The Marathon

I have heard many people describe the training and lead-up to running a marathon, and how much discipline and exercise and dedication it takes. Then, when you get to the marathon, although all that planning and time invested is put to good use, you still come away from it feeling like you've been hit by a truck. But it's probably the only time you'll be hit by a truck and still smile and laugh about it later. Well, I have never run a marathon...but I liken preparing for Christmas and all that is involved to running a marathon, and this weekend leg 1 of our many days journey began.
On Friday, we had the opportunity to FINALLY sign lease papers with a new tenant who wanted to move into our house ASAP. The notice was very short, and so I spent most (I'm talking 6 hours) of Friday getting everything ready. Doing reference checks, credit reports, creating the lease document and inspection reports..yadda, yadda, so that we could meet him at 6pm to sign the documents. It was a lot of work, and Lucy commented to me many times that I 'wasn't playing with them' but we feel very blessed to have a new tenant. It helps ease the stress a bit and allows us to enjoy the holiday season a bit more without that looming over our heads. We had a late dinner at Grandma and Papa's and helped them to set up their Christmas tree and decorate it with yellow ribbons in anticipate of Sarah's return home from Mexico the next day. She wanted us to wait to actually decorate the tree, but we thought the 'welcome home' yellow ribbons would be a nice gesture - and Lucy was very excited to do it. Papa also found his inflatable Santa and decided to test it out that night in the living room. It now has a more permanent home on the front porch, but the kids enjoyed watching him grow to life in the middle of the room.
On Saturday morning, we all headed to the church for our Ward Christmas Party which was themed "Christmas Morning", which I thought was brilliant. We had a pancake/french toast breakfast with every possible breakfast fixing you could think of. There was Christmas movies playing in the Relief Society Room, FHE kits in the primary room, Santa was visiting in one of the classrooms and every family got the chance to get their picture taken with him. We got our family photo done and then had the three Williamson grandkids sit with Santa as well. The kids also enjoyed decorating Rice Krispie Square Trees with icing a candies. The party finished off with some caroling and a beautiful program where many of the primary children were able to act out the Nativity while musical numbers and a narrative were performed. Lucy was the angel in the nativity and took her role very seriously. The actual performance was much longer than the rehearsal the night before, but she stuck it out. She had to hold her arms up in the air, and they would slowly lower down to her side until she remembered, and then the arms would come back up again. At one point we saw her yawning from her perch, but she never said a word and tried very hard. Many people told me she was the cutest angel they'd ever seen...and I'd have to agree. Janeen had an opportunity to participate in a few of the musical numbers being presented, as well as myself and my posse of lady friends. It was a very beautiful and fun party.
After the party, we headed home for Max to have a nap and to get fueled and ready for the next portion of our marathon...the Bourne Family Christmas party. All descendants of Kathleen Bourne or Ruth Quist and many other 'adopted' relatives joined together at the East Stake Center yesterday for dinner, games, a few jokes and just an all around good time. One of the highlights of the night was the 'ugly sweater contest'. Tyler had the idea of using a picture of my brother Mike to create his ugly sweater, and it nearly won him the prize (chocolate fondue I believe - maybe not his favorite, but I'm quite certain his wife would have loved it). Instead the prize went to my sister Alison for her creative and home-made Christmas shawl. In all fairness to the title 'ugly sweater', Dude clearly should have been the winner, because someone actually manufactured that sweater and it was intended to be worn, not just as a gag, but as part of some mustached-karaoke singing-1970s ladies man. We also enjoyed the usual 'pie plate game', which doesn't involve pie plates at all...? We all sit in a circle around the loot of present brought by each participant and pass baskets with dice around. If you get doubles, you get to choose a present until all the presents are gone, then you can steal presents from other people. This continues on until the buzzer goes. This time we decided to play for a mere 15 minutes, instead of the usual 25. Max was brave enough to steal a present from his 'scary auntie' and didn't seem to think twice about it. They ended up with a pretty great stash. I think the kids always make out the best as a few of the items in the pile looked rather familiar...like I may have seen it at a previous Christmas party or in someone's house in years past. We also enjoyed the usual whack at the pinata. Each kid got to take a turn taking their Christmas angst out on the innocent pinata before it was busted open to reveal lots of tasty treats and fun dollar store finds. Lucy particularly like the stick-on earrings and sported some yellow hearts for the remainder of the evening. It was a pretty awesome party and we were glad for the opportunity to share some time with family in the midst of this Christmas marathon.We stuck around at the stake center for another hour or so with Mike and Tammy and their wee ones, as we were waiting in the city for the arrival of Sarah's plane from Mexico. The kids enjoyed playing in the nursery for a bit with Emma and Ashley, while Tyler, Mike, Tammy and I had doctrinal discussions. Then it was a quick change into jammies and a drive to the airport to meet Sarah's plane...and Sarah. The countdown for this has been...let's say...LONG. But finally, she arrived! The kids had flowers and hugs and giggles to share with their auntie, and then spent a few minutes racing around the airport terminal with her. It was a late night, but well worth it. The kids fell asleep on the way home (as we hoped they would) and we carried them into the house. As I lay Max in his bed, he woke up for a minute and said, "But we have to say prayers!" I told him we could say it in the morning, and he smiled and fell asleep. Sweet boy.
Sunday is always a busy day, but this one in particular was filled, yet fun. We had the usual 3-hour block of church where we (Tyler and I) sung in the choir in sacrament meeting and enjoyed the Christmas messages shared there. Tyler was teaching in Young Men's and I was doing sharing time for Primary, so it was a bit of a rush in the morning to make sure we both had everything we needed. The kids both got treats and presents from their teachers for Christmas and a CTR ring from the Primary. After church, we had Sarah and her friend Tyson come and take a family photo of us in our nice 'Christmas Sunday clothes.' We had dressed pretty much the same the week before, but forgot to take the picture before everyone got changed after church. We got a number of really great shots and are looking forward to developing them. The best is always trying to coordinate everyone's smiles into one picture, so we got a bunch of these:We thought Max should have a nap, as it was such a late night at the airport the night before, but with the excitement of Sarah being at our house, having a quick bite to eat, potty training (why do children always have to go to the bathroom at the worst possible time?), he didn't settle down, so he just had a 'rest' in his bed for a bit, and then we headed up to Grandma and Papa's to visit and have a family dinner. Sarah was missing some home cooking, so she requested lasagna and garlic toast, which we all agreed to whole-heartedly. During dinner we went around the table and all shared why we were happy Sarah was home. Some of it was in joking, some cheesy, and some very sweet. Lucy got a bit emotional and said she was glad Sarah was home because she's been a gone a REALLY long time and she's fun to play with. Everyone agreed.
After dinner we sat in the living room and watched Great-Grandma open her Christmas presents because she was leaving the following morning at 6am to go out to BC for Christmas with her oldest daughter and their family. Sarah also had lots of souveniers and presents to hand out to everyone from Mexico. We all felt pretty spoiled. Lucy got a cool backpack and a silver bracelet that matched Sarah's perfectly, which she thought was awesome. Max got a jaguar call, which you blow into and it's supposed to sound like a jaguar, but it doesn't. But he loves it anyway. He also got a soccer jersey and shorts which he absolutely loves. Tyler also got a soccer jersey, and I got some cool stones for jewelry making and a scarf. We had loads of ice-cream, visited with the Home Teachers and then headed home to get our T.I.R.E.D. children off to bed. We were exhausted as well, but that never stops us from inviting Sarah and Janeen over for a movie. We watched late into the night and I fell asleep halfway through, but we always enjoy spending some time hanging out after the kids have gone to bed.
We spent most of Monday doing some last minute shopping for Christmas. We received the unfortunate news that Janie's sister had had a heart-attack on Sunday evening and that changed a lot of people's plans pretty quickly. Our shopping took us all over the city, but the kids were in good spirits, and I think we're finally done! Now the stockings can finally be hung by the chimney with care...because there will be something to fill them with.
It's been exhausting, and fun...this marathon weekend. It's even taken me 3 days to get this post finished - a marathon in itself, but I think I've finally got it. There's more to be done this week, but I think for a few days the craze has settled and we can enjoy looking at our beautiful snowy trees and spending time together. Merry Christmas!