This afternoon, my younger daughter packs up her family and travels with them for a Christmas up north. In Wisconsin. Honestly, this extended two day celebration is just perfect for old me! When all five grandkids are together, there is usually some degree of chaos -- very fun, very lovely to be part of, but I feel I can never focus on any one of them. Add gift giving to the mix and suddenly the farmhouse is all discarded wrapping paper and tossed cardboard. With each young family coming here for their own Christmas with me, I have chance to actually feel the depth and beauty of every moment. Today will be the younger set's turn.
So I wake up early! Actually super early, though Ed says that's in my head. I swore I was awake when the cats outside started fighting with cat no. 7 aka Pancake (at 5 a.m.), but he said he could hear their screeching and my snoring. He must be making that up, because I do not snore! (Well, to the best of my knowledge...)
I have a full day ahead of me. But let's start things slowly. It's colder outside, but still above freezing, and still a bit wet...
("where is everybody?")
My breakfast isn't at home. My friend's in town, attending to family stuff and so she and I meet up at a downtown coffee shop.
This meeting is a tough one only because she has so much on her plate right now! If you're feeling overwhelmed, believe me she probably has double the load you do right now!
As long as I'm downtown, I drive over to the grocery store. I'm not terribly good (yet) at shopping for the whole week! We're running out of berries. Kids are coming from left and right in the next few days and our fruits are dwindling.
Ed is away doing his machining work all day long so I have a chance to put the house in greater order. And to bring down the second batch of gifts. Smaller boxes this time. Yeah!
I have enough time to sit down and enjoy a quiet lunch. Or is it breakfast part two? Somehow lately these have been hard to distinguish.
Oh, here they come!
Presents. Joy. Exuberance. Music. Love.
Evening comes and the Madison family is here now as well...
(the art bunch)
(hide and seek, sort of)
So we have 11 for dinner -- my favorite number!
We do an old favorite -- Laotian take out. No one wants to cook a big meal today.
Kids play, grownups exhale. I mean, come on, we've survived a very full December. We deserve to put our feet up.
The kids' bedtime always dictates an early(-ish) ending to the evening. Who am I kidding -- it may be the kids' bedtime, but us grandparents are happy to wind it down at a reasonable hour as well. Especially this grandparent, who insists that everything needs to be cleaned up and put away before she can sit down on the couch and think back to the beauty of the day.
And it was beautiful. Every bit of it!
