Ehlana and Ethan:
Happy Thanksgiving!
We can start this update by pointing out that we can thank the pandemic for giving people a changed perspective about what is most-important in our lives. With that in mind; we’re going to skip most of the actual news of the day; and focus this report on our family instead.
Starting with our guests here at home, Uncle Rick and Aunt Melissa aren’t entirely kid-free this weekend, but Violet and Dillon do have their own home; their boys are with Sadie’s or Kimberly’s families this weekend; and Dawn is working through the holidays and getting in extra flying time instead of coming home for her fall break and Thanksgiving. Our aunt and uncle seem to be surviving empty-nest syndrome while also being excited about becoming grandparents for the first time sometime next June. That isn’t something we’ve written much about, but while Violet has had some morning sickness issues, her first trimester has gone fairly-smoothly; so there hasn’t been anything newsworthy to write about. We should also mention that Jillian is in town this week, but she’s only visited with Cassie and Michael so far; and is staying with her fiancée and his family.
Next up is Uncle Blaine, Aunt Alison, and their kids. Uncle Blaine has been having a bit of fun with jokes about wishing that he could skip straight to the kid-free club with Uncle Rick – because he’s afraid of the next half-dozen years with two teen daughters. Jeremy has already been hanging out with Kaitlyn twice so far, and Micah had a bike-by visit with Jaimie; so the teasing about staying away from our little town for the next decade or so kept the fathers around our house entertained too. It is no surprise to us that Uncle Blaine didn’t have a problem with Sophia joining our gang for the sleepover last night – a fact that Kaitlyn pointed out while unsuccessfully suggesting that Jeremy could be invited for a sleepover too.
We won’t comment on that; and expect to have similar issues with co-ed sleepovers once we’re tweens and teens too! ;^)
Moving along; let’s cover Michael’s family next. Cassie, Michael, and May have been helping Jake and Stephanie for the past two days with his family. Michael’s grandparents are nearing their mid-eighties, and while we don’t like to think about age for our own grandparents; Lloyd and Francis seem older than their years to us while our grandparents probably look ten years younger than they are. Appearance isn’t really what is most-noticeable about Michael’s grandparents – for us, but we can’t talk with them about what we sense through our Magi talents; and don’t have a cure for getting old anyway. They may be slowing down a lot now, but they’ve also managed to stay safe from the coronavirus so far, and we should probably stop there to avoid the risk of jinxing them – especially when Michael’s aunt wasn’t in favor of making this trip.
We haven’t written about this yet, but our extended families have been impacted by the pandemic more than we have here at home. For the Bishop side of Michael’s family, that has included working from home for some of the Bishops; one job change; and most-importantly for most of the Bishop clan – a major shift in their social activities. Business professionals that are used to parties and going out for dinner and other social events are suddenly bored without the non-stop action. Those issues are being faced by most of our city-dwelling relatives – including the kids. Sure, that’s not much different than for us, but even the youngest kid-cousins have missed regular outings to see movies, go out for meals, or other group activities that just aren’t happening now.
Staying focused on the Bishops again, pandemic-related stress seems to be affecting Michael’s aunt the most; and she’s led the effort to protect her parents. That has caused some friction in the family, but she hasn’t asked more of them, from what we’ve heard so far, than what we’ve been doing here for most of the year. Pandemic fatigue is definitely a trend we can sense from a lot of the visitors to town we’ve crossed paths with today and yesterday; so those feelings aren’t unique to Michael’s family.
Decent weather today helped with some of the family tensions. While it was freezing first thing this morning; it warmed up into the mid-fifties and was sunny; so outdoor time was an option for anyone feeling the need to avoid being crowded together. We were among the kids that were happy to play outside and bike the trails, but we’re mentioning that because Michael’s youngest cousins wanted the outdoor fun time – and it was one of our chances to spend some time with Cassie and Michael while they helped out at the park. Now that his sister-in-law – the older, married one – is due to have her baby within weeks, Michael is thinking about his impending new title of Uncle, but that didn’t affect him around his younger cousins; and we’ve never doubted that he’ll be an awesome uncle – and father someday too.
That’s true for his cousins, Drew and Eric, but they’re quite different from Michael or Jake too; since their desires to be successful affect them in ways they don’t think about; and that’s as-true for them during the pandemic – probably more-true for Drew. We won’t add our opinion here, but Drew’s career has gone to the ‘next level’ this year; and he is very proud of his brilliance and success – especially when compared to the tough year his small-town relatives have had at the Inn.
He might have a different opinion if he knew that Miranda and Stephanie are co-managers of a multi-billion-dollar restaurant and hotel investment portfolio! ;^)
Let’s go on to the Johnson clan update. We’ve had more contact with the teen and older-kid cousins today, but the new additions and a pregnancy are getting most of the attention from the grandparents and parents this weekend. Babies James, Colin, and Gregory are all doing well; their parents are getting more babysitting support than they know what to do with; and Michelle is being doted on by her husband and family. She’s due in January, and will be off-work from teaching at the Christmas break for her school.
We also want to mention Jonathan and Savannah. They’re with us – and his family – for this holiday and fall break from school, but they’ll be with Savannah’s family during the Christmas break – in part because they’ll be working for her family’s business as well as sharing the holiday with them. They’ll be getting married after graduating, and the wedding will be in North Carolina, so we won’t likely attend; and may not see them very often after this weekend. Savannah is really great; and they remind us a bit of Cassie and Michael, since Savannah has an out-going, fired-up personality while Jonathan is even-quieter than Michael. We’re expecting to hear some stories about Savannah meeting Rebecca – and Jen – sometime this weekend, but that should just be fun for all of them; and maybe only a bit weird for Jonathan. ;^)
Finally, while we don’t want to spend a lot of time on our family-and-friends’ fun today; we’ll need to mention a few things to round this update out.
The pandemic restrictions affected our interaction among the combined families – and had everything to do with having Thanksgiving dinners in multiple houses with inter-house visiting to go along with the outdoor fun. We hosted one of those meals because we could also set that up in three rooms, but there were also family meals at the Stone’s, Ayres’, Bassett’s, Carrington’s, and Everett’s homes. Naomi’s family – including the Seager side – were at the dinner that Uncle Nick and Aunt Deborah hosted – and Ethan was with her for that meal while I was here with Aiden. We were one of the ‘couples’ doing two family dinners – the one for his family at lunchtime because his parents needed to be in bed early ahead of the big Black Friday shopping day. Cassie and Michael had two family meals too, but then they also did a lot of work at Jake and Stephanie’s house; and had a handful of cameo visits with the rest of their family and some friends.
The socializing has continued – and will go on into the evening, but we’ll cover that news tomorrow night. This update is a bit early because we’re taking a little break before getting started on another sleepover night – with those sleepovers happening at several houses. The teen and tween girls are with Aunt Leanne and Aunt Grace tonight; the younger boys are here at our house; and Naomi and I will be heading over to Aunt Deborah’s house soon for the younger girls’ sleepover that Leah is ‘hosting’ for the night. We’ll miss our favorite cuddle buddies for the rest of the night, but girls-only time is fun too; and we’ll get more sleep than Ethan and Aiden will get tonight while dealing with football, video gaming, and Zack and Eli!
Stay tuned for that news – or flip the digital page in the future to read all about it; and we’ll get back to the real-life adventures that we’ll write about next!
This is Ehlana and Ethan Proctor; live from the hidden home of the Magi of the Light – and May the Magi Force be with you!
