Chocolate Castles as wel

We survived the holidays. Barely. With 4 extra adult children and 3 grandchildren in our little abode, 2014 couldn’t get here quick enough. Now, we are so glad to have family here to celebrate New Years and the Rose Parade, we just wish that we had been in our 40’s or even 50’s instead of our 60’s.

In the last 5 days I have cooked the following:

homemade meatballs with sauce and spaghetti

Creamed eggs and biscuits, hash browns, bacon, sausage

Ham, scalloped potatoes, fresh sweet potatoes, fresh green beans, barbequed hamburgers and hot dogs, sweet potato fries. Salad, Sister Schubert rolls, chocolate cream pie with fresh whipped cream. 2 cherry pies. Hershey’s chocolate chip cookies

Heavenly Hots, bacon and sausage

Ham sandwiches, chicken nuggets, 3 frozen pizzas

Filled and emptied the dishwasher 12 times. Emptied garbage 26 times.Changed poopie diapers, watched SpongeBob every morning, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse every afternoon for 4 days .Because Caleb, our 4 yr old is on a Batman kick, we were all given names of Batman characters. He named me “Joker”. I was told that I had to laugh like the Joker in Batman when I talked. But we loved the memories that were made. The laughter and card games were such a bonding time. Our kids who are expecting their first baby, our 7th grandchild, had the opportunity to announce their great news by posing in front of the float that had a baby carriage and baby yellow ducky, with a sign that said, “Baby’s First Parade”. It was an exciting week, but as soon as the last car pulled out of the driveway, we collapsed and slept for 2 hours. We didn’t even talk for 4 hours. The peace and quiet that had escaped us for 5 days was just to good to interrupt. We felt like we had been on a week long reality survival show.

We barely survived. If it had been a reality show, we would have been the first ones ask to leave. We didn’t even get a T-shirt that said, “we survived grandkids for a week and all we got was this stupid T-shirt”. No, all we were left with was an empty fridge, a house full of toys that they forgot to take, sticky floors and an energy level so low that it will take us another week just to catch up on our sleep. After the last visit, we did learn a lesson. We learned that if we don’t want to loose small items, such as phones, remotes or fireplace gas keys, they had to be put up on the top shelves of closets. We are still looking for part of the ornamental grill that covers the fireplace, that disappeared last visit. Sunday was our first day without watching SpongeBob or having Caleb running through the house with his light sabor, which of course quickly cleaned off the coffee table of candles and magazines.

Both Randy and I feel that we would have been better equipped to handle all this had we been a little younger, say 25-30 years old. But all of it was worth it. We have new precious memories that will last us until next Christmas. A visit any sooner would put us in the old folks home. We think that since it might take us a while to rest up, we will go to them next time. We want them to have the great experience of having house guests. It will be a learning time for them. We will demand having our favorite meals cooked. We will insist that Wheel of Fortune be played all day, at maximum volumne and insist that our prune juice be brought to us at 6 a.m. and our milked warmed around 8 p.m. We will request that our robes be warmed in the dryer and brought to us in the mornings.

If we can’t sleep, we will get up in the middle of the night and watch murder mysteries to lull us back to sleep. Since we know that they are use to having cartoons blaring in the background at all times of the day and night, that shouldn’t bother them.
Earthquake aftershocks cannot compare with the shock of family at Christmas. Family, you can’t live with them and you can’t live without them. It’s what keeps the holidays exciting!