A belated “Merry Christmas!” to our family and friends. I hope everyone had a fun and peaceful Christmas. Our first Christmas away from home was, surprisingly, great. I wondered what the kids would think about not being able to see all the family this year. Every year we would go to four different family member’s for some type of Christmas Celebration, five if you include our own. It was always enjoyable, but when the children were smaller it made for tired and cranky children by the end of it all, okay, and tired and cranky parents as well. This year on Christmas Eve we sat down and watched Christmas movies like Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph, and one of my favorites, Elf. Chad and Jess fought me a little on the movies, but I made them do it anyway.
The next day we got up and opened presents. The kids all received one big gift and several smaller ones from us. Jess received a hiking backpack. Since then she has been bugging us every day to go hiking. Ryan received a camera and Noah received some Wii game that has weird creatures that you place on some pedestal thingy to play different games. That was Chad’s idea. Cody received a leather jacket. Since we wanted her to be able to pick it out the only thing she was able to open (besides her smaller gifts) was an envelope which had a picture of two guys, one was wearing a leather jacket. When she opened it she just said, “Uh, Thanks for the guys? I don’t get it?” I told her to look closely at the picture and she actually figured out what it meant. She is a smart one that girl. I’ll tell you about getting the jacket in a minute.
Anyway, after we were done with our little celebration we went over to my cousin Verna’s daughter’s house. Every Christmas they have a huge meal served as different courses. First the salad, then what Verna called macaroni, it was pasta, but, made like lasagna. Then there was the ham, roast, mashed potatoes, bread, green beans, and carrots. And finally the desserts, a huge tiered chocolate cake, apple pie, cookies and a bunch of smaller desserts, and a pecan pie that Jessica made and a chocolate torte that Cody made. By the way Pastor, I thought of you every time I took a bite. It was REALLY good. We had good food and good laughs. Verna was really happy to have extended family at dinner this year and was thrilled to be able to introduce us, her family, to her son-in-law’s side of the family.
I am going to have to add to my “Ten Things I Like about Washington” post to include Verna and her family. They are truly the best part about moving out here. She, and her family, has made us feel so welcome here. She is a New Yorker transplanted here many years ago, but her accent is so strong that she sounds like she just walked off the bus from New York yesterday, and her daughters sound just like her.
Apparently Canada has a holiday called Boxing Day, which is the day after Christmas and has nothing to do with boxing. This does not affect Oklahomans, but it does Washingtonians. I think they should change the name from Boxing Day to Shopping Day. People from Canada come here to go shopping. So, not only do we have Americans returning their unwanted gifts on the 26th, but we have Canadians shopping until they drop. I’ll be honest here. We were warned ahead of time of this. But, we promised Cody a leather Jacket and we were going to get her one. So off to the mall we went. EVERY parking spot was taken. People were even making their own parking spaces.
A very nice lady grabbed our attention to tell us she was leaving and told us to get her spot. Some teenagers tried to take the parking spot before we could get in it, but Chad used his super miming powers, and, a lot of pointing, to relay to the teenagers that they better get the heck out of Dodge and not even think about grabbing that spot, once parked we were off to the store. Cody found the jacket she wanted. We bought it and we left. There were just too many people. Next year we will stay home and lock our doors and windows until it is safe to come out again.
Anyway, once again, I hope you had a great Christmas and that this coming year is filled with love, laughter, and health. We miss everyone back home and love all y’all.
