Taking It Easy...Saturday

We had such a fun time at our family dinner Friday afternoon.  My son, Jim was there for a short while as he had to be to work at 6pm for a 12 hour shift.  He works his 12 hour shift again tonight and then is off until Tuesday at 6pm. You can see in the picture, there is quite a scar left where his face got cut in the Thanksgiving Day car accident.  It's very hard and swollen...as there is still a lot of swelling in his broken nose in the same area.  I hope with time....that the scar disappears.  We sorely missed my youngest niece, Janna, who was supposed to be home Thursday night.  She's going to graduate school in Denver and well...she's stranded there by heavy snow that shut down the airport.  She called my brother while we were eating and said that she was leaving Denver this morning, riding with a couple friends, heading for Salt Lake (about a 6 hour drive normally) and will get a plane from there.  She hasn't been home for a long time, and is desperate to have a few days with her mom & dad & sisters.  I believe she has to be back to work in Denver, Dec 29th so will only have a few short days.  Janna is the only one of my 3 nieces that is still single.  The other two are married and each have two children.  Becky and Ritchie are parents to Christopher and Callie Rose and Jill and Lance have two little girls...Lindsey and Ella. 

We had another celebration last night too...December 22nd was the 34th wedding anniversary of my brother and sister-in-law.  They were married in her home town of Santa Barbara, Calif.  I wondered for years why I wasn't at their wedding and I finally figured it out a few years back. It was the dead of winter for one thing, and our son Jim was only 16 months old.  I guess my former husband and I figured it was just too much to make a 2,400 mile round trip in the winter months with a toddler.  I know my folks drove down, taking daughter Julie with them. She was 11 years old and was much easier to travel with.  She had the time of her life...she caught the "bride's bouquet" and got to go to Disneyland for the 1st time with grandma and grandpa.

I use the clubhouse here at the mobile park where I live for these family events.  It has a full kitchen, so I do the actually cooking right there.  I just have to remember to take everything with me. I use disposable plates, but my tableware, serving dishes, cooking pans, etc.  so after the mess was all cleaned up, the table ware, etc washed.. we brought all the left-overs, etc back to my house. Last night I was able to put all that away, already washed and dried.  My two grand angels and friend Bob helped load and unload the car.  Then since the evening was calm and clear...we headed for a local park to take the  two and a half mile drive thru "Fantasy Lights." There are 300 displays set up by area companies and schools to entertain the public. This has been an annual event from Thanksgiving thru December 31st since 1994.  The first year there were only 38 displays...so it's really grown.  I took a few short videos (my 3.2 mp camera did not take good pictures of this) and I'll include them in postings in the next few days. After hot fudge sundaes at Mc Donald's the kids were deposited at their house , I came home and collapsed.  I was a very tired old lady !!  But what a wonderful afternoon/evening we had.  I asked son Jim to come over either Christmas Eve and/or Christmas Day to open his gifts and eat left overs.

I thought I was home free and would not have to make anymore trips to any store today or tomorrow...well, after taking stock in both bathrooms...I do have to go to the store. For a package of a necessary bathroom item.  Can you believe that?  Out on this busy weekend for toilet paper ?!?!  Unbelievable !!    Until next time......Linda