We had such a great time at my sister's house over the Christmas break. We watched a lot of football, we did not play outside very much, we worked some puzzles, we went on a field trip or two...and we ate a TON. Like, seriously. I'm not a huge eater, but I think I ate more in the 4 days we were in Texas, than I had eaten in the 4 weeks before we got there.
When I got home, I decided I might need a cleanse.
Or a nap.
Mainly, a nap.
We were so happy to watch the HOGS beat the heck outta Texas in the Texas Bowl! Such a great ending to a rocky season of coming just shy of a W...game after game.
And then there were the puzzles. OH THE PUZZLES. When you have a lot of people with nothing to do because it's cold outside, you gotta have a puzzle. Or, in our case, FOUR puzzles.
Before Christmas, I saw a commercial on TV about something called "Puzzles Without Borders."
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
I like puzzles as much as the next person, but I'm pretty sure this is how I'm going to die: some crazy person with good intentions will give me a puzzle without borders and a big fuzzy cat.
I don't know if it's because I'm a first-born, or because I'm just not that creative...but PUZZLES ARE SUPPOSED TO HAVE BORDERS. Isn't that the first thing you do after you open the box and pour out the puzzle pieces out on the table? Look for the edges?
And if you can't find them all, well, you can't just start doing the puzzle anyway.
Oh no, ma'am.
FIRST YOU FIND THE BORDER.
People be trippin'.
We seriously weren't at Leanne's an hour before we heard Clara in there ripping open the first puzzle. Clara, my Dad's wife, is a MACHINE when it comes to puzzles. She is meticulous. She is competitive. She is serious.
Grandma don' play.
We knocked that first puzzle out in less than 24 hours, and it had 1000 pieces! And then Clara opened the next puzzle, and we knocked it out in less than 24 hours.
And then there was puzzle #3. All you need to know is that, even after some heroic measures...well, it didn't make it.
It still hurts to talk about it.
But we put out a call to my sister, Robin, and sent up a distress flair...and she brought over another puzzle and all was right with the world.
I already talked about our field trip to see the trains at Northpark Mall in Dallas in this post. It was a lot of fun to walk around and look at the pretty decorations. I love a good mall. It's relaxing to me. Well, when Jim is not saying things like, "I'll tell you one thing I've noticed around here: EVERYthing's in style. EVERYTHING." He said that repeatedly...along with this little phrase: "melting pot...this place is the definition of a melting pot."
I know it sounds like I don't get out much by the way I described my Nordstrom's experience...but Jim reeeeeaaaaalllly doesn't get out much...to a mall, anyway. He was pretty funny. Well, when he wasn't embarrassing me about my Blardigan.
I love my family. We had a great time seeing everyone. We had 33 people one night for dinner, and it was awesome! It was pretty chilly while we were there, which is not common. There have been many years when we've worn shorts and t-shirts...in late DECEMBER!
I loved seeing all the kids together. Between my siblings and I, there are 20 grandchildren, 3 step-grandchildren, 4 in-laws...and some extra friends, girlfriends, boyfriends. We all love our children, but each of us are raising our children differently. And our kids are different. They have different gifts, talents and interests. This could get interesting. But while it was easier for the kids from each family to stick together, I watched as some of them found the common ground with their cousins...and it made me so happy!
One of the "common ground" things they did was measure each other's heads. I know. I don't know what started it or who had the idea...or WHY...but one thing led to another and pretty soon they were measuring each other's heads (FYI: Holly won. Lots of brains up in there, that girl!)
Oh yeah...I think they heard on TV about a football player who could stretch his thumb and pinky finger out to some ridiculous length...so they first measured each other's hands...and then their heads.
We so classy.
Then, my nephew, Max, wanted to make "pour-over" coffee for everyone with his "pour-over" coffee makin' thing...and we all watched him for about an hour BECAUSE IT.TOOK,FOR.EVER. It was cool, but I'm sorry: KEURIG, 5 seconds.
I posted a couple of pix on my Facebook.
One of the funniest things happened on New Year's Eve. A group of the kids were outside playing basketball. There were a few people working inside on a puzzle...and the rest of us were watching a bowl game on tv. All of a sudden, someone's phone started ringing. Everyone inside was, like, "not mine...not mine." Holly said, "that kind of sounds like an alarm." Everyone is looking around. All of a sudden, Holly said, "it's Morgan's phone." Morgan is my daughter-in-law. She and Logan have been married for 7 months. Holly picked up the phone to stop the alarm, and started snickering...and then ANNOUNCED TO THE GROUP, "Morgan set her alarm to remind her to take her birth control pill!"
And everyone was going "OHHHHHHHH!" and laughing.
After a couple of minutes, the crew that had been playing basketball came in, and everyone inside went DEAD SILENT. My brother-in-law, Kevin, said, "hey, Morgan...your alarm was going off." Morgan looked at him and said, "uhhh...okay...thank you." And then he said something like, "don't forget about it," and everyone fell out laughing. She was so embarrassed!
Welcome to the family, Morgan!
We had a great New Year's Eve. We have a big family-friendly get-together with lots of food. We try to stay up until midnight. I think it showed the level of interest we have in ringing in the New Year when someone asked, "isn't it already the New Year in Australia?"
And it also showed that the level of interest in ringing in the new year is directly related to your AGE...or the fact that you have a 7 hour drive the next day.
And it might have showed my level of laziness because I turned down a glass of sparkling apple cider at midnight...BECAUSE I HAD JUST BRUSHED MY TEETH.
Happy New Year from Grandma Moses!
"The wicked die and disappear, but the family of the godly stands firm." Proverbs 12:7
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