Happy Proctor family Christmas Day!
Tai Chi this morning was the only calm before the family
circus began with a major breakfast and a couple of hours of taking turns with
bathroom time; getting ready for the day; and entertaining Jaimie, Kaitlyn, and
three toddlers. The grandparents, Uncle
Adam, Aunt Leanne, and Aunt Grace all joined the party by ten o’clock, and
while the kitchen and living room were the adult action centers all day; my
lounge and bedroom were where the kids and teens spent most of the day when we
weren’t opening gifts or having lunch and Christmas dinner. Chris and Martin migrated to the living room
to watch most of the football games too, but still fit in a few hours of video
gaming in the lounge before getting to take over the living room for some late
night gaming action once all of the ‘old folks’ had either gone home or up to
bed.
Dawn and I took Kaitlyn and Jaimie out for some play time at
the park for an hour or so in the morning when Rowen could go with us, but we
spent the rest of the day indoors and warm.
Getting to play for most of the day was great, but Dawn and I didn’t
escape from the post-dinner clean-up that took nearly an hour and a half from
start to finish. I guess that wasn’t too
much of a downside to a day filled with music, chick flicks, games, and
playtime fun.
Speaking of fun, I’m not going to detail every gift each
person received today, but there was one particular gift that is fairly
important to our future plans – Uncle Blaine gave Aunt Grace and Mark the
blueprints and drawings for the house he designed for them. it’s probably a really good thing that Uncle
Adam did such a great job with remodeling his home for Aunt Leanne, because
Aunt Grace and Mark are going to have an awesome house that manages to fit it
with the style of the beautiful old homes we have in Witch Falls while also
being modern and state-of-the-art. Aunt
Grace got teased a bit about the six bedrooms, but Uncle Blaine assured her
that he was thinking about space for guest bedrooms as much as for kids –
especially since Mark’s family visits wouldn’t likely be just for weekend hops
when they were coming from Seattle. I
should amend that teasing to include Mark, since he was with us for that
awesome Christmas gift memory – at least virtually – thanks to a little iPad
Face Time.
That was the top gift of the day, though not as fun to play
with as the toys Jaimie, Kaitlyn, Ethan, Ehlana, and Jayden were given. Mom, Dad, Uncle Adam, and Aunt Leanne were
given a few things by Uncle Blaine too, but they weren’t gifts. We now have the completed plans for the new
lab, and though I haven’t seen them yet; Mom assured me that they’re just as
awesome as Aunt Grace’s house. Uncle
Blaine’s been very busy, and he also had the first batch of plans for the
houses he’s designing for the new part of town.
That’ll give Aunt Leanne something exciting to work on at the office
during the slow winter months; and actually seeing what some of those homes are
going to look like will probably get a lot of people in town fired up too. Thanks to a little future insight, Ethan,
Ehlana, and I know a few families that are really going to have fun with that
in the coming year; and we’re going to have fun right along with them.
So I missed out on most of the future plans fun today, but
Ethan, Ehlana, and I had a blast hanging out with our cousins; and I picked up
enough snippets of the girl talk that mostly revolved around Aunt Grace and
Mark to know that there were some parts of the adult fun that none of us kids
needed to be around for. I was also good
with missing out on most of the football action, but I would have liked to
spend more time with Violet and Dillon.
Their impending graduation from high school to college and adulthood
next summer might be at least part of the reason why they spent most of their
time hanging out with the adults today.
While lunch was a grab food when you feel like eating,
two-hour long buffet and snack bar; everyone – including the football fanatics
– sat down for Christmas dinner in the dining room. The only family adoptees with us today –
other than me – were Uncle Nick and Aunt Deborah, and now that she’s nearing
the end of her fifth month of pregnancy; baby and pregnancy stories were high
on the list of our dinner conversation.
While I’m fairly fired up about Aunt Deborah’s first baby, I
should probably mention how Elaine Johnson is doing with her pregnancy while
I’m thinking about babies, since I didn’t mention it in my journal at all over
the Christmas weekend. Nicole and her
parents will have the new addition to their family arriving sometime in late
February; and though her pregnancy hasn’t been quite as easy as Aunt Deborah’s
has been so far; Elaine and her baby are both very healthy and doing just fine.
The good news for me was that talking babies, Christmas in Seattle, and weddings
kept matchmaking for Cassie out of the conversation entirely. Thanks to Chris and Martin, football was a
top subject with the guys, and they even needed to find excuses to leave the
room and check up on the game in progress.
Since I’ve seen them drink a half-case of pop each and never have a
problem; I seriously doubt they each needed to go to the bathroom a combined
total of five times in under two hours.
So dinner was fun; the clean-up was at least a shared chore
if not exactly exciting; and then we – mostly the girls – spent the evening
watching chick flicks in the lounge while the guys continued the bowl game
tradition. The grandparents started
heading home for the night by ten, and though Chris and Martin apparently
complained about it; the remaining wives and girlfriend joined their boys in
the living room for the rest of the evening after Ethan, Ehlana, and Jayden
were put to bed. Aunt Grace chose to
stay with ‘the girls’ in the lounge; and Dawn, Jaimie, Kaitlyn, and I all loved
getting to spend the extra time with her; though Jaimie and Kaitlyn both fell
asleep during the last movie while cuddling with their favorite aunt.
The remaining uncles and aunts headed home at midnight, and
Violet and Dillon decided to call it a night then too; mostly because of church
in the morning, and because he was going to be in for a long day at the Inn
with extra holiday weekend buffets.
Jaimie and Kaitlyn are sleeping in the lounge again, and Dawn and Mandy
are both sleeping now too. I’ve been
sitting in the window alcove for a while now; mostly winding down while
puttering around the internet on my computer.
I’m not quite ready to call it a night yet, so this is
probably a good time for those family news updates I wanted to write about.
Aunt Grace and Mark:
The girls in his family love Aunt Grace; his father and
brother think he may have gone off the deep end over a pretty girl; and they
all think that moving to Witch Falls is nuts for both of them. There were even suggestions that Aunt Grace
could really take her business career to the next level by moving to Seattle instead. I suppose that’s true, but I get the feeling
that Mark’s family – or at least some of them – don’t completely understand
him; and this move will be as perfect for them as their fit into our future
plans will be.
Uncle Blaine:
Is going to be very busy over the next few years. Everything he’s designing for us is also
helping to take his company to the next level; and his biggest problem is going
to be having enough hours in the week for all of the work. Up next for his end of our future plans are
more houses; three apartment buildings; and two sets of townhome blocks with
four or five different floor plans each.
He’ll have the medical center to design too, but we won’t need that
ready for about a year or so.
Violet and Dillon:
College majors and school have been chosen; now we’ll just
wait for them to make the grades and get accepted. I have no doubt both will happen. Next year is going to be awesome for them!
Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne:
It’s going to be a busy year for them! Wedding plans; new homes to sell; running the
clinic for an unknown length of time without Aunt Deborah when she’s off with
the new baby; and much more that I wouldn’t want to chance spoiling by writing
about now.
Grandpa Duncan and Grandma Mercy:
The big news for them is that they’re going to retire next
year – before Aunt Grace and Mark get married if all works out as planned. Maybe we’ll see if Grandma and Grandpa can
recruit them to do some charity trips for the family business. We could use their skills; and they might be
interested in some free world travel – and spending time with their brother and
sister-in-law.
That’s about it for the big family news. There are always endless little daily life
stories too, but I’m not so fired up still that I want to list all of them; and
most wouldn’t really interest any future Magi reading my journals anyway. I’m still not ready to climb into bed yet,
but that’s all I have for tonight; so I’ll wrap this up and move on to some
more random surfing.
Say ‘goodnight, Cassie’.
“Goodnight, Cassie.”
