Crazy Christmas

Thursday, December 31, 2009


On Christmas Eve, with Bredon just a week old, we bundled into the car at 5:00 a.m. and drove to Virginia ahead of an ice storm that didn't arrive until late that night anyway. Both kids slept the entire way up, Bredon in our car, and Piper in her "Uncle" Kate's car - a blue corolla christened "Bugs Bunny, Jr." Piper loves that car.

Pete and I got some good talk time, and I got a song stuck in my head for the duration of the weekend - I couldn't have asked for a better one for the weekend that held enough drama to make a Lifetime Christmas movie.

Oy.

Christmas itself was fairly uneventful - who could have events when the weather was keeping everyone inside? We spent the day relaxing and chasing little ones - ours and my brother's two kids. Almost everyone was home for Christmas; my brother Joel (number four of our eight) was due to arrive with his fiancée the next day.

The next morning, my mom got a call from Joel, asking for prayer. He and his fiancée had gotten off a bit later from her family's house than they had intended, and something was going on. Two phone calls later, we discovered that they had decided to elope, five months before their wedding date in May.

The next two days saw a couple of drive-way stuck cars, a visit from my inlaws, a second birthday for my brother's son Chip, a run for a marriage license and wedding fixings, and lots and lots of activity and drama as we all processed and bounced off one another in my parents' house as we waited for their driveway to freeze and thaw and freeze and thaw for ingress and egress.

Pete and Piper and I left Monday, because Pete needed to be back at work on Tuesday. We got off late, and made pretty good time to Statesville, NC, where we stopped for dinner. And found a potato peeling in my husband's salad greens.

For those of you who don't know, my husband is deathly allergic to potatoes. Anaphalactic shock deathly allergic. He went out to the parking lot to vomit while I collected the kids and what was left of my nerves after the home drama before we headed to the nearest hospital.

Have you ever tried to keep a curious toddler from pushing buttons in a hospital room while trying to nurse a fussy newborn? *insert slightly maniacal laugh here* It's bad when the emergency patient is chasing the kid around with an IV in his arm, isn't it?

They drugged Pete up, and we made for home again around 9:30, with about 4 and a half hours left on the drive.

Piper woke at about 1:30 a.m., disoriented and wanting to be held. She cried the remaining thirty minutes into Charleston, and panicked when we got home until she got her pillow-and-blanket-on-the-warm-cozies with snacks and tea fix.

Christmas 2009 may go down as our craziest Christmas ever. At least until one of our kids calls home to say they're eloping. I really don't want to try to top it...

(Oh, and Joel did get married on Tuesday with most of the immediate family and our Aunt Chris present. We missed it, but even the people who were there didn't see the kiss - they heard it!)

I'll be doing a photo post as soon as I can put one together here. For now, I'm just clearing my head... Which I can do at the moment, with BOTH. KIDS. SLEEPING.

*GRIN*





(Image © Informal Moments Photography)

8 comments:

Christine said...

Random question: does your husband carry an epinephrine pen around?

Kelly Sauer said...

He didn't have one with him this time. That we knew about. He found it yesterday while cleaning out the car. But it was expired anyway. Whee!

Carrie said...

Oh, My. Word! You had a really CRAZY Christmas!!! But yay for being home, and for both kids sleeping at the same time!!! My in-laws are still here helping until Sunday, but my kids have so far been napping at the same time, too, so I'm hoping they keep that up after Mom leaves! :)

Carrie said...

PS - Are you going to share Bredon's birth/labor story with us when you get a chance??? I would be SO interested to read it!!! :)

Kelly Sauer said...

Carrie - yes, I am planning to write my birth story here. I've been needing time to process - didn't get it going home for Christmas! ;-) Glad to know you're interested!

Jessica said...

Wow.... Just wow. Glad you all made it through in one piece!

Danielle said...

Wow, crazy Christmas indeed! Sounds like you approached it with a sense of humor, though.

Corinne Cunningham said...

My head is spinning just reading this post, I can't imagine what it was like living it!

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