Well I See We All Survived

Phew!!! Man, I do hate to say it but am I glad that Christmas is over. I love Christmas but it always sneaks up on me because I lead my life unprepared and never with any foresight. I love being caught up in the "feeling" of the holidays but unfortunately each year that excitement gets less and less and I'm always wishing it was over and then I feel guilty because I feel that way. And right now as glad as I am that it is over, looking back, I don't think I heard very much Christmas music this year. We didn't have any parties to go to or school celebrations, etc. And now it's over and we won't be doing any of these things we longed for, not for another year. Every year I vow to make it better so I'm not caught up in this dread and money worry during the season too. That vow hasn't worked so far but it doesn't mean I can't try harder this coming year right? Right!

Now, with my whining aside, I have to say, we had a wonderful Christmas. Everyone got what they wanted and we have very few returns. Tony, our oldest doesn't like the way his new blue jeans Santa brought him fit so he wants to take those back. Shawn, the youngest may have to take back a few wii controls we bought him. We didn't know what to get so we bought one of each and we haven't figured out yet which ones we need and which ones we don't. lol. Our daughter in law had been wanting a double heart pendant necklace from Kay jewelers. Tony helped us find it and put us wise to the idea in the first place and after waiting three days on next day air shipping, we did receive it and she was so, so happy. I thought she was going to cry. So, I guess we done good. lol. I have to say I did cry when I opened the gift from Tony and Steph that was for hubby and I. It's a lovely framed 8 by 10 photo of all five of us from the wedding. It is precious and priceless.

For the first time in over 20 years, we did not make our annual trip to good old Killbuck, Ohio on Christmas Eve this year. We used to go to see hubby's momma and his family every year. His mom passed in 01 but we continued to go every year to see his Grandma. We weren't sure we'd go this year because last we knew his Grandma was in a nursing home up in Michigan where she took ill when she went for a visit last year. He called down to his sisters there on Christmas Eve and spoke to his neice who told him his Grandma is in a nursing home right down there in Millersburg. He was a little upset as we have been worrying about how to afford to be able to go see her in Michigan, finding a time we all could go and borrowing a car capable of making the trip. She just celebrated her 90th(we think, if not, it's 89) on December 23rd. With her age, he was so worried something would happen and he has wanted to go see her before that time comes. He still has no idea how long she's been back in Ohio yet but they did tell him she is doing good and is still right with herself mind wise. There's one son she refuses to eat in front of so if he's there at mealtime, he will leave so she'll eat. lol. So sweet. Aggravating at times I'm sure but still so sweet. We love her and want her around for many, many years to come. A trip to see her is in the works, maybe tomorrow afternoon. Our car will make it down there. No reasons or excuses not to go.

I'm sorry to make this so long winded but there is so much I wanted to talk about. We had a new first this year on Christmas day. lol. For my family gathering at my brother's house, they opted not to have a turkey for the meal. Just a ham and some sides. Well, no problem with me, we coulda had pizza for all I cared as long as we were all together. Anyway, hubby just had himself a little bitty baby cow about it and said he'd either not go or fix his own turkey. lol. So, Christmas Eve all we could find we thought would thaw in time was a nice turkey breast. Ran all over Wal-Mart cause I don't grocery shop there looking for a bag of stuffing mix and potatoes and rolls. But we put that breast in about 8:30 Christmas morning and in two hours it was done. I made some mashed potatoes and brown and serve rolls. I was going to make some homemade stuffing that I ran all over wal-mart finding and hubby said he didn't even need it. Just some mashed potatoes and gravy. So, that is what I was going to do but then I decided Shawn and I needed some stuffing so a mad dash across the street to the market where I work for a box of Stove Top and whalah, we have a complete turkey dinner for Lunch!!!!! Tony and Steph had left already as those poor kids had five places to go on Christmas Day. So there we sat, honey, Shawn and me, eating a full course Christmas Turkey dinner at about 12:30 Christmas Day. lol. I don't know why but that makes me chuckle. lol. Our get together at my brother's wasn't until 4 so we had time even to get in a quick power nap before we had to get ready to go out there. Bliss. I loved it. It was the first time in almost 23 years that I have been a mother that I got a nap on Christmas Day. Wow!!!!!

The gathering with my family was awesome. I was real tired so we left sooner than we should have from up there and now I wish we had stuck around a little longer. They were fixin' to play wii bowling when we left. But, I was bushed. I guess I probably had a panic attack of sorts on Christmas Eve. I worked from 5a to 1p that day. We stood around over there with our thumbs you know where looking for something to do to pass the time. Well, don't you know that at noon, one hour before I was scheduled to get off, pandemonium broke out. Check cashings out the gazoo, lottery tickets being pulled as long as your arms could pull them. Cheese trays flying out the door, phone ringing off the wall to see how late we were open and if we were open Christmas day, etc. I was there til 25 after 1 and felt bad leaving then but I had to scoot. I had three places to go to shop and gather the last minute stuff all before six pm when all three of them closed. Worse part was, hubby wasn't home with my wheels so I could go until almost 3:30. I was already in hyper activity mode as I had sat around two hours waiting on him to get home so we could go. We decided to do all the shopping at wal-mart. We wouldn't have made it to all three places, no way, no how. We still got what we needed but the rolls weren't the kind my one son loves from the one grocery store and I had a gift card from another grocery store that I wanted to use and save my money for shopping. Well, as it turns out, we had a wal-mart card worth fifty bucks that we even forgot to spend there to help save some cash. Duh!!!!! But that trip about got me. I got sick to my stomach, my heart was racing and so was I. We went to get the gifts first. Not too bad. Then we headed to the groceries where we had to split up and I didn't like that at all. I felt like a lost kid. I was so glad to see honey again and I never left his side again. After we got our groceries, I wanted to take one more look for gifts so back across the place we trek for nothing. Didn't find anything the second time that I hadn't noticed or looked at the first time. lol. We exit with my knees knocking and the pit in my stomach growing larger and larger due to the amount of money we just parted with. lol.

But wait, it's not over. We decided not to go to Killbuck so Shawn took off for his girlie friends house. We think "awesome" so we can wrap his presents. Had all of that to do yet. We go over to our bedroom where we had them stashed and when we come back to the livingroom, no lights, no t.v., I shouldn't say no lights because my lamp I had on when I left the room had a real, real faint orange glow, it was still lit but there was so little juice going to it that it was just so slight you barely noticed it. Yet, my kitchen lights were working and my bedroom lights were working and the upstairs lights were working. We lost half the power to the livingroom, half the power in the kitchen, the lights worked but the frig didn't. We lost power in one bathroom and my sewingroom. It was the weirdest thing I ever seen. Hubby went right away and checked the breakers which were fine. Hmm. We're stumped. Hated to but I call brother and interupted his holiday gathering. He said he'd be in after bit to have a look see but I guess I freaked as I was envisioning my house burning down Christmas Eve when we went to bed because of some weird electrical problem we must have. I'm calculating in my head how much it would cost to have half the house re-wired, etc. Oh woe is me. lol. We decide to try and make the best of it and use the kitchen table to wrap presents on. We got those done but my heart wasn't in it at all. All the classic panic signs were in full swing already. We had noticed though that the vcr kicked on and honey tried the tv and it worked but it had this weird whistle coming from it. All the lights that were either out completely or barely glowing were getting a little stronger. All good signs in hind sight but yet it made me worry that much more that we definately had some sort of electrical problem within the house. I was sure I'd not sleep at all that night. We decided after the presents were wrapped to walk over to the store across the street which was fully lit by the way and get some goodies for that night and Christmas morning. I am so glad we decided to go as the gal working asked if we were having trouble with half our house losing power. It was like a weight lifted off my shoulders. I literally just felt it go when she said that the neighbors up two and three houses from us were having the same problem. Phew. At that point I knew it wasn't a problem with the house and that I didn't have to worry about paying an electrician. Thank You God!!!! On our way home, my immediate next door neighbor pops out as me and the big ole Ohio Edison truck both approach out front of the houses. He was having the same problem and the Ohio Ed guy parked right out front of the house here and went up the pole right in front of my house to fix whatever it was. He shut us all down about half an hour but when he turned us back on, all was well and my brother didn't have to leave his gathering to come and fool with it. That was the best part. Contrary to what I had expected and prepared for sleepwise that night, I slept like a baby cause I was exhausted from being so keyed up. Man.

And last but not least, I wanted to mention those silly little crayon bags I made for the kiddies. They loved them and started coloring right away when we gave them to them. lol. I even got an order for one from my sister-in-law for her friend's little boy. Yeah! I hope to get my nasty house cleaned back up and start on that project this afternoon.

Thanks for listening to our holiday antics and I hope everyone had a great and wonderful Christmas with your loved ones. God Bless. All please take care!!

Happy Stitching,

Renee