Hippo New Year!

Well I guess I missed the whole month of December...I was busier than usual, only had four days off before Christmas but then took a whole glorious week off! It was great. The kids were all home, the weather cooperated and we all managed to get to Grandma and Grandpa's house for the big Christmas feast, including my dad. I knew that Cait's time with us would be short; I think the three weeks in summer goes by fast, so one week was going to be really fast.

But it was fun. I had the 22nd off, so Bronwyn and I went to the city, got her braces things done, shopped a wee bit and came home and started getting ready. I did manage to shop in little bits and pieces before and after work some days, so I was mostly ready in that regard. Bruce even managed to interrupt his baking to do some wrapping this year. As a matter of fact, I think he did most of it. I did take one day of sick (which after I went to bed and woke up a few hrs later, felt much better, think it was exhaustion and anxiety about not having any days off to prep Christmas!) and one day as vacation, so I could do cards etc. Otherwise, I would have never been ready. I had to clean the house that day (22nd), and we still didn't have the tree up! It had been sitting in a bucket of water for over a week, but no time to decorate! I know I don't like doing it till almost Christmas, but that was a bit fine this year. David was going to be home that afternoon, but ran into his friend in Regina so didn't get home till about 4 a.m. It was good to be checking for his shoes in the porch again. He is the tidy one, so I had to really look for them when I got up to go to work. I worked the 23rd and we got the tree decorated that night. I really enjoyed that. It has always been a family thing, but of course, Caitlin hasn't done it since Christmas 1999, I think. Wow, makes it seem a long time ago, but she has only been home two Christmases since she graduated in 2000, and not in time to trim the tree. Sometimes I think I should make a scrapbook of all themes, like Christmas or birthdays, seeing as every third page in our album is a Christmas tree or a birthday cake...Actually now with the digital camera, I don't probably have that many pages per year. I need to get on that project and get some printed!

So on Christmas eve day we got packed and everything ready and then headed into the city about 8 p.m. Cait and Tim's plane didn't get in till midnight, but we went to spend some time with Dad too. Bronwyn and I had impulse boughten a big stuffed alligator on the 22nd and we decided, seeing as I couldn't find antlers anywhere for us to wear to meet the kids at the airport, we thought we would take this alligator. As we were going out the door, Bronwyn grabbed a toque and mitts and dressed the alligator up so we took him that way, seeing as those transplanted Floridians might get cold up here. Luckily this was a record breaking warm December. They still found it cold. It was funny, when we were leaving the airport, there was a collective intake of breath from those people who had gotten off the plane in Regina. A guy behind us said, "This morning I was in Florida!" and Cait turned to him and said " Me too! Yesterday I was in shorts, 76 degrees!" The rest of us had to laugh as we were not even cold enough for mitts.

Anyway we came home, fed the travellers, went to bed at 2 a.m. or so. Bruce woke me up at 8 a.m.m and I was not a happy camper. I knew we had to get up to do gifts and take Tim to Mass, as he and Cait always go at Christmas. I had seen a listing for the next village over for 10 a.m. I had no idea where the Catholic Church there would be but it is a little place of only a few hundred people and a few streets. I figured I would look for somewhere with cars. Well, we never found it. We found about four churches, one had cars and looked like it might be in use, a Lutheran one, but the door was locked and when we went in the back door, it was dark and silent. I dunno where those four cars of people were (interestingly enough they were sporty type cars, all new and glossy, not old people cars which you might expect if there were only four people at church....) so we came home. I told Tim, God knows you tried. We decided it was a misprint or something. Maybe a typo? The priest is shared among three places, so I don't know where he was at 10a.m. but not anywhere around here. So we came home and had our brunch and took off for the farm. We stayed for four days and didn't manage to eat them out of house and home, but not for the lack of trying. Vi had made 35 kinds of baking. If you divide this by 4, this is almost 9 diff items per day. Can't be done, even if you only have one helping of each thing. Not when there are breakfast, lunch, supper and midnight lunch to catch up on. I think they could have fed 30 people, not ten. I think the sheer ambundance defeats us. I hadn't planned to buy much for groceries when we got home, but we are still chipping away at chips and things I bought for Bron to have a little party before Christmas, as well as our New Years groc. Of course the fact that I got so much delicious Christmas chocolate that I have to keep sampling has nothing to do with it....oh well I need my daily chocolate.

I had had plans to write all kinds of contemplative stuff about New Years and so on, but this is the first chance I have had to sit at the computer. Now school is back on, so Bron was doing homework and I nabbed the machine. But now I have to stop. Maybe I can do more of this someday soon, seeing as the Christmas pressure is off. Let's see, what to be thankful for today? Good weather at Christmas, children who want to come home and seem to enjoy themselves in your company and goofy stuffed alligators. I would put a photo on this if I knew how. Always so much to learn. At least I know my brain isn't going stale.
D