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Back to the back into it!  Back to this business of normal life.  Christmas is ovahhh.

Half awake coming down the stairs this morning, wearing my new and righteous pink fuzzy socks, a gift from Santa, I was brutally shocked into full consciousness.  My right foot slipped, I jerked backward, instinctively grabbed the banister with my right hand, and descended into a front split.  New and righteous pink fuzzy socks are deadly on stairs.  I held myself there for a moment, then said out loud, "Good morning, Slick."

Just breathe, Anna Nalick.  It's only Monday.

No one makes me laugh like my family.  (No one makes me cry like them, either.  But anyway...)  Being with them for five short days last week was just so many things:  comforting, tense, happy, confusing, wonderful, boring, easy and hard.  But maybe I'm overthinking it - I do that.  The feeling that stands out when I think of home, and those faces, is a feeling of gratitude and respect.  My family is extraordinary, which isn't always a smooth and tidy thing.  We're strong at our fracture lines, though.  And the bad times make the late nights around the kitchen table, doubled over laughing at the things we say, so so sweet.

Love you, Family.  Truly and forever.