Busy time but productive

I'm glad to see Amber wanting to establish family traditions at Christmas, but part of the idea was to share the load and not rely on Mom and Dad to supply and cook the whole meal. I'm glad you mentioned coolers, Beth, because that gave us an idea of how we could take everything out to Lorette. We had quite a carload between food and gifts, and a table. We were sure we had forgotten tinfoil ( essential for cooking scotch oatmeal dressing). We phoned Amber to see if she had some or if we were going to have to turn around and head back home to get it--answering machine. But David thought he might have packed it, so we pulled into the Rona parking lot and started to unpack the trunk of the car--and there it was!

So we had a good meal, with everyone sitting down together. Do you remember the meals we used to have at Phernambucq's with tables lined up through the kitchen and into the living room? I think we sometimes had as many as 24 people eating there. Poor Jeremy had the hiccups--and had been having them for over a week. They had taken him into Urgent Care twice, but his ADHD meds interfere with the medication for hiccups, so there had been some adjustments made ( I think they took him off the ADHD meds--the hiccups were really, really bad). So game playing was interesting. Loren had given everyone a "heads up" the day before and had suggest that we not play a game, as it could get Jeremy too excited, but he brought a really stupid game with him, saying that they had played the game earlier and that it seemed to keep Jeremy focused and calmer. It was one of those games that you have to play a few times to figure out what's going on, so everyone spent an hour getting totally confused. Munchkin--a card game based on Dungeons and Dragons.

Yesterday we went to Gail's for lunch, along with the rest of her family. They took a family picture while we were there and gave us a copy before we left. I took a look at it today. There are such strong family resemblances, and none of them age well.

But today! I spent the whole day doing gelatin printing! I had planned to do it this week and today was the day. What fun--and very productive too.

Tomorrow, I have a one day class with a very highly respected local artist, and then we have reservations at Ichi Ban. Amber and Darren gave us some money toward our meal, which David very quickly stuffed into my purse, so that it wouldn't get lost. Got home--no money! So whose purse did he stuff it into? Luckily we realized it right after we got home, and called right away and found it. However, Amber is holding it for us, so the meal will come out of my pocket until we can get together with her.

But the bottom line in all of this is family. We all had time with our families this week. Some of it might have been difficult, but there were good times too. I still wish we could have been together, but we can still have that dream, and hope for next year. We all need hope.