Christmas Eve

Looks like we are going to get a White Christmas this year after all. Of course, after well over a week of being snowed in by our beautiful winter wonderland, I would have conceded this point! BUT, it is what it is, and we have no choice but to go with it and make the best of everything.

M has spent the last 2 nites at Mom's house, and will spend tonite there as well since we moved our Christmas festivities over there. She will also be spending tomorrow nite there so that D and I can get up and out to the airport on Friday to pick up my sister and her boyfriend who are flying in, landing at 10:30, meaning a 7:30 departure for us (in "normal" weather, we'd leave about 2 hours early, but with these conditions, we have to add another hour).

I am trying to balance creating a bed and breakfast environment here at the house for their arrival as they are staying here, with all the Christmas Eve preparations across the street and entertaining M, who is feeling a little "Mommy deprived" it seems. I think that we may just give them clean sheets and tell them that while we love them, this is what it is, and we're sorry it's not better. Think D may freak out about that idea and start shoving stuff in the sewing room to be out of the way (why is it that MY sewing room becomes the depository for "stuff" when the house is cleaned?). I'll do what I can around here though.

Yesterday I got to drive in this wonderland of ours. I was realizing that I've never had to drive in this type of weather as I learned to drive in California, then moved up here and have never spent winters elsewhere. D thought that I should have some practice and no better time like the present. I was a little hesitant as D and I don't often work well together in a teacher-student relationship. OK, I'll admit, I'm not a good student - my father raised me to be so independent that I have a hard time taking direction from anyone. Either way, it was a very positive experience and I drove all the way to the grocery store, including down and up a hill. YEAH ME! That said, I was very glad when he took over again and drove us home. :)

During our "outing" yesterday, we stopped to check on our dear former neighbor who lives alone with his little dog. He's a 70+ a few and while very independent, in this weather we still worry. He was doing very well, but did pass along the sad information that the father of another friend of ours (our real estate agent who happens to have a daughter a few days' older than M, and her husband is our attorney) had died that morning. He had been very ill for several months now, so in a way it was a blessing that the end had finally come, and peacefully, but still...I have "been there, done that" and just feel for them so much, especially at this time of the year.

In the meantime, back at the house, we had watched Polar Express, M and Grandma baked cookies (russian teacakes - yum!), M and Grandpa had paper airplane races (something I never thought I'd see!), and I curled up on the chair and worked on a cross stitch. Mom had gone to the doctor and had actually called in sick for work for the first time EVER since starting there in August. She has made it to every shift even through this weather and had to come home early Monday nite as she felt so horrible. Yesterday she called in sick, went to the doctor and came home with some antibiotics and other medicines. Well, something went awry and she had an allergic reaction to the antibiotic (that or the pickle sandwich she had before the pill, I'm not sure which). Anyway, for about 1 hour there she was one sick puppy, but it passed and she was able to spend the rest of the evening with us - wiped out and sick, but so much better than before. She has decided to skip the antibiotics (and hopefully also the pickle sandwiches!). We let M choose a movie for all of us to watch last nite and much to the in-laws dismay, she chose Veggie Tales "The Toy who Saved Christmas". They were less than impressed with the vegetables with no arms and no legs, but sat through the whole thing without complaining. It was a great family time, even if several of us were wishing M had picked something different to watch!

AND, that brings us to today - D is at work this morning, I am getting ready to hop in the shower and go chat with M about what she wants to do today. It's raining a bit out there, so perhaps we won't be playing outside just yet.

I am beginning to realize the reality of switching our Christmas Eve across the street. I am so bound to tradition and less than flexible much of the time when it comes to that, that I'm trying to envision how this is going to go. Several things are easily moved across the street (Christmas PJ's, ornaments, reading of the story, lighting of the candles...), but others (putting the angel on our tree) just can't be moved. It will all work out and be a memorable Christmas for all of us, I'm sure, but it just isn't going to be the Christmas I planned. Then again, sometimes we are thrown these curve balls to teach us something. What is this lesson? I haven't figured out, but probably something about the true meaning of Christmas and that the stuff we do surrounding it isn't as important as who we are with and all that...or it could be something totally different...who knows. I'm hoping to figure it out in the near future!

Right now I'm going to go and kill a dog for barking uncontrollably, hop in the shower, and head over to see my daughter.

More Christmas fun from "Snowed in with the in-laws" coming... I'm sure there's a hit movie in the making here, just need to find some time to sit down and write the screen play! I'm thinking I'll go for the book deal first, then we can move into full production of the movie. Think Nicole Kidman would play me? Could she nail my witty personality? Who cares as long as she wears her hair curly :)