The Holidays have come & gone

Well, the holidays have come and gone. In general, it was a really good holiday period for me & my family - with a few events information that I would like to remember:

1. The neighbourhood Christmas dinner was a catered affair; $70 a head & it was a fantastic evening. In future, I think catering should be a consideration. It was so low stress. The biggest stress that I had was that I decided to knit a ChapStick cover in the shape of a 'Penis' for the gift exchange - however it was taken very well.
2. This was the first Christmas morning my little family (Hubbie & kids) woke up as a complete unit. We had such a great day. So looking forward to future Christmases
3. Spent some time in Montreal with DH's family. It is the exact opposite of mine; I grew up with a very small family - DH's is huge. There are so many personalities ... so hard at times to read them - and I guess it doesn't help that I have only met them a handful of times, living 5-6 hours away.
4. DH's dad is on the decline. He's 91, so lived a long life. This is the first lengthy death that DH & his siblings are going to have to deal with. DH's parents immigrated from Holland in 1952, so they didn't have much direct contact with their family still in Holland. DH is the baby of 7 surviving siblings, with 26 years or so between him & the eldest - so it is hard for the older siblings to look at Dh as an equal - they see him more as one of their kids. It was good for him to actually see his father, so he now has a first hand account of how he is doing rather than bits & pieces supplied by different siblings. However from what I saw (after having watched 7 elder relatives pass in their 90s), my FIL is doing fairly well, and if he can beat this kidney infection, he'll be OK.
5. We found out something about one of DH's nephews which was unsettling. He has decided that he would be happier to live the rest of his life out as a woman. And this is not the unsettling part; the unsettling part is that it is unclear as to whether he is doing this with proper medical care, or simply ordering the drugs off the internet & self medicating. Oh .. where will this go???

I think I need to knit!!