As predicted,
Christmas was busy, delicious, lovely, chaotic, and messy. We had stayed at Pete’s mom’s down in Seaford
so the 3 of us could be at Chris and Kelli’s by 9 for breakfast. Unfortunately, Mom did too much shopping and
didn’t feel up to the 2-hour trip and the craziness to follow. Greg, Jenn and
Heather arrived late on Christmas Eve. We exchanged presents among us then
enjoyed breakfast.
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| Breakfast |
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| It's time to open presents! |
The excitement builds & so does the happiness!
After breakfast,
Kelli’s family began to arrive. Chris and Kel have Hadi (4 ½ yrs) and Riley (18
mo.). Both of Kelli’s brothers and their wives have two children per family: Kiley
(4 yrs) and Carter (20 mo.), and the Twins, Mia and Maverick (20 mo). That’s a lot of rug rats. They live within 1
mile of each other and do lots of things as a large family. The kids all get along wonderfully. I pity the teachers once they head to school
as they will all be in the same school! Her Mom, step Dad and Uncle also joined
us for the day. There was tons of food,
but my favorite was the turkey, which she brined before roasting. YUM!
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| Feeding the little ones 1st |
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| It took a lot of prep, now we chill! |
I had medical
appointments on Tuesday and Thursday, but around them, we got to see my Mom,
sisters and nieces (NW New Jersey) as well as Pete’s business partner (PA), my
friend, Pat and her husband (DE), and spend time with Greg, Jenn and Heather in
southern NJ. We even stopped by West Marine in Delaware to pick up our new
dinghy engine. Then it was back to Pete’s mom’s (SW Delaware, again) from where
we left early Friday morning.
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| We sat here by the Cotton Gin before we reached the detour |
We thought we
would miss the heavy traffic by leaving at 3:30 in the morning. Unfortunately, there was a bad accident that
closed the road between Norfolk and 95 around 7:30 am. We sat in one place for an hour until they
created a detour. Then in North and South Carolina, where 95 narrows to 2 lanes of traffic north and south bound,
heavy congestion took over. I monitored
the traffic via the phone and we were able to take a couple of detours that
added time and miles, but saved us from sitting and traveling at 5 mph. We parked the car here at the marina around 10
PM. It was a 19- rather than a 17- hour drive, but we were back home, covering
over 2500 miles during our travels. We left all but the important stuff in the
car for unloading in the morning.
I guess we were
tired because we slept until 10:30 am!
Poor Bailey. She was so good and patient. Didn’t bother us at all, but was excited once
we started to get up.
Things were
unpacked and put away, then stuff was done on the boat: engine mounted, and run
according to the manufactures directions.
Pete took advantage of being in the dinghy and scrubbed the hull and did
a few more chores onboard. I had food to
prepare for our New Year’s Eve get together with Ann and Howie. We watched some movies and had heavy hors d’oeuvres
all evening. We said our good-bys after ringing in the New Year. We met the next morning for a delicious
brunch at their club.
Now, to do all
that laundry! The problem is that January
2nd, a strong front is coming though accompanied by winds out of the NE at 15
with gusts of 25 and bands of rain. It
is a ¼ mile walk to the laundry room. It
will have to wait until things calm down.
May the new
year’s promise of a fresh start, bring happiness, good health and the enjoyment
of family and friends to all. Happy 2018!
~ ~ ~ /) ~ ~ K & P
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