Christmas week - pt. 1

Christmas was kind of a week long thing this year. Isaac and Ricci came home Monday, and we will still be celebrating this coming weekend too. So here's the rundown so far... on Christmas day.

WORK
Jane had Monday and Tuesday off, worked X-mas Eve til noon, and works again Friday and Saturday. I worked Monday, took Tuesday off (John wanted some hours), worked X-mas Eve from 9:30-1, and will work regular hours Friday (26th).

THE KIDS
Isaac & Ricci arrived at our house Monday afternoon. They left Georgia Saturday and drove to Ricci's mom's, then spent some time in Anderson with friends. They will head back to Ricci's mom's this afternoon (25th), and go back to Atlanta this weekend or early next week.

Carrie and the kids have spent a lot of time at our house this week too. It's a little hectic at times having a house-full, instead of the usual two of us, but it's been very fun and I'm glad we all got to spend some time together. Plus Anna LOVES getting to spend time with Ricci and Grandma Jane. Bennett, however, keeps calling me dick/Dick for some reason (not sure which one). The wee ones have all been super fantastic the whole time.

THE EXCITEMENT
Tuesday Jane kept saying she couldn't seem to get her breath very good. She said it started Monday. At one point Tuesday afternoon, while we were watching all the grandkids, she carried Caleb upstairs and hollered at me in the basement. I ran up the stairs and she shoved Caleb into my arms and gently sat herself down on the floor. She was audibly wheezing and had a pretty panicked look on her face. So I took Caleb downstairs and handed him off to Isaac and told them I was taking Jane to the ER. I managed to get us there in one piece in the Buick (Carrie had taken the Ford). She got a breathing treatment, they took chest x-rays, and did an EKG. She felt much better after the breathing treatment. So they said it must have just been an allergy thing. I was glad, because I was a little concerned when she said her back hurt between her shoulder blades, plus just the fact that when someone can't breathe it's pretty scary. She got a prescription for an inhaler and all seems to be okay now. I guess we got to the hospital around 4:30 pm Dec. 23rd, and returned home around 7:45 pm.

FOOD
Monday night we all ate at our house. Jane made a couple kinds of soup, tiny meatballs, and various other things. We ate in the basement. Tuesday she made this fancy french toast and bacon for breakfast. We had sandwiches for lunch. Tuesday night, even though we had the little hospital episode, we went to Henry's for supper. Drew had to stay home with the kids, because after Jane's incident they cancelled their babysitter. Isaac and Ricci went to Caleb and Kelly's for breakfast, and we all had supper at our house X-mas Eve. Jane made lasagna. Christmas morning we went over to the Feipel's and Carrie made all kinds of incredible stuff to eat. We had leftovers at our house for lunch X-mas day.

CHRISTMAS EVE DAY AND NIGHT
On Christmas Eve we opened presents at our house in the afternoon, then we ate Jane's Christmas lasagna for supper. Then everyone except Carrie and Caleb went to Grace Gathering for the 7:30 Christmas Eve service. Carrie didn't feel good (cold/sinus thing). Church was packed but we all managed to sit together on the far side. Craig led the singing on guitar (with a guy on hand drums), and Andy gave the message. The lighting of the candles was pretty neat - especially watching Anna and Bennett light theirs. It was very nice.

CHRISTMAS DAY
It is just before noon on X-mas Day as I am writing this. We went to the Feipel's around 8:30 and had breakfast and played with the kids. Jane and I took a cheese tray to one of the Veterans Shelters for lunch around 11 (SafeHaven), and Jane is now getting lunch ready for everyone. The kids (Feipel's and Horwedel's) will all come over shortly to eat, then Isaac and Ricci will likely have to leave.

THE WEATHER
The weather has been weird. I don't really care if it snows or not, but it was almost 60 degrees on the 23rd, Christmas Eve it was about 50 and pouring down rain. It got colder overnight, but no snow ever appeared. I suppose snow may have made it seem a bit more Christmas-y, but it's a whole lot better than a foot of it and freezing cold temps (imho).

That's probably plenty for now. Tomorrow I will try to fill in the gaps and record the presents and such. So far it's been a very merry Christmas for us.