It is now the days after Christmas and I am reminded of this line from a song or poem I'm not sure which.....
"It's the night after Christmas and all through the house
Not a creature was stirring not even a mouse.
The toys are all scattered and broken I fear and
St Nicholas won't be back for a year.
The children are nestled all snug in their wee little beds,
while memories of Sugar Plums dance in their wee little heads.
Mama in her Kerchief, Papa in his cap
have just settled down for a long winters' nap."
Well fortunately no broken toys, but we did have a time rounding up everything. Because of my brother's family move into their new home, but because of the timing, they have been busy packing and packing things. With much of their furniture and unnecessary items being put into storage, like two large storage locker's worth.
The good thing is the children are off from school so the two oldest could help their Mother pack things while the younger ones taped the boxes up or boxed the unbreakable stuff like books, CD's and DVD's although my Sister in law said they wasted more tape taping themselves. And of course boxing up the Summer clothing.
Monica said that except for the boxes for the first time in ages the house is uncluttered.
Come the first full week of 2015 they will take possession of their new home while moving their things out of their old home, which sold at far above the asking price. My brother told me that will pay for the new home, the motor home, the needed roof repairs on the "new" home, and with what is left over possibly pay off some bills as well or use those funds as "seed money" for any other repairs and/or upgrades.
But because of the packing, it was decided for the Christmas presents to be here at my house, so on Christmas Day after we'd all gone to Mass, and while the Turkey was cooking in the oven and everything else was set up to be cooked, the children tore into their gifts, and I'm happy to say everyone was thrilled with what they received.
Of course the family parlor was a mess, but everyone carefully put the right gift tags to the right gift and nothing was lost among the wrapping papers, not even the dogs, although the twins though it would be fun to wrap Weiner Dog up like a present, fortunately Doyle rescued the little fellow.
And no ornaments were broken either.
Chris and Coralline were very happy with the books I gave them, oh they got other things from me and Doyle besides books, but Chris was saying how nice the 3 books I gave him would look on his book shelf all nice and Victorian he said.
Coralline loved the Monster High doll I got for her, and the dressy warm coat as well, she said she will wear it going to Mass on New Years Day and over to my house for New Years Dinner.
Dinner was wonderful, and with so many guests, and we had friends dropping over just in time to enjoy dessert, which fortunately I had plenty of. I thought all the children wanted to watch movies but instead they surprised me with wanting to play card games instead, like "Squeak", "Go Fish" and "Old Maid" and other card games to match up the same sets of cards.
I had Christmas music on CD's of Christmas music boxes, played low so to not intrude, but it was nearly midnight when people began to leave, I had my brother and his family stay overnight it would be a long tiring drive back and they did not have to work the next day so it worked out very nicely.
Over the course of the evening my brother told me on the progress of their move but he and his wife discussed the logistics of living up here but taking the 45 minute drive to the school where the children go to, so they could finish out their school year, it would be a 90 minute drive twice a day, and even though gas is low it was not practical, they had to consider the children's health and also time for them to do their homework. So they scratched their original plans and made new one's
They talked it over with Monica's Mother and Grandmother the children's Great Grandmother and it was decided the children would stay during the week with Monica's mother and grandmother, and come home Friday evening and return Sunday evening to the Grandmother's.
Monica was sure that Chris and Coralline would be fine, but it was dealing with a strict hand on the twins, and to make sure they did their homework and not get out of line. So they will give it a try for the first report card period and if their grades slipped then they'd go back to the original plan.
Also Monica said that by not dealing with the children during the week Monica and my brother could rotate days off while work was being done on both houses. Although some work was being done now on their old house before the new owners moved in at the end of January.
Monica also told me that by having things in boxes she could go through each box and weed out old stuff or things they've never used and donate them. It made sense to me.
I'm glad I'm having my brother and his family over for New Year's Day, both Doyle and my Sister have left this morning, Sis driving to Sacramento to visit her children for the week and Doyle taking a commuter flight down to San Diego to visit his children.
But I won't be truly alone on New Year's Eve, my cousin Louise has invited me to go to a New Year's Eve dance, where the dress is 1940's with Big Band Music, she's made reservations at a restaurant for dinner and then we'll go to the dance, it's a fund raiser for a charity and it sounds like fun, and I have the perfect vintage evening dress to go with it.
I can do the slow dances like the slow two-step, the French tango (not to be confused with the Argentine Tango) waltz, slow fox-trot, and a gentle Swing style, I guess I'll have to wear my support corset to make sure nothing pops.
Then I have to see what surprises 2015 will have in store.
So if you do not hear from me before New Year's, then have a wonderful New Year's Eve.
See you in 2015 Darklings!
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