Oh, come on. I have to share this. We all need a little laugh, especially around the holidays. And believe me, our Christmas's are always jam packed full of fun, laughter, a little crazy and a whole lot of nuttiness. It's what makes us, us. And I love it that way. I actually have 2 stories to tell this year. One very heartwarming and poignant. The other, well, the other story is just plain funny.
I am going to share the funny one for this blog. The other story will come in a couple of days. We are at our oldest son's house for Christmas this year. Our youngest son lives just 20 miles away. So we are able to spend time with both of our sons and their families, however, our daughter is in California this year with her in-laws and we sure do miss her.
I never know what to expect while visiting my children, I don't know where we will be going, what we will be doing or who we will be with, but we are always willing and raring to go. We love seeing, going, doing, having fun and are always up for just about anything! That's just who we are. Crazy, nutty, fun.
Our plans always end up flowing into the plans of our sons--we all got together on Christmas Eve morning for brunch (which by the way was cooked by my oldest son) and then we opened our gifts. Our 4 little grandchildren (normally there would be 6) were very excited to open their gifts from grandma and grandpa and in turn, grandma and grandpa received some pretty awesome presents themselves. Our children never disappoint, always giving us such beautiful and thoughtful gifts. They more often than not bring tears to our eyes--at least to mine anyway. Grandma crybaby.
Afterward, it was time for the little ones to take their naps, so my husband and I took off and ran to the store for some last minute food items, and then later that evening we went to church with our oldest son and his family. It's a whole new world--going to church with a 1 1/2-year-old and a 3 1/2-year-old. Some of the funniest quotes ever are spoken during Christmas Eve candlelight services, even though it is meant to be a solemn quite time, full of softly sung carols, communion, and reflection. For instance--said loudly by my 3 1/2-year-old granddaughter "grandma (shaking her candle hard) why aren't these things turning on?" Now how could I not laugh a little at that funny question?
Also, I must add here that the guest speaker was my son's father-in-law, who is also my 1 1/2-year-old grandson's other grandfather. So, of course, he is going to try to get his attention by yelling out periodically "grandpa, grandpa" while waving his little hands trying hard to get his grandpa's attention. He's so cute. Little kids help to make the services memorable that's for sure. They give them life!
After church, we all went to dinner--both sides of the family went along and also some old church friends. All 15 of us. My poor daughter-in-law tried desperately to find a Chinese restaurant that could accommodate us. As it was her families tradition to always go out for Chinese food after Christmas Eve service. Finally, she found one--a really bad one. Smelly, a little on the dirtier, crustier side. Grungy. However we decided we could brave it, so we prayed hard over our food, please God protect us from getting sick--and proceeded to go on in. It went from bad to worse within a few minutes after arriving. They claimed to have our reservation and yet we had to wait for a quite awhile for our table. Once taken back to our table though we quickly realized that it was a table for 8, not 15. Hmmmm, what now? Do we just hijack a nearby table? Yes, that's just what we did, and bussed it ourselves too! At this point, I was thinking that we were making a huge mistake by staying, but stay we did. We ordered and when the food began arriving, each dish several minutes apart, I knew we were in trouble. We never received refills on any drinks, the fortune cookies were literally thrown on the table, and when I went to take my granddaughter to the restroom I had to clean it myself before letting her use it. All in all, it was one of those nights where you either have to just laugh or your entire night would be ruined. And nothing can ruin Christmas Eve for me. Nothing. Not even bad Chinese food.
We then drove home and almost before reaching the front door we were making beelines for the bathroom. Unfortunately, the upstairs toilet became clogged and was soon pouring water over the sides of the bowl. My son was yelling for more towels and as his wife was dashing up the stairs, I heard a funny noise coming from the kitchen. One that I couldn't readily identify. I walked into the kitchen to see if an appliance was sparking or something when splash! Water began to pour out through the light fixture above my head. I began quickly pulling kitchen towels out of the drawers and soon we were all in the kitchen trying to mop up the mess. By this time (it was midnight) we were all slap happy and laughing so hard over the entire nights' many fiascos. Really though, what else could we do? It was Christmas Eve, it's supposed to be fun and memorable.
We deemed it the best Christmas Eve ever, one we'd never forget. One full of funny, nutty, crazy memories. I think we will cherish this Christmas Eve forever. One day we will look back and start laughing and hopefully, we won't be able to stop. Because that's what families do. They laugh. And we did, just like we always do when we are all together--making memories!
No comments:
Post a Comment