And to top it off:

On Rudy's last day of preschool before the holiday vacation, family and friends were invited to first join in on a peppermint and marshmallow-y snack and to then help out with a craft project involving chalk,  cocoa powder, and paste.  You better believe Marley took over that mug project and quickly relegated Rudy to the role of assistant.

I spent that day, and the ones before it, fielding calls from the doctors and nurses at the hospital where my mom had been for two days after an incident that turned out to be nothing more than another lengthy stay in an ER, plus observation.  I was dealing with insurance issues and learning, for example, that Medicare Part A covers a procedure when it is a treatment but not that same exact procedure when it's diagnostic.

I was preoccupied and overwhelmed, and my sisters were, too, but we worked to keep up our holiday spirits.  And I still managed to attend Rudy's little party and the puppet show at Marley's kindergarten (the same one that I saw as a little kid in this town) before I drove out to get my mom discharged and re-settled at her assisted living facility.  What I'm saying is, my mug of hot chocolate needed a splash of Bailey's, for starters.