Christmas, visitors – good and bad

When my vacation was recalculated at work I ended up with six hours left for the year. When my comp time was added to that I had a total of sixteen hours to take off. I elected to take off last Thursday and Friday. Thursday, it rained all day, so I helped Mama inside, but Friday and Saturday I got to finish up the well house. By Saturday evening, when Nate, Cori and the kids arrived, I had the door hung and lacked only the threshold to having the little building completely enclosed. I was happy for the extra time at just the right time. (Tuesday, I got to put in all the insulation.) Once the grandkids were on the scene, the pace of life at the farm sped up considerably.

The rest of Saturday was used to get the camper set up, get the final supplies for the Christmas meal and to get things ready for Andrew, Brittany and the twins – who were coming Sunday afternoon. When the babies got to the farm, the level of excitement was even higher. We had a short service Sunday night, Christmas Eve, and everyone there fawned over the twins – who, by the way, are exceptionally good babies. Everything was going well until Grant got sick. Cori was not sure what the issue might be, so she and Victoria took him to the emergency room for a formal diagnosis in case whatever he had might adversely affect the twins. It was an expensive and gracious ordeal on her part. He was diagnosed with the flu. Once that was determined she had to find a pharmacy that was open on Christmas Eve. There was only one they could find – in Denton. So, while we enjoyed a service at church, she and Victoria drove to Denton to get his medicine. It was sad to have him miss a visit from Santa.

Santa got to our house about 9:15. All the grandkids were dressed in matching pajamas that read “I Love Santa”. A friend and coworker plays the part of Santa; and he does an amazing job at it. He handed out certificates to the kids for being on the Nice list and read them the Christmas Story about St. Nick – the one that “Up on the Rooftop” was written from. It was a fun time for the kids even though Mykenzie and Blake knew he was not really Santa. Savanna wanted nothing to do with him. Lots of pictures were taken and a few good memories made. Santa even took time to record a personalized video for Grant – was sick in his bed throughout the visit.

Christmas morning everyone was well. Grant was up and going full force. We opened presents and enjoyed the reactions to the presents as they were unwrapped. Brittany knocked it out of the park with a gift to Mykenzie and Savanna of twin baby dolls. Savanna was so excited about the dolls that she was almost trembling as they were being removed from the final packaging. That was the stellar moment of the morning. Later that morning, Victoria got sick with the flu. That night Mama fell sick. Victoria spent most of Monday (Christmas Day) and all-day Tuesday in bed. Mama spent all day Tuesday in bed. In light of the fact that others were getting sick, Brittany and Andrew and the twins headed home Christmas night. Hopefully, they outran the virus – at least what was visiting our house.

Before Mama got sick, our Chinese family came over to have lunch with us. We had prepared enough food for all of us and they brought enough food to feed all of us. We had so much it was overwhelming. While we worked to keep our traditional meal warm, Alex and his wife prepared two hot pots (one mild and one spicy) with all kinds of Chinese traditional foods. Most of what was cooked we liked, some of it not so much. I tried sea cucumber, chicken and duck feet and oyster mushrooms for the first time. It was the only time I will eat chicken and duck feet or sea cucumber, but we liked the oyster mushrooms. We all liked the fish balls, fish cakes and the vegetables. With the hot pots you just keep putting your cut/prepared items in the hot water and cooking it as you eat it. It was fun. By the time I finally called it quits, I thought I was going to bust. We are still eating on some of the delicacies and sushi while we freeze some of the leftovers from the large ham and the rotisserie baked turkey.

Victoria was better last night. Mama is better this morning. At the moment, no one else had gotten sick.

Our Christmas to remember.