Awake: 7:16am Temp 38 sleep 7+12 overcast overnight @ Indiana, PA.
K & I join the Foote Family @ St. Thomas More Church & attend the 10:00am Mass. After Mass, all are invited to the basement for the 3rd annual Parish Epiphany Party & Brunch which the Footes attend, but we elect to return to our motel & finish our packing plus loading up the Suzuki for travel.
It took longer than I had thought so we didn’t get over to the Castle until close to 1:00pm. In fact, the Footes arrived home nearly the same time we arrived.
Dinner: more leftovers; K & I had Sloppy Joes, green beans & fresh salad.
Again today, K & I take turns @ shooting for good pics of our grandchildren; we did a little better today so this will have to do.
After the Foote boys are all in bed & Jerry winds down from the excitement of the day & falls asleep in Nick’s lap, we adults sit around in the living room & have a nice casual gab session. We reviewed some of the things we enjoyed during our family rendezvous days @ the Foote Castle & some things that were not so enjoyable. Melissa & Kevin provided us with lots of yummy & healthy homemade food & plenty of not-so-healthy snacks to take care of our sweet tooth (teeth). They went out of their way to make us feel comfortable, buying special foods to suit specialty needs, giving us free use of their clothes washer & dryer as often as any of us wanted.
However, we all felt that maybe…just maybe, we had stayed a tad too long (Nick & family & we were here (19) days); other family members came & went after varying length of stays. It was tough on Melissa (in first trimester of pregnancy) & Kevin, esp. the disruption to their daily schedule; tough keeping their boys quiet for 5 hours (they wake @ 5:00am or earlier), waiting for guests to awaken; plus spending (3) hrs daily in the kitchen, cooking for between (10) & (14) people. Much of the dish washing & cleaning up of the kitchen & dining area was taken over by others.
But there were many fun times of playing with the kids (of course, there were those many not so fun times of just managing them and/or mediating their battles); enjoyable conversations & kidding with each other; & fascinating observations of just how smart our grandsons are.
Bowling, roller & ice skating, & swimming were BIG undertakings that got mostly high marks for fun & overall favorable ratings but were not without their share of stress. All in all, though, during this Christmas season a good time was had, much love was shared, & patience practiced. Hopefully, we’ll keep rendezvousing to pursue perfection!
We return to our motel @ 9:40pm.
Lights out: 11:25pm
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