Christmas Week, part four

These pictures are: Donovan inspired by finishing King Arthur, Aunt Roberta, Mom, Janice and I working in the kitchen with the fishing rod carrot, an incredible ham (only one of many beasts who gave up their lives for our celebrations), my cousin Heather's daughters and my cousin Stacy's son (Rich and Sheri's grandchildren); my nephew Adam with his girlfriend Sarah at his brother Matt's house, and finally the boys playing Knights back home. [I wish I had taken more pictures, but I just didn't feel like it. Strange.]



Well, we made our way back up to Eugene on the Saturday night following Christmas and didn't have any trouble with weather. There's something about travelling I5 that brings back so many memories. So many talks where Dave and I have worked things out. I chuckle that most of our courtship was based on long conversations in the car. The boys did pretty well. Dave was sleepy so we pulled off at a rest area to swap drivers and there was a woman panhandling. We had a package of crackers from Kevin and Michelle's that hadn't been opened so Dave took it to her along with a five dollar bill on his way to pee. The woman tore into those crackers like she hadn't eaten in days. It was a lot to take in. Donovan was really troubled by it and wanted to give her a twenty. He's a sensitive soul.

We made it home and had good old Bean with Bacon soup from the can. It was good to be in the final place of residence after four other beds. The boys were delighted their cousins were coming that night and yet another Christmas.

We stuffed stockings and finished wrapping and then helped Mom and Aunt Roberta prepare for the Armfield feast: 51 people! It was incredible to see everyone. I hadn't seen Jeff and Amy and their kids in so long, and some not ever! We were encouraged to mix up the seating to chat with relatives we didn't usually get to know and that was wonderful. Even Weston sat on his own and I learned later that he made some interesting conversation.

We feasted, and feasted, and feasted again. Armfields, Meltebekes, Rich Meltebekes and then some. Our family can really get used to the "let's eat and watch a movie" mentally pretty quick. We have no defences.

But that's part of what Christmas is for us.

I wish we could have stayed to watch the Ducks in the Rosebowl, but we needed to head up to Portland and early -- we wanted extra time to get through security this time. Also, since last year our plane was cancelled and we had to stay an extra night.

We had no problem.

Can you believe it?

No lines.

No stress.

No snarky security people...

In fact, everyone was so friendly and relaxed they even had time to joke and be playful with the boys.

So, we shopped around and explored the airport a bit. We played toss with Donovan's squish ball and ran up and down the walking conveyor belts.

Then our plane got delayed.

And delayed.

And delayed.

And then they weren't even going to name a time anymore, they were so embarrassed.

So, we spent a long time in the airport watching the pouring down rain outside: so Oregon, we didn't mind too much. I was just worried about the legs of our journey on the other side of the border and how we were not only going to miss lunch, but dinner, unless we left our gate and that sounded too risky.

There was a violin player in front of the huge windows. The accompaniment for the view was perfect. Even though it was grey outside, it was familiar; a kind of last glimpse of Oregon to place in our mental memory book.

The boys took up a dollar each to tip the man and when he finished his song he came up and gave us a free CD, saying that a man had paid him too much before and wouldn't take change just saying, "pass it along", so this man decided to give a CD to the next person who tipped him.

(The CD is wonderful, and actually fits with any weather outside the windows (big or small.))

Well, we finally made it into Calgary, the moon shining bright and full, slowly made it through baggage claim, but with no trouble, and Renita and Jaden (and little Kaia) Hamm were waiting for us with hot burgers and fries from Mc Donalds! It was perfect!

The drive home was stunning. The roads were clear, but all the fields were powder white. The moon was bright and the tiny crystals in the air would reflect cars headlights coming at you as a beam straight up in the sky. Beautiful.

There were very few cars on the road and some pretty spectacular Christmas lights on a few farm houses.

I was surprised to feel in some ways a similar excitement that I feel when going to Oregon. Then I realized:

I was going home.