Our Family Christmas 2010

Naturally I have a story to tell about the funny side of our family Christmas in the new house.

Two days before my son and his family arrive, the well runs dry. We have to make a call to some guy who hauls in water to refill the well. In the meantime We have to inform our guests that we have a shower schedule with only 2 showers per day. Dishes were done on a regular basis with limited use of the dishwasher and laundry. Its just when you have a house full of people rural living becomes a slight inconvenience.

The first evening the kids were here, I found a surprise in the pantry. We have mice!!! My husband says, 'you live in the country now, get over it'. So as I take everything out of the pantry I'm worrying about how many we might have, how they got in and how do I get rid of them quick because its unsanitary. I put all the food from the pantry into plastic bins. The next day we pick up Haylie from the airport while Coley goes into town to pick up mousetraps. I set the mousetraps up despite sudden flashbacks of the movie, "Mousetrap".

Haylie's family couldn't make it. She faced the fear of flying and came on her own. It was so incredible to see her for the first time in three years. She looked fantastic. Coming across the border we stopped at the Duty Free. We soon found out why that wasn't a good idea for us. We didn't know that you had to be in one country at least 48 hours to buy something duty free. So we ended up paying an extra $60.00 on top of the items we purchased to get a discount. That was about a 20 minute delay but after six hours round trip, we made it back to celebrate Fawn's birthday after dinner.

We found out the hard way that if you don't put out your garage along the designated side of the road, the garbage truck won't even stop. Not only did we miss the garbage pickup once, but twice. My husband said "The last time they came around 1:00 in the afternoon". No sooner had he said that when the garbage truck zoomed by about 9:00 Monday morning. Now we have 3 weeks of garbage stashed in the workshop/garage. Its even funnier when you think about the mice issue combined with growing garbage. Its like swimming upstream? Trash day is tomorrow and the mousetraps have been keeping busy.

Christmas Eve, with everyone in bed, I slipped on the ice outside while taking out the trash and sprained my right ankle. Ironically that was almost exactly 2 years to the day when I slipped on ice and broke my left ankle. I hobbled up the stairs outside, grabbed some ice and a wrapped my ankle. I managed to get up the stairs to the bedroom. The next day I told everyone what happened and was I ever sore on Christmas day but I had lots of help from my family while I rolled around in an office chair. We had fun in spite of it.

Within a couple of days my ankle was good to walk around at the light festival in Simcoe we all piled into two cars and drove into town. It was really cold and a slight breeze made it feel even cooler. It was memorable for the grandkids especially.

My family really liked the new house. I think they felt right at home. Sage and Teddi got along like best buddies running through the house together. Sierra and Teddi (the dogs) don't get along so we have to follow the changing of the dogs' routine. We only had one near attack but it was diverted.

We did a lot of driving this past week. Brian drove to meet his sister half way so he could pick up his mom and bring her back to our place for a couple of days. Coley, Fawn and the kids left Tuesday morning. On Wednesday Haylie, Brian and I drove Isobel home, about 8 hours round trip. Haylie and I managed to get in some shopping on the way back. We also went shopping in Simcoe right before she left. We drove her back to Detroit to catch her plane on New Years day.

It was the best Christmas ever. Having my family all together is all I wanted. I am so thankful to God for answering my prayers.

There is no place like home and home is where the heart is.