Christmas Day

After opening gifts at my sister’s house, and after having just one more piece of Christmas Stolen, I packed up my stuff and headed on over to the farm for the day.

Mother had all kinds of good food baking in the oven when I arrived – the whole house smelled so good!

She stopped me in the entryway, however, and took me out to the barn to check on her girls first. Her girls happen to be a bunch of chickens and three turkeys. And not all of them are female, either. But – they are fun to watch, regardless of their gender.

Mother had gotten rid of all her chickens not two months ago, and had thought that she was done with trying to keep the birds alive through the winter – but a friend had a slight emergency and had to leave the state for a few months. He needed somebody to look after his flock, and who better than Mother! Heck, some of his flock was originally hers anyway. So, now she’s back into chicken farming – and although she complains, it’s fairly obvious that she loves it.

When we finally got back to the house, I hauled all my packages into the office where Mother had her “system” in place: huge boxes with family names written on the sides. Each person bringing packages placed them in the appropriate box, so that later on we could easily hand them out to whom they belong. I divvied up my packages and went back in to the kitchen to help Mother with all that food.

People started arriving one after another, shortly after that, till eventually all 21 of us were there: Mother, Stan, Dorothy, Stewart, Julie, Kelly, Danny, Tara, Laurel, Corbin, TJ, Gareth, Robin, Jamie, Noel, Hank, Katy, Lauren, Me, Reed, and Heather! The only one missing was Cousin Chris, who had gone home to Montana for the holidays.

It was a great day, full to overflowing with good food, lots of good conversations, and even a little bit of drama thrown in for good measure.

The drive home that evening was horrible, though. A blizzard had started blowing in around noonish, and was just getting it’s stride going by the time I headed home. It wasn’t the worst weather I’d ever driven home in (that honor belongs to Noel’s surprise 40th birthday) but it was no picnic.

I made it home, though, a little too well fed but happy.