December 26, 2008
All Christmas’d Out
I intended to write a post either on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, wishing everyone the happiest of holidays, but time got away from me. I had last minute shopping to do, more presents to wrap and other miscellaneous tasks to complete before the Christmas festivities began so blogging was the last thing on my mind.
We went to Doug’s parents’ house on Christmas Eve, and his sister, brother and their spouses were in attendance, as well as his aunt and uncle and his niece. Dawson was thrilled to see his cousin Brittney.
We only see Brittney a few times a year, and honestly, the last time we saw her was last Christmas. She’s gotten taller and even more beautiful. She’s going to be nine years old in January and I keep wondering where the time has gone. It seems like only yesterday she was a chubby-cheeked baby. (I’d love to post a photo, but I want to respect her privacy.)
Dawson received some wonderful gifts, too. Grandma T. bought him a set of Lincoln logs, and Dawson was so happy when Uncle Chris helped him build a log cabin.
Aunt Gail and Uncle Rick bought him the most obnoxious guitar on Earth. She instructed Dawson to play it at top volume and I laughed when we discovered the loudest volume was actually tolerable.
“Ha ha! Joke’s on you! That’s as loud as it goes!” I exclaimed happily.
And then Dawson opened the Fisher-Price NASCAR racetrack from Uncle Chris and Aunt Kelly, a battery-operated toy that is so annoying I’m already thinking about hiding it in the basement. The thing is just….obnoxious. Aunt Gail was more than happy to put together that noisy toy and I think she had fun playing with Dawson, too.
We had lots of great food and drink and everyone had a wonderful time.
Christmas Day was held at my parents’ house. We drove over there a few hours after church, and we had a wonderful ham dinner with my family.
My brother Nathan was there with his girlfriend Becky, and my mom’s brother Paul came over, too. My mom’s sister Judy stayed home this year because she wasn’t feeling well.
I sent some presents with Uncle Paul, one for him and one for Aunt Judy. I’m sad she didn’t make it this year. I think it has a lot to do with her sadness about Grandma Alice’s death. She died December 6, 2005 and I don’t think Christmas will ever be the same with out her.
After dinner, my family ended up watching some movies on Dad’s big screen TV. We watched The Temptations mini-series on VH1 which turned out to be a four hour show. (It was a good movie, despite how long it was. I love Motown artists and I’ve always been intrigued about Berry Gordy’s legacy and the musical acts he cultivated — like The Supremes, The Jackson 5, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, The Temptations and so many more.) The show ended at 10 p.m., and when Doug went outside to start the car it was snowing heavily. Had we known about the mini-blizzard, we’d have left hours before.
The meteorologists predicted a “light dusting” but by the time we were ready to leave we’d already gotten 3 inches of snow and Mother Nature showed no signs of letting up.
My brother Nathan was leaving at the same time we were and the roads were so slippery and full of fluffy white crap that he got sucked into the ditch just past my parents driveway.
Thankfully, we were behind him and stopped to help, and Doug ran to the house to get my brother Frankie, my sister Rachel and my Dad to come help us shovel and push Nathan’s car out of the ditch.
I wasn’t very much help with my bum knee, however. I couldn’t push because I couldn’t find any solid footing, so finally I decided to use a shovel to clear some snow away from the tires.
Unfortunately, after nearly twenty minutes of shoveling, pushing and maneuvering we weren’t able to budge the SUV very much, and we were covered in snow (and my hair was frozen to my head because I didn’t wear a hat that day), so Dad ran back to get his 4-Wheeler and a chain.
Nathan crawled under the car, hooked the chain around the axel, and the rest of us pushed (I steered) while Dad tried to pull the car out. Sweet Lord, it worked! After a few minutes of the push/pull combo, Nate was out of the ditch.
It was Christmas chaos. But the drive home was worse. We got about 4 inches of snow that just came down all at once and caused our windshield wipers to freeze up constantly. Nathan followed behind us (since my parents live in the country) and we kept stopping to clean off the wipers on our cars.
Once we got into town and had the help of street lights, driving conditions were better, but we were still only driving at 20 mph, and that was almost too fast. It really was a miracle that we all made it to our homes safely.
This morning I was so tired from all the insanity and I awoke with a pounding headache. I spent the day lounging around the house and reading blogs. It was actually very relaxing.
Overall I’d say this Christmas was a mix of fun and crazy.
Check out some of my favorite photos from the two days of family togetherness:
I hope your Christmas was as exciting and wonderful as ours! Even though I enjoyed the holiday, I’m ready for 2009. What are your plans for the New Year?
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December 27th, 2008 at 9:34 AM, Mrs. Wilson Says:
I’m glad you had a great Christmas!!
My plans for the new year? Enjoy my last week off and then get back to work. Boo.
Mrs. Wilsons last blog post..Merry Christmas!