We’ve officially moved on from Christmas
mode today, and while that’s mostly because everyone in town is starting to
gear up for New Year’s Eve; it’s also because the decorations are being taken
down and packed away for another year too.
I’m including our house for that; and doing that work was a big part of
my chores today – along with cleaning guest bedrooms and helping out with a lot
of laundry – both of those jobs normal after a weekend with a house full of
guests. Having all of that on the go is
why I’m a bit surprised that Mom and Dad were okay with the teen and kid
sleepover we’re doing right now as I write this; but it wasn’t a planned event
– it just grew into this little adventure one or two kids and teens at a
time. I’ll get to that soon; but it’s
time to back up and cover the weekend news that I’ve skipped writing about for
the past two days.
Oh, wait – there is something I want to
mention before I get side-tracked.
Martin left a few things behind when he headed home yesterday that we
found while cleaning his room. Mom’s
already sent his stuff to him, and we even did his laundry first, but I really
didn’t need to know what kind of underwear my cousin prefers; and I suspect that’s
going to be weird for him to get that package from Mom when it gets to
Woodvale. Violet thinks it’ll be
hilarious, though; so I’m glad she’ll have some entertainment with that when
she and Dillon head for Woodvale for another visit before heading back to
school – though they aren’t sure when that’ll be quite yet. They’re going to do some more work at the lab
while they’re here. Anyway, I’ll keep
you posted on that little side-story if there’s anything more interesting to
add; and I’m mostly just including it here for the weird factor – and as a
reminder that Magi Masters deal with these normal issues too.
Okay, I might have used telekinesis to pick
up Martin’s dirty underwear instead of doing it the normal way; but I was doing
most of the chores this morning with some Magi-powered assistance anyway!
Let’s get to the weekend recap, though; and
move along.
I started the day with Tai Chi, and Michael
joined us for that before going home again to get ready to help out at the
Inn. He split his time there so that he
could be with me for our family Christmas dinner in the afternoon. That was pretty much the only calm moments we
had all day through until the fun started to wind down later in the
evening. For me, that meant helping out
in the kitchen both before and after breakfast; eventually getting a change to
grab a shower and get ready for the day; and then spending the rest of the
morning on kid control. We went outside
for a while; played at the park; and then played in the lounge and my room
after that. Snacks were put out for
anyone needing munchies while waiting for the mid-afternoon meal; we started
the family gift exchange shortly before one o’clock; and then the kids had time
to play with new toys while Michael and I were on the work crew in the kitchen
and dining room after that until we sat down to eat.
Even the work was fun for us, though maybe
not so much for Michael; since he’d already been doing a lot of dishwashing and
prep-work at the Inn already – and had a lot more to do after going back there
again. We did get to sit with the other
teens for the meal, so that was good, and while Michael did have to get back to
helping out at the Inn after we ate; he also got to miss out on the hour or so
of post-dinner clean-up. That sounds
like a lot more work than play up to that point, and maybe it was; but I pretty
much had the evening off to play after that.
We were in the lounge for most of that time while the adults either
stayed and hung out in the living room with football on the tube or went
visiting to other homes. The lunge was
basically girl-central for the teens and kids while most of the boys were
hanging out in the game room at Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s house in the early
evening; but everyone was pretty much back in their own homes in time for the
younger kids to go to bed.
There’s a lot of action that I’ve skipped
with that because there were two family dinners and gift exchanges going on
this afternoon – the one at our house; and the one that Uncle Adam and Aunt
Leanne were hosting for his family. That
made for a lot of traffic between houses; and I’m still hearing new stories
today about what was going on there on the weekend. I do know that the Carrington-Johnson-McEwan
clan had a fun weekend too, though; so that’s all that really matters.
Moving this along, though, we played all
evening; watched a chick flick; and then I helped with the bedtime routine when
it was time to get the youngest kids off to sleep for the night. Our only extra guest for the night was
Jayden; mostly because Jaimie and Kaitlyn picked spending the time with Aunt
Grace and Caleb instead of with Dawn, Ehlana, and me. If they’d been here for a third sleepover,
they would have spent one night with us; but that wasn’t an option this
time. We’ll probably spend a little less
time with them for holiday weekends now – at least for a few years; but that’s
happening anyway now that I’m busy with Michael and his family a lot too.
That’s why I didn’t spend much time with my
family on Sunday. I should just move on
to that part of the weekend report now anyway.
I already mentioned the teen time in the lounge in the micro-update from
Saturday, and there isn’t really any news to report from that – other than we
stayed up too late with the chat time and only had naps before needing to be
awake and on the go again on Sunday morning.
Michael came over for Tai Chi; I got ready
for church; and then went to have breakfast with him and his family while Mom
and Dad hosted an easy-breakfast at our house.
I didn’t pick which meal to be at just for the food, but it was a
bonus! I was mostly glad to spend the
time with Michael and his family after not seeing them much in a couple of
days. I made up for that all day on
Sunday. Michael and I needed to eat and
run so that we could get to the church early for teen praise team warm-ups; and
the service was a blast of fun for us too before we both moved on to the Inn to
get to work again. We helped out with
the prep work and set up for the first buffet; had that meal with my family
before our collective guests headed home again; and then spent the rest of the
day helping out in the kitchen. We had
some breaks here and there when we could get them, but it was a very long, busy
day; and that’s the only reason that I fell asleep while cuddling with Michael
at his house after we were sent home for the night. I was okay with that for obvious reasons, and
Miranda apparently was too; since she didn’t wake us up and send me home after
they got back from the Inn with Jake and Stephanie. She did take a picture and send it to my Mom,
and made sure that my parents knew not to worry about me; though that was all
for show and fun since Mom already knew that through our link.
That makes the report for Sunday easy for
my own news, but I did miss out on most of the family action. They had the usual holiday weekend crazy-busy
all morning on Sunday as they added in packing and loading cars and SUV’s for
the trips home along with having breakfast and getting everyone ready for
church. I missed all of that; was busy
before, during, and after the church service; and Michael and I were on kid
control during the first buffet sitting while most of the other teens in our
group were busy with their own families.
I also missed the afternoon, dinner, and evening action after our family
guests had left; though that was really just work at my house anyway while mom
and Dad both caught up on their work in the office while the twins were lent
out to Naomi and Aiden for the afternoon and early evening.
While that still leaves out lots of family
and friends news from the weekend; I’m going to keep this moving along and wrap
this up with the rest of the action for today.
Waking up cuddled with Michael certainly got the day off to an awesome
start; I’ve already mentioned that Tai Chi was great too; and then Michael and
I split up to have breakfast with our own families ahead of our respective
chores around the houses morning. Since
I’ve also mentioned that we did some of that work with a little Magi-powered
assistance, you can guess that the work was mostly fun too; and then Ethan,
Ehlana, and I were set free after lunch for the rest of the day while Mom got
back to work – including spending a couple of hours at the lab – where Uncle
Adam, Dillon, and Violet had already spent a lot of the day. I didn’t mention having Violet and Dillon
with us for breakfast because they were back to spending the nights at his
house last night. With a house full of
kids and teens here tonight, though; they’re probably happy about being there
instead of here with us.
It wasn’t very warm out today, and there
wasn’t any snow on the ground; but we were still ready to get outside for a
while by the time we started meeting up with our friends after lunch. Ethan, Ehlana, and I met up with Michael
first; we added his three younger Bassett cousins along the way to picking up
Naomi and Aiden; and then had Rowen and Tim catch up with us before we all went
over to the park to play and hang out with the other kids and teens that were
there too. I don’t really have any
specific news from that play time – we mostly just goofed off and traded
Christmas stories with our collective friends before heading to my house when
we were ready to warm up and have a snack break.
Ethan and Ehlana started the sleepover talk
during that break; and the snowball pretty much just started rolling downhill
and gaining momentum after that. The
details aren’t all that exciting, so let’s just mention the results. Ethan and Ehlana have Naomi, Aiden, Sophia,
and Susan Connor with them tonight. Susan is one of Sophia’s usual playmates, and
was added to the guest list so that Sophia wouldn’t feel like a fifth wheel
with the rest of her friends. Once
Michael, Rowen, and Tim were included, we couldn’t resist the puppy-dog looks
from Jessica and Ryan, and while Ryan had to settle for hanging out with the
rest of the guys; Jessica was able to invite Lindsay Faulkner to join in on the
fun after finding out that Patrick and Scott were invited too. Rebecca and Lucas were invited too, but he
couldn’t get away from the farm after the holiday weekend that they mostly took
off; so Rebecca opted to go out there for her night off from the Inn.
Mom had the full gang for dinner, and went
with an easy meal that required a run to the grocery store for stacks of frozen
pizza and boxes of wings – along with a re-stocking of snacks after my cousins
pretty much wiped out the supply in the lounge.
Rowen and I helped out with the work because the boys were into college
bowl games by then – along with some video gaming. The younger kids split their time between the
lounge, my room, Ehlana’s and Ethan’s rooms, and the kitchen; but they kept
themselves entertained while we were busy.
Dinner was in the dining room for the kids and teens, but Mom and Dad
opted to set us free and do their own thing in the kitchen while keeping an eye
on the ongoing pizza cooking once the first couple of pizzas were served with
the platter of wings. The boys
demolished the food pretty much as soon as each pizza hit the table; though
they did let the girls grab a slice here and there so that we didn’t starve while
waiting for them to fill up. The good
news for Mom and Dad’s budget, though, is that the football game was still on
and Tim wanted to get back to it as soon as possible – and the video gaming
too.
Michael needed to go along with the other
guys, and that was okay with me; but Rowen, Jessica, Lindsay, and I had some
fun joking about that while doing the easy clean-up after we finished our meal
without the boys. We sent Mom and Dad
off to the office so they could get going on their homework then too, and once
we had the clean-up done; we dropped off plates of dessert for them along with
fresh cups of coffee, and then headed up to the lounge and my room for the rest
of the night. While the television and
my school computer were tied up with the football and gaming for the guys; the
rest of the girls and I weren’t totally bored.
We used my good computer for a movie; we played games in my room; and
Rowen and I did mini-makeovers for all of the younger girls. We also took care of getting Ethan, Ehlana, and
their friends into bed when it was time to do that; though I’m also sure that
they didn’t go straight to sleep – especially when chatting via iPads was an
option for them between their rooms.
The fun level kicked up a couple of notches
after that when it was just the teens and older kids left standing, and other
than one goodnight visit from Mom and Dad; we were pretty much parent-free for
the rest of the night too. Football and
gaming were still the top activities in the lounge, but at least Tim and Michael
were willing to spend some time cuddling with Rowen and me by then – while continuing
to watch the bowl game and take turns playing the video games with Ryan,
Patrick, and Scott.
There weren’t any other kids in the room
doing any cuddling, but I’ll have to start making some adjustments for the way
I think about Rowen’s brother, Michael’s cousins, and their friends. Patrick and Scott are going on twelve now;
and Jessica and Lindsay are only a year younger. The funny thing is that the age difference
should have them hitting their growth spurts at nearly the same time, and I
have a suspicion that the girls might even ‘cross over’ before the boys do – if
only because Patrick and Scott are both fairly self-conscious about being
shorter than most of the girls in their grade right now. Ryan still has a few years to go before that’ll
be an issue for him, but then he does have a crush of his own right now. He hides it pretty well, which has me
wondering if that’s a glimpse of what Uncle Adam was like around Aunt Leanne;
but Michael and I both sense Ryan’s emotions very strongly – and won’t say a
word about it to him or anyone else.
I should wrap this up, since it’s late and
we’re going to have another busy play day starting in a few hours. We did the video gaming thing until nearly
one when Jessica and Lindsay decided to call it a night, and politely suggested
to the three younger boys that they should turn in too and let Michael, Tim,
Rowen, and I have some time without them around to ‘do whatever’ before we went
to bed too. We opted for a movie once it
was just the four of us; and then we wrapped up our night by splitting up to
take care of the clean-up in the lounge and kitchen – and to have a bit of
minor make-out time before the boys went to their rooms on the second floor and
Rowen and I got changed and hopped into bed with Mandy. We’ve had a nice little girl chat while I’ve
been doing my nightly computer checks and this update; but Rowen’s dozed off
now and I’ll join her in nap mode as soon as I’m finished with this.
Okay, I’m done; so, until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
