We knew Sunday would be hectic and busy; we didn't know how much. Y'see, Daisy's sister (the middle one, the one with four kids) has to operate around her husband's work schedule and doesn't like overnighting if it can be helped, as one of her sons is allergic to everything and being outside his environment for any longer than he has to be ups his chances of finding something that will make him ill. Therefore, for them to come down on Saturday night for my birthday, and then stay until Sunday evening, it was a big deal. I fully understand and appreciate the time and effort that went into their trip to Omaha, and know how important it was to Daisy's sister that she was there for my birthday. Keep in mind that plans were changed for that -- they were originally going to come down on Sunday morning, do the presents/dinner thing, and then turn around and go home, so yeah -- they added about sixteen hours to their schedule just for us.
Anyway. We were told before leaving the house on Saturday night that we needed to go back over early in the day, as everyone would go to church at either 9 or 10:30, then we'd do presents, then we'd eat. My response to that? "I don't think either of us will be conscious before 9 or 10:30." And really, I was about half right -- I woke up after 10, and I woke Daisy at 11. I don't know what church service they went to or where, but we weren't awake for it.
Once we'd gotten up and I'd showered/gotten just enough caffeine and nicotine in me to be somewhat mobile, we left for the parents'. I will state that one of the things that our nephew is highly allergic to is smoke, specifically cigarette/cigar smoke. This means I can't smoke at all when they're around because even the smell or the smoke particles on my clothing afterwards will send him into an asthmatic fit. I'm generally fine with this -- I don't want to hurt the kid, after all -- but I usually take my vapor pen with me when they're around as none of that will hurt anyone in the family. Well, my vapor pen is leaking -- the new tank I put on it drips down onto the heating element and kills the vaporizer whenever I use it, so I need to get another tank and probably another battery. We weren't going to have time for that on Sunday morning, so I smoked what I could and left it behind here at the house.
So we went over to the house after 11AM or so to help cook the dinner, as our sister with the four kids had to leave that afternoon to get back home. We did this so that Mama wouldn't have to make everything two days in a row (we love Mama greatly, but she is old and after having double-knee-replacement surgery last year, she still has a lot of daily pain -- especially when there are six grandkids running around). Dad already had the turkey in the oven, and between all of us older kids we helped cook, set the table, and got everything else we could ready for another thirteen-person dinner.
Before that, though -- and almost immediately after arrival at the house -- we gave in and let the kids have their "Christmas morning" of sorts by opening all of their presents. We also opened the presents from the siblings as well, and they opened theirs. This took over an hour, but it was fun -- even though the living room looked like a tornado had hit it afterwards. The kids loved their gifts and toys, and from our sisters/families we got gift cards, glass ornaments for our tree, and a stove-top popcorn maker (which Daisy used last night to make three large bowls of popcorn for us).
Then it was dinner time. We had a very basic Christmas dinner (due to the kids' allergies) of turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, and corn, along with a few other little things like cranberry sauce and the like. Dinner was very nice, though more quiet and subdued than the birthday dinner the night before. Afterwards, we cleaned up and helped the sister with all of the kids get ready to leave, which she did probably two hours at the most after dinner was over. Daisy and I stuck around so that we could clean up everything we could, including doing the dishes and sweeping the floors -- and we played air hockey on the tabletop air hockey game I'd gotten at work as my Secret Santa gift with our oldest nephew before going home shortly after dark.
Finally, the big family Christmas was over -- and after two days of everything, Daisy and I were pretty drained. We came home and she almost immediately went to bed -- where she would spend much of the next 24 hours sleeping as much as she could -- and I watched the majority of Batman Returns (hey, it's a Christmas movie) on Netflix, as well as the BoJack Horseman Christmas Special before she got back up for a while and I went to bed for the night.
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