I flew up to Boise on Christmas night and spent five days with the Holsingers. I arrived at 11:30 pm, but one of my suitcases was the LAST one to come off the plane and it took forever to get out of the airport, so Robin and I didn’t get home until almost 1:00. In fact, I thought my suitcase was lost — major bummer because it had Christmas presents for the kids in it! — but after I walked over to customer service and waited in line for about 20 minutes, I decided to make one more check of the surrounding area. Lo! and behold! it was sitting right at the bottom of the chute. I’m convinced it came down after I walked away.
Robin and I went right to bed, and the next morning Megan and Steven got up and went downstairs to play and let us adults sleep in a bit. After all, they had lots of new stuff from the day before to entertain them. But along about 8:30, Steven started yelling up the stairs, “Get up, Grandma Doggies!” Believe me, I obeyed! I know a 3 year old waiting that long to open his second round of Christmas presents was really hard for him, and it wasn’t going to last much longer.
There was new snow on the ground every morning but one, and most days were crisp, but not miserably cold. I only got out three or four times the whole week, and the rest of the time I just stayed inside watching the snow fall and the kids play. We also rented a couple of movies.
But let me back up and comment about Christmas activities in Arizona before I left. All of our weekend church services were identical to our Christmas Eve service. Brian, Carrie and Nathan joined me on Sunday morning (Lauren was with her Mia and Poppa.) It was a beautiful candlelight service, and I’m always moved by the way the worship center looks with all the lights off and each person holding a lit candle. I went back to church on Christmas Eve to serve as an usher coordinator. It was packed — hopefully by people who don’t normally attend church services throughout the year. And hopefully they will come back to a non-holiday service and find there is something more than candles to light their lives.
I went home and prepared a maple twist to bake the next morning for breakfast, and hit the sack. I was all packed for my flight, and put the final items in my bags the next morning before heading out to Brian and Carrie’s for presents and fun watching the kids. Daryl’s family and Mom joined us for an afternoon dinner of Honeybaked Ham and all the trimmings, including chocolate pie.
I flew home New Year’s Eve. Glenda picked me up at the airport and we went to a movie. I did that last year with Richard and Dianna, and it was a great way to spend the evening, yet still be home before the drunks got on the road.
I took one more day off, and went back to work on the 3rd. I feel like I’m back in the routine now, but still despise that alarm going off each morning. That never changes.
Hope your holidays were wonderful, too. Be sure to check out the pictures, linked in my last post.
