The snow continued to fall and drift yesterday. Christmas church was canceled.
But my mom just recently got a Ford Gigantica. She calls it “The Beast”. It has four wheel drive, so Brent used it to pick us all up. My mom made a turkey dinner. Mmm… turkey…
After the meal, everyone fell asleep. I tried to watch Snow White because I hadn’t seen it since I was a kid. I only made it to the dwarfs discovering Snow White in their house, then I fell unconscious.
After we woke up and refreshed ourselves, Lloyd and Lauren came over for turkey sandwiches and a game of “Settlers of Catan”
This continues to be a wonderful visit. Yesterday was a delightful day of eating cookies, reading, eating cookies, watching TV, eating cookies, surfing the internet, and eating cookies.
The snow here continues to fall sporadically, but what’s really difficult is the strong wind that’s blowing existing snow all over the place. We decided to mostly stay in. I needed more batteries for my new laser and a few other sundries, so we made a quick and perilous trip to Walmart. But other than that, it was a stay-in day.
In the evening, we went to church. It was beautiful. Great music. Afterward, we went to Harold and Beth’s to watch The Nativity Story. It was nice to see it without kids constantly interrupting to ask if they can go to the bathroom.
Because of various family commitments of Brent and Beth, we had Christmas early! Yay for spreading celebrations over several days! Last night was the Royuk family Christmas.
Many wonderful presents were exchanged. It was very exciting. I don’t think I saw any frozen smiles of disappointment at all. Of course, my opinion could be colored because I liked my presents so much.
Of course there was the traditional “Decorating of The Uncle Brad”:
Almost all my pictures were blurry. With past cameras, I have turned off the flash so it doesn’t distract and blind people. I think this camera needs the flash. One of my few flash pictures is below. It’s kind of ironic that this is one of my good pictures. Anna was unhappy with her choice of headwear later in the night.
I loved all my presents. Among my presents was a hilarious desk set, a really nice white sweater, a Dustbuster, and a green laser! It was a Merry Christmas indeed. And it was only December 23rd!
My flights yesterday were good. No turbulence. On the flight from Baltimore to Atlanta a pregnant woman passed out. They called for a doctor and everything. She got oxygen and intravenous fluids. But she was okay. I was glad.
From Atlanta to Omaha I sat next to Judy, who talked with me every time I was conscious. She retired from New York to North Carolina. She was visiting family in Kansas. I think.
The rest of the day was spent stopping at a mall in Omaha and hanging out with my parents at their house. We had dinner at Amigos restaurant. The youths who are going to the national Lutheran youth conference got a percentage of the profits.
Because this Amigos is also a King’s hamburger joint, I could get a cheeseburger and tater tots mexi-fries. Mmm…
I still have some left over grading to do. I didn’t bring any home over the weekend because I’ve found that I don’t do schoolwork very well at home. If I do it at school, I get much more done in much less time. When it snowed, I wasn’t able to go out on Saturday or Sunday morning (my usual choices). I thought instead I might go out yesterday morning. It took me longer than usual to get out of the house, but I was at school by 10:30am. But it wasn’t plowed. D’oh! Even worse, the plow guys were there, blocking the entry. D’oh! There was nowhere to park. I pulled up right behind them and ran into school, quickly grabbing any papers that still needed to be graded. Then I went home.
I spent the rest of the day getting ready for Nebraska. I did laundry, cleaned Max’s litter box, gathered things for packing, visited the post office, paid bills. In short, I did everything but grade. I’ve tried taking papers to Nebraksa before. They’re very heavy. And I honestly don’t ever have time to grade them while I’m there. I’m leaving them in Baltimore. I get back on a Friday. That gives me Saturday and Sunday to get to school and grade. But my return flight is through Chicago. D’oh! I might not get back until Wednesday!
I fly to Nebraska today. I’ll be there just after noon, Central Time.
