Christmas Eve day came and I awoke to discover that our washing machine was on the fritz. Luckily, Mike's brother, Jeff, was visiting and helped Mike work on it only to determine it needed a part that of course we couldn't obtain on Christmas Eve. While all of this upheaval was going on at my house, I took clothes in to my parents' house to wash and ran a few errands for myself and my mom while they were washing. I spent the morning putting things away for my parents (onto shelves where they can't lift objects onto), sweeping their garage for the family dinner the next day, sweeping the kitchen floor and spot cleaning in various places like the bathroom and laundry room floors. Finally my laundry was done and I made my way home to figure out what to make for all the boys. I had bought sausage and refrigerated hash browns (knowing that Mike and Jeff had gone to visit Juan and get eggs that morning). I started making an egg bake and let Mike and Jeff kind of take over and throw in whatever things they wanted (or could find). It was pretty good and very filling! The guys watched some football and soon it was time for us to get ready to go to mass. Jeff hit the road and the guys hit the showers.
The church really looked great (I know, I say that every year!). When we got there the tree had not yet been lit and so I went up and plugged it in. When I did so, I could hear a little child gasp and say "Look!" That was so precious! I even worked my magic and talked Fr. Lippstock into incensing for the mass! He is not as awesome to watch as Fr. Miller (no one can top him!) but I was glad to have incense and he did a respectable job of it. We got home after mass and I communicated via text to Fr. Miller that all went well and that I believed Fr. L got to Duncan for the next mass on time. He was a little worried.
Once we got home, Mike took the last load of laundry, which was the one stuck in the washer and still wet, in to my folks' to dry. He left that there to dry while we opened presents. Here's one of my presents -- leopard print slippers! Kiss those leopards clean, Fr. Huber! I also got white chocolate covered oreos, pretzel M & Ms, chocolate dipped pretzels (do you see a theme here?), matching soap dispenser and storage jars for our bathroom. I also got a game which I think we will put to good use this weekend before Micah goes back to college -- Logos. Brenda Smith got this for us and I have a feeling Micah will cream us all!
Christmas morning came upon us too quickly as we had to get up and get moving to be at the airport in Des Moines for our 10:15 flight. Once we got everything packed and the dogs kicked out of the garage we headed south. Upon hitting Story City, we made a shocking discovery...McDonalds is not open on Christmas! In fact, not much IS open on Christmas! We waited until we got to the airport to grab a bite to eat there. We took off from Des Moines and as of that point, Gabby still had not opened her presents or figured out that we were on our way. As soon as we were able to use our cell phones when we landed in Detroit, I pulled mine out of my purse and she had finally texted that she had just opened the presents and asked if we were indeed on our way. Our flights went very smoothly with no delays, as a matter of fact, we got to Richmond earlier than anticipated. On the flight from Detroit to Richmond, I was so tired that I kept waking myself up when my head would bob and practically fall off my shoulders! I don't even remember the take-off of that flight! The worst part of the trip was the ground travel here in Virginia. Our Garmin would only calculate the route to the hotel from Des Moines. I was pretty sure I knew the way from when I was here with Gabby before but Mike kept wanting directions read to him from the Garmin (which I KNEW were wrong). I tried to tell him the roads we needed to go on and he was not really believing me and his doubt in me then had me doubting myself. He blew up and pulled off ONE exit before the exit we needed to take to get to our hotel. Micah admitted to me while Mike was in the gas station asking for directions that he thought that I was right in the route and that we were headed in the right direction.
Once we got checked in, I called Gabby and she headed over. The next task was to find somewhere to eat on Christmas Day. We have a Cracker Barrel right next to the hotel but...you guessed it...closed. We drove down the street and could only find a Waffle House open -- Yuck! So we went back to the prior mentioned TA and they had an all you could eat buffet. It had chicken, turkey, ham, BBQ ribs, mashed potatoes...you name it. I don't think Micah had anything to eat since the mini donuts we bought at Kum & Go in Story City so I know the boys were hungry. After feeding our faces, we bought some bottled water for our mini fridge in the hotel and then came back to swim and sit in the hot tub. Astonishingly enough, we were the only ones in the pool area on this Christmas day. We had a good time, Mike reminisced of the days when the kids were little and he would take each one of them one at a time around the pool. It's nice to remember those days but can't say I want to go back to them! I look at how much the kids have grown and just can't believe it. When did Reed get as hairy of a chest as MY dad? He's my baby! He's not supposed to have a hairy chest and back!
This has definitely been a "different" Christmas. Can't say it is the absolute best or the absolute worst, just different. We'll see what memories we can manage to make this week!
No comments:
Post a Comment