Oh what a day!

Christmas 2008 was a busy day. We began by making the drive to Roscoe early to help Memama with lunch.

Due to our busy day we had requested a noon meal! Thing is, that is a little bit rushed. Memama had originally scheduled lunch for one to two. Our problem was, there were sixteen people coming to our house Christmas evening, beginning at 6, they would be expecting a meal and festivities!

So, while Meme had been preparing meal pieces, we had to put them all together. We had turkey breasts to cook (two and a half hours) and casseroles and Meme's dressing!

We arrived at Roscoe shortly after our target time, and Krl and I began helping. I was working on a sweet potato casserole, while Krl was working on a pie. Memama's dressing was cooking, and the turkeys and hams were in the ovens at Jake and Jason's. Ollie bailed on us very quickly (as she did most of Christmas Even and Christmas Day), but slowly a steady stream of help came through the door. Pat and Memama had worked until late the night before, peeling potatoes and making other preparations.

While we missed our meal target time by about forty minutes, we pulled off the meal and the white elephant gift exchange before we headed east for our own festivities. By then we had made up all but four minutes. It was four minutes after three.

When Krl and I walked through the door, we began working, turning on ovens, pulling supplies from refrigerators, and developing a game plan. We put Ollie to work cleaning and polishing Reid's x-mas from us. Finally we seemed to have the upper hand on our meal. We had both ovens occupied, one crock pot and a broaster roaster all working at once. I'll bet the electric company was thrilled to watch our meter whirl!

The house began filling with the aroma of the meal as it also began filling with our guests for the evening.

Our final guests arrived after seven in the evening. They came bringing food and gifts, so we tried to overlook their tardiness (This group comes from a long line of tardy). The house was soon filled with laughter and spirited visiting!

It is really so ironic that Trc has three girls ranging from 9 to 20, while Rian has three boys ranging from 1 to 5! You might think that wouldn't be a good combination but the boys loved playing with the girls, and the girls were very good with them. The entire evening was filled with hoots and hollers and lots of fun!

Our final event was the exchange of gifts. Meme and Dandy gave all of the bigger kids cash or gift cards, while ages 9 and under enjoyed opening a vast array of gifts! I had one stack of gifts for the hooligans, so if Reid or Holt were idle, it wasn't for long. (It was like one size fits all). Of course all the gifts looked like they had been in a fight before the unveiling took place. The middle hooligan is a gift opening fiend, and he was constantly in trouble prior to permission being granted!

Overall, the night was a great success. Almost worth all the work to pull it off!

This morning, Rian called wanting specific instructions to La Popular Bakery for burritos. He asked for my order and then told me to bring him a Dr. Pepper and a bottle of water and he would have me a burrito to my specifications.

I drove to their motel and went into the dining area for their continental breakfast. There Rian, Reid and Holt waited for me. As soon as I walked in Holt told me, "I don't like you!" I told him, "That's O.K., I won't like you!" And the scrum was on! We ate and went to their room where I watched the boys and their Dad while Erica packed! Hey it is a dirty job but someone has to do it! We left the motel looking for somewhere for the boys to burn off some energy. We went to a jump jungle but it was closed until tomorrow, so we settled for the mall and their playground. Rian told me, "Watch this, in a few minutes we will be the only ones here. These boys are the bullies of the playground!" When the boy's mother began talking rules and the boys knew them by heart, I knew this could get ugly! No kicking, no scratching, no biting, no pushing, no tripping!
Sure enough, it was full throttle! Luckily when we left, there was no blood and no stitches. Lucky for the others! I didn't know whether to be glad or appalled!

I felt like I had survived Roller Derby. In fact I began to try to get the boys to taunt the other boys with, "My Daddy can whip your Daddy!" You know, maybe we could get some side bet action going. I figured we could include their Mother later.

It was an experience! Seeing these hooligans you would never know their grandfather is a lover not a fighter!

Really it was a fun day. Even though that one Mother did whip the hooligans Daddy! (Just kidding).

I am so glad it is a year until Christmas. My feet ache, my back aches, come to think of it, I hurt all over!

Hope your Christmas was half the fun ours was!

FATHER, thank YOU! For JESUS, for it all!