time off work

November and December at work were terrible this year, so I've been really grateful for the company shutdown this year. I had a day off before GM and I flew to Iowa to visit my parents at their new house. Their seven-month old puppy is still quite rambunctious, but I have some hope she will settle down. We had a few days of nothing much to do except talk, cook, watch old movies, and drink wine. I made some of my dad's favorite cookies, and completely failed at making a cherry pie. I hadn't ever used frozen cherries before, and we got soup. It was tasty, but soup. Mom was hoping for a white Christmas, but fortunately the weather held off until after we left.
We spent a day's "layover" in Milwaukee to visit my brothers-in-law. Andy was free, but Jason was working so much we really only saw him for dinner and lunch. GM, Andy and I spent Monday morning playing Pandemic before we had to get back to the airport. A challenging game. We won, but by the skin of our teeth. I'd like to play it again with five people, just to see how the other roles work.
I don't have anything much to say to sum up 2014. In happy, it's the year a lot of people got married. In sad, 2014 has been the year without a cat. Gypsy died just before Christmas last year, and the universe hasn't decided to trust me with another yet.