OMG… It’s Up! How Did That Happen?

Why did Frosty the Snowman want a divorce? Because he thought his wife was a flake.

Today’s memory is about Love and Magic…two of our most favorite subjects. But first, a digression!

 Today I walked again making it 1004 miles, so far, this year! The weather was perfect and the sky was crisp but clear. Who needs to go back east to see the fall foliage when we have it right he in our own neighborhood?

I walked to Ralph’s and got groceries but I forgot how much a 1/2 gallon of eggnog weighs. I almost stopped to drink it halfway through the two mile trip home! I thought a lot about Christmas while walking and one event came to mind. It occured a long time ago but will live in the ol’ nogin forever.

Christmas Memory #19- It’s Up!

It was a long year at work…We had been working literally around the clock for months on a major proposal activity for Rockwell and we needed to get away. 90 days without a day off…too much!

I shopped around and found a neat vacation plan.  Fly to New Zealand, catch a cruise ship, sail for ten days, visit Ports around New Zealand and Australia, fly home via Hawaii staying a few days and return home!  We departed just after Thanksgiving and headed south to to begin the trip with a planned return of December 22nd.

It would be the first time we did not decorate the house for Christmas but hey, why decorate when you would see it for only a few days?  We decided to let the house stay naked!

When we returned three weeks later, we expected to see the same house as we had left but NOPE!  The little elves had been there.  Master Jonathan with Elves Colleen and Pete transformed our naken home into a winter wonderland.  They apparently thought to themselves, “No big deal, we will decorate Mom and Dad’s house as a surprise. We can knock it off in an afternoon!”

Haw!  I repeat, HAW!  They found out how much work it really was.  The three of them worked three full days getting everything up just like we used to do.  We never told them that Sue and I worked three days beginning the day after thanksgiving and finishing up late Sunday afternoon! The tree alone took Pete two days and that was about right.

We walked into a beautiful home, all decorations up exactly where they go…Pete and Colleen knew it well. We were flabbergasted, surprised, astonished to say the least…Colleen and Pete looked too pooped to pop!

That was one amazing Christmas memory.  Take a look at the tree to appreciate their work…and the driveway once Pete found all the Christmas boxes!

We will ALWAYS remember this wonderful act of self sacrifice and love they gave that Christmas!

After returning home and unpacking the groceries, we made lunch and I did ham, bacon, and eggs! Nothing better! Sue attacked the left-overs which were looking pretty good! She called it an international lunch…Indian, Mexican, Italian, and Chinese! We rested the remainder of the afternoon with me continuing the planning for New Years eve.

At 3:00 PM the cleaning folks came and we departed, going to Old Ranch for a drink before returning to the scene of last nights crime…Patty’s Place. We had dinner with Mitch (our son-in-law) and caught up on all the latest and greatest. Somehow Mich always knows the right thing to say!

After are large dinner as headed home, only about 4 miles away and settled in for a new (to us) Christmas movie called “You Can’t Fight Christmas”.

Summary: Christmas designer Leslie Major (Brely Evans) is the biggest fan of Christmas ever. She is like a tidal wave of Yuletide cheer. Her biggest job every year is decorating the lobby of the famed Chesterton Hotel. As she is on a ladder decorating the tree, she falls into the arms of Edmund James (Andra Fuller) – the grandson of the owner JJ James. Edmund is all business and thinks Christmas is superficial and frivolous. But there is something about him. Edmund and his business partner, Millicent (Persia White), have plans for the hotel including ending the Christmas tradition at The Chesterton. Leslie uses all her Christmas charms on him to love Christmas. – and love her.

We have to be up and at the hospital at 5:00 AM so we crashed at 10:30 PM setting several of our Echo devices are 4:00 AM..it’s going to sound like a calliope in the morning!

Did You Know? Callopie literally means “beautiful-voiced” (from kallos, meaning “beauty,” and ops, meaning “voice”), Calliope was the most prominent of the Muses-the nine sister goddesses who in Greek mythology presided over poetry, song, and the arts and sciences.

Going to bed now but one last thought…