Christmas dinner

We enjoyed a "Christmas dinner" with my youngest child (Cyndi) and her husband (Shandon) and her children (Shandon 2.0, Tori, Adam, Jonah, Ellie, Jack) -- six of my grandchildren -- last night -- the 16th of December. It was a blessing for me and Alan.

We don't really get to see this set of grands very often, and, of course, they have grown a bit since we last saw them. My oldest grandchild, almost 17 now, is a tall 6 feet 2 inches. And to think it wasn't so long ago that he was only 17 inches long. Times sure does fly. But Shandon 2.0 is such a sweetheart. [We call him Shandon 2.0 because his dad is the first version and he is the second version and his father is really into computers.] He is the only grandchild that has always, without fail, hugged me as soon as I get in the door. Even when he was in the grunchy, I don't hug adults stage -- that being 10-14 -- he still always gave me a hug hello and good-by. I have really loved that about him.

Part of the time last night, besides eating an elk dinner which was absolutely delicious, we played Apples to Apples. I don't usually play games with the whole crowd. But I did last night, and it was a fun game, especially with the grandchildren. Their take on words is so different from the adults take, and then there is also the difference between male and female definition, but all in all it was a blast.

Oh, and I must mention that my daughter made her Boston Creme Pie, which is to die for. It is so good. I couldn't get any extra pieces of the pie though. I did try.


I do have to say, I'm really bummed that I didn't take any pictures. I forgot my camera. I was in a lot of pain and doing things in five-minute spurts all day in order to get everything wrapped, loaded, the car scraped, myself dressed, etc., that I forgot the camera.

Jack, the youngest, is so very shy, and so cute. He hides his head behind his arm, and thinks no one can see him. He was playing with his gift (a FP van) with one hand over his eyes and the other hand pushing the van. I finally decided I was going to put my arm over my eyes as well. When I did that, he would put his arm down so that he wasn't "hiding". I now know why my dear daughter can't bring him over to stay with me. He would never go for it. I don't need a crying baby for two or three hours. When he outgrows this shyness, I'll hope to have him come spend some time with me, or I'll go spend some time with him.

So, it was a very pleasant day. We had a snow storm go through just before we got there, but the drive was all cleared off and we had no trouble at all getting up "the hill" to their home. None of the children really wanted to go to school today, so their dad told them to pray for more snow.

Guess what? When we were leaving, it was snowing hard! And it snowed most of the night. I still don't know whether schools were closed, but when I got up at 10 a.m. (yes, I slept that late, which is not something I've been doing lately) the roads were covered and it was still snowing.

Anyway, I hope that they got their prayer answered with a yes and school was closed today. For them school is over until 2011. How nice to have so much time to enjoy family and friends.

ttfn