A Christmas Party

Last Friday, we got a pile of snow. That's beginning to sound awfully redundant, kind of like "Yesterday, the sun rose." But we did indeed get a very large, intimidating amount of snow, which meant the schools and most offices (including mine) were closed. This was probably the main reason I was able to get as far as I did on my list, although I did go in to the office for a little bit myself. (I only sighted 6 vehicles during the entire journey from house to office - and one of those was in the ditch, while another one was a police car.)
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Still, the church had scheduled a "Lock In" fundraiser for Friday night at the middle school, and after a lot of concerned phone calls decided to go ahead with it. I was on duty at the bracelet-making table in the crafts section and had already stabbed myself twice with the springy Memory Wire we were using for the bracelets when Rick called from the airport to say that his truck was dead. He wanted me to come pick him up in Milwaukee, which was complicated not only by the weather but by the 90-odd kids hurtling down the halls and demanding the right to make bracelets, have their hair braided, play dodge ball, have another hot dog, and make another bracelet. By the time I got someone to cover my bracelet-making duties and dropped off some materials I'd promised my boss, my cell phone had run out of power. I decided to stop at the house and plug it in for a few minutes to find out which lot Rick was in at the airport, and found out just in time that he'd rented a car and driven himself home, thus saving me at least 2 hours of driving on snow-covered highways late at night. So instead we shoveled the driveway together (by hand), and agreed once more that this whole winter thing was getting old. Then I went back into the house and knitted another whole pair of socks before heading to bed.
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I'd intended to head out early on Saturday for Michigan, but I needed to finish up some photo work that I'd absolutely promised a friend would be delivered before I left town. And then there was the whole packing thing. And one of those self-inflicted wire pokes from the Lock In had become infected, with the index finger of my dominant hand becoming more red, sore and swollen by the moment, so I had to fit in a trip to the urgent care and to K-Mart to fill my antibiotic prescription. (Remember my little adventure with the pitchfork back in the summer of 2007? Apparently I can be taught.) It was almost noon and I really was starting to panic, when Christy assured me that she owned a washing machine and that I could felt all those socks at her place instead of spending another hour over them here. And so I was off.
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It was snowing in Chicago, and a few other places along the way. I'd been invited to stop at my sister-in-law's family home while I was in town, to say hello to everyone and see the nephews an extra time. I was in a panic about running late and thereby screwing up my hosts' dinner plans, but I was not the last guest to arrive and I have to say that Tom has raised the practice of catching, filleting, and frying up fish to a fine art. That was the best perch I've had in a long time! And any time with nephews is a wonderful time, by definition.
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I got to Christy's condo by about 9:00 that night, making a total of 6 of us in residence. There didn't seem to be a point to going to a hotel just then, so we stayed up way too late telling stories and enjoying each others' company. (I took pictures, but they are really, really awful. Could have been the result of several late nights in a row, or the stuff we were sipping on. But no one would thank me for posting them - trust me.) At midnight, we got Christy to don a tiara with "Happy Birthday" spelled out in glitter and we sang to her before she opened a gift. It was a good night.
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On Sunday, we had a genuine blizzard. Church services were cancelled, there was a major pile-up on the freeway, and there was even some question of whether some of the family from up north would make it to the party. Uncle Gordon was definitely looking a little frazzled when he got there, and Kate's crew drove with her folks for safety. But all was well. Bill was a real trouper, out there shoveling the walk as best he could in the crosswinds. Christy and her roommate did a really fabulous job planning the whole event, from getting the use of the party room and decorating it to providing a really wonderful soup and some cheesy artichoke dip that couldn't be beat. And with mother nature giving us her worst, on the shortest, darkest day of the year, 19 of us gathered in the warmth and shared soup and bread and treats and just generally enjoyed the blessing of family.






Kate and her crew were staying over on Sunday night, and it seemed reasonable for me to use that hotel reservation I'd skipped the night before. I made it through the blizzard to Hampton Inn with Lydia in tow, only to discover that they were filled to the gills due to the storm and hazardous traveling conditions. I have to say, they couldn't have handled it better - they were apologetic and pleasant in the face of what had to be a crazy night for them, and sent me a 1/4 mile down the road to an even nicer room, the cost of which was on them. And they even supplied us with hot chocolate and snacks for our trip, which certainly made Lydia happy.
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On Monday, I had one more chance to see the nephews as Don and his crew joined us at the hotel for a swim. I popped back by Christy's condo to drop off Lydia and say my goodbyes, then picked up Julie for a quick solo trip to the local yarn store. (There was a clearance basket. It is now significantly more empty. I figure that after the free hotel room, I was entitled to a little indulgence.)
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I planned to leave the area by mid-afternoon, but due to some misadventures trying to buy a relatively simple thing from three different big box stores I didn't hit the highway until nearly dark. I just about slid off the ramp as soon as I got on it, but the weather cleared up once I got around the tip of Lake Michigan and I was home safe and sound by bedtime. My own personal nest of chaos - I still can't believe Rick didn't notice when he co-opted my silk-dying workspace for Tasha's school project that he set his electrical drill, shards of wire and sandpaper down on silk scarves! Not to mention the propane torch equipment casually set up next to my dye pots. But in the end, all is well.