merry christmas

We fit 3 Christmases and 2 birthdays within 3 days.

We traveled up to the Cabin last Saturday (22nd) without Abby. It's difficult for Abby to ask for time off in December so she had to stay home and work Sunday. Jeff and I drove 2 cars and left one in Appleton for the next day. Craig and Clark drove up the night before. Kristin, Carlo, Bella and Lucy had already arrived. It was very warm out that day, near 40° and that caused a lot of fog. Not optimal driving conditions. Meg, William, Bryce, Logan, Mia and Cooper got in around suppertime and their drive wasn't too enjoyable because of the weather. But all 19 of us made it and moved into our assigned rooms.

Sunday morning, Mom arranged for us to all go to brunch for Dad's 75th birthday. (His birthday's really the day after Christmas, but we all couldn't stay that long.) The weather again was far from cooperative. It was pouring rain in the morning and as the day went on, the temperature fell, so the precipitation changed to sleet then snow. And it was terribly windy! We had the place to ourselves when we first arrived at the restaurant. We all enjoyed a delicious buffet and watched the snow continue to fall. Made it home to watch the miserable Packer game. Meg and William enjoyed a better end result with the Colts.

Then Jeff and I trekked to Appleton for Christmas at Maggie's at 3pm. Seemed OK driving there, just a little slower to be careful with the snow. Maggie and Tom hosted 25 in their cozy household and Maggie had the spread out! It's so nice to see everybody: Tony & Katie's first Christmas together, listen to Kayleigh's college experiences, relate with Debbie and Vicki, ... From there, Jeff left to pick up Abby after work in Milwaukee to bring her back up north while I left and went directly back up north. Boy was I nervous driving! The snow was blowing so hard that I couldn't tell where the edge of the road was! If there was a motel in Black Creek, Paige, Bryn and I would've checked in! It did seem to let up a bit after Black Creek, but my typical drive time was doubled.

Christmas Eve day is a day of anticipation. The kids were bouncing off the walls and needed to burn some energy. We took them outside to sled and ice skate. The ice was still soft from the warm temperatures and a bit slushy near the edges, but well worth it to get the kids outside.


We decided to begin opening presents on Christmas Eve at 4pm - especially so the little ones (Mia, Cooper, Bella and Lucy are all 2yrs old or younger) could get through theirs before they got too tired. Food preparation wasn't complete quite on schedule so we began opening at 5pm. I'm amazed at the kid's patience as we took the time to watch each present be opened. We had to take two breaks to eat and to put kids to bed, and we finally finished up about 10pm. While the adults were cleaning up the last remnants of wrapping paper, the 10 foot Frazier Fir toppled directly into the living room! Ornaments crashed and it landed with a thud! Luckily, nobody was in the room to get hurt. Mom was quite sad about losing ornaments and Dad was quite beside himself that his perfect tree was damaged: a definite flat spot on one side. It was a mess with the holder spilling water all over, but it was cleaned up by 11 and we all got into bed so Santa could come.

The kids were up early Christmas morning to see what Santa had brought. Clark was especially excited to open up his restaurant, The Hand, today. Craig bought him a variety of restaurant supply items including a neon ORDER sign, order pad, straws, etc. And Logan bought Clark a mini popcorn wagon so that was included into The Hand's menu. Logan worked hard with Clark the grand opening of The Hand. Jeff, I and the girls drove into Appleton again for the afternoon to wish Jeff's Dad and Judy happy holidays. Debbie and her family were there too. Driving conditions were back to normal, thankfully. When we returned, we dined at The Hand and everyone joined in to play Paige's Are You Smarter than A Fifth Grader? game.

Today, we packed up to leave and had Craig open his birthday presents. (His birthday's actually the 29th.) It's always sad to leave, but it'll be nice to have a uninterrupted night's sleep. And it sure was fun with all the kids.