My favorite soup. Which takes three days to cook properly. She's going to have gallons of it ready when I get home. I relax a little bit. Mom admits guiltily that she bought me more presents than usual because she missed me.
Smile grows into childish grin.
Okay, so the panic is subsiding a little. Well, yes they will. That's the whole point of making us go home over the holidays instead of some randomly chosen week in the middle of the year. Just as I start to relax, mom says something that makes me tense up all over again.