Cindy turned in her last grade the week before Christmas, cleaned out her office, surrendered her key and officially retired. In celebration of the season and the occasion I spared no expense and got the best Christmas tree I could find!
Sarah, Joel, Badger and Eliott arrived on Friday night. Apparently they have recently joined a local charity dedicated to providing Christmas trees to the elderly. I guess ours names came up on the list so they delivered a 20 foot tree. They even brought lights...(Nathan, Heather, Kristen and David brought ornaments!)
'Lovey', the special Christmas Elf assigned to the Mulder's knew that Badger and Eliott were traveling to 'Nana and Grandpa's' house and decided to come along. Otherwise Santa would not have know where to bring the presents. Also apparently 'Lovey' is required to report back to Santa on how everyone is behaving.
The "Elf Home Insertion Program" (code named snitch) comes with several important rules...one of which is that you must never ever 'touch' the elf. Thus it was that Nana in her never ceasing effort to keep the house neat almost blew Christmas. Badger had to be reassured that grandmother's get a 'pass' from Santa's elves for 'touching' Lovie. Fortunately for all, Santa did arrive that night with presents! Nana received a stern warning and promised to do better next year.
Eliott got to take several long rides and didn't fall off once!
Badger served as a 'beta tester' for Uncle David's newly released App (Gridlock Empire...99 cents)....apparently Uncle David didn't know many 4 year old with Droids...
Nathan and Heather got to sit in Cindy's chair and I waited 4 hours to ask about more grandchildren...A personnel record!
Nathan had to go into the Jail Sunday morning to visit some people...but Aunt Heather got to reconnect with her niece and Badger got her nails painted...
David and Kristen settled into their new couch...They did promise to pick it up in the spring....ditto for Sarah and her new recliner....
We opened presents and ate way too much ham...
Eliott helped in the kitchen....
By Sunday afternoon the presents were open and the kids were gone....I was running a fever and wondering if my lungs would come up with my next cough...we looked out the back door and saw this....two hours later we packed the car...turned off the water...turned down the thermostat....stuffed the cat in her carrier and left for Florida...(I'm pretty sure we turned off the coffee pot).... 23 hours later we were sipping coffee in our back yard...dressed in shorts and t-shirts...We are truly blessed by God...life is good...
We opened presents and ate way too much ham...
