How was your visit with the Turner’s? When are you going to post about it?
I’ve gotten this question from a number of you through email… I guess after the big lead up to them coming, people are wondering when in the world the blog post about their visit is going to be published!
Well, the blog post didn’t happen because their visit has been delayed. Yes, a normal person would say that we had to cancel their visit, but because I not only have a long history of experiencing Catholic guilt but am adept at inflicting it on others, I’ll be guilting them into coming eventually.
I’m just kidding!
Kind of.
They were all set for their road trip to Wisconsin, but after taking off they found themselves stopping every 15 minutes so poor Matthew could throw up. Really bad timing to take a kajillion hour drive when you have the stomach flu. They turned around and headed back to Nashville, but were thankfully able to get plane tickets and still spend the holiday with Jessica’s family. Since they didn’t drive they obviously couldn’t detour here, but it really worked out better anyway. It would have been bad having Matthew visit after just getting over the flu, and Jess ended up with a bad cold the day before they would have come anyway.
Not to mention the blizzard we had all of Christmas week, in which they shouldn’t have been driving.
In the end, my whole Christmas was more on the quiet side this year, as my parents were snowed in and unable to make it for lunch on Christmas day as well. But I guess 18 inches of snow will do that to people, so I let them off the hook. :) Let’s just say that Santa had no problem landing the sleigh in Iowa this year.
However… my friends Mark and Susie dropped by quick on Christmas Eve before they went home to celebrate with their boys. They had just been to Mass and surprised me by videotaping it. I’m telling you guys, there is no greater gift than to feel a part of something, even from a distance. I put in the DVD and watched, participated and smiled a lot. The camera was placed perfectly so when people walked up to communion I could see them… I’ve never had such an urge to jump through the computer and hug people in my life. There were people I expected to see, people back visiting and people I simply forgot about until the camera caught their profile.
It was like going home.
On the other end of the spectrum, I spent a portion of my Christmas Day on the computer listening to my friends who had gathered at Brent and Tam’s house in Oregon sing Christmas carols… they shared their morning with me before heading out to family activities. How amazing is that? I’m stuck here, my family is snowed in, the Turner’s are detoured and yet I still manage to be surrounded by love because of this fantastic technology. Computers may seem like a cold way to communicate, but when you have the warm hearts of caring, considerate people feeding it, the computer can turn into the heart of Christmas.
Lucky me. :)
[I was going to close with that, but Riley just gave me the evil eye. Of course the pup keeping me company was the best part of Christmas. As always. :) ]