A Strange Yet Still Merry Christmas

Jim & Kirby

On Saturday Jim and I drove up to my in-law's house in northeastern Iowa to celebrate Christmas this year. It was the first time in 27 years that we did not have either one of our children with us for the actual holiday. Just like we have done in our 34 years of marriage, Andy and Megan alternate which set of parents gets them for Christmas. They drove to Indiana this year. And since Katie is in Los Angeles with a newer job, she has no paid vacation time not to mention the fact that it would have taken her three flights to get to the closest airport in Iowa. She is flying to St. Louis tonight, and Andy and Megan are driving here from Indiana to spend a couple of nights with us before heading back to Indiana. So we will celebrate our Christmas a little bit late, but we know we are lucky that we can make this happen at all.

In addition to our kids being missing from the activities in Iowa this year, Jim's younger sister was unable to drive up from Kansas City due to work commitments, and his older sister (who lives in the same town as his folks) was so sick that she ended up going to the hospital to get some antibiotics. We did not get to see her and her family until dinner time on Christmas Eve. Though there were several inches of snow on the ground, all of those things added up to it not feeling too much like Christmas. We even went to Christmas Eve Mass at 4:00 in the afternoon, and that was different as well.

Despite all that we had a wonderful visit and of course ate way too much. Jim's mom is such a great cook, and I have little will power when her wonderful cinnamon buns and brownies are placed in front of me. We were able to begin videotaping Jim's mom as she reminisced about her early life, and that was something we all had been wanting to do. We have much more to cover, and we would like to get my father-in-law recorded as well. All in all, a great start to the holiday season and we are eager to see the kids tonight to continue the celebration.