The kids ran around for awhile and after getting them to bed (girls in Renee's room, boys in Austin/Wesley's room and Eli in boys closet)...Josh and Carrie and Dave and I got a chance to chat for a few hours. A lot of things were discussed, ranging in topics from Josh/Carrie's church stuff, Dave's personality, etc.
The kids were up so early the next morning (Thurs). Poor Eli got woken up at 6:00 so he had to be put back in bed. The boys were all so excited...and crazy...
I don't all remember what we did. We ate cereal here and there for breakfast, eating light anticipating a big feast later in the day. Carrie put together a cheesy mashed potato dish to bring along. We left for Mary's house at 11:30 am (the drive took an hour to get there). Some members of Mary's family were there too, so the gathering of the meal took place in her well-decorated and homey-feeling garage where all the tables would fit together.
I brought along some crafty things for the kids to do in the basement while we waited for food to be prepared and afterwards during clean-up and dessert time. The kids also were fascinated with a big train set Roger put up in his basement to try connect with some younger nieces/nephews on Mary's side of the family. It was a very nice "hobby shop" type of train set with a remote control to control the tracks switching and real smoke coming out of the engines. The kids also played with balls on the pool table and played ping pong here and there. Eli ran around too, causing all sorts of trouble.
The meal was served around 2pm. Turkey, ham, gravy, 2 potato dishes, green beans, tomato bake, a salad, squash, cranberries, dinner rolls, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, peach/cherry pie. and apple bars were served. Oh, and lots of wine. And water. :) Super delicious. Kids ate little food and lots of apple bars. I think Calvin ate 5 bars. Oh my, that kid and sugary treats. At least he doesn't complain when eating fruits, veggies, and oatmeal. :)
So the kids got wrapped up (no pun intended) in making paper loops and connecting them with staples. The paper chain grew and grew until it stretched out across the basement floor. When it got too long to manage we took it upstairs and draped it across the bushes in the front of Mary's house. Even the boys got into adding paper loops onto the chain. It was really fun (and little mess!).
The rest of the day was relaxing, listening to Christmas music constantly. Kids played games, made a little fort in Renee's room under the space where her trundle bed usually is tucked in (which was out so Violet could sleep on it). I constantly was losing Eli's pacifier. Eli was running after either of their two dogs, growling and yelling at them. He wasn't scared at all, he just liked running after them and grabbing them. The dogs didn't seem to mind at all either. Josh and I dueled playing tetris on the playstation. I wasn't familiar with the control buttons so he beat me. Josh and I also enjoyed playing ping pong. He beat me, winning 4 games out of 6.
Vanessa woke up not feeling so good Friday morning. She actually threw up on me right after I was done getting dressed after a shower so I had to change. She threw up liquid only, mostly watery. Martha came over to hang out with us that day too and she brought over some homeopathic meds to give her. Vanessa seemed lethargic and slept on the couch for an hour or so, waking up to throw up a little more liquid in a bowl. She then seemed to hop off the couch, had some color in her cheeks, and say "I'm HUNGRY!" so we let her eat 1/2 a banana with caution, and kept the bowl near. She kept it down, and begged for more banana. She finished the banana, then started running around. Bounced back from whatever she was bugged with SO quick. She also scarfed down a piece of toast and kept that down too, and seemed to return to normal amazingly quick. I've never seen a kid bounce back from a little sickness like that so fast, it is usually more gradual. We were all so happy she seemed to be 100% again. Nobody else got sick either.
Dave helped Josh put Christmas lights up on their house at some point during the visit. In the evening, after a yummy chicken taco supper, J&C and kids ran out to buy a Christmas tree. We had some more time to chill out/relax and Martha even stayed overnight. The drive back to her house was about an hour and she avoided the drive by staying over. She had planned to make breakfast for everybody on Saturday morning anyway so she slept on the couch Friday night. That evening we sang Christmas songs - Martha played her autoharp - and Carrie brought out the crackers, cheese, and more wine. Fun evening...lots of music.
Saturday morning Martha made green pepper sandwiches (for me...nah...) - which the LaMarche boys were loving. She also made up a big batch of creamed eggs (hard boiled eggs cut up and put into a cheesy white sauce) which gets spread over toast. Its a heavy, hearty breakfast which sticks to your ribs for an entire day. The kids really love eating that too but I'm not used to cooking so heavily so its a rare treat in our house. The kids all helped Josh decorate the Christmas tree - and after that activity it was time to get outside, so we took a long walk "in the woods" after playing at a little park by their house ...which is a trail that loops between a lot of trees. Turns out everybody loved it and had fun. No snow, lots of sun, but a cold wind.
We ate lunch with whatever leftovers were in the fridge - Dave packed up our stuff and loaded the van. Then we said our goodbyes and headed out. So nice to visit and reconnect - I feel like this post was really abbreviated and short, but I had to sit down and write it out before I forgot. Also, I forgot my camera on this visit so all I had to work with was my phone's camera, which seems to have been on some setting that made bad photos. I am not happy with the way the photos turned out, but oh well. I'll post some anyway.
Something I really wanted to remember to post was something funny Eli did on the drive home. We played music the entire way (including songs from an album that Dave listened to as a child). After each song would end, Eli would yell, "HEY!" when it was over. We thought it was a fluke at first but consistently for a number of hours, a song would end, and he would yell. It was too funny!! He also loved learning how to "ride the rollercoaster" which is a toddler toy in their basement. He would yell "Go!" and Vanessa would push him to start rolling. He yelled "Yayy!" and "Whee!" over and over.
Thanks for posting a narrative and I felt part of the party!
ReplyDeleteDAD