![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
To Grandmother's House We Go!
Dec. 24th, 2008 10:04 amHappy Christmas Eve, everyone who celebrates! (And Happy Wednesday to everyone else as well.)
On Monday, I packed up the car with gifts and cookies (and cookie dough) headed down to my Mom's house. It's about a 3+ hour trip and I was expecting some bad spots of ice and snow on the road, but the trip was completely uneventful. No ice, no snow, smooth sailing. When I reached a certain point in the trip, I called my Mom and met her at the Christmas Tree farm for the annual "freeze our asses off while hunting our Christmas tree down" tradition. It seems that every year, no matter what day we decide to don our hunting gear (coats, gloves, twine, and a saw), it's always bitter-ass cold out. I believe the high that day was about 12 degrees F, and there was strong wind.
Needless to say, we spent little time mulling over which tree would be ours. We went for a 9 footer this year. And here it is set up in the living room! Naked! We almost didn't get it in through the door (lost a few limbs there . . . the tree, not us), and then I had to cut off the bottom tier of branches in order to get it to fit.
WARNING! Pictures are coming out HUGE (and some are blurry). Do not clicky the cuts unless you really want to see. You have been warned.
( Naked Tree )
We then put lights on the tree, one of us on each side, handing them across on either side. Did I mention the tree was prickly? It's a blue spruce. Much with the prickly. We got three strings of lights on the tree (after testing them on the floor) and then plugged them in . . . and the second string didn't light. Rather than begin with the swearing, we checked the hookups from string to string and realized we'd never attached the second string to the newest as we went down. *headdesk* With a few more strings of lights, we'd finished off pantsing the trees:
( Tree with Pants On )
We took a break at this point, but then realized that if we slowed down, we'd never get the ornaments on the tree. Ever. So we dug out the ornaments and began decorating. We only use homemade ornaments (although we have tons of others), things knitted or made out of walnut shells or popsicle sticks or pinecones or clothespins or beads and pipecleaners, etc. Took us an hour or so, but we got the tree fully clothed.
( Tree Fully Clothed )
Exhausted, we retired for the night. I thought blissfully of sleeping in the next morning.
No such luck. Got woken by my Mom at 7am or something and told we were going to the grandparents' houses to deliver gifts and cookies. This is an all day event, since they live about 3 hours away. Thankfully, my surviving grandparents on both sides live in the same town.
So we loaded up and headed out with the threat of snow hanging over our heads. But it gave me and Mom some time to talk in the car. We hit my grandmother on my Dad's side (my grandfather on that side died last year at Christmas) and found her cooking and prepping for the family Christmas party the next day. Sat down and chatted with her for a little while, gave her some of my cookies, Mom gave her the gifts, and overall it was a good visit. She's very active and all there in the head, so it was a fun visit.
Then it was off to the grandparents on my mother's side. We found them in the kitchen smoking and playing cards and listening to Christmas music on the radio. Neither one of them can get around very well, so the artificial tree wasn't up yet. My grandmother is also losing it a little. Not Alzheimers, but a mild form of dementia I guess. My grandfather is all there in the head, but his body isn't cooperating with him, so he can barely walk and is very weak. So I began putting up the trees (they decided they just wanted the ceramic trees, not the artificial one) and put all their presents underneath them so it looked nice. Meanwhile, in the kitchen, my Mom was cooking up some Spanish rice for stuffed peppers, and some soup. This was for them to eat later on in the week. My Mom goes up to see them about once every ten days to make certain they have something besides sandwiches to eat and to keep things in order. They refuse to go into a home (and they don't really need it, not for medical reasons). I gave them my cookies and had to tell my grandmother about ten times while we were there that I'd made them myself because she kept asking. She just doesn't remember asking. So most of the conversation was repetitive. I also gave them some lotto tickets (they won nothing) and me and my Mom's antics made them laugh quite a bit, so I was happy.
Then we headed back home. It tried to snow on us, and by the time we got back to State College and started out OWN runs for Christmas food and such, we were snapping at each other because we were tired. The good thing about my family is that we realize what we're doing and so no one takes anything personally. (It didn't help that we spent a good portion of the return trip behind INCREDIBLY SLOW DRIVERS who annoyed the living shit out of both of us.) But we got the necessities and headed home and so our Christmas run to deliver presents was finished.
Today, we intend to run in to town to get all those last minute things (mostly dealing with food, not presents) . . . except that we got some ice last night. Here's what the apple tree off the back porch looks like:
( Tree with Negligee On )
So I'm happy that the last of my Christmas presents for Mom were delivered over the last two days. Everything is more of less set for the big day. I wish I hadn't lost all of my Christmas music in the flood, but other than that, things are good. I have a book (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
scbutler's third book, The Magicians' Daughter) and a tree and family and food. What more could I want?
On Monday, I packed up the car with gifts and cookies (and cookie dough) headed down to my Mom's house. It's about a 3+ hour trip and I was expecting some bad spots of ice and snow on the road, but the trip was completely uneventful. No ice, no snow, smooth sailing. When I reached a certain point in the trip, I called my Mom and met her at the Christmas Tree farm for the annual "freeze our asses off while hunting our Christmas tree down" tradition. It seems that every year, no matter what day we decide to don our hunting gear (coats, gloves, twine, and a saw), it's always bitter-ass cold out. I believe the high that day was about 12 degrees F, and there was strong wind.
Needless to say, we spent little time mulling over which tree would be ours. We went for a 9 footer this year. And here it is set up in the living room! Naked! We almost didn't get it in through the door (lost a few limbs there . . . the tree, not us), and then I had to cut off the bottom tier of branches in order to get it to fit.
WARNING! Pictures are coming out HUGE (and some are blurry). Do not clicky the cuts unless you really want to see. You have been warned.
( Naked Tree )
We then put lights on the tree, one of us on each side, handing them across on either side. Did I mention the tree was prickly? It's a blue spruce. Much with the prickly. We got three strings of lights on the tree (after testing them on the floor) and then plugged them in . . . and the second string didn't light. Rather than begin with the swearing, we checked the hookups from string to string and realized we'd never attached the second string to the newest as we went down. *headdesk* With a few more strings of lights, we'd finished off pantsing the trees:
( Tree with Pants On )
We took a break at this point, but then realized that if we slowed down, we'd never get the ornaments on the tree. Ever. So we dug out the ornaments and began decorating. We only use homemade ornaments (although we have tons of others), things knitted or made out of walnut shells or popsicle sticks or pinecones or clothespins or beads and pipecleaners, etc. Took us an hour or so, but we got the tree fully clothed.
( Tree Fully Clothed )
Exhausted, we retired for the night. I thought blissfully of sleeping in the next morning.
No such luck. Got woken by my Mom at 7am or something and told we were going to the grandparents' houses to deliver gifts and cookies. This is an all day event, since they live about 3 hours away. Thankfully, my surviving grandparents on both sides live in the same town.
So we loaded up and headed out with the threat of snow hanging over our heads. But it gave me and Mom some time to talk in the car. We hit my grandmother on my Dad's side (my grandfather on that side died last year at Christmas) and found her cooking and prepping for the family Christmas party the next day. Sat down and chatted with her for a little while, gave her some of my cookies, Mom gave her the gifts, and overall it was a good visit. She's very active and all there in the head, so it was a fun visit.
Then it was off to the grandparents on my mother's side. We found them in the kitchen smoking and playing cards and listening to Christmas music on the radio. Neither one of them can get around very well, so the artificial tree wasn't up yet. My grandmother is also losing it a little. Not Alzheimers, but a mild form of dementia I guess. My grandfather is all there in the head, but his body isn't cooperating with him, so he can barely walk and is very weak. So I began putting up the trees (they decided they just wanted the ceramic trees, not the artificial one) and put all their presents underneath them so it looked nice. Meanwhile, in the kitchen, my Mom was cooking up some Spanish rice for stuffed peppers, and some soup. This was for them to eat later on in the week. My Mom goes up to see them about once every ten days to make certain they have something besides sandwiches to eat and to keep things in order. They refuse to go into a home (and they don't really need it, not for medical reasons). I gave them my cookies and had to tell my grandmother about ten times while we were there that I'd made them myself because she kept asking. She just doesn't remember asking. So most of the conversation was repetitive. I also gave them some lotto tickets (they won nothing) and me and my Mom's antics made them laugh quite a bit, so I was happy.
Then we headed back home. It tried to snow on us, and by the time we got back to State College and started out OWN runs for Christmas food and such, we were snapping at each other because we were tired. The good thing about my family is that we realize what we're doing and so no one takes anything personally. (It didn't help that we spent a good portion of the return trip behind INCREDIBLY SLOW DRIVERS who annoyed the living shit out of both of us.) But we got the necessities and headed home and so our Christmas run to deliver presents was finished.
Today, we intend to run in to town to get all those last minute things (mostly dealing with food, not presents) . . . except that we got some ice last night. Here's what the apple tree off the back porch looks like:
( Tree with Negligee On )
So I'm happy that the last of my Christmas presents for Mom were delivered over the last two days. Everything is more of less set for the big day. I wish I hadn't lost all of my Christmas music in the flood, but other than that, things are good. I have a book (
scbutler's third book, The Magicians' Daughter) and a tree and family and food. What more could I want?
