My mom is a very loving person. She has complained for years about how Christmas Eve dinner is always done at my grandmother's house. She complains mostly to my father and I ... but she would never take a step up and do anything about it.

My dad is a firefighter, and this year is his turn working Christmas Day. With my brother in Iraq for the second Christmas, my mom has been having a hard time with the holidays. Adding into the fact that my dad won't be home ... well, she was on the verge of loosing it a little.

She came up with the grand scheme of having Christmas Eve dinner at her house, and inviting my grandparents and my cousin over *we're the only ones left in the state*. This is the same grandmother who hasn't spoken to me since I had Juliette ... she's a real doll. At first, she said no, she wouldn't be coming. My mom, who never would have done this in the past put her foot down and said "Fine, see you after Christmas." My grandmother, having her bluff called, back down and agreed to come over.

I just got a frantic call from my mom, who now has to have the house clean and fixed up in 9 days. LOL. My dad's "honey do" list is over a mile long, but she's happy. I'm happy I don't have to drive over to Lakeland and I'm really happy that my mom gets to spend Christmas the way she wants to. But seriously, be careful what you wish for.