Happy New Year – again!
This has been another very busy day, so let’s
begin with where I left off yesterday; and try to keep everything in order as
much as possible.
I really enjoyed my bit of early-morning
quiet in the sunroom, and while I did miss the sleep time; a cup of hot
chocolate, a warm throw blanket, and a great view was all I needed to finish getting
ready for the day. Surprising Mom and
Dad with a work-free start to their morning was great too – even though that
was only an option until they needed to start getting ready for our party. They had help for that, including from
Grandma, Grandpa, and me; but Violet and Dillon got ready to head out to
Woodvale for the weekend and hit the road as soon as they could to be there in
time for their own New Year’s Day fun.
While I’m there, they weren’t the only outbound
travelers this weekend. Uncle Mark, Aunt
Grace, and Caleb are in Granite Park for the holidays and a late Christmas with
Grandma Mercy’s side of the family – and visits with some of Aunt Grace’s
friends there.
While I rarely think about everything that
Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace gave up to move here and be together; I really do
appreciate those sacrifices – even though they’d both agree that the good that
came with the move is worth the things they had to give up. I’ll guess that they’re having a blast this
weekend – especially when that includes getting to share the happy baby news
with their favorite people there.
Back here at home, my morning wasn’t
exactly all fun and games, but we did manage to keep ourselves entertained
while doing the work. For me, that was
mostly the post-breakfast dishes; a total clean-up of the third floor; and
stocking the lounge to be ready for that room to be teen and kid central. The big screen television was going to be
exclusively available to the video gamers today; I set up a smaller television
so the guys could keep an eye on the football games; and my room was ready for
kids to play in too – though anywhere except Violet’s room was open for playing
games in. The sunroom was set up to be
the hangout of choice for the girls, and while Mom and Grandma got that room
ready; I did hook up a portable hard drive to the television so they’d have
lots of chick flick options for a movie marathon. Dad and Grandpa were in charge of the living
room and dining room; and Grandpa even had our living room looking like some
kind of man-cave by the time our guests began arriving at eleven o’clock.
We had a lot of drop-in visitors today, but
our main guests included the Stones; Nortons; Emersons; Bassetts; Ayres;
Drapers; and a handful of adult singles or couples that were friends of the
parents or grandparents. Not everyone in
all of those families could stay all day either, since they had multiple
commitments; but then Michael and I did a bit of visiting today too – though that
was mostly just to offer some best New Year’s Day wishes to the Johnson-McEwan
clan – and my aunts, uncles, and cousins.
Our lunch and dinner plans were for easy,
pot-luck meals, so while I had to help out with that work; it really wasn’t
tough to keep up with everything – especially when Mom had gone with paper and
plastic dinnerware for the day. The oven
was on most of the day; but that was as much to keep the snacks coming as for
the meals. Hot snacks for each group in
the living room, lounge, and sunroom were staggered to make doing that
possible; and Mom just grabbed any available person when it came time to run a
pizza or two upstairs or to the football fans or chick flick enthusiasts.
From the time he arrived, Michael and I
split our time between hanging out together – and with Rowen and Tim – and the
time we needed to be apart so that he could hang out with the guys and I either
played with the younger kids or spent a bit of time with the women in the
sunroom. Rowen and Tim were with her
family at our house for lunch; spent part of the afternoon with us; and then moved
on to spend the rest of the day with his family at his aunt and uncle’s
house. Michael and I did our little
round of visits when they left; and Lucas and Rebecca went out then for a few
hours too – though they came back in time for dinner. Some snow play fun was an option today too;
and Michael and I caught the tail-end of that backyard fun with the kids when
we got back from Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s house.
There was so much going on that I won’t be
able to write it all down here without having another sleepless night – or by
using a time phase that I’m too tired to produce tonight anyway. What matters to me is that we’ve had a really
amazing family and friends day; and I’ve loved being able to spend time with
people that I don’t get to hang out with nearly often-enough as we’re all
usually so busy. I also really enjoyed
the diversity of our group today; and there were interesting conversations
going on around me all the time – whether that was talking farming and business
or law and politics.
Yes, we did have a politician or three stop
in for visits, and I’m sure that you could come up with some jokes about that
when you also have farmers, lawyers, and computer geeks in the house; but we
generally like our local politicians just fine.
I don’t write about local government in my journal, but that’s mostly
because most of my favorite people are too busy to add that job to their
schedules; and there are better sources in the archives if you are interested
in reading up on the history of politics in our little town. That’s also pretty much the last thing I want
to think about as we start a perfectly good New Year; so let’s move along.
When it was play time with the girls, I had
all of the younger girls with me; and help for that from Rowen, Emma, Jessica, and
some of the other drop-in teens. Rebecca
spent some time with the girls too; but we didn’t time that very well; and didn’t
spend much time together until after dinner when everyone was ready to wind
down and take it easy. I caught part of
one movie during my one major visit to the sunroom; had a fun chat with Mom and
the rest of the women there; and had more fun with the guys during the visits I
did with Michael to watch football in the living room and talk with the guys
there.
Michael and I helped with dinner, and while
taking your food with you to the living room, lounge, or sunroom was an option;
Mom convinced the younger kids to eat in the dining room; so Rebecca, Lucas,
Michael, and I stayed with them so that the parents could enjoy that meal
without needing to worry about kid control too.
That was a modestly messy and entertaining break that was followed by
another easy clean-up that the teens and men were responsible; and then it was
back to the lounge for Michael and me so that we could again keep an eye on the
kids until it was time for most of them to get some sleep. We used the guest bedrooms as needed on the
second and third floor when Hailey, Eli, and the other toddler visitors were ready
to crash; but Ethan, Ehlana, and their friends stayed awake until most of the
parents began heading home for the night.
For some guys, that meant bending their
precious man-laws so that they could take their families home instead of
stoically waiting for the end of the last bowl game of the day; but it’s also a
work day for a lot of my favorite people tomorrow; so staying up half the night
doesn’t work when your work day starts at three, four, or five in the morning.
Aiden’s father was first to leave, and he
took Hailey with him; but Hannah stayed a bit longer to watch the rest of the
movie the girls had been watching when he’d decided to call it a night. Jacob and Miranda were next, so the Nortons
decided to head out then too; since Rebecca and Lucas were splitting up then
anyway – for the night. Michael stayed,
but that’s only because we were ready to sit down in the lounge and wrap up our
day with a movie; and he didn’t want to miss out on the cuddle opportunity. A sofa sleepover wasn’t really an option
tonight because he’s working the breakfast buffet at the Inn and will be
heading there with his Dad in the morning; but maybe we’ll see about doing that
tomorrow night!
Ethan and Ehlana are keeping Aiden, Naomi,
and Sophia tonight, and they’re all sleeping now as I write this; but they
stayed in the lounge for the movie – and Michael and I got to have Sophia for
our cuddle buddy because Ethan and Aiden supposedly aren’t as brave as Michael
when it comes to cuddling with more than one girl at a time. After the movie, I helped the girls get ready
for bed; Michael did the same with the boys; and then we went down to the
living room to hang out there for the bowl game wrap-up until Michael needed to
get home and get started on the few hours of sleep he’d have time for ahead of
his early-morning work wake-up call.
As the last of our guests headed out then,
it was time to join the clean-up crew for me; and it was closing in on one o’clock
by the time I was changed and in bed with Mandy. There was some family business work waiting
for me to deal with, along with quite a few email to answer; so I’ve been
working on my computer for an hour and a half or so while winding down. I am exhausted, and would have been sleeping
right away if not for the work; but I won’t need to do that work tomorrow – and
I want to have as much of the day off as possible so that I can play with my
family and friends. That’s going to
include spending time with Uncle Adam’s family; and I’m really looking forward
to that too.
I can’t go two days with no sleep, though,
and we have covered at least a few of the highlights for my day; so let’s wrap
this up and I’ll get started on my nap now.
Until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
