Christmas Visit 2022 (part 1): Dec 21-Dec 24

Wednesday, December 21, 2022
My daughter, her husband, two kids and mother-in-law who live in Oklahoma have their car ready and loaded at 4:01am Oklahoma city time in order to make a 6:00 am flight to Oakland for a Christmas visit. They arrived in Oakland and are waiting for their luggage at 11:00 am. Holiday travels are often fraught with delays and other potential mishaps but theirs went relatively smoothly. We needed two cars to pick up five people and their luggage. That is 10-yr-old Autumn, in her bright floral top ,pretty much dead center in the photo at the airport luggage carousel. 

Getting to the airport a couple hours before a 6:00 am flight can be exhausting. Autumn, our high-energy, night-owl granddaughter, so perky and alert waiting for luggage, exhibited the extent of that fatigue as she sacked out sitting up in the blue leather chair in the corner of our family room shortly after arrival. 

Her younger brother, our 7-yr-old grandson Isaiah, had informed us over the phone before their visit that he loved decorating and could we please wait until he got there to trim the tree? Of course we obliged. We also held out and postponed hanging about the house all the stuffed ornaments I had sewn over the years. By mid-afternoon they were ready, willing, and able to help with the decorating. We started with displaying the stuffed ornaments in the kitchen and nook area. Usually I string the stuffed ornaments on spring loaded tension rods and compress the rods within the windows. With that method the rods usual get bumped and fall down at least once or twice during the season. No harm done and usually it is mere annoyance that draws a few laughs. This year I tried a new approach. I searched Amazon and bought some open S hooks that could fit over the rod diameter.

The kids hung ornaments among the valences in the kitchen windows by standing on the countertops. The yellow duck that Autumn is holding and inspecting is one of a set of four. There was also a teddy bear, pony, and bunny in the set.They were mini-pillows I used on either side of her mom's (my daughter's) head to keep it from wobbling in the infant car seat when she was a baby in 1980-1981. You cannot discard such memories. You repurpose them with hanging loops for Christmas and reflect on them yearly.

After the kitchen windows, they moved on to using a ladder to hang ornaments in the nook windows. Then Isaiah explored all over the house hanging ornaments on every door handle and drawer pull knob he could find. Isaiah was also fascinated by these three little cube elves my sister made for me with the initials of my three young kids Robin (Isaiah's mom), Daniel, and Alex... ah, another Christmas memory. Isaiah liked moving them from place to place. Who could have foreseen that way back in 1986, over three decades ago?

That was enough activity for the arrival day; it was time to rest a bit. The next two days would be busy taking their Oklahoma grandma, Grandma O., to see some locals sights before Christmas Day.

Thursday/Friday, December 22/23, 2022
Grandma O. had been raised the Oakland area and wanted to visit the Winchester Mystery House while here since she had never been there. Perhaps the Winchester Mystery House for her is like the Empire State Building is for me. I was raised in New Jersey and have never been to the top of the Empire State Building. Nor have I visited the Statue of Liberty or Ellis Island even though I have grandparents who entered this country via Ellis Island. Even though raised in Oakland she had not gone to the attraction in the nearby San Jose area. Robin sent me a few photos of their time there on Thursday. Frank and I had stayed behind, eliminating the need for two cars and also to pace our selves for the duration of the visit.

On Friday, Robin, husband, kids, and Grandma O. went to Fairyland in Oakland. Grandma O. had memories of her father taking her there as a child. Frank and I had gone to Fairyland with our son Dan's family when they visited in July of 2018 (blog post for 7/4/18) and with Robin's family when they visited us in June of 2021 (blog post for 8/8/21), so again we stayed behind, eliminating the need for two cars. Here are two photos Robin sent me of Isaiah in two of the three houses of the Three Little Pigs. Hmm. I wonder where the brick one is...?

Even though our house guests were gone for a few hours each of those two days, we were bemused that in the early morning and evening we were reminded they were here by how they populated our steps to upstairs.

Saturday, December 24, 2022
On the day before Christmas, Frank and I went to pick up Alex right after lunch to bring him to Livermore for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Autumn and Isaiah had a trip to a local park while we were gone. Alex and Isaiah shared some fun with banks in the afternoon.

Mid-afternoon I pointed out that if the tree was going to be decorated for Christmas 2022, it was now or never. All participated in the activity. To start I hiked Isaiah up to place a bow on the floor lamp. Then he was eager to start adding ornaments to the tree.

Jeremy and Robin chimed in, with a bit of distraction along the way, slowing their progress.

Autumn strove for efficiency, adorning her fingers with many stars at once to minimize trips to the tree. Then she enlisted the help of her mom.

Of course Frank and I got in the act with Autumn directing part of the time.

There was also the magical finishing touches of the grandmas.

Alex in his own helpful way, rearranged the nativities on the top of the piano in the family room.

As the afternoon darkened into evening we gathered outside to set out and light luminaires. We reminisced how on our court, many a child and grandchild had a lit a match for his/her very first time lighting those candles in the paper bags on Christmas Eve.

Afterwards we all went indoors for our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of spaghetti. I'd also baked an apple pie to top off the day; and to top off the pie – ICE CREAM! Tomorrow was Christmas Day!