We had our Church family Christmas this
past weekend which is always one of my favorite events of the year.
My brothers and our families all gather at my mom's house in St.
Helen and celebrate the holiday. We usually do it before Christmas,
but this year, it just worked out better for everyone to do it after.
I'll admit, I wasn't thrilled about doing it after Christmas was
over, just because I enjoy the build-up to the holiday and I didn't
think that sense of excitement would be there with the big day
already in the rear-view mirror. As it turns out, it may have worked
out better this way because there was a sense of relaxation that
isn't usually there. There was no pressure of things that still had
to be done before Christmas, no last minute gifts to be bought and no
stress about anything. It was just our family enjoying a weekend
together.
My youngest brother Clay, had been
trying to organize a tubing outing at Hanson Hills in Grayling. They
way they do it is you pay $10 per person for an hour of tubing. I
confess, that despite telling Clay to count us in, I was not overly
excited about going. It was supposed to be warmer than the previous
few days, but still cold. The kids were all looking forward to going
though so off we went. I felt really bad because my wife's snowpants
came up missing and she ended up not being able to tube. I give her
a lot of credit though. She was a good sport about the whole thing
and hung out by the fire pit at the bottom of the hill and took
pictures and videos of us going down the hill. We had a lot of fun
and it's definitely something I would do again. Thanks Clay for
making that happen.
 |
| My wife Kelly is behind the camera, and my son Andrew is with his grandma helping to clean the church. Sydney, my stepdaughter is at school in Indiana. This was a really good time and something I'd be happy to do again. |
My son Andrew didn't want to go tubing
and although I was a little bummed, I can't say that I blame him.
His reluctance comes from a sledding outing when he was a little kid.
We went to a hill near his mom's house which is fairly steep and
well used. Someone who had been there before us had built a huge
jump near the bottom of the hill, right in the middle. Andrew's
first run down the hill started out pretty funny. For whatever
reason, he kept running into these little ridges on the hill and he
looked sort of like a live plinko chip heading down the hill. About
halfway down, I could see what was going to happen, but was powerless
to stop it. The ridges were funneling him right into line with the
jump at the bottom. At that time, Andrew was not very coordinated
and had no idea how to slow himself down or how to simply roll off
the sled. He hit that jump at a high rate of speed and went damn
near 10 feet in the air. The sled shot out from under him and he
landed flat on his back. I thought for sure he had a concussion or
had seriously hurt his back. Luckily though, he just had the wind
knocked out of him, but the sledding trip was definitely over. Since
then, outdoor winter activities have not exactly been his favorite
thing. My mom and aunt went in to St. Helen to clean the church
while we were gone tubing and Andrew volunteered to help them so I'm
glad that he had that time with his grandma and aunt.
The tubing trip happened on Saturday
afternoon. On Friday, we had dinner up at Grandma's house. Mom made
a couple of roasted chickens and all the trimmings. After dinner, we
went back to mom's house and hung out and ended up playing a board
game called Apples to Apples after the younger kids went to bed.
It's a fun game and we made it more fun in the Church style of board
games which involves a lot of fun teasing and trash talk. I was
waiting for Kelly and Shane to get there because Shane had a
basketball game in Mackinaw City which ended up going into triple
overtime, so they didn't get there until much later in the evening.
(Ami, I did some double checking just to make sure we weren't teasing
you for nothing, and I'm sorry to tell you, Jupiter is, in fact,
still categorized as a planet) Sydney had to be back to school and
wasn't able to be there for the festivities. We missed you Syd!
On Saturday morning, mom made breakfast
for everyone and after that, we opened gifts. I got to be Santa
Claus and hand out all the presents. It was so much fun watching all
the kids open their gifts up and laugh and smile as they tore up
paper and looked over their new stuff.
I caught myself a couple of times,
trying to step back a little bit and take it all in. Like I was
trying to take a mental snapshot that I could hold onto. I feel like
sometimes that we (people in general) look at moments and scenes like
that as something to be tolerated instead of treasured. I feel lucky
to have the family that I do, because looking around that room in
those moments, I felt like we were all feeling the same thing. Not
tolerance, but actual happiness and enjoyment. That's what made it
feel special for me.
After the previously tubing trip on
Saturday, we all gathered at Grandma's house again and had a very
good spaghetti dinner. Mom did the majority of cooking for the
weekend and it was all fantastic.
My brother Graham bought a pair of
snomobiles a couple years ago and although they are a source of
frustration for him at times, I'm glad that he got them. He went out
after dinner and got them running and asked if I wanted to come out
and ride them a little. The kids love to be pulled behind them in
the sled and Shane did a great job of pulling them around. Graham
also found a great deal on a mini-snomobile for Taylor and I
convinced Abbie to get on it and drive it a little. After a couple
of hesitant loops around the driveway, she found her comfort zone and
was trying to convince me that we needed one of those.
At one point, I looked over at Graham while everyone was on or being pulled by a snomobile and there was a look of satisfaction on his face that made me happy for him. Shortly after that, he came up to me and after a couple minutes of conversation, he said to me “This is what I bought these for. I like to see everyone having a good time riding them.”
Soon after that, everyone started packing up and pulling out. I helped Graham get the snomobiles loaded up and put away and everyone got on the road to head back to their respective homes. I had a great time and can't wait to do it again next year.
I Will Win
No comments:
Post a Comment