Miranda and Rusty 12-07
So, I'm starting early on my
new years resolutions to keep a blog and also to read the blogs of other family members and friends. Christmas is always so hectic but I love Christmas day itself. Can't say that about the rest of December. It is stressful but worth it in the end.
I took a few days off in December to get things done but when all that last minute stuff came up
I was working the 3 days before Christmas eve and was still scrambling to get things baked, wrapped, and delivered Christmas Eve. We were in an extra hurry as a friend from work had gotten us tickets (free but hard to get) to a Moravian Church Christmas eve service in Bethlehem, Christmas City, USA. (About a half hour from our house). It is rated in the top 10 Christmas Eve services in the US (US news or something). It was beautiful. They had string and wind instruments and a choir in a balcony in back and above the congregation and although much smaller than the tabernacle it was an open
(pillarless) chapel with a large lighted belfry up on top. Pretty old building that dates back to 1804 I believe. We got to do the candlelight ceremony. I remember attending one with my cousins when I was young and thinking that was the neatest part. Miranda was just afraid of the candle and blew it out when she got it. Oh well. It was fun to do once in Bethlehem.
Jeanie came over to stay with us for Christmas eve and Christmas. We got up and did the
stocking and present thing, watched a religious movie (Evan Almighty ;) and then hooked up the Wii. I had tried to get a Wii twice at Wal-Mart. Stood in line for over an hour each time and the shipment didn't come one day and then there were only 9 the next, so I gave up. But at achievement days last week one of the advisors said that she had stood in the same line the next week for someone her husband worked with who ended up not wanting the thing (go figure), so I told her I would buy it. She has an infant and wanted the money more than the unit. So it dropped into our laps and we got our Wii. When I gave up on the Wii I had gotten an Ipod for Miranda so she got both big gifts that she wanted. We set up our Wii and David and Miranda proceeded to get sore muscles on bowling and baseball. Miranda also flung some cows on Raymans Raving Rabids. I only got as far as making a mii, which bounced happily in the background when Miranda was bowling. We like the Wii and it has already proved to be a great source of exercise. They were both still sore three days later. Jeanie played some too. She got her wheel covers for Christmas for her new (used) car that had lost it's wheel cover just after she got it. She was very happy about
them. She had gotten us tickets for a NY tour for Cirque de Soliel - Wintuk at Madison Square Gardens. We had a few hours to go shopping at our favorite gourmet cheese shop at Grand Central Station. We have cheese, crackers, meats, fruit, and hummus for Christmas day. We put out a spread and then I don't have to cook for Christmas. It is a Christmas day tradition at our house. So we did NY in early December and we had also been a couple months ago on another gourmet shopping tour. There is nothing like breads and bagels and cheese from NYC. It just isn't the same other places. We put bread in the freezer and bring it out when we have spaghetti.
Anyway, I had to work the day after Christmas and when I got home we got on the road to come down to spend 3 days with David's parents. They have 4 acres of land and Rusty loves to run wild and free (leashless). Mom Mom adores him and gives into his every whim. He manipulates her terribly, begging to be let out about every 10-15 mins. and begging for treats. She
gives in every time.
David and his dad bury
themselves in the basement and look at gun stocks and scopes. Miranda burried herself under the dining room table with new nintendo DS games and her new Ipod, happy as a clam. In between listening to Mom Mom update us on their health issues and their friends, interspersed with telling me every few minutes what a smart, intelligent, wonderful, nice, super, sweet dog we have, I caught up on some mail reading, email, and reading. At 4 am when my insomnia gets me out of bed, I came out and watched my blockbuster movies on my computer. Pre dawn is my time for me. It is quiet and peaceful (at least when the dog and the cat settle back down to sleep on my lap or the couch).
We exchanged gifts there on Thursday the 27th and then drove down to Delaware to visit Dolly
and Olga, Miranda's two favorite waitresses/owner of
the Glass Kitchen, a diner near the church that Mom Mom and Pop Pop sometimes attend. Miranda had gotten the ladies Christmas gifts and we had lunch there. Mom Mom stayed behind as the medication she is on has her immunosuppressed and she can't take the chance to be out in public for very long.
Three days was just long enough on our back in the strange beds (not that the beds themselves are strange, just not our nice mattress), and just long enough for the two of them to get grousy. Mom Mom had wanted us for 5 days but we knew three was long enough. Between work and church we didn't have that many to give her anyway.
They are slowing up and having some health problems, though none terminal. Pop Pop got a
pace maker last year after having a heart rate of 28 for 2 days. They weren't sure how he was still concious, but he was too stubborn not to be. He has to take it easy but is now doing fine. Mom Mom fights with Fibromyalgia and Lyme. Both are not life threatening but cause her a lot of pain. The two diseases are combining in some rare way and she is on steroids for 6 months and can't go out in public. The doctor lets her go grocery shopping once a week but tells her to stay away from other shoppers and wash her hands really carefully. We spend as much time down there as we can as we know the years we can do so are waning. I took the opportunity to document a
photo tour of the house inside and out with my new digital camera. It is something we will want to have in years to come and I don't want to have to think about it near the time of their deaths. I got the house and grounds as well and will take some more in the spring or summer. Pop Pop is a taxadermist (not really my thing but he does beautiful work, fine details on the faces, etc. ) There must be nearly a hundred scattered around the house, including a full size mountain goat and stone ram and also a small bear and a bobcat. There are grouse, an owl, ducks, a fish David caught when he was 5, a beautiful golden pheasant, carribou, elk, antelope and deer
mounts. There are about 6 carribou and elk heads in the basement and even a dear butt. At one point David, in high school, had strung fake poop off the deer butt. It isn't there anymore. He has also made many deer foot lamps. I don't know what we are going to do with all of it when they are gone. I am thinking Cabela's may get some of it. They would be lucky to have it. It's nice work as that stuff goes. I find myself looking at other mounts as we come across them in lodges or resteraunts, etc (not that I eat in a lot of resteraunts with deer heads) and the work is not near so detailed and realistic. When we do sell
some of it we will put the money towards Miranda's college fund. I can't think of a finer tribute for his work.
We are home now and enjoying our last few days of vacation. I go back to work tomorow and work both NYE and NYD. David and Miranda will go back wednesday. Then maybe I can get to know this new Wii better..... and maybe I should scrub my kitchen floor. Maybe I'll make time for both.
