11 things I learned over the holidays

1. Bringing your two cats on a 15-hour drive to visit your family over Christmas is highly not recommended.

1 a. Tis best not to feed aforementioned cats the morning of departure.

1 b. The cat with chronic diarrhea will not necessarily be the cat who soils his carrier in the car.

1 c. The smell of cat poop in an enclosed vehicle is rather overwhelming.

2. Family is good, but best in moderate quantities.

3. When you're in your 20s, sledding is still fun, but your muscles and joints will pay for it a whole lot more the next day.

3 a. Two hours of sledding the day before you will be spending 15 hours in the car may not be the best idea.

4. No matter how much you keep thinking of her as 12 years old, your little sister will just keep growing up.

5. It is actually possible for your 84-year-old grandmother to be convinced to move out of her home. (Can she be convinced to give up her car? Magic 8-Ball says "The Future Is Unclear.")

6. When you haven't been home for Christmas in 3 years, reality may not exactly match your expectations.... and that's okay.

7. It is possible to get sick of playing board games.

8. At some point after moving away from your parents, the place where you are currently living will actually start to feel more like "home."

9. Santa still puts citrus fruit in everyone's stockings, but this year he has branched out to add sponges.

10. It takes a really, really long time to drive across Nebraska, and it is extra boring. (Okay, I already knew that, but I got reminded anyway.)

11. When you're out of school for a month and although you're enjoying the time off, you can't wait to go back, that probably means you're in the right place.