members to be Santa. It's kind of fun to see the cousin's taking the "Santa torch" from their dads and now playing Santa. This year it was my cousin Mike and he did a most excellent job. He made Caitlin promise not to wreck anymore cars before he'd give her a gift, which she committed to (what one will do for an Itunes gift card), so I guess we're out of the woods :)

Vanessa was en route home to Iowa, so she was able to join us. I was so glad to spend some time with her before she goes home for her "summer" break. She'll be back in April, and I'm looking forward to spending more fun time with her when she returns.

As of Thursday, Caitlin now has another set of wheels. This one is a 1993 Acura, 140,000 miles, no spare tire, and a dent in the door.....but it has a sunroof and an awesome stereo system which more than compensates for all of the above in Caitlin's eyes. This is what $1800 dollars buys you nowadays. I, on the other hand, am equally excited about this new vehicle. Caitlin and I both had a brief but glorious taste of her transportation independence, and have both deeply grieved her need to depend upon me, once again, for getting her to and from the bus stop and work. But the wait is over and I can now once again kiss her, wave to her, and tell her to have a good day without ever getting out of my jammies.

Today's holiday festivities include a trip to Gateway for Christmas shopping, dinner somewhere wonderful, and looking at the Christmas lights in S.L.

On a personal note for the few family members who read this and know about the tough choice I needed to make regarding my internship.....I ended up choosing to do my Field Placement at the Homeless Veterans Fellowship rather than McKay-Dee Behavioral Health Institute. After several lengthy conversations with my Field Placement Professor, I came to the conclusion that either placement would be equally beneficial for my education, so I took the one that afforded me more flexibility, included working with more chronic cases of mental illness and substance abuse, and......the one that offered to pay me. In addition, the HVF is only one block away from Rich's nursing home which makes it extremely convenient. I started working at HVF two weeks ago and have been working 20 hours/week over the Christmas Break. I can tell I'm going to learn a lot and benefit greatly from this experience! I feel so fortunate!!!!

That's it for now! I'm just so impressed with myself that I've managed to blog 3 whole times in the month of December. It's amazing what I have the energy to do when I'm not in school.