Cassie's Journal - December 4, 2013

I’m running on low power tonight; so this is going to be one of those micro-updates.

We were back to the normal weekday morning routine today; the weather outside was colder with late-morning rain; and there isn’t anything all that exciting to report from school – other than the growing Christmas excitement as kids now speculate about what their mothers may have bought for them yesterday; and making shopping lists for our own Christmas trip on Saturday.

After school studying was at Landry’s, and then I worked at home while Michael was busy at the Inn – and until he came over at around eight o’clock after being set free a bit early.  I did take a break for dinner with Mom, Dad, Ethan, and Ehlana; but I also used a little Magi power to speed up my work too.  That, and the energy I used while Mom did a Magi lesson with Michael and me after he joined us, has a lot to do with why I’m so tired now.  Michael and I had a lengthy music practice too, but that was all fun; and our twin critics and audience think that we’re going to be a hit at the Christmas concert.

Michael stayed to help with getting Ethan and Ehlana into bed for the night; we had a little visit after that with Mom and Dad; and then he went home for the night while I came up to my room to get started on my bedtime computing.  That was only about an hour ago, but I’ve had enough fun; need the extra down time; and the rest of the work I had planned will just need to wait for whenever I can get around to it.  That won’t likely be until next week now, but I am not going to be too tired for any of the Christmas fun this year!  Until next time...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Cassie's Journal - December 3, 2013

Mom’s Christmas shopping adventure was probably way more fun than anything I did today; but Michael and I had fun even with all of the work time at the Inn.

Spending the morning working in the kitchen at the Inn was a blast; though Rebecca and I had more fun on the prep line than Michael did helping out with the dishes and bussing everything from pans of food going out to the buffet tables to trolleys full of dirty dishes coming back from the dining room.  There were only thirty-eight women officially going on the shopping trip this year, but the dining room was more than half-full with other guests who were taking advantage of the special morning meal offer.

Mom, Grandma, Aunt Leanne, and Aunt Grace were all going on the trip, but Aunt Deborah was staying behind to help Uncle Mark at the clinic – mostly because she didn’t want to do both shopping trips this week; and she and Uncle Nick will be able to shop for Leah on Saturday anyway because she’ll be staying here with her grandparents.  The three of them were at the breakfast buffet, though; and Aunt Deborah took custody of Naomi when Liz left with the shoppers and the teachers in the family needed to get to school.  She dropped both kids off at KidZone before going to the clinic – just as Dad did the same with Ethan and Ehlana before he went into the office.

I didn’t catch up on most of that news until later, but I did take a break to spend a few minutes with my favorite women before they left town – and not because I wanted to make sure they had my Christmas wish list.

Michael, Rebecca, and I also stopped working long enough before we needed to be at school so that we could eat something too; and then we were off and running again.  With lots of kids happily speculating over whether their mothers would be getting them the Christmas gifts of their dreams this year; it’s no surprise that the kids’ shopping trip moved to number one over football as the top kid and teen chat topic.

While I’m thinking about gifts, here’s some advice for guys in general – if you’re seriously planning on re-gifting something that you bought as a birthday gift for your now-ex-girlfriend to a different girl for Christmas, don’t admit that to your buddies where it might be overheard and make it to the girl-chat gossip network.  I didn’t mention it in my last update, but I thought that the comments from a couple of the girls last night suggesting that Rebecca should have waited until after her birthday to break up with Jason in case he had gotten her something really good to be equally un-cool – whether they were joking or not.

Getting back to the real news of the day, the Christmas season is already heating up at school for more reasons that the shopping trips.  With just two weeks and two days left to get ready for the school Christmas concert; Michael started taking time off from our classes to help with practices for the kids in the younger grades that he’ll be accompanying on the guitar.  We worked on our concert music in band practice too; but our first big event in this Friday night at the Pinehurst Christmas parade.  I really hadn’t thought about that much with everything else we have on the go; but it is going to be exciting; and I can hardly wait to find out what it’s like to be at a night-time parade.

Michael and I were into music at lunchtime too; and we decided on which song to do for our duet – one of the three that Michael had picked out.  I hadn’t heard it done as a duet before; but really love the ideas he has for our version of it.  We didn’t get a chance to practice tonight, but Michael’s going to try to stop in after work tomorrow so we can get started; and it won’t take me very long to work up a keyboard arrangement – including at least some of the background instrumentals.

Moving along, we were back to our normal after-school study schedule today, and though Tim didn’t have football to watch while he waited for us to finish band practice; he didn’t have any problems rounding up a few guys who were willing to toss a ball around on the last nice, warmer-weather day we expect to have for the rest of the week.  That was our first study group as two couples; and Patricia had as much fun with that as we did.  Rowen thought that the drinks with two straws and two plates of snacks to share was a bit embarrassing; but I thought it was cute.  Michael and I only had about forty-five minutes before we needed to be at the Inn by then; so we blasted through as much work as we could before leaving Rowen and Tim to finish the rest of their assignments without us.

The dinner rush was busy for a Tuesday, but not any harder to handle than the breakfast buffet had been this morning.  We were busy and a bit short-handed, though; so we weren’t ready to close the Inn until about the same time as our favorite shoppers were getting home from Crystal Springs.  I missed out on most of the father-kids fun tonight, or I did with my father, brother, sister, and everyone else they had dinner and a play night with while I was busy; but I guess Michael, Rebecca, and I managed to have a pretty good time with their father while we worked in the kitchen together.

We were home by the time Mom and Miranda got back to the Stone’s house, but for some unknown reason; I was put in charge of watching Ethan and Ehlana and getting them ready for bed while the parents unladed the van, and Michael and Rebecca were sent off to finish their homework.  Grandma had already returned Dad’s truck before I got home because Aunt Leanne and Zack were ready to go home before the Wal-Mart stop on their trip; so they’d done their last fast food fix and brought their group home early.

Mom was pretty much done for the day by the time everything had been unloaded and put away, so we went with the condensed version of all daily recaps before we all came up to our beds.  I’m the only person who is still awake now; though Mom got temporarily un-tired earlier while having her Jacuzzi time.

Yeah, I really don’t want to go there, so if you’re currently using your imagination on that; don’t tell me.  Now, if you’d really like something mind-blowing to think about – imagine me sitting here in my bed; using my Sight to watch you sitting there in the future, reading my journal and imagining what my parents might have been doing earlier tonight during and after that Jacuzzi time.

Now I really wish I hadn’t gone there!

That’s pretty much ended my interest in writing anything else tonight too; though there really isn’t anything else to report anyway.  I’ve spent most of the last three hours on my usual school night studies except for about fifteen minutes of family business time that couldn’t wait for after school tomorrow.  We should have a couple of comparatively quiet days ahead of us now; so I may even think about having an early night or two to get ready for another busy weekend.  That’s all for now, and I’m ready for some down time, so...

...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Cassie's Journal - December 2, 2013

Happy 14^th Birthday, Rebecca!

I have a lot to write about for Rebecca’s big day, but need to write about something else that happened today before I get to that.

Michael got asked to do something special for the school Christmas show this year.  That’s not surprising, since he’s one of the best musicians in the school; but he totally surprised me when he asked me to do a duet with him.  Just in case the hopeful blue eyes and smile weren’t enough; Michael threw in a very sweet kiss that convinced me to agree to do that with him.  Doing something like that in public really isn’t particularly scary for me; but it does feel very strange to be putting myself in the spotlight again – like we did at the Fourth of July parade – after always wanting to keep a low-profile while on the run with Mom.  I wonder how long it will take for me to not feel that way anymore.

Anyway, so we’re going to do a duet, so I’ve been listening to Christmas music tonight while I’ve been working; and Michael and I are both going to come up with some songs that we like to pick from.  I’ve found lots of holiday duets to listen to on YouTube; but there really aren’t very many that are newer songs.  Singing one of the old favorites is an option; but I’m hoping that we’ll find something that we both like that’s newer – and appropriate for our age.  There are some duets that are not meant for tween couples – no matter how nice the songs are; and especially with both parents and young kids in the audience.

The idea of getting snowed in and stuck at Michael’s house for Christmas is nice, like in the ‘Baby, it’s cold outside’ song; but I seriously doubt we’ll ever have a storm so bad that I couldn’t make it home from two doors down the street – no matter how much fun that might be.  I’ll save that thought for later, and get back to the rest of the update.

We started out with a fairly chilly morning, but it has warmed up since then and been very nice for the first school day of December.  The only change to my normal weekday morning routine was having breakfast with Michael and his family.  He mostly invited me so that we could give Rebecca the joint gift we’d gotten for her; and I was happy to get in on the special birthday breakfast that Jacob cooked for us.  Rebecca opened one of the gifts from her parents and the one that Jake and Stephanie sent her; but had to wait until her party to open the rest.

The big story at school today was obviously the football championship; and every player on the team was treated like heroes by pretty much every kid and teen.  I’d like to be able to report that we’ll be done with football until next year; but the guys are just moving on to putting college football on the front burner.  That isn’t at the top of my fun list, though in a small way it is because Michael finds it very entertaining when I can jump in with the facts and stats about pretty much anything the guys are debating.  I won’t get into that, but the bottom line is that football will be on the guy chat list until after the Super Bowl; and I’ll just have to make the best of it.  The good news is that even if Rowen and I get stuck watching a lot of games between now and then; we’ll be able to do that indoors – and preferably while cuddling with our boyfriends.

That little change made the gossip network today too; and Rowen loved every minute of her first school day ever with a boyfriend.  She was shy and quiet a lot too; but didn’t stop smiling all day – especially anytime she was holding hands with Tim between classes and at lunchtime.  She was blushing after the one kiss I saw them share; but I’m sure she’ll get used to that soon enough too.  It was funny to see the reactions from some of our friends and classmates today.  The four of us have been spending a lot of time together even before Nora broke up with Tim, so it was strange to see the looks of surprise and disbelief being directed at Rowen and Tim.

Nora wasn’t surprised, but she did look to be just a little bit annoyed with a touch of sad.  I don’t know if she still had hopes for Tim still when he hadn’t started dating anyone since their break-up in August; but the sad might have been there today if she finally saw the same thing that I do with Rowen and Tim.  There are guys who still see Rowen the way Tim used to see her; both guys and girls who can’t see quiet and shy Rowen together with the mostly overtly outgoing guy in our class; and the few, like Sally and Joshua, who know Rowen well-enough to get exactly why she and Tim are perfect for each other.

I’m just really happy that my best friend had a really great day – and is so happy right now.

Tim and Rowen were on their own for homework time after school – and not just because Michael and I needed to go over to his house to help out with Rebecca’s birthday dinner and party.  They ended up going to Tim’s house to study; and Rowen was quite happy to assure me that they didn’t just study when she told me all about it during our computer chat a while ago when I first fired up my computer to get started on my nightly computing.  It will not even slightly surprise me to find out that they make more alone time for themselves than Michael and I manage to do; but we’ll see how that goes for them – and us.

While Rowen was definitely having more of that kind of fun than I was tonight, Michael and I had a very entertaining evening too; and Rebecca at least had a good birthday if not a great one.  The absence of a boyfriend tonight was particularly noticeable because Jenny had helped her to plan a party geared toward teen couples.  Michael and I were the only ‘kids’ there; and we were mostly there for the dinner and to help with the work.  Rebecca was really glad that we were because Jenny and the other girls were all busy with their boyfriends; and she ended up spending as much time with us – and with her parents – as she did with her older classmates and friends.

While Jacob cooked a special birthday meal, he also stuck with normal teen favorites too instead of trying something new and exotic.  That made for a less-interesting than usual selection of food; but everything was also still delicious, and the entertainment was pretty good – if occasionally weird.  I’ll put Jenny and Garth at the top of the list for the weirdness; though there were other guys trying their best to compete with them for that title.  Other than again mentioning that I will never, ever been seen feeding my boyfriend as if he was a baby in a high chair, complete with the baby talk; let’s skip over the rest of the dinnertime goofiness.

The really good parts of the evening included helping out with making the meal and decorating the house.  The awesome food deserves getting mentioned again; Michael and I had fun chatting with his parents; and Jenny kept Rebecca more entertained with her antics than their dinner conversation.  There were two birthday cake options, and I loved the cherry chip – angel food version that had a creamy whipped fruit filling and the always-awesome creamy icing.  That decision wasn’t because the decadent chocolate cake was nearly gone by the time Michael and I were able to make our choices; but getting to have larger pieces of the less-popular cake was a very nice bonus.

We sang the birthday song when the cakes were brought into the dining room; though I’d say that about half the teens thought that they were too cool to do more than mumble along – or they just pretended to be singing.  Rebecca opened her gifts while the cake and ice cream orders were taken and delivered; so by the time Michael and I sat down again with his parents to have our desserts; most of the teens had already finished eating and were set free to move the party into the living room.

That gave us a little break in the action, but then it was back to work for a fairly major clean-up.

Rebecca stopped in for a couple of long visits while we worked; and later, while Michael and I were having a guitar practice in his room, she stopped in and ended up sitting with us for nearly twenty minutes before anyone in the living room even noticed she was gone and came looking for her.  She was okay with that because all of the games she and Jenny had put together were for couples, and while she could play ‘game show hostess’; that wasn’t always much fun when all of her friends had someone they were cuddling and playing with.

Since it was a school night, the party started wrapping up at nine; and the best part of the night for some of us started after the last teen guests had left.  Jacob had brought their Christmas tree inside last night and set it up in the living room sometime during the day; and I was invited to stay and decorate it with them.  That wasn’t only special for me because it was another first-ever event with my boyfriend.  I really loved getting to hear some Stone family Christmas stories; Rebecca was very happy to end her big day with the tree trimming; and we collectively made one of those family moments worth remembering forever.

Doing that tonight meant that I missed out on Ethan and Ehlana’s bedtime, but I stopped in to give them kisses while they slept after having a bedtime chat and doing the daily recap with Mom and Dad before coming up to my room for the night.  Other than the chat with Rowen and listening to Christmas music, I’ve been studying and working on some family business since getting changed and climbing into bed with Mandy.  I don’t have anything newsworthy to report from any of that work, and the only reason I’m writing this when it’s only a bit after two is because Mom let me skip my Magi lesson tonight.  We probably shouldn’t have done that, since we’ll probably miss our lesson tomorrow night too if Mom’s as tired as usual after a big city shopping trip; but then I should have been sleeping at least an hour ago.

Michael and I are skipping Tai Chi in the morning so that we can help out with the breakfast buffet at the Inn in the morning; and we’ll help out after school too because Jacob is expecting a big father-and-kids dinner out night while the Moms are away.  That won’t be as much fun as some alone time with Michael would be, and he’ll miss a day off this week; but then we probably still owe his parents for letting him have the day off for Rowen’s birthday and the football game last Friday.

That is what we’ll be doing starting in a bit over four hours, though, so I’d better put my computer away now and get what sleep I can.  We’re supposed to have another decent weather day tomorrow, so getting snowed in overnight with Michael isn’t going to happen; but I can definitely dream about it – and will give that a try right now.

Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Cassie's Journal - December 1, 2013

Happy Birthday, Mr. Seager!

I didn’t really do anything to help Naomi’s father celebrate his big day other than to wish him a Happy Birthday while we were at church and give him the gift that Ethan, Ehlana, and I had picked out for him.  Ehlana has Naomi doing a sleepover with her tonight; Eli is with grandparents; and Liz and Philip have a kid-free night.  No more details for their plans tonight are necessary!

I’m sure that the Seagers have had a good day, and mine has been fairly awesome too – starting out with Tai Chi while Rebecca, Rowen, and Mandy got a bit of extra sleep; and breakfast that Michael and his parents all joined us for after accepting Mom and Dad’s invitation so they didn’t need to cook another meal when they’d be doing that all afternoon for nearly everyone else in town.

That made for a crazy morning with cooking, cleaning, taking turns getting ready for church, and some girl hair-and-make-up time in my room that Mom and Miranda helped out with.  Rebecca isn’t all that broken up about Jason, as I already mentioned yesterday; but that didn’t mean she wasn’t willing to look her very best to celebrate her return to single-girl status.

I happen to know that our collective efforts were worth it after overhearing one specific comment directed at Jason by one of his buddies.  “You are such an idiot” pretty much summed up my feelings perfectly, and though Jason wouldn’t concede the point with a bunch of guys around; he didn’t look very happy today.  There was at least one other guy who was very happy about that news story today; but I’ll keep that little news nugget private.

The teen service was awesome, and it was even more special to combine the Thanksgiving holiday with the first Advent Sunday.  While everyone really enjoyed the music and skits, Michael and I – and everyone else who were working at the Inn today – had to leave as soon as the show was over and get started on cooking everything for the first buffet at noon.  I worked with Rebecca on the prep line until I needed to be home to get changed and ready for the Christmas tree farm adventure.

I won’t put that trip at the top of my best-ever-so-far list for getting our Christmas trees; but it was really great – and I loved getting to be there with so many extra people this year.  Having Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Grace, and Uncle Mark with us was really special.  Barb and Corey weren’t exactly thrilled with the picking out trees part of the adventure; but even Corey had to grudgingly concede that the store was very interesting – and they even bought some hand-crafted ornaments and some treats to take home with them.

Rowen didn’t end up going with us, but she was okay with that; because she went with Tim and his parents instead.  They had the day off while Sarah and Lee took care of things at the dealership and shop for the last day of the holiday weekend.  That hadn’t been in their plans for today; but Tim’s parents had offered to bring a truck and join the party after Rowen and I invited Tim when we saw them before church this morning.

Oh, and their story is definitely out on the grapevine now; and Rowen was very happy today – especially when she and Tim sat together at church; and held hands pretty much from the moment they met up until they split up to go home for lunch.  They were holding hands a lot while we were at the farm this afternoon too; and even shared a very short kiss in public when Rowen and I showed Tim the ‘First Christmas’ ornaments we’d bought – one for them and one for Michael and me that we’ll hang on the Christmas tree in my lounge this year.

As I mentioned, we had quite a few extra people with us today; and we also had extra trees to pick out and bring home.  We had a total of three trucks, and still had to load them high with the trees.  Dad had five trees to deliver; including the surprise gift we picked out for Michael and his family – and left on their front porch for them to find when they got home tonight.  The Landrys had a full load too; including trees for the Emersons, and other members of their family.  They had Grandma and Grandpa’s tree too; but only because it was easy for them to drop it off on their way home.

There was so much going on this afternoon that I can’t possibly cover all of it here; so let’s just include a few favorite moments.

Picking out our trees was amazing; and I especially loved hearing the stories that Grandpa told us today about visits to the farm when Dad and Aunt Leanne were kids.  Barb and Corey may not have liked walking around in the fields, but some of those stories included her; and Barb and Aunt Leanne both had fun with that.  The first Christmas ornaments that Rowen and I bought weren’t the only ones this year.  Aunt Leanne and Uncle Adam bought one for Zack; Uncle Nick and Aunt Deborah needed one for Leah; and though this isn’t technically their first Christmas together, it will be Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace’s first Christmas since they got married, so they bought one of the ornaments too.

While I loved Grandpa’s stories, I also really loved getting to make brand new memories with him and Grandma – and especially the moments that included Ethan, Ehlana, and Zack.  I know that Grandma and Grandpa love to travel – especially to warm places in the winter – so I’m really glad that we were able to do this with them this year.  I’d say that we should move this to the Thanksgiving weekend every year when they’ll be home anyway; but it was really crazy-busy at the farm today; and it wouldn’t be easy to pull off on the weekends when the whole family is home.  We should do it again sometime, though, to make sure that the grandparents and grandkids all get to have that experience together at least once.

We were away from Witch Falls for nearly four hours, so Mom and Dad set me free as soon as we got back so that I could freshen up, get changed, and head back to the Inn to help out there for another hour and a half or so.  The third buffet was half over by then; so I was just in time to help with getting everything cooked for the fourth and final buffet.  As usual, the customers for the first two buffets had mostly been visiting family and friends who wanted to get in on the buffet action before heading home.  The third buffet was a mix of locals and visitors; and tickets for the fourth were sold almost entirely to our families, friends, and neighbors.

I would have stayed at the Inn longer tonight, but I had to choose between doing that with Michael and Rebecca and trimming the tree with Mom, Dad, Ethan, Ehlana, and Naomi.  Grandma and Grandpa stopped in for part of that, but they were also at Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s house for dinner and some tree trimming there too – along with Uncle Adam’s parents and grandparents – so we needed to share them tonight.

Decorating the tree and living room was both a great way to end the holiday weekend and kick off the Christmas season fun; but it was also time for me to get back to the real world tonight too – and my usual school night work and studies.  That included a Magi lesson with Mom after Grandma and Grandpa left and Ethan, Ehlana, and Naomi were tucked in for the night.  That was another hour of fun time while Dad finished up the work he needed to have finished for Monday; but it was a bit tougher to get motivated for my language and archive studies after coming up to my room – especially when I started by multi-tasking that with some Jacuzzi time.

The work needed to be done, though, along with spending more than an hour on some family business projects; and that’s why I’m still awake and playing on my computer when it’s past three and I should be sleeping.

It hasn’t been all work and no play.  Rowen and I had a fun little chat, and she told me all about her tree-trimming fun – at Tim’s house.  Michael exchanged some text messages with me too; and I had long emails from all of my favorite college teens.  Violet and Dillon got back to their residences safely and had a great weekend in Woodvale.  Stephanie and Jake probably had way more fun than she wrote about in her email for their Thanksgiving weekend in the Big Apple.  Christina and Josiah are back at school now too; and it sounds like their McEwan family Thanksgiving was a success.  They’ll all be focused on the upcoming final exams now; so I’m glad that they were all able to have some fun before getting into the next couple of weeks of hard work.

Finally, before I wrap this up; let’s take a quick look at the week ahead.  Tomorrow is Rebecca’s fourteenth birthday.  That – and the need for most mothers to have a holiday weekend recovery day, is why the Mom’s Christmas shopping trip is going to be on Tuesday this year instead of Monday.  Mom was going to do another airport run tomorrow, but Uncle Adam decided to take the day off so that she didn’t need to take Barb and Corey back there for their flight home.  Aunt Leanne and Zack are staying home tomorrow too because they’re going on the shopping trip.

The kids’ Christmas shopping trip on Saturday will be the other big event of the week around here, though I’m sure that Dawn is as excited about her impending twelfth birthday on Friday as she is about wrapping up her party and sleepover with meeting us in Crystal Springs for the day on Saturday – along with Jillian and the rest of her best friends.  As of now, there aren’t as many women going on the shopping trip on Tuesday, but Mom and Aunt Leanne expect that the kids’ group will be about the same size or slightly larger for the trip on Saturday.  I’m sure that everyone will have fun, but since this will be the first time that Rowen and I have done this with our boyfriends; I’ll predict that we’re going to have a best-ever day – and the entire week is looking pretty good right now.

We have Rebecca’s birthday party tomorrow night, and I’m only going to get a few hours of down time as it is now, so that’s it for tonight; and I’m out of here.

Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!

Cassie's Journal - November 30, 2013

Rebecca, Rowen, and I are having a sleepover at my house tonight; and that’s exclusively because Rebecca broke up with Jason earlier today after he got back home.  We are not having a guy-bashing party, and Rebecca is mostly just relieved that it’s over with him; but that doesn’t mean she isn’t a bit sad about it too – and the Jacuzzi time and girl chat is helping her to deal with that part of the break-up.

I’m not going to do any guy bashing in this update either.  Rebecca broke up with Jason because she found out that he’d spent a lot of time last night with a cheerleader from one of the other teams; and not just in a flirting sort of way.  Yes, he’s an idiot and has no idea how lucky he was, but they were all but over anyway; and Rebecca is going to do way better than Jason Johnson when she does find her match.

Yes, I could give you a hint; but won’t – even though that’ll be history by the time you read this.  :^)

I’ve pretty much started with the end of our day, though, so let’s go back to the beginning and do the rest of the update for today.

I met up with Michael at his room, and we ended up practicing our Tai Chi in the pool room.  We had a handful of spectators watching us by the time we were finished, but weren’t interrupted; and didn’t get any ovations – though we had obviously entertained the guests and employees who had stopped to watch us.

Rowen had already taken her shower by the time I got back to our room, so I did that next; and then we both had fun doing our hair and getting ready to go for breakfast at the hotel restaurant.  I’m a bit surprised in hindsight that we didn’t hear about Jason and his cheerleader acquaintance at breakfast, but we didn’t; and having Jason ignore us didn’t seem any different today than it had on Friday.  While pretty much everyone who was still there from Witch Falls was there with us for breakfast; we were at a table with Sarah, Lee, Kyle, and Erin.  Tim especially loved getting a real chance to talk with Kyle about the game highlights; we all loved hearing about their dinner and everything else they did last night; and Sarah and Erin were quite interested to hear about Rowen’s birthday fun – especially the part where she got a boyfriend as one of her gifts.

We went to one of the Malls for a couple of hours of shopping once we’d checked out after breakfast; and Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I were set free with Sally and Joshua again while the parents were mostly taking advantage of being somewhere that they could pick up some things that aren’t available at home.  The crowds weren’t as crazy as they likely were on Friday; but the Mall was still crazy-busy; and we didn’t do much more than browse and get some ideas for Christmas gifts that we can shop for next weekend when we’re in Crystal Springs for the annual kids’ Christmas shopping adventure.

With everything we’ve been doing this weekend, it’s hard to believe that we’re so close to that trip already – or that Christmas is only three and a half weeks away!

Moving along, we shopped until around noon; had lunch in the food court; and then hit the road for home.  Sally’s parents dropped Michael and I off at my house shortly before three-thirty; and we had a little snack break and visit before Michael needed to stop in at home to drop his things off; and then head over to the Inn.  I needed to run over to the computer store so that Rowen and I could mostly give her mother the trip recap; and that was seriously fun.  Owen and Patricia are going to need a little time to get used to their daughter having a boyfriend; but Patricia was very happy for Rowen and Owen isn’t really as shocked as he pretended to be to find out that his little girl is growing up.

I went back home for a while after that, and then went to help out at the Inn for the dinner rush.  That’s where I found out about Rebecca breaking things off with Jason after getting that cheerleader news from some of the girls – including from Jenny.  She had the team victory party to attend tonight, which is the main reason why I invited Rebecca to hang out with Rowen and me tonight.  The Jacuzzi time offer sealed the deal, and since she’d worked most of Friday and Saturday already; Miranda set us free early so we could get started on that long before the Inn closed for the night.

Rowen didn’t need any bonus offers, and though we’d thought about doing something again tonight with Michael and Tim, Rebecca needed her girlfriends more; Tim was going to crash the football party; and Michael didn’t mind not having a late night when he’s going to be helping out with all four holiday weekend buffets tomorrow.  While Rebecca and Rowen both took turns in my Jacuzzi tonight, we also watched two chick flick Christmas movies.  Ethan, Ehlana, and Mom joined us for the first one while Dad did some work in the office; and then we had an intermission before starting the second one that gave us enough time to help get the twins ready and tucked into bed for the night.  Taking turns in the bathroom meant that Rebecca and Rowen each missed part of the second show; but we’d all seen it before, so that wasn’t a big deal.

The girl chat time was the best part of the night for me; and it’s felt just like old times tonight – though just a bit different without Jenny here too.  Since we couldn’t all fit comfortably in my bed or on the sectional sofa, Rebecca got to pick her preference; and she and Mandy are sleeping in my bed as I write this while Rowen and I are camping in the lounge.  We put a third movie on; but have only been half-watching it while talking quietly and playing on our computers.  I’ve been doing my nightly computing, and had to deal with a little family business issue; but we’re both pretty much ready to get some sleep after three really busy days.

Tomorrow isn’t exactly going to be quiet, and that’s the last bit of news I have to report for today.  While we were away, my family collectively decided that tomorrow afternoon is our best opportunity to go on our annual visit to the Christmas tree farm.  I thought we were going to do that next Sunday; but I’m good with adding more fun to this weekend instead.  Rowen’s going to be able to come with us for that, but Michael can’t because of the extra buffets at the Inn.  I don’t know if Tim can come with us, but we’ll ask him tomorrow morning; and I’m sure that Rowen and Tim would both love getting to do that together.

I want to help out at the Inn too; tomorrow is the first Sunday of Advent; and the teens are leading the service, so it’s going to be another really busy day.  With that in mind, Rowen and I really should follow Rebecca’s lead and call it a night; so I’m going to at least try to do that now.

Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!