Christmas 2004

Christmas is over and all the gifts are unwrapped. Soon it will be time to take down the decorations and put everything back into the box.

Christmas was very different this year. I've been spoiled having all the children home the last two years. This year Becky flew home from Canada. We went over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house. Bev flew in from Chicago. We had a huge turkey dinner with all the trimmings. We went to the candlelight Christmas eve service at church. We came home and opened our gifts. We went to bed.

Christmas day we ate, and ate, and ate some more. We took Bev to the airport. We came back from the airport. We picked Bev up from the airport because of 3 hour delay. We ate some more. We took Bev back to the airport. We watched "The Return of the King" extended version which was further extended by putting it on pause as we repeated the airport run four times that day and once more the following day.

All in all it wasn't exactly the "Norman Rockwell" Christmas I had painted in my head. It has been 10 years since we have had Christmas at grandma's and now I remember why!

Would I ever do it again! You Bet! Not because it was fun.....even though by 11 p.m. everything seemed to be hysterically funny as we started out again for our fourth round trip to the airport.

But if Christmas is all about family ( and I believe it is) then it gave us an opportunity to be with the two members of my family that are the hardest to love.

My mom and my sister are very independent and very opinionated. They both are single and both have sharp edges. When they are together there is always conflict. Yet they draw strength from one and another and neither one is very good without the other. In many ways I envy their relationship but wouldn't want it.

So Merry Christmas Mom and Bev!

Me, Mom, and Bev