Monday’s Morons

 Dear Ms. Bumbling Bank teller.  The check I gave you last Friday, along with my husband’s pay check, was for the amount of $125.00, which was to be deposited along with my husband’s check.  D E P O S I T E D, moron, NOT withdrawn!!!  If you were paying attention, which you obviously were not, you would have noticed that the name on the check, albeit having the same last name as ours, was DIFFERENT than mine or my husband’s.  That the address was DIFFERENT.  That the account it was being withdrawn from was DIFFERENT.  Now, thanks to your brilliant blunder, our account appears not to have enough money in it to pay our Mortgage Payment and it will now be a LATE payment costing us an additional $50.00 by the time I’m able to contact you and have you fix YOUR mistake!!!  You are lucky, my dear teller, that it didn’t cause our account to be overdrawn after I made a couple of Christmas purchases!  Learn how to READ and PAY ATTENTION if you’re going to work in a bank handling other people’s money, Moron!

Aside from this morning’s upsetting discovery, our Christmas has been wonderful.  My sister, Mel, and her family made it in around 8:00 AM Saturday morning and spent the day with Mom and Dad until it was time for Mass.  We spent Christmas Eve at my in-laws for dinner and gifts.  The evening was very low-key and quiet which was nice but I had to keep moving about or I would have fallen asleep.

Christmas Day started out at Midnight with one of the most beautiful Christmas Masses I’ve ever been to.  All the children, including my sister and one of her daughters, went with me.  Wesley, being excited to see his Auntie, and nervous about being in a "new" place, was a little antsy but was very well behaved, otherwise.   He had a little trouble sitting still towards the end, wanting to stand up when we were sitting or sit down when we were kneeling and asking a few times, "Is it done now?  Can we go home now?"  When he wasn’t hanging on my arm, he was hanging on Mel’s, but other than that, he was a very good boy and I’m proud of him.  

After Mass, everyone met out in the cold parking lot for hot apple cider and cookies.  A small portable fire pit was filled with wood and lit for a small bonfire and while some of us were huddled around it for warmth, the rest of us were walking about talking with people we haven’t seen in way too long.  Wesley got to meet his God-father, whom he hadn’t seen since he was three years old, and when we introduced him, he started acting goofy out of embarrassment making everyone laugh.  A few more members of the parish whom I didn’t get a chance to see last Sunday, were surprised and happy to see me, greeting me with open arms and warm smiles.  A good number of people recognized and greeted my sister, too, which really surprised her and made her happy to know she was well remembered.  

I was finally able to formally introduce myself to Father, too.  What a kind-hearted and lovely person he is!!  When I introduced him to Wesley, he reached out to shake Wesley’s hand and when he reached back, Father gave him a hard squeeze making Wesley pull back in surprise.  He teased him a little saying, "Oh, Wesley, that’s not a manly shake, you have to grip a lot harder than that," and then he reached his hand out again.  Again Wesley took his hand and as he tried to really grasp onto Father’s hand, Father gave it another good squeeze forcing him to pull back again.  The poor boy’s expression was priceless.  We all had a good laugh over it.

By the time we left the celebration, it was nearly 2:00 AM and everyone was very ready for sleep.  My sister followed us home and stayed long enough for a cup of hot coffee and then left to rejoin her sleeping husband and children while Liz and I got Wesley settled down and into bed.   Cathy and Allie were so tired that all they could manage was a mumbling "Night Mom," and they headed to bed.  Liz stayed up a couple more hours with me to help me get some last minute gifts wrapped (I saved some of the money I made cleaning for Mr. K. and bought hubby a lunch box so he wouldn’t have to carry his lunch to work in a blue grocery bag) and to fill the stockings before she, too, went to bed.  I, in fact, headed up the stairs before she did, making me wonder what she had up her sleeve by lagging behind. Of course I was way too tired to give it much thought and I was sleeping before my head hit the pillow.  

Wesley and Allie were waking me up three hours later.  LOL!!

Although the children didn’t get a lot of gifts, what we did manage to get for them made them very happy.  A few minutes after the gifts had been opened, Liz, looking towards the movie shelf says, "Wesley, look there.  What is that sticking out of the shelf?"  He pulled out the wrapped box and said, "I don’t know, there’s no name on it."  She told him to open it.  It was a DVD movie of Kung-Fu Panda 2.  Hubby right away looked at me and I looked at him and shook my head no.  Neither one of us had bought it.  Then I glanced over to Liz, who was trying very hard to hide her face behind the afghan, and I knew.  The sweetheart spent her own money to make sure the whole family had a gift they could enjoy together.   Have I ever mentioned how much I love that kid?  🙂

Around 3 o’clock, we left the house, picked up Cathy’s boyfriend Cody, and headed for my parent’s home.  Even without my sister Annie there, the whole family atmosphere was joyful.  After all the little ones opened their gifts, she called to wish us all a Merry Christmas and talk on speaker phone with us.  

Of course Wesley and my sister’s son were in their own little Heaven.  The moment we pulled into the driveway, my nephew came running out to the car to throw his arms around Wesley and there was no talking to either of them after that.  They were so wrapped up in each other that they couldn’t hear a word anyone addressed to them.  

Around 8 PM, Hubby was ready to head home and when the boys heard about it, they were both begging to go home with him.  My brother-in-law dropped Hubby, the boys, and Cathy and Allie off at home while Liz and I stayed to help clean up and chat for a bit.  Well, to be honest, I didn’t really do any of the cleaning, Mel and the girls did.  I could barely walk by the end of the day.  Liz, my niece (Annie’s youngest) and I packed up the truck, passed around our hugs and kisses and then drove home.  My niece wanted to stay the night so she could visit with her cousins and see her long distance boyfriend who lives down the street from us. 

I was surprised to see that Hubby was still awake when I walked in the door, but he explained, "He was fishing on the Wii and lost track of time."  LOL!!  I let the boys play for a while and then we all headed for bed.  

That was our Christmas Day.  I already mentioned how the morning started.  Right now poor hubby is in the stinking basement trying his best to unclog the sewer pipe that runs under the basement floor.  We weren’t able to locate anyone with a snake, so, he’s shoving an old garden hose down the pipe with the water running to see if that will work.  It’s what he did about 10 years ago when it had backed up then and he’s hoping he’ll be able to unclog it this time the same way.  

The whole house is filled with the lovely scent of poo-poo.  

I have to get myself moving to see if there’s anything I can do to help him down there and to try to get this house back into order before Mel and the kids come over to visit.  It’s going to be a fun evening if everyone can ignore the smell and poor hubby doesn’t turn into a poop-monster.  

God Bless you all.  I hope your Christmastide is filled with love, laughter and joy…..in spite of any mishaps that may come about along the way.  ;o)