Itchy

This is fixing to be an itchy week. It's a four-day week for me. My holiday vacation starts Friday and goes through next week, and I'm itching for it to get here.

I still have a bit of shopping to do - some silly gifts for my sister, brother, and their spouses, and some stocking stuffers for my boys. I'll probably head for the mall on Friday.

We'll head for SonnyeBoy's place on Christmas Eve. It's quite a pleasant ride, especially since we don't have to take I-95. Instead, we take the PA Turnpike to US 15, and head straight to Frederick, Maryland. The traffic is thick through Dillsburg, but it loosens up as the road loses its traffic lights and gains exit ramps.

Eventually we slide past Gettysburg and then - Maryland! Emmitsburg has a huge golden statue of the BVM up on the mountainside, so I like to look out for that. It's very shiny!

There's Catoctin Mountain Park and Cunningham Falls State Park, Thurmont and Walkersville, and it's so pretty, and then it gets more urban as we slip into Frederick. Finally, we exit off 15, take a few more turns past the CVS and the WaWa, and we're there!

Then the three of us will head to Silver Spring for dinner at my sister's house of roast beef and fun. It's the best party of the year.