Awake: 6:23am Sleep 6+03 sunny overnight @ Indiana, PA.
It’s a “Merry Christmas” day. We have the complimentary breakfast in the motel before attending the 9:30am Mass @ Saint Thomas More church; the Foote family had already arrived & saved space in their pew for us. The church was nicely decorated plus the choir & musicians were in place for making music beautiful. These musicians for the most part, are professionals from the University of Indiana, Pennsylvania. This Mass was a marvelous start for a glorious Christmas day.
Back @ the Foote Castle, we find Eriko playing Christmas music when we arrive & the stockings were hung by the fireplace with care…. & soon the kids & young adults were getting candy from there!
Only the young boys received presents from under the tree: more Brio track, train cars, supports, etc; but also a parking garage & airport unit that had to be assembled. The exception for gifts was that Kathy & I received presents from Eriko’s parents: curry dinner assortment & tea for Kathy & (5) bags of Nescafe Excella coffee for me; I was thrilled to receive my extraordinary coffee. The young adults voted to refrain from exchanging presents with each other, deciding that the gift of “self” was the most important gift, making Christmas most special.
Kevin & Kathy were totally involved in making the Christmas dinner while Nick & Zack were busy assembling, 1st the Airport unit & then the Parking Garage unit which had the young boys mesmerized watching this amazing task.
2:35pm Christmas dinner: turkey, stuffing made by Melissa, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes & salad (made by Kathy), Jell-o, & corn.
Mid to late afternoon, the Brio train architects were busy on the 3rd floor designing & constructing more tracks with Matthew. Andrew & Jerry were encouraged to stay on the 1st floor during this time for security reasons.
This day went quickly! Melissa was unable to get her special rolls made in time for dinner, but she did get them made afterward and they were easily consumed. She also had made (2) pies, Pumpkin & Pecan plus a frozen Oreo crusted, ice cream, hot fudge dessert. Around 5:00pm, these treats were exposed to all interested parties & no one had to be notified twice.
Late evening after the boys were comfortably in bed, we adults again played the game: “Loaded Questions.” This was a good game for us; we laughed so much it brought us to tears.
Before driving back to the motel, I made sure the van’s transmission was sufficiently warmed up.
Lights out: 12:13am
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