Winter solstice 7:22pm ET

Not sure what time it was when I woke for work, but without question it was between 5:30 and 6:00am. Mindy didn't have school so my goal was to keep any noise to a low hum so not to disturb her early winter slumber. I went about my morning prep as usual but once again I had no need to pack my lunch since I was buying pizzas for everyone at work today. It would be my little gift to all of them. Mindy got up before I left and the kids were awake, too (of course). Mindy would be taking the kids to grandma Sharon's for her kiddie Xmas party. Mindy would then have a large chunk of time to wrap some presents and finish any last minute shopping. Late in the afternoon she would be heading to the airport to pick-up brother Glenn. It was a drippy, rainy day and the temperature soared to near 60 degrees. The rain came down hard for most of the morning, but lucky for me it all but stopped mid-day making for reasonable running conditions. I left for my run early, and picked up the pizzas for my team immediately following. I bought them from Joseppi's in Hilliard - next to Kroger. I was early so I ran in Kroger and grabbed some soda for the pizza lunch and some holiday booze for home. Back at the office we enjoyed the Joseppi's pizzas. The afternoon breezed by but we were busy dealing with some fairly significant escalations. The workload was slowly getting down to holiday levels but there were still a few big issues. I talked with Mindy and my Dad a couple of times during the day arranging Glenn's airport pick-up. My dad deferred the pick-up to Mindy until the very last minute when he called to report that he was already there and suggested I call and let Mindy know. She had just picked up the kids and was headed that way when I called. She was more than happy to skip the airport pick-up and instead head straight home. Later I received a call from Mindy stating that Glenn was at the airport but no Dad. I called dad to let him know that Glenn was waiting. They finally figured out the problem. My dad was waiting by the main security entrance, but Glenn flew in on Southwest which uses an alternative security gate. Duh! I went about wrapping up my day and left for home around 5:10pm. It was a very rainy drive home. The traffic was terrible. I got a call form Glenn telling me he was on his way to my home. At my home Ashley, Olivia, Mindy and kids were eagerly anticipating his arrival. I arrived just after all of them. I was my normal stressed out self needing some time to unwind after a long work day. I was stressed over my coming on-call Xmas weekend and everything associated with making Xmas go as planned. Eventually I calmed and things went well. We had a lot of fun sitting around talking and sharing stories. Tommy showed up some time later and stayed for a few hours. After 4 or 5 hours of fun we all headed to bed. I still had one more work day ahead.