So after adventures in muscle spasms on Friday, I curled up with a nice combination of Valium and Vicodin. takaza stayed home as well because the weather was pretty lousy, with around 10″ of snow falling. I napped a good portion of the day and was quite grateful for the pharmaceutical assistance.

By Saturday the spasms had pretty much abated, though my neck was still stiff. I came in to work (which was mandatory, in exchange for getting Christmas Eve off) and puttered around a bit, then Dan and I went over to his mother’s to exchange Christmas gifts and enjoy a lovely dinner.

Sunday was much more relaxed, though we finally ventured into the high winds and blowing snow to do some Wuffmeet shopping. We did some price comparisons at GFS (and got some good ideas for food), picked up all of the bubbly we need for New Year’s at Trader Joes, and took advantage of a fantastic sale on sodas at Meijer to get $160 or so worth of soda for $90. Unfortunately, while moving all that soda, Dan torqued his back, which has left him somewhat the worse for wear today. As for me, my neck still is a little stiff and I still get occasional pain, but I’ve regained about 80% mobility, which is a huge improvement.

We’re supposed to drive down to St. Louis on Wednesday to spend Christmas with my parents and my sister’s family, but the weather is looking most unpleasant. The snow I could deal with, but the mention of freezing rain between here and there gives me pause. I’m hoping that, at worst, we’ll have to delay our departure until midday Wednesday, but if it’s bad enough we may have to drive down on Christmas morning. We’ll see how the weather works out. Alas, our visit down there will be brief, since Dan has to be back at work on Monday the 29th and I need to tend to all kinds of New Year’s preparations. The one spot of good news is that it looks like I won’t be called in during plant shutdown, which will leave me free to concentrate on party planning.

I hope everyone’s holiday planning is going well. Stay warm and safe!