I was on the housework clean-up crew of three this morning,
and helped out at lunch and dinnertime too; but the rest of my day has pretty
much been all play and fun time with my friends, brother, sister, and cousins.
The family news of the day is probably the addition of
Michelle McEwan’s college boyfriend to the weekend guest list. Neil Ryan is a classmate of Michelle’s and
wants to be a future teacher too; though he wants to teach computers and
Phys-Ed while she’s focused on maths and sciences. They’ve been dating for a while now, and the
decision to do family Christmases together was a big step for them – especially
since that meant even more travel time for both of them to make that happen
with both her family and his. Jonathan
got teased about being next now that all of his sisters have serious boyfriends
or a fiancée in Tory’s case, but he’s growing up fast too; and doesn’t get
embarrassed by those jokes or comments anymore.
While I’m thinking about the McEwans, Tory and Kyle are now
just about six months away from their big wedding day; and that was one of the
top chat stories of the day too – along with babies; boyfriends; college; and
Christmas recaps. Mom, Dad, Ethan,
Ehlana, and I won’t be going to it; but it was fun hearing about some of their
plans for the big day. Since they’re
getting married the day before Ethan and Ehlana’s third birthday, it’ll be an
easy date to remember – even without a photographic memory.
Getting back to the events of the day, we started our
morning with Tai Chi after some of us took two days off from that; and Michael
and I went to his house to have breakfast with his grandparents before they
packed up and left for home. He and
Rebecca helped them with that, but I only stayed until the kitchen was cleaned
up before going home again to help with the housework. Mom and I cheated a bit with that work while
Dad was dealing with his one appointment of the day; and mixed that with a
little Magi lesson for Ethan and Ehlana.
The first members of our collective families to make it home
for the weekend were here in time for lunch; though we didn’t have any of our
weekend guests at our house until mid-afternoon. Tory, Michelle, and their guys brought
Jonathan, Kara, Eddie, and Nicole with them while their collective parents were
mostly working half or full days before making the drive to Witch Falls. Uncle Blaine had some work to do this morning
the same as Dad did, but they were still on the road by mid-morning; and at
Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace’s house before Violet’s family got to our house.
As I mentioned, I was on kid control for most of the day,
and that started with having Kara, Eddie, and Nicole come over to play with
Ethan, Ehlana, and me while their cousins were busy unpacking cars and hauling
luggage and boxes of gifts up to bedrooms after having lunch with Aunt
Leanne. We played outside and went
sledding for a while once I had some support from Michael, Rowen, and Tim while
Michael was on an extended afternoon break.
Jaimie, Kaitlyn, and Jayden were home in time to catch the tail end of
the tobogganing; and Blaine dropped them off with us so they could do that
while he and Aunt Alison were busy with their round of arrival work.
Our house was afternoon break central, and after having hot
chocolate and Olde Bakery treats; we played video games in the lounge - or some
of us did. Chris and Martin went to hang
out with Jonathan and play video games with him at Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s
– along with Kyle, Neil, and Josiah when they weren’t busy with their
girls. Dawn joined Rowen and me on the
junior babysitting crew; and the three of us were kept especially busy once
Michael and Tim left when Michael needed to be back at the Inn
to help with the dinner rush.
We didn’t try to get everyone together for dinner tonight,
so we only added Grandma and Grandpa to our dinner guest list along with the
Rice family and Rowen. Mom used up some
of the pre-cooked food; so making dinner wasn’t really much work. Rowen, Dawn, and I were actually glad to be
on the clean-up crew for a change from the non-stop kid action; though we’d had
fun this afternoon – and did again all evening while playing with our family.
Just consider yourself unofficially adopted for weekends
like this, Rowen – you are family to me!
We’ve had a movie night after dinner, and though we spent
some time with the parents and grandparents too; they watched movies in the
living room while the kid-rated movies were going on in the lounge. Jaimie, Kaitlyn, and Jayden were at Uncle
Mark and Aunt Grace’s for dinner; but they all stopped in for visits after
dinner, and Jayden stayed for a sleepover with Ethan. Dawn and I might end up having Jaimie and
Kaitlyn with us tomorrow night, though they also want to spend as much time
with their aunt as possible too; so they may change their minds about wanting
to do that with us by tomorrow night.
Michael and Tim came over again for a while after Michael
was done at the Inn for the night. They were in time to catch the end of the
toddler-rated movie we were watching in the lounge; did the bedtime snack with
us before Ethan, Ehlana, and Jayden were put to bed; and we had a little
football and chat intermission with the remaining adults, Violet, and Dillon
before coming up to the lounge again for another movie before they headed out
at the same time that Dillon left for home.
Violet joined Dawn, Rowen, and me for some girl chat time
when the parents and grandparents were ready to go to bed; and Dawn ended up
being Violet’s cuddle buddy instead of spending the night in her own room or
the lounge. Rowen and I have been
surfing the net and having our own extended chat time since Violet and Dawn
moved next door. We’re both pretty much
ready to sleep now, and I guess that’s about all of the news I have for today;
so it’s time to put our computers away and head off to sleep. If today is any indication of what’s ahead
for the rest of the weekend; we’re going to need all the rest we can get to
keep up with the ongoing holiday action.
Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!
