Our First and Last Christmas at Mom & Dad's in Tucson

Last night we opened our Christmas presents at Mom and Dad's house. With us moving to Alabama in January, it will likely be the one and only time we do Christmas at that house. In fact, I think it was the first and probably only time Mik went to that house when it was where they were living.

Opening presents before Christmas has been pretty traditional for us and continued this year with Mom and Dad going to Chicago for Christmas and Mik and I deciding to stay home to celebrate Christmas in Tucson for what may be the last time for awhile.

Mom and Dad ended up copying what Mik and I did a few years ago and got each other the same exact present. A few years ago Mik and I got each other the same Harry Potter movie on Blu-Ray and this year Mom and Dad got each other a 2013 runners calendar (they are both going to do the Chicago marathon next year).

Here is Mik getting nothing! He opened the card and thought he got nothing. He was expecting an iTunes card, which is all he asked for this year, and didn't read the tag inside that said good for an iTunes card from Mom. More importantly, though, the other tag in the card said good for tickets to the Lakers @ Suns game, so he will get to go to the game he has been wanting to see right before we move.

Strawberry in December

We left the strawberry plants alone when we replanted for the fall. I didn't really expect to get another strawberry, especially since we only got two or three this summer. This morning, though I found one ready to pick and it wasn't even from the plant that I had noticed was growing a few last week, so we might actually get as many or more strawberries in December as we got all summer.

What it took for Mik to decide to move

For over a month now Mik has refused to decide about moving to Huntsville until he at least saw the city.  After our house hunting trip this weekend was almost over and we even decided on a house, he still refused to commit to moving and actually was thinking of how he could get an apartment and stay by himself in Tucson.  Last night he said he would not talk about his decision again until Monday.


This morning, though, he finally decided he will move.  He still is not that interested in the city and the idea of moving, although he does like the house we are trying to get.  What made him commit was that Mom and Dad came back from checking out the Kroger with Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream.  This is a flavor he looks for every year and we had not found any in Tucson this year despite looking at many different grocery stores.