We’re having a rainy day around here, but
that hasn’t really gotten in the way of anything that we were doing today; and
I’m a very happy camper tonight as I’m writing this report and a half. Since that does begin late yesterday
afternoon; let’s start there and work our way through to now.
Once I was ready to go out – and for my
sleepover – I went downstairs and met Mom in the kitchen to help out with our
easy-dinner plans. Easy didn’t mean no
work at all, but we cleaned as we cooked; so there were only three place
settings and a couple of bowls worth of dishes to wash up after we were
finished our meal. Dad had been working
in the office until we had everything ready; we ate in the sunroom and I really
enjoyed having that bit of alone time with Mom and Dad – something we really
don’t get to do very often anymore. What
we talked about wasn’t really important at all – it was the being together that
mattered; and I have another happy little cameo memory to keep forever.
My night at Michael’s house was filled with
great memories. Rebecca was set free
from the Inn early so that she could get things set up for our fun night in;
and Lucas picked her up from the Inn for the ride home – and so that he could
help with the work. I got there just a
few minutes after they did, carrying my load of snack donations; and we got
right to work. Rowen and Tim joined us
shortly after that; and it really didn’t take very long for us to have the
living room, kitchen, and play room ready to go. No, the second-floor room that Michael and
Tim used to use all of the time for their video gaming and to hang out isn’t
technically a play room; but it isn’t a lounge, family room, den, or office
either; so I’m just picking a label – just as we were having a party last night;
but it was really more of a hang-out night with our friends.
By the way, and before I get to that part
of the update; I should have included the parental approvals that went into
making this teen gathering possible with my report yesterday. Michael and Rebecca were first up for that;
since their parents were going to be stuck with the gang of teens in their
house, and, according to Miranda; it worked because they were caught first
thing in the morning while still half-asleep while getting ready to head over
to the Inn to get ready for the breakfast rush.
She’s just kidding about that, but even if she wasn’t; the parents of
the teens staying there last night for the sleepover were all very happy that
Jacob and Miranda did approve our tentative plan. My parents didn’t have a problem with losing
one kid for the night; and getting rid of all of us was thanks to the twins and
their friends colluding to make that happen for them. My parents weren’t the only recipients of a
kid-free night, but while Tim’s parents only need to get him out of the house
for that; Patrick decided to go and spend the night with Scott instead of being
home alone with his parents; and Lucas’ brother and sister opted for other
overnight plans too so that their mother and father were temporarily child-less
too.
Jenny and Peter were the fourth couple
spending the night with us; and they came over at a bit before eight o’clock. Michael wasn’t finished at the Inn yet; but
he was still set free a bit early instead of being stuck there until
close. He made it home by eight-thirty;
and we had other teen guests there by then too.
While it was just the eight of us having the sleepover; Rebecca,
Michael, and Jenny all invited friends to stop in for part or all of the
evening; and three of those teen couples were there when Michael got home. Rebecca was having a social hour to start the
night, but the first Christmas movie was started at a bit after nine o’clock;
while video gaming was available upstairs; music and hanging out was an option
in the kitchen and dining room; and fresh, if damp, air was an option outside
on the back porch.
I was in the mood for Christmas movies, and
Michael was happy to cuddle with me to do that for most of the night except for
one video gaming break after the first movie ended. There was a shorter intermission before the
second movie started so that we could deal with things like washroom breaks;
but Michael didn’t rejoin me in the living room until about thirty-five minutes
into the Christmas chick flick that was Rebecca’s second choice for the
night. Rowen and Tim joined the
movie-watching gang then too, and while she’d watched a lot of the first movie
with us too; Tim had been with some of the football guys for most of the
evening until then. Rowen had split her
time between the group he was with, the girl chat in the kitchen, and the
movie-watching crowd; but she was ready to take it easy for the rest of the
night by then.
Miranda and Jacob came home during that
second flick, and while they stopped in for a visit with us – and with the
other groups of teens; they also soon went off to bed instead of staying up
late to hang out with us after a long day at the Inn and the shorter bit of
play time they’d had with some friends at Sheldon’s between closing the Inn and
coming home. Our evening-only guests
began to head home before the end of the second movie; though everyone watching
it stayed through to the end – including the guys that were only watching it
for the cuddle time with their girlfriends.
There was a blast of busy after that movie
while Rebecca and Michael saw all of our friends out; and some of us helped
with that while also cleaning up from the party. I was busier with the work side of that; and
Rowen, Jenny, and Peter helped me out with everything from dishwashing to
cleaning up all of the rooms and packing up leftover snacks. It was past-one by the time we were done and
it was down to just the eight of us.
Jenny was exhausted – or professed to be; and so she and Peter were
first to head up to their rooms. I am
sure that they didn’t stay in two rooms for very long; but I’m only basing that
on my exceptional hearing and ability to count door openings and closings. No, I didn’t go upstairs at all last night
after that, but the only way they didn’t end up in the same room would be if
they were both sleeping in the hallway – or in a different room with the door
open. ;^)
Rebecca, Lucas, Rowen, and Tim joined
Michael and me in the living room after we all got drinks; we started another
movie; and had a wind-down chat while watching the show and cuddling with our
respective boyfriend or girlfriend.
Within twenty minutes, Rebecca was dozing off; so Lucas convinced her to
go up to bed. Rowen and Tim waited a
while to give them time to take turns using the bathroom; and then they headed
up to bed too. By then, Michael and I
had no intention of going up to our rooms too; and Rowen knew that because she
came back downstairs a few minutes later and draped a warmer comforter over us
so that we’d stay warmer than we would have been with the throw blanket we
usually used for cuddling emergencies.
With a house full of parents and teens, a
major make-out session wasn’t an option, but we did have some quiet play time
while watching the rest of the movie; and I really loved falling asleep in
Michael’s warm, loving embrace.
Miranda’s wake-up call for us was a lot of
fun; so were the good morning hugs and kisses; and then we were immediately
thrown into the Sunday morning rush that was more than a little crazy with
eight teens trying to get ready for church while also dealing with a major
breakfast and clean-up. As you might
guess from that comment, Michael and I missed out on Tai Chi this morning; but
we mostly made up for that with the work before and after breakfast. There were so many highlights from that
couple of hours or so that I can’t include all of them here; but let’s include
a few of them for the record.
Number one on the list would be the video
chat with Jake and Stephanie. That
entertainment was as much for the jokes and stories that Miranda had for them
about our teen sleepover and party; but I loved hearing about their ongoing
adventures in Europe too. The sleepover
jokes weren’t just limited to that video chat, and while teasing Michael and I
about our sofa sleepover was entertaining for everyone; Miranda did make more
than a few inferences about how many bedrooms were actually occupied all night –
though she didn’t offer any proof or admonishments. For their part, Rebecca and our friends
managed to either be innocent or do a fair job faking it; and I’ll leave the
rest of that train of thought to your imagination.
Just as a little aside, for the parents
reading this in the future that have teens and might find the whole co-ed
sleepover thing weird or wrong; let me just remind you that there are
twenty-four hours in a day. Midnight to
eight in the morning aren’t really any more dangerous for what you might be
worried about than the rest of the day could be for them. I’m not going to suggest that every teen
couple will be like Michael and me; but I am suggesting that you probably can’t
stop these kinds of teen decisions no matter how much you’d like to have that
ability.
Moving along, we did manage to eat,
clean-up, get ready for church, and make it there on time. We needed to drive there because of the rain;
but had enough vehicles thanks to Lucas and Peter. The part of the service we were in the
sanctuary for was fun; and our Sunday school time was all about getting ready
for the Christmas musical next Sunday night.
That was definitely a highlight of my day; and I was in a great mood
when it was time to go home. I did go
home then instead of over to the Inn; and I’m taking the day off from working
there because I really wanted to have an afternoon with my family instead –
especially since I will help out more at the Inn over the holidays.
Violet and Dillon were with us for lunch,
and while I didn’t mention it earlier because I didn’t really think about it at
all; they spent the night at his house instead of ours last night. That was partly for Mom and Dad; but then
they were also having some friends over for the evening – along with Isabelle,
Andrew, and some of their friends. Dillon
was going to the lab for part of the afternoon with Ehlana and Uncle Adam after
lunch, so we had a quick and easy meal of soup and sandwiches; and then we
headed over to the lab while Dad got to work in the office and Violet and Mom
went over to Aunt Leanne’s house to hang out with her and the kids for a couple
of hours. I was part of the lab-going ‘we’
because I’d decided to spend that time with Ethan in the archives while Ehlana
played in the lab with Uncle Adam and Dillon.
Ethan and I went up to the second floor with them for a visit and to
hear about their latest projects; but then we went downstairs to the archives
and played with Ethan’s books.
They already are his books, or I think of
them as his; and Ethan loves the archives – and working with the books –
especially the millennia-old books and scrolls.
Grandma Eleanor and Grandpa Grant still have a long way to go with their
travel and work before all of the archives around the world will be moved here,
but they are making progress; and the huge, two-floor archives here are filling
up quickly. Ethan and I had fun with
that today because we worked on processing and storing one of the latest shipments;
and the entertaining part of that was using our telekinesis to put all of those
books away where they belong after meticulously cataloguing them and verifying
that a digital archive version of each book had been created. That last part was a bit redundant, since our
chief volunteers had done that during their original visits to the archives;
but Ethan is eventually going to also make sure that every digital copy and
translation, where applicable, is perfect.
Yes, that’ll take decades to accomplish;
but he loves his job and the challenges that go along with it!
We managed to get out of the lab by four o’clock
once we dragged Ehlana and her research buddies from their work; that gave us
time to get ready for dinner at the Inn; and Ethan, Ehlana, and I also watched
a Christmas show in the lounge because we were doing the late buffet so that
everyone in our collective families could come to the Inn too – if they wanted
to join us for another amazing Jacob Stone buffet. We had a gang with us for that, including
quite a few members of Dillon’s family; and the bonus for me was that Miranda
let Michael join us for his dinner once the first wave of food was delivered to
the buffet tables. I was on kid control
for the meal, so we sat with Ethan, Ehlana, Naomi, Zack, Eli, and Leah while
the parents spent time with their favorite collegians and had the younger
cousins with them – or with grandparents.
That hour and a half of family fun and food
was yet another highlight of my day, and I really loved getting to share that
with Michael too; but eventually it was time for him to get back to work and
for me to head home to the studying and work waiting for me there. Dad needed to get home to work too, and still
had a lot to get done – just as I had a fairly extensive to-do list. Neither of us wanted to stay up all night
doing that work, and Mom, Ethan, and Ehlana all had work or college exams that
they could do too; so I used a time phase once we were all set up in the office
with our computers, drinks, and Christmas snacks; and we kicked our work into
high gear. We were finished all of that
work by ten o’clock; I kept my goodnight hugs and kisses short; and wrapped up
my night with a time-phased soak in my Jacuzzi.
That’s why it’s still just-past ten-thirty
as I write this; and I’m going to be sleeping before eleven o’clock because I’m
tired enough to do that within minutes of finishing this report. Before I do that, let’s take a quick look at
the week ahead; and then I’ll wrap everything up with my Christmas song picks –
and that is ‘picks’ tonight.
Dad will be in the city next week, so my
Monday will start out early so that we can see him off to Crystal Springs. While I know that Mom will need extra help
this week, I’m booked to spend the evening at Michael’s tomorrow because his
parents won’t be taking days off over the holidays except for when the Inn is
closed; and we can’t do that tomorrow night because of our band and praise team
practices. That makes Tuesday night a problem
for me too; but then Ethan, Ehlana, and I plan on talking Mom into going to the
city for Tuesday and Wednesday anyway – and this time the surprise is for her
because Dad’s in on it and has a Christmas dinner with the Malloys already set
up for them. Wednesday will be my last
work day before taking as much of a break from the family business work and
studying as I can until the New Year; and then the Christmas fun really kicks
up a few notches on Thursday.
The school concert will be the highlight of
the day on Thursday; the last game night of the year will be Christmassy and
fun; though Michael and I will have to miss it for the dress rehearsal we’ll be
busy with at the church for the Christmas musical. I’m hoping that will go well and then Michael
and I can have some alone time in the lounge ahead of the holidays; but we’ll
see whether that happens or not. Our
weekend is sure to be busy, and while we don’t have any specific plans for the
last day of school for the year; Mom and Dad have a Christmas party at Sheldon’s
to go to on Saturday that Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I will be babysitting for –
and we’ll be having a sleepover for that too.
Sunday will be busy with church, work at the Inn, and the Christmas
musical; so I expect that I’ll need some of that holiday break time to rest up
by a week from Monday!
We are going to be working on another
amazing Christmas, and since music is going to be a big part of that for me
again this year; let’s wrap this up with the bonus Christmas music choices I
have for you tonight. I’m still on a
Christmas movie music kick; and my picks for tonight are all from George Canyon
Christmas movies. I hope that you enjoy
the music, and if you like the songs; watch the movies too!
That should keep you entertained while I
have a nice long winter’s nap; so, until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
