SoDak, here we come...

The Hildebrandt family is less than 24 hours away from our tires crossing the border into South Dakota for a weekend of card games, catching up, gift exchange games and of course ... tons of food.

My favorite line I like to use shortly after New Year's is to throw on a pair of jeans, turn my backside toward my wife and ask, "Does my butt make these jeans look big?"

It's amazing to think that this Christmas will be the 15th one I've shared with Teresa and her family and I remember all too vividly sweating bullets on the SUV ride out there for the inaugural Healy Family Christmas to which I was invited. Not knowing how it would go made me more nervous than anything I had experienced in my life. Watching three children being pulled from their mother via a pseudo kangaroo pouch (they were all delivered C-section) was not nearly as stomach turning compared to my first drive out to my then-future in-laws.

What I remember most is my then-toddler niece Jordan giving me the evil eye all weekend long, perhaps expressing her disgust that I had somehow driven a wedge between her and her auntie Teresa or perhaps tyring to convey to me, "watch your back mister, 'cause I got my eyes on you!". I also remember it seemed like we ate eight square meals a day that weekend and over the next few holidays after that.

It was breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner, lunch, snack, supper, lunch, snack with the possibility of another snack or two crammed in there somehow. You could try to reject one of the meals, but Teresa's mom was sneaky that way in she'd somehow coax you into "just one bite" which would lead to many more and the eventual belt loosening and then the eventual belt removal.

I really miss my mother-in-law, because she always seemed at her best during the holidays. The gleam in her eyes and the smile in her face would light up the house all weekend long as she hustled about. I only wish my kids could have experienced more holidays with her.

Nonetheless, I think about Teresa's parents often when her side of the family gets together, but especially her mother who went out of her way, despite the toddler Jordan's attempts to intimidate, to welcome me into the family.