Merry Christmas, Everyone!
It’s been a really busy, sometimes crazy, and always
wonderful, best-ever-so-far kind of Christmas.
Michael and I were both on the go from very early this morning until he
went home a little while ago; though his early morning was because he was
helping his father and Jake with work in the kitchen while mine was thanks to
Ethan and Ehlana having everyone in our house up and finding out what Santa
brought us by five o’clock.
Our favorite ‘in public’ gift this year is the new
Playstation 4 that Santa brought for the twins and me; and we’re sure that it
was just a coincidence that so many members of our family knew to get us new
games for the system. Those games are
already getting a lot of play time in the lounge, and we’ll have years of fun
with our friends; but video games aren’t really all that challenging when you
can memorize the entire game the first time through and play perfectly after
that if we tried our best. I was just as
happy with the clothes that Mom, Aunt Leanne, and Grandma picked out for me;
music books; and some new movies.
Michael really loved the soft, cuddly and beautiful sweater that I wore
all day after getting it from Mom and Dad – though probably not as much as
Uncle Adam enjoyed what Aunt Leanne bought; and had him unwrap last night.
Feel free to use your imagination so that I don’t have to
include the details. I’m really glad
that Michael wasn’t in the room for that bit of girl talk, and while I’m also
glad that all of my favorite people have been having an awesome Christmas too;
there are some things that a daughter or niece don’t need to know. I’m certainly not going to talk with them
about anything along those lines that I picked up to share with Michael over
the holidays.
Oh, did I write that out loud? ;^)
Let’s keep the story moving along. After checking out our stockings and opening
gifts, Violet and Dillon got ready for the day and headed over to his house for
breakfast and gifts with his family. The
rest of us got ready to go over to Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s house for
brunch and the first part of our family Christmas that pretty much everyone in
our collective, home-town families were there for. Mom and Dad needed to get the turkey for
dinner in the oven before we left too; but they had nearly everything ready to
go for that last night, and didn’t really have much work to do this morning. Michael came over while that bit of action
was still going on; and he came with us for the brunch and family fun. We collectively had boxes of gifts to take
with us; including the gifts that Michael had brought with him for me and my
family. He gave me a beautiful, delicate
gold locket with a blue sapphire stone and our pictures inside that I’m still
wearing now; and Mandy and I have a new stuffed piano cat to cuddle with. My family didn’t come up with any
particularly good jokes about the new stuffie; but they were happy to drag out
the old sax kitten jokes and remind Michael and me of that gift again. Michael liked the gifts I had for him, though
video games for his new X-Box One, a sports watch, and some music gear wasn’t
as personal as the locket was for me.
Picking out something too sentimental would have gotten him in trouble
with the guys, and while that other purchase I mentioned will require some very
up-close and personal time and attention, we didn’t have a chance for that
today; and by the time anyone in the future reads this journal, we’ll all be
old enough that Michael won’t care what the guys think about that part of our
holiday fun.
Michael and I needed to go over to his house right after
having brunch; and we both needed to pace ourselves on the food offerings. For my family, the brunch was one of only two
meals; with the second being Christmas dinner at my house. Jacob and Miranda were hosting their big
family dinner this year, and Michael and I weren’t the only people in town
juggling too many meals. I will suggest
that it was at least a little tougher for those of us who had the Jacob and
Jake masterpiece dinner experience as one of those meals; but that was a
sacrifice we were very happy to make.
Our schedule juggling kept us off the cooking crews all day,
but that was more than offset by being on the clean-up crews for both family
dinners. There was also a lot of play
time, so let’s skip over the work parts of the day; and focus on the fun. There were new snow-fun gifts for kids to try
out; so Michael and I spent some time outdoors with our siblings and cousins –
more than an hour and a half of sledding and play time between our brunch and
the Stone-Bassett family dinner; and another hour or so between the end of that
clean-up job and when Michael and I needed to go over to my house for the
Proctor-Carrington dinner.
There was a fair bit of video gaming going on too; we
watched Christmas parades on television; and Michael and I even caught parts of
two Christmas movies during breaks in the rest of our play and work time. While the food was amazing and we ate way too
much; the best parts of the day for me were all family-time moments. I loved getting to know Michael’s Grandma and
Grandpa Stone; growing closer to everyone else in his family; all of the play
time with all of the kids and teens; and the bits of cuddle time we managed to
share here and there when we were able to sit down and relax for a while.
A fair bit of event juggling must go on while Christmas
plans are being made so that most family members can be together for the big
meals or other important events. That’s
different for my family; but everything worked out pretty well for Michael and
me. The family interactions were
sometimes a little funny – like having brunch with Josiah and our first
Christmas dinner with Caleb while they were each spending the day with their
respective girlfriends. Most of our teen
time was while we were at Michael’s house – our outside playing with the
younger kids. We only managed a quick
visit with Rowen and Tim this afternoon that barely gave us enough time to
exchange gifts; and then we all needed to get back to our own family fun.
I wouldn’t say that our second dinner of the day was quiet,
but it was quieter by comparison to the brunch and earlier meal at Michael’s
house. That was partly because everyone
was getting tired by then; and also because there were only five kids and teens
– excluding Violet and Dillon. Zack
slept through the meal too, so Michael and I sat with Ethan and Ehlana and
mostly just enjoyed the meal while the adults took care of the dinner
entertainment. While I really did eat too
much today, I didn’t have all that much room for more food by then; so I
practically snacked on small amounts of everything; and had just a tiny little
slice of pie for dessert.
The dinner conversations were fairly diverse tonight. Kid talk from babies to college teens was
fairly thoroughly covered, as was everything from charity trips and vacations
to Boxing Day sales from the store owner perspective. All grandparents, chefs, and the Mom who
needed to nurse her baby were set free after dinner while the rest of us got to
work; and spent an hour or so getting the kitchen and dining room clean
again. While I’m sure the family
juggling had a lot to do with it too; that evening work probably had a lot to
do with why Michael’s parents were happy to have the early meal - especially when they’re going to be doing
the boxing day breakfast buffet at the Inn first thing in the morning.
Michael’s going to be helping out with that too, and he’s
going to be a tired puppy after hanging out here later than he probably should
have. We got into a bit of video gaming
with Ethan and Ehlana after the work was done; and Violet and Dillon joined us
for a bit of that before they went over to his house for the rest of the night
when it was time for the twins to go to bed. Most of our guests went home then too, and
then Michael and I had a bit of quiet time and chat with Mom and Dad before
they went up to bed and Michael and I were left alone to end our merriest
Christmas in a mostly non-verbal sort of way.
I came straight up to my room after Michael left, and
climbed into bed with Mandy as soon as I finished getting changed and ready for
bed. Rowen and I have had a little chat;
there were email to read and answer; and I did a lite version of my usual
nightly computer checks before starting this update. I’m ready for a long winter’s nap now; and
should get a little extra rest to be ready for another big day of holiday fun –
starting with that breakfast buffet at the Inn
and some Boxing Day shopping. We going
to have some afternoon family play time too that will probably include some
sledding, and I’m going to help out at the Inn
for the dinner rush. We’re going to
shoot for another movie night after that with Rowen and Tim if we get finished
at the Inn early enough, and I hope that works out; since we probably won’t get
to have much couples time this weekend while my family Christmas is going on
and Michael and Rowen are both busy with work at the Inn and computer store.
This little report doesn’t come close to covering every
happy moment from today, but even Magi Masters can hit information overload now
and then; and there was just too much going on all day to include
everything. All that’s really important,
though, is that this was a really special day; and I’m still feeling the warm
fuzzies from getting to share most of those happiest moments with Michael and
our families.
With that in mind, I’m off to what will definitely be some
very happy dreams, so Merry Christmas again, and...
...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!
