Happy New Year, almost time to go home!

Well, we dropped off my stepdaughter yesterday, we went ahead and drove the ENTIRE way to her mother's house (the court order says that all exchanges are to be at the HALFWAY point, but we wanted to go all the way to see a friend, anyhow, and saw no point in making her drive if we were going to be there anyhow), so that was FOUR HOURS sitting on my backside... talk about painful after my fall! When we finally got there, we went to Wal-Mart to call her, and she says that we either have to bring her daughter to her house, or we have to keep her for another hour while she waits on HER DINNER! Eerrr! If it were not for the fact that my stepdaughter was hungry herself, we WOULD have kept her for an extra hour, but we wound up having to go all the way to her mother's apartment. From now on, we will never go all the way again, she will drive to meet us so that she can't put us in that kind of position again where we are forced to go to her "territory" instead of meeting her at a nuetral location.

So once we dropped off my stepdaughter, we headed over to a friend's house who lived in the area, too, that we hadn't seen in almost a year. We got to enjoy some good food, good company and got a good night's sleep. Then we headed back to our "vacation home". We stopped enroute to pick up some of our FAVORITE coffee and hot chocolate that we can't get back home without driving 4 hours, and finally made it home in time to tell my mother-in-law goodbye (she was headed out for a party), and kicked back and relaxed for New Year's Eve. We got to ring in the new year snuggling together, and will stay home tonight and probably all day New Year's Day... we have no desire to mess with the drunks and hangover people on the roads. Then Friday we will head out so I can finally meet my baby sister that I have not seen since she was about six weeks old, and then we will be on the road home. I miss MY kids, MY bed, and actually knowing where the heck I am driving (I am COMPLETELY lost here, although that is not difficult for me)! I love my in-laws, and this has been a great trip, but I need my own space back.