Happy New Year, everyone!
This is going to be a near-double-update,
so let’s back up to yesterday; and cover the rest of the news that I didn’t
write about before heading to the Inn for the New Year’s Eve dinner and party
there.
First up, breakfast on Saturday morning
with the Rice clan was a lot of fun even with all of the work, and while Violet
and Dillon didn’t come over for that meal; they did come over in time for
Violet to join in on the shopping adventure.
I didn’t go and do that too right away, since Mom needed help at home
first, but we did catch up for that fun eventually; and I spent most of that
shopping time with Dawn and the other teens and tweens in our collective
group. Ehlana and Naomi were with us a
bit too, but were with the Moms for most of their dress-up time; while I didn’t
end up spending much time with the parents at all. I was home early too; helped with the work;
and then I’ve already mentioned that Michael and I were on kid control for our
Christmas dinner luncheon.
We opted to do that today instead of
tomorrow because the adults collectively decided that they wanted to have one
busy day; and be able to take it easier tomorrow – and have those meals
available for eating up leftovers along with the pre-cooked dishes. For lunch, I especially had fun with Brianna
and Faith; Michael was kept busy with Zack and the other boys; and Ehlana and
Ethan helped out where they could with our younger cousins – particularly with
keeping Leah, Caleb, and Sebastian happy.
The gift exchange after lunch was mostly about toys or games for the
kids. Dawn won the most-useful gifts
with quite a bit of air time for her flying lessons and practice time; and her
family is going to do all we can to help her dream of being a big jet pilot a
reality some day!
I’ve also mentioned the play time after the
gift exchange, and while that was a blast of cameo moments that included
football, chick flicks, gaming with the kids, and a lot of chat time; it really
was all just an interlude before Michael and I needed to get to the real work
of the day at the Inn. After wrapping up
my report for yesterday and getting ready for my night out; I met up with
Michael and dropped off my overnight bag at his house before going on to the
Inn with him.
We were put right to work; the Inn was
closed while we set up for the dinner and party; and that took more time this
year because we have the new dining rooms that were set up for football games
in one room and video gaming in the other – along with some tables set up for
dining too. The main dining room was set
up for music, a small dance area, and the main New Year’s Eve dinner and party
fun, but while I worked on some of that too; Michael and I were mostly put on
the dinner prep-line. The doors for the
party opened at six; there was a social hour that we missed out on entirely
while working in the kitchen; and dinner started at seven. Everyone working last night took turns taking
our dinner breaks; we had dedicated tables for that; and Michael and I took the
last dinner break while Rebecca had one of the first so that she could have
dinner with Lucas and his family. Our
dinner break was short because we wanted to get back to the clean-up and get
that done so that we could enjoy more of the party later, but that didn’t
really end up working out for us this year because it took until ten-thirty to
get the work in the kitchen done; the set-up ready for the late snack buffet;
and a bit of serving help in the dining room.
Before I move on, though; let’s interject
the football report here – and football was still a big deal in the kitchen as
the guys watched the bowl games while we worked. I wouldn’t say that any of the games were
surprising; and the two matches that decided the teams that will play for the
National title this year were not exactly nail-biters. Congratulations to Alabama and Clemson for
those wins, but while the winners and losers in both of those games had fans at
the Inn; I’m honestly just glad that we’re one day closer to the end of another
football season! Sure, we still have
another week and a day to go for college bowl games and another month and
change for the pro league, but the countdown is on; and the guys around here
will soon be as fired up about our trip to Florida as about football.
It’s funny how the prospect of girls in
swimsuits, shorts, and tees can distract teenage boys, don’t you think? ;^)
Moving along, Michael and I got to have
some play time for about an hour that included some dancing and chat time with
some of the other teens; and then we helped out with the work for the late
buffet that was mostly desserts along with some salads, buns, cold cuts, and
snacks. Everyone was in the main dining
room for the countdown to midnight; Michael and I shared our first kiss of the
New Year; and then we had a long round of best New Year’s hugs and wishes with
our families and friends – though the best wishes with my family was through a
video chat on my phone with Mom, Dad, and the gang with them in our living room
at home. Some of the younger cousins
didn’t last until midnight; so I had to wait until today to wish them a Happy
New Year; and I had to save all of the hugs and kisses for everyone until today
too.
The party rolled on at the Inn until two;
we had a lot of work to do after that while Miranda and Stephanie helped to
make sure that all of their guests got home safely – including being two of the
designated drivers; and it took until a bit past-four to get the dining rooms
and kitchen back to normal and ready for business on Monday. That’s the reason I went home with Michael
and his family; Lucas came home with Rebecca; and Jacob and Miranda had a full
house for the few hours we had available for nap time before we needed to be up
again and getting ready for the New Year’s Day church service. Since Michael and I were involved in the
music for the service with the teen praise team, we needed to be up early for
that too; so we really didn’t get much sleep.
We did get to have a gourmet breakfast,
though, so that was a great way to start the New Year – though the
not-accidental sofa sleepover did come first; and that wake-up call was great
too! If you’re wondering about what
Rebecca and Lucas did last night; I’ll only confirm that Lucas may or may not
have ended up in Rebecca’s room for the three hours of sleep they managed to
get – which was an hour more than Michael and I had. I was able to do a bit of self-healing this
morning, though, and helped Michael out too; so we were doing pretty well by
the time Jacob got downstairs and we helped him out with the breakfast prep
work while everyone else slept on for as long as they could before getting up
and ready for the day.
The food and fun with Michael and his
family was one of the highlights of my day, but it was over too soon; and
Michael and I were on the go again to get to the church for praise team
warm-ups. We did not have a full house
for the service, but that was only because a lot of weekend guests opted to
skip the service. My entire family was there
at least in body if not mind; but I didn’t get to talk with anyone until after
the service while I was busy with the praise team instead. Pastor John had a new beginnings theme for
the service, so our music went along with that, but while there were jokes make
after the service; we did not keep the noise level down simply to help out the
party-hangover sufferers in the congregation!
I’d love to report that our work was done
for the day, but Michael and I were on the work crews for the family meals at
his aunt and uncle’s house for lunch and dinner at my house. Let’s not bore anyone with those details, but
we helped out before and after both meals; traded that off with less kid
control time; and we were with ‘the kids’ for both meals. There was some play time mixed in during the
afternoon – and hour or so at the Bassett’s house; and another hour at mine
before we were put to work on the pre-dinner cooking and table set-ups in the
dining room and sunroom. Both meals were
a potluck buffet with contributions from the parents and grandparents in each
family; along with leftovers from Christmas dinner at our house. The clean-ups for both meals were
time-consuming, but once we were done with the dinner clean-up at my house;
Michael and I were set free to play for the rest of the evening – or I was
until the fun with my family and our friends was over for the day and I could
get started on my bedtime work and computing.
We came up to the lounge and stayed there
for most of the evening until Michael went home. He gets bonus boyfriend points for doing that
with me, since he skipped the evening football game that the guys were watching
in the living room, but he did get to watch some of the afternoon games; and
picked cuddling with me over football because we were both getting tired by
then anyway. Some kid play time was part
of our evening fun, but my cousins were getting tired by then too; so we also
wound them down with Disney movie time that helped to put half of them to
sleep. That worked for the parents that
were ready to take their kids home and off to bed; though that was mostly the
Moms and Grandparents that took advantage of those opportunities while the guys
stayed for the football.
Michael stayed until that last game was
over too, but we watched a second movie with Dawn, Ethan, and Ehlana; and then
it was time for everyone here to call it a night after that – everyone except
me. I saw Michael out with front porch
goodnight hugs and kisses; came back up to my room and cleaned up the lounge;
and then got ready for bed and tucked in with Mandy before getting started on
my bedtime computing. I had a lot to get
done thanks to some work waiting for me in my email inbox; so it’s taken two
and a half hours to do that without a time phase that I’m too tired to do
anyway. None of that work is newsworthy,
but I did do some good work tonight; so it was worth losing the sleep to get
that done.
That is pretty much all of the news for
today, though, and I’m past-ready to get some sleep; so let’s wrap this
up. My family will be heading home
tomorrow, but they won’t be doing that until after they go to the noon buffet
at the Inn tomorrow. We don’t really
have any plans for the morning, but tomorrow is still going to be a big college
bowl game day; and at least some of the guys want to get home to catch the
tail-end of bowl game parties with their friends. Chris and Martin are definitely two of those
guys, but they also don’t want to miss out on a buffet opportunity; so they
have to compromise this year.
Yes, staying here is an option; but not one
that works for the parents and grandparents that go back to their jobs on
Tuesday. Having a buffet day on Monday
for the second week in a row is going to feel strange to me, but I’m also going
to be working those buffets; so I should really just stop the look ahead and get
what rest I can before it’ll be time to get up and going again – even if I don’t
have to do the breakfast shift at the Inn with Michael and his parents.
It’s been crazy-busy around here, and we’ve
done a lot of work to go along with the fun; but I’m still happy with our start
to twenty-seventeen; and think this is going to be an amazing year!
That’s something I’ll have to experience in
real time even if you can read all about it right away whenever you’re reading
this in my future, and I’m going to start doing that by getting to my nap time
now; so, until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
