Christmas day began early for Paul, Natalie, and Ellie, who went over to Grandma’s side of town before everyone else woke up so the girls could help her with preparations, and Paul could set up her brand new computer after her old one died.
Then, I woke up “early” – at 8am, and in the quiet of the house began collecting all of the items that were on my list for bringing when the rest of us went over. I went from this room to that room, I got down the candy dispensers, took them apart, washed, dried, put them back together, and filled them with jelly beans and peanut M&M’s. Got my (fully charged) camera and two lenses tucked away and ready for travel. I let the kids sleep till 10, then rousted them all and got us on the road not too much after my 11-o’clock goal. A stop for beverages at QT was factored in, and we arrived at Grandma’s house right at noon.
As people were milling around, greeting cousins they hadn’t seen in months and sorting where to put the pies and chips and candy etc., Paul came to me looking worried and asked if I’d “remembered” to bring the other presents. I said Yup, I brought all the calendars. He said no, the OTHER presents. The envelopes.
Uh, no envelopes were on my list. Nobody said anything to me about bringing anything in an envelope. Turns out, Paul had gifts for Jon, Grandma, and Mark in those envelopes that he’d specially “wrapped” – in in wire and clear packing tape! He’s hilarious. He also forgot to mention these to me.
Not wanting to make a thing out of it, I turned around when nobody was looking, grabbed my purse and headed back out to the van. I thought “Eh, I’ll just nip home and grab those while everybody’s having fun.” Not a super-clear-headed idea, considering the drive would have taken roughly 2 hours, and my back is not-so-good with long stretches in the car. Still, I was trying to fix the problem! I was about 10 minutes down the road when Paul called trying to figure out what was going on and where I’d disappeared to. Of course, he ultimately suggested I come on back and he’d figure out the presents later, so I turned around as soon as I could without getting stuck on an entirely different loop around the city, and went back. And to be honest, the solo drive actually created a nice little interlude of quiet for my brain before returning to a social situation again, so I call that a win.
The rest of the afternoon was really lovely. Jon was there from OK, Jenna, with her growing baby-bump and Daniel from AL, Jadyn from CA, Joe and his beautiful fiancée, Quinn, and JT with his house-mate, Isaiah, and friend whose name I’m sorry I can’t remember; Geneva and Mark were there; Jeff, who went to both the midnight mass AND Christmas day mass at St. Edwards, drove over after that to be with us; and Laurent arrived around 1pm after singing her fourth or fifth mass in 21 hours.
It was so refreshing to relax together, see the cousins playing cards and visiting outside, and just hang with the Heidmann fam. JT’s labor of love was cooking dinner for us all, including twice-baked potatoes and the most succulent, melt-in-your-mouth prime rib, perfectly seasoned with a garlic infused sauce (I really should have gotten the details on that, and will). Once again, cousin Lynell provided the main course and we couldn’t be more grateful! Grandma made her traditional cheesy corn and wild rice, and Ellie created the strawberry-Caesar-salad.
Fortunately for our stomachs, there were people who needed to progress to other family obligations before we got to the plethora of pies I brought, so we stowed that for later and had our program. Joe read the Christmas story for us, and we sang some carols, and then everybody whose present wasn’t stuck at our house got to open their gifts. More chaotic Christmas Joy!!
Here are the pics of the day, ending, naturally and inevitably, with the grand tradition of Whipped-Creaming. It’s good to have Jenna around to keep these traditions alive.
After all the fun was mostly cleaned up it was around 4 when we got on the road again to head back west. I was musing to Jacob, who was in the front with me, that my back was twinging a little by the end of the afternoon, but not as much as it should be for having been up and moving since 8am.
He commented, “I guess that new workout program is really paying off, eh?”
I replied, “My workout program is basically: See something that needs to be done. Ask self, “I wonder if I can…” and then – Try!” Oh look, there’s fluff all over the floor from Duke enjoying his new Christmas stuffy. I wonder if I can pick that up… Oh look, there are dirty dishes left on the table. I wonder if I can gather those and take them to the kitchen… and rinse them off… Oh look, there’s a dirty frying pan, I wonder if I can wash that and dry it… Oh look, there’s a cute tableaux, let me go get my camera and grab a photo… Is that my phone ringing in the office? I’d better run and get that…
Little… by little…. by little… this is how I am getting stronger. I just keep saying, I wonder if I can… and then I try, and when the pain gets too bad, I stop. But then later, I try again. I’m doing more than I’ve done in years. If you’ve ever thought housework was drudgery, it may only be because you were forced to watch everyone else do it while you were immobilized by pain. What a gift it is to move!
I will leave you, not with a suitable Christmas carol (of which I’ve been listening to many), but my current theme song. And then I’ll get up and move!
