I don't think I've ever felt a week at my in-laws' fly by so quickly. I'm not sure what was so different about this year, and we actually did less than previous years. A lot of our plans were changed due to unforeseen circumstances, so we missed seeing many friends and family. We also didn't go out as much to eat or go anyplace for the kids like we did Knott's last year. Yet it felt like we were always on the go! The highlights of our week included the kids spending time with their grandparents, the Christmas Eve party, Christmas Day (of course), and seeing my best friend for the first time in three years. I'm going to post the photos in groups after this post since I have to sort through three cameras for them. This is a long update, but it's for posterity. Even now, when we try to recall something, we use this blog for reference. You can always wait until the photos are posted. :)
On Sunday, we started our drive to Grandma's at 3 a.m. (the kids call them Granma and Granpa, but I just left this spelling for clarity). We tend to leave early because it's an easier drive for Manny--no potty or food breaks, kids are asleep for much of it, and there's less traffic. The disadvantage during the winter is the weather. Sometimes we get rain or even snow, and this time there was heavy fog and very limited visibility. I drifted in and out of sleep, but only slept a total of three interrupted hours that night, including the drive. The first day we got there, Grandma and Grandpa surprised us with a Thanksgiving dinner since we weren't able to have it together this year. They also gave Manny his birthday present. Lucas made sure to express his concern to Grandma about them not being there for his Papi's birthday.
On Monday, I'd hoped to be able to go out with Manny, but he was too tired. I thought that would be our only opportunity, so I was really disappointed. There were other things going on, and my mood was not the greatest at this point, but thanks to prayer, communication, and thinking on what was true, I think things really turned around by week's end. The best part of the day was seeing the grandparents bond with Isaac. He is such a smiley and aware toddler, except when he has meltdowns. They quickly discovered how picky and messy he is as well. :/ Naomi and Grandma made a special gingerbread house together while Lucas set up Monopoly to play. She must be the most patient Grandma, because the games he likes and plays with her last hours and hours. Lucas actually plays the complete game, building houses, mortgaging, and all. He can't read everything, but he adds pretty well. The game helps a lot with his reading and arithmetic. Manny and I always wanted someone to play board games with when we were little. My solution was just to pretend I was all the different players and play by myself. We really enjoy playing the board games with the kids, but we just have a lot of other things to do. But just remembering my childhood, I do sometimes put those things aside to play with Lucas especially.
Then on Tuesday, My friend L. and I had to cancel our meet-up because her daughter was sick. So then Manny and I did get to go on our date. We don't get to go out often, and really only when my in-laws are able to watch the kids, so this time of year, we have our annual big date. We went to see the final installment of
The Hobbit and had a very nice lunch at a place Manny found. I had a great time. I really liked the movie, although it didn't erase the fact that the first two installments were so dragged out just to make more money. This movie really was for me, and I was happy to see it with Manny. We've seen all six of the Hobbit/LOTR movies together in the theater, the first with my brother before we had children.
The Hobbit was and is one of my favorite books/stories. It has the right formula--one gets sucked into another world, but it's a world not so different from ours. The groups do not trust each other due to their differences, and yet in the fight against evil, they absolutely need each other and need to use those differences to triumph (this is reminiscent of Corinthians). This theme also appears in
The Lord of the Rings. Another theme is how power can corrupt even the most renowned heroes, but the greatest heroes are often those with the least renown. I find this "theme" in the Christian church as well. When I watch movies, I generally forget everything about them except maybe the actors and the music, but I pay complete attention in the Tolkien-based films.
We had lunch at
Joe Greensleeves. I loved the ambiance and I loved my entree. I'd definitely go there again, although chances are we'll always try to go someplace new. You could tell they made the food fresh. A large part of what made lunch so special was our waiter. Sometimes the younger folks don't really understand service and being professional. But our waiter, an older gentleman, was prompt, helpful, and pleasant. The best part was, of course, the company. Thank you to my in-laws for watching the kids. They lost Isaac for a little while, but found him picking at the gingerbread house. Of course! That night, Grandma took us to see the neighbor's Christmas display. In years past, they've even had a little Ferris wheel. It was fun to see.
On Wednesday, we had the family Christmas Eve party. Naomi and I got to stuffing the goody bags first thing in the morning, and then my mother-in-law had all kinds of last-minute things to take care of. My mother-in-law's phone rang constantly, as it does every year. The party was held in the backyard of her brother's house, a newly-built, large five-bedroom home. I have poor circulation, so it was pretty cold for me. Manny's uncle is from San Francisco, so it was t-shirt and shorts weather for him. :) We had a fantastic meal as always, with tamales, sopa, nopales, beans, potato salad, and even a tostada bar and quesadillas for the kids. The dessert table was filled with goodies. Even though I don't have a sweet tooth, I liked the iced Rice Krispies treats and red velvet cupcakes. Then we played some games, took photos with Santa, did the Latin dance contest, and the white elephant gift exchange. No pinata this year, and unfortunately Lucas forgot that he was looking forward to that. He did actually participate in the dance contest! This is a big deal because he's usually shy. But Grandma promised she'd play another game of Monopoly with him. He and Grandma were dance partners, and she twirled him while they danced to "Suavemente." They did not win, and he looked a little disappointed. Later, he told Grandma that maybe
she will do better next year so they could win the thousand dollars (it was actually $100, but it might as well have been $1000 to him). Haha. Naomi also wanted to participate, but it was too hard to do a trio with Grandma and Lucas, I had to stay with Isaac, and Manny doesn't dance. So she was a little sad about that, but she placed 4th out of a lot of kids in musical chairs, so not too shabby. She's won musical chairs before and won the dance contest before, so she's fine. I ended up being called up to participate in musical chairs. I also placed 4th, and I had to hold a crying Isaac for the last half of that. Maybe it was both an advantage and disadvantage, but it felt like a disadvantage to me. My sister-in-law's boyfriend squeezed us out. Grandma's aunt actually participated, and those next to her had to be careful. When the music stopped, my sister-in-law decided to help her sit down instead of taking her seat and got knocked out of the game. I thought that was really sweet of her. Naomi and her friend P. spent most of the night hanging out and talking like little girls do.
Thursday was Christmas morning. I couldn't wait to see the kids open their presents. The older two were ready in their pajamas and waiting patiently. Isaac gets up late, but they get up earlier now as they've become better sleepers. Like I've mentioned, I never had Christmas morning or presents growing up, so it's sweet to see the kids get to experience it. It might be more for me than for them. Naomi has said many times that presents aren't her favorite thing about Christmas--it's seeing the family and celebrating Jesus. But they still got the perfect presents. Their grandparents and aunt are always so generous and find the coolest things. Grandma actually makes the coolest crochet creations. She made a crocheted hat/wig with Anna and Elsa hair (from Frozen). Naomi loved them, and they were so amazing. She also got both dolls, one from Grandma and one from her aunt. She didn't want to ask for too much for Christmas, but she really wanted both dolls, so I told them on the down low. Naomi got a magic set and performed magic tricks for us. I had to take her little helper away after he ceased to be helpful. :)
The day after Christmas we visited my parents. They didn't want us to visit on Christmas Day this time because everything is closed. So we went the morning after and had a barbecue in the very chilly weather. It was all very good. Isaac wanted Naomi to stay with him, and when she switched with me so she could it, he became inconsolable. After 20 minutes of crying, he calmed down when Naomi sat with him in the same chair. Then we headed back to my parents' house and partook of the Christmas tradition of many families--I fixed my parents' computer and printer and did some computer-related tasks for them. The kids got to open their presents. My brother was not there this year. He is in a facility again. I leave it up to my parents to determine if they are going to make the three-hour round trip to bring him home. This time they chose not to for whatever reason, perhaps not wanting to expose our kids, and I called him instead. I wanted to tell him Merry Christmas, but in the end he hung up on me for not visiting him or bringing him home for Christmas. We were saddened by it, but we know it's for the best right now. My mom said that this facility has some of the best and kindest staff my brother has ever had, but he is very volatile and uncooperative with them.
After visiting with my parents, we drove out about an hour to a halfway point to meet up with C., my best friend of 25 years. We went to Chik-Fil-A of all places, but it was the perfect meeting place for our families. Traffic wasn't too bad, and there was ample parking. No one else was there in the little play area until we were on our way out. I hadn't seen her in three years, and Manny hadn't seen her since their wedding over four years ago. But as always, we just picked up where we left off. Manny and C.'s husband sat together with one child, she and I had two more, and Naomi and Lucas were at an adjacent table. After eating, the kids went to play and played together well. Her boys and mine are surprisingly similar. Her youngest, who is about 5 months older than Isaac, was vying for Naomi's attention, turning down his dad (just like Isaac turns me away for her). So Naomi ended up having to take them both, in turns, up the climbing area. I've always wished we could have continued living by each other, but I am thankful for these surprise opportunities to see her, and I will always be thankful for her. She knows my parents and Manny's parents, and she is the one person who's been there with me and for me through all my major life events except grad school graduation, since I was 12. Someone recently asked me about our friendship because we don't have many photos together. Yes, you don't see pictures of us on social media, we don't email or text, and we live across the country from each other. We do call each other, but only once a month at most. It sounds corny, but she's my family, and we're bonded for life, regardless of daily contact. Speaking of contact, C. and I don't hug. We just never did, except a couple of times for fun, and it just became the way it is. Manny even hugged her hello and goodbye, and we hug our other people, but just not each other.
Our last full day at Grandma's was Saturday, and by then it seemed like the week had gone by too quickly. We weren't able to go out with my sister-in-law or see her house because she came down with something, possibly from the party. Naomi suggested we all go to Old Spaghetti Factory since that's become a tradition for our family. They have large round tables that can accommodate all of us. After that we had to go to Manny's aunt and uncle's house because their garage door wasn't working. That changed our plans for seeing a different uncle and his family. We just really didn't get around to visiting with people much this Christmas, and yet I felt we were constantly busy. Naomi holds dear the traditions we have each year at Grandma's--Christmas ham (though my sis-in-law cannot eat pork), Grandpa gets her a shrimp cocktail, we go to a historic drive-thru called
Baker's, she and Grandma make a gingerbread house, and we watch movies on their big TV. This year we didn't stay till New Year's, so we got her shrimp back at home, and Grandma and Grandpa and Puo-Puo and Gong-Gong made us some fabulous meals, so no need for the drive-thru. They had to work hard to feed an army. That's definitely not my forte. We ate heartily and happily all week.
On Sunday morning we left about 4:45. Isaac actually was awake for a lot of the drive, which made it harder for us, but we managed fine. So far, so good. No one sick this time, and Manny has two weeks off this year, so he didn't have to go back to work the next day. It was a great week!
