A Christmas celebration

There were a lot of highlights at our first Christmas celebration, but my photo on left, features three of my great-nephews: Brayden, Greyson and Brody.

By Allan Olson

Christmas will be gone for another year before this hits the newsstands, and my family will have celebrated the holiday once at home (a very low key celebration), once with my wife’s family and once with mine. The latter two were replete with food, noise and laughter. There was a new generation of kids is joining in the fun this year, ages 4 to newborn.

Two of my nieces at Christmas - our annual pic. 

I would like to say the weekend started right after school on Friday, but instead I was working late in the office trying to get things done for this week’s publication. When I got home, I had to explain to kids the importance of cleaning up certain messes before we could enjoy any holiday festivities. They finally got the message that I was serious about not leaving for Christmas until their efforts were vastly improved, and after a couple fights between them, the task was finally getting done. Was it perfect? No, but certainly improved, and really that was all I was asking for at this time. 

Once that work was done, Abigail and I made almond bark pretzels. Last year we microwaved the almond bark and found that it kept getting too hard to use too soon. This year, I put the almond bark in a pan with a pan of water underneath it on the stove, creating a double boiler, and it worked to perfection. The taste was perfect, too.

My parents and all their grandchildren. 

Once again, I saw no need to get out of bed early on Saturday, but still I was awake by 6:30 a.m. I fought the impulse to get out of bed and eventually managed to get a little more sleep. I finally got up and did a little work and made some breakfast. We took the boys to town for haircuts, shopped for a few baking items and picked up a couple of small gifts for kids. Back at home, I had a few work details to attend to, and my wife and the kids did some baking while I focused on work. I volunteered to do dishes when I was done, and the rest of the family continued with the baking. It felt like a late, late night, but I’m pretty sure I was in bed by 10 p.m.

Sunday started out with household maintenance problems – just what I needed before Christmas. Alivia tried to shower, but couldn’t get hot water to turn on. I figured it was just a minor issue, that a little elbow grease would take care of it – not. I’m really not sure what it’s going to take – perhaps cutting another hole in the shower surround to replace the handle. Bear in mind that this home is kind of an ongoing project. We knew that when we moved in nearly eight years ago, and we continue to slowly fix and replace things as time and funds allow. This bathroom is part of a bigger project that just needs to wait, so there will be another temporary fix until we can get it done. Thankfully, we have another bathroom with a shower, so it wasn’t a major crisis situation.

My generous neighbor came over and plowed out my yard from another dusting of snow, and after we visited for a spell it was time to do gifts with the kids. We kept things simple this year (for a variety of reasons)… a family game and books for the kids pretty much sums it up. As much as I get frustrated with my kids at times, they are always appreciative of their gifts, no matter the size.

Once the kids opened their gifts, it was time to eat. Then we started packing and removing the decorations from the Christmas tree. It’s been up since right after Thanksgiving, and needles were falling every time someone walked by, so it was time to go. 

Our estimated time of departure was 11, and we missed that goal by 30 minutes, but we still had plenty of time to get to our first Christmas celebration. Entertainment for the road north was an audio book, which helped the miles go by fast. Once at our holiday hosts, we were greeted by our great nephew, who is about 18 months old or so. This was the first time we got to meet the little guy, and it was great to see him. I spent my time holding or playing with any one of my three great-nephews (my niece was busy playing with cousins) and, of course, grazing on goodies until serving time, when I just dove right in.

Everyone certainly had a lot of fun and laughs at this event. All of my mother-in-law’s grandkids and great-grands were in attendance at some point. Unfortunately, they were not all there at the same time, but we did manage a photo with most of the grandkids and all of the great grandkids. The only thing I missed was we didn’t get a chance to play Euchre.

As I write this, I’m looking forward to more fun on Christmas Eve with my family and nieces and nephews before we head for home on Christmas Day.

My plans for this week are really dependent on the approaching winter storm. If it tracks north and strikes our area, I guess my time will be spent reading. If it doesn’t, I plan to be geocaching with friends in the Paul Bunyan State Forest. On Sunday, a great-nephew will be turning one year old, and some of us (maybe all of us?) will be attending. As for New Year’s Eve, we might be having a few friends over, but that has not been confirmed yet. Either way, I expect to be at home.

Please remember to watch out for the buses that are carrying our most precious cargo. Also, snap a photo or two to preserve a lifetime of memories. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! Feel free to drop me a line at cltimes1@arvig.net or stop by the office for a visit.