Congratulations (again) to Aunt Grace and
Uncle Mark!
It’s now official, and the ‘we’re pregnant’
news hit the town news network within minutes of their arrival at the med
center this morning. That announcement
made for a great start to the day for our family, but the fun level started
earlier than that for me – and for Michael too.
Our sofa sleepover was amazing; and the
pre-sleeping part of that was also fairly hot as we happily made some very
special holiday memories. Michael’s
wake-up call was a lot of fun too; though we didn’t really have much time to
play before meeting up with everyone for Tai Chi. Our workout was great, and Michael stayed for
breakfast; but then he needed to go home and help out with some work there while
Jacob and Miranda were busy at the Inn.
He was okay with doing that because one
alternative would have been to go shopping with me – and the group of girls
that Mom had with her for the annual Christmas Eve Day shopping adventure. We even had bonus shoppers to go with us
because Violet, Dillon, and Dawn arrived home in time for Violet and Dawn to go
with us. They’d decided to leave
Woodvale very early so that they could do that; and made it to our house shortly
after we finished with the breakfast clean-up – and before everyone was ready
to go for the day.
While some fun shopping was involved in our
outing; the work part of our shopping came first. I suppose you can’t really call all of that
part of our morning work when those stops included things like picking up the
Santa-approved cookies and reindeer treats along with our weekend desserts and
snacks order from the Olde Bakery or the rest of the holiday food and treats
shopping we took care of for the first hour and a half or so of that girl time;
but hauling everything out to the minivan and then unloading everything at home
once we were done did require actual work and a fair bit of physical exertion. That could be why we didn’t feel guilty about
the Olde Bakery snacks we enjoyed before heading out again for the fun part of
the shopping – and why we didn’t have to worry about those treats affecting our
clothing sizes either.
Having a late lunch was an option for most
of us, so we happily shopped until shortly before one; and then we gathered at
our house to have a soup and sandwiches meal that included most of my cousins
and some of my aunts and uncles. Violet,
Dillon, Dawn, and I were on kid control for that meal, and our group was in the
sunroom while the parents sat in the kitchen so that Mom could do a bit of work
while they ate; and then Dawn and I were on kid control for the rest of the
afternoon. That included helping out
with incoming family; since nearly everyone that is here for the holiday weekend
with us took the afternoon off and hit the road early. Uncle Blaine and Aunt Alison were among the
first to arrive with their kids, and while they were busy getting settled in at
Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace’s house; Jaimie, Kaitlyn, and Jayden eventually came
over to our house to play until dinnertime.
Michael spent his afternoon break with us too, but he was kept busy
playing video games with the boys; so I didn’t actually spent much time with
him at all. The grandparents arrived
early too, and since Chris and Martin came with Grandpa Richard and Grandma
Carrie; they were able to take over the video gaming supervision by the time
that Michael needed to be back at the Inn to help out with the dinner rush.
I was busy-enough with my family today, but
Michael and Rebecca were even busier because not only did he help out here and
they both worked at the Inn for as long as they could; they also had to welcome
their grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins when they arrived – just in time
to have a quick dinner at the Inn ahead of the Christmas Eve service at the
church. While I would have loved to help
Michael with that, there just wasn’t enough time for us to do everything
together; so we did the best we could – even though that meant missing out on
some of the holiday fun with our respective families.
We weren’t having a major family meal
tonight, so most of the kids playing at our house were picked up or escorted to
their dinner destination homes. Not
every business was closed early tonight, but most were – including the lab and
Dad’s office; so we had lots of parental support by then to go along with the
teen and grandparent kid control. We
only had the Rice clan at our house for dinner – along with Grandma and
Grandpa; and part two of that was mostly because they’ll be doing the
early-morning Christmas and breakfast at the Carrington house this year. Actually, all of the Proctor and Rice
Grandparents will be doing that in the morning from what I heard after the
church service tonight; though they all had at least two options – and picked
what they hope will be the quietest one.
With Zack in the house, that might just be
wishful thinking; but it could happen! ;^)
Ethan and Ehlana were the only kids at our
house for dinner, but with nine guests for the meal; we needed the dining room
to have everyone enjoy that meal time together.
For me, that was shorter than for everyone else because Michael and I
needed to be at the church early for warm-ups and final instructions from
Stacey. That meant leaving Rebecca to
deal with their weekend guests and get them to the church on time; but since
they’d been having their dinner at the Inn; she did have Jacob and Miranda
there to help out for the walk to the church.
Dawn and I spent most of my time at dinner talking about everything and
anything with some support from Ethan and Ehlana; that was fun; and the food
was great too thanks to all of the pre-cooking we did over the past week.
Before I get to the Christmas Eve service
report, I’ll mention that Aunt Grace’s pregnancy news was a top story at the
Inn when I stopped in to meet up with Michael on my way to the church. It was also big news at the church – at least
with the teens and adults that asked us about it during the warm-ups. While I wasn’t able to be there for the fun;
I’m sure that Aunt Grace and Uncle Mark had a lot of fun before and after the
service too; though I’m sure they’d say that about the entire day – and especially
when they were able to spring the news on our incoming family members. Michael and I were only in on the warm-ups
for the teen praise team, and we went off on our own to do a quick run-through
of our duet; but then we had time to hang out with the rest of the teens and
chat while waiting for the service to start.
That gave Michael enough time to give me a
micro report on his time as co-host for his visiting family; and the most
entertaining moments came thanks to the two pregnant women in the family. His cousin, Sally, won the most laughs and
jokes contest because she’s about eight months into her pregnancy; so the Magi
Moms reading this in the future can imagine how she was doing after a very long
trip that was longer thanks to her need for more-frequent stops. She did manage to get in and out of vehicles,
chairs, and sofas without the need to call Landry’s for heavy equipment – or Lee’s
help; but that apparently didn’t keep her husband and brother-in-law from
having fun with her mobility issues. For
her part, Sally is sure that the two men will be on Santa’s naughty list now;
and I’m going to leave it up to your imagination to guess at where the
comedians in their family took that suggestion – especially since Heidi is
pregnant too.
She’s just past her first trimester, so her
pregnancy issues aren’t as obvious as they are for Sally; but that didn’t keep
Drew and Eric from having fun anyway.
Michael earned bonus points for staying out of that kind of fun
entirely, and while he was drafted to be a porter too; he and Rebecca
especially enjoyed spending time with their two youngest cousins – two-and-a-half-year
old Gerry – Eric and Sally’s son; and one-year old Annette. Their Christmas gift loads were apparently
even more impressive than the stacks of boxed-up gifts that we unloaded at our
house for the Rice clan; though I’m not really surprised by that despite the
fact that their two kids are so young.
Chris, Martin, and Dawn aren’t interested in the kind of gifts that come
in large boxes anymore; since video games and flight time or lessons gift
certificates really don’t take up much space at all. That’ll be a bonus for Uncle Rick and Aunt
Melissa when it’s time to go home on Sunday; while Michael’s family might need
Landry’s to help out with a trailer or truck rental to haul everything they’ll
have home again.
The church service was one of my favorite
parts of the day. Pastor Martha
delivered her now-annual Christmas message that’s based on the Magi Christmas
story that Mom gave to her during our first Christmas here; and it’s just as
wonderful every year as she fine-tunes it.
I’m not sure when Pastor John will take over the Christmas Eve service;
but I have a feeling that he’ll continue this new tradition whenever he does. I wouldn’t say that Michael and I are
starting a tradition with our Christmas Eve duets – mostly because we won’t be
able to do that when we’re only about two and a half years away from going off
to college; but I do love singing with him, and Christmas Eve is a very special
time to be able to do that together. Our
song assignment from Stacey was O Holy Night; we worked up a mixed version that
was part A Capella and partly with guitar and keyboard music. The opening and ending were A Capella; and I
can’t even describe just how wonderful it feels to make that kind of musical
magic with my boyfriend – and do that for the people we love the most. The teen praise team songs were a lot of fun
too, and while we couldn’t go and sit with our families when we weren’t
on-stage; Michael and I did still manage to have fun sitting together while we
enjoyed the rest of the service.
We were ordered to stay at the church after
the service for the comparatively short meet and greet as everyone hurried home
to get on with their Christmas Eve fun; but Michael’s parents headed back to
the Inn with a small work crew because they still needed to finish the
post-dinner clean-up and get the dining room set up for the Saturday morning
buffet they were going to be offering for the Boxing Day shoppers on
Saturday. Nobody wanted to go back to
the Inn on Christmas Day, so while that wasn’t fun for them; it was the
preferred choice of the majority.
I eventually went home with Michael, and
while Lucas, Rebecca, and their weekend guests had gone on ahead of us; we were
still there before they’d finished putting together drinks and snacks for
everyone. I couldn’t stay long, and
neither could Lucas; but we did spend a half-hour or so chatting with everyone
in the living room before I headed home to rejoin my family there. That meant that I didn’t get to wish Jacob
and Miranda a Merry Christmas tonight; but I did leave Michael with bonus hugs
and kisses to pass on to them. He’ll do
that too – even though Drew and Eric teased him about keeping them for
himself. Michael did agree with them
that being the intermediary for those hugs and kisses was more fun for him, and
I’m okay with that; but his cousins seemed to be just a bit too merry tonight
compared to even their normal selves; and I’ll guess that their holiday cheer
was at least partially aided by the very good wines and other adult beverage
options that have been available to them tonight.
Maybe Rebecca didn’t get to drive one of
the minivans home just because her cousins wanted to see for themselves whether
it was safe to be on the roads with her while they’re here for the weekend.
The Christmas Eve fun was in full swing at
my house, and the one big change from previous family Christmases was that
Chris and Martin are much different now than when Mom and I first moved
here. To be honest, there was more
teen-guy sort of goofiness going on at Michael’s house tonight than at mine;
and Chris really has changed after his first semester at college. Sure, there was football on the television in
the living room, and the guys talked sports; but the general conversation was
fun and entertaining that was both kid-friendly and happy without any
weirdness.
Once I was there, Ehlana and Dawn wanted to
head up to the lounge so that we could watch Christmas movies instead of
football, and we ended up being on our own for that until Ethan could get away
from the other guys without breaking any football-related man-laws. Dawn and Ehlana picked The Muppet Christmas
Carol for our movie entertainment; and we settled in to watch it and have a
nice, long girl chat. Violet and Dillon
were with his family for the evening, and the Moms in our family were more
interested in the cuddle time with their spouses and adult conversation than
having the movie time without the cuddling; so Ethan was the only addition to
our group – and he arrived just in time for the big break-up scene that wraps
up the ‘Ghost of Christmas Past’ part of the movie.
By the way, I’d like to mention that the
usual version of the movie that gets shown on television or on the internet now
has that break-up scene song cut out of it, and that’s a shame; since it really
is one of the best moments in the movie.
Just in case that original version of the movie has been lost to time by
whenever you’re reading this in the future; here’s that full scene clip with
the song included from the movie!
Note to television broadcasters that will
never read this anyway – sometimes you should skip the edits and either make
the show longer if you must push all of those ads at us; or try something novel
and cut back on those ads in favor of the art! ;^)
Moving along, we watched the movie; went
downstairs so that the twins could put out the treats and drink for Santa and
his reindeer; and do a round of goodnight hugs and kisses with everyone before
heading back upstairs and off to bed. I
took care of tucking them in while Dawn stayed in the living room and helped
with the clean-up that the parents and grandparents were ready to start with
because Ethan and Ehlana had tacitly given them the green light to get started
on playing Santa. The fun with my
brother and sister wasn’t totally over at that point because they had me run
interference for them; get everyone else into the kitchen or sunroom; and then
they ‘snuck’ downstairs and hid their gifts under the tree. They also took some cookies and reindeer
treats along when they left; and shared with me when I rejoined them for the
bedtime hugs and kisses.
I’d better not skip mentioning that our
reindeer were fully-filled with Christmas magic and ready to go with Santa and
help to keep his sleigh magically powered, and in case you’re wondering; Aunt
Leanne has worked that into her ‘Santa is a Magi of the Light’ story. We actually leave residual Magi power in our
reindeer as we love them during the weeks leading up to Christmas Eve; and
Santa uses that power the same way that we can share power so that we help out
with the telekinesis, time phasing, and everything else Santa does to deliver
toys on Christmas Eve! ;^)
I really love you, Aunt Leanne!
Once I had the twins tucked in for the
night; I joined the work crew; and we spent more than an hour getting
everything ready for Christmas morning – including eating more treats, enjoying
drinks, and doing a lot of running up and down the stairs to haul the loads of
gifts down to the living room. I loved
stuffing stockings too; and Dawn and I really had a lot of fun getting to do
that together this year. Violet and
Dillon caught about the last half of the playing Santa fun, but they spent most
of that time with the parents and grandparents; and only a bit of time with
Dawn and me. By the time we were
finished, it was heading toward two o’clock; so we all headed up to bed after
one last quick clean-up. Dawn and Martin
are in the two street-side bedrooms on the third floor, and the boys let the
girls get ready for bed first; so Violet, Dawn, and I then had a bedtime girl
chat in my room while waiting for Martin and Dillon to take their turns using
the guest bathroom. That wasn’t a very
long chat, and then we split up to get some sleep that I couldn’t get to right
away because I needed to do my bedtime computing and deal with a minor family
business issue that was charity-related and a last-minute Christmas wish that I
was able to help make happen from half a world away.
That’s why I’m hoping that Ethan and Ehlana
will sleep in a bit so that I can have at least a couple of hours of nap time,
but if that doesn’t happen; I’ll just use a bit of self-healing to make up for
the lack of down time. I really do need
to get started on whatever sleep I do actually manage to get, though; so let’s
do the Christmas Eve song pick and get right to the napping!
Since Michael and I sang this for our duet
tonight; I’ll go with one of my favorite A Capella versions of this Christmas
classic. I hope that you love this as
much as I do – and I’m going to let my A Capella Christmas music help me on my
way to dreamland while you enjoy the entertainment interlude!
Merry Christmas, everyone; and, until next
time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
