Headed out of town for a while

[SvilleKid]

My wife is a travel nurse, and will be finished with her Ft. Lauderdale contract in about 10 more shifts. She will be home next week for several days off before Christmas, then I'll drive back down with her, so we can drive back after her contract ends.

On top of that, we no longer do a traditional family commercial Christmas of spending. Several years ago, we started having a family Christmas get-together in real early January at some other location. Last couple of years it has been Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Since we were just there for a week in October for Ninja's wedding, we decided on the beach this year. Yeah, not much swimming this time of year, but it's not crowded, and food is fresh (and we all love seafood). Our best friends own a condo on the beach, and checking with them, we can get the condo for the entire month of January for about $100 more than it would cost us for a week (and about 2/3rds of what the Gatlinburg cabin usually costs! Needless to say, we grabbed the condo for a month! Don't know how long my wife will be there, depends on what job offers come up between now and then. And, since our friends will be at the condo the last few days of the year, we might drive there from Ft. Lauderdale, instead of coming home. I'll probably be there most of January, and probably take my mother down for a few days sometime late in the month. Her and dad sure loved the beach in the wintertime. He passed away in July after 6 years of full care from a stroke, so mom hasn't been to the beach in years. She should enjoy it, and may be her last chance given her age.

As well as bragging a little, and rambling a lot, this post is also meant to serve as notice that I will NOT be around to receive any packages for probably about 6 weeks starting next week. So, if anyone was planning on sending anything at all to me, send it to Ninja instead Just not during the first week or so of January!