Christmas with Jacob

Jacob finally gets his stack of family Christmas presents to open.

January 9, 2019

With pretty much back-to-back snow storms coming through our region for the past two weeks (and predicted to continue throughout the coming week), we had to postpone our trip to see Jacob twice. We first intended to drive down the day after Christmas, and then again the day after New Year's Day, but the roads were treacherous. This week, we finally got a short break between storms and drove down to Mesa on Wednesday afternoon. We left the house just after 2:30, stopped to fill the tank, encountered just a bit of light rain here and there en route, and arrived at Jacob's house right after 5:30.

Jacob poses with his Christmas gifts from his parents and siblings.

Of course, Jacob felt he'd waited long enough to open his Christmas presents, so that's the first thing we did. He seemed pleased with his booty. Sarah gave him a large Hershey bar and a gift card. Dylan and Jake gave him a game called Dirty Words: Party Edition (we can't wait to get together and try it out). Apparently there are no actual "dirty" words in the game, but you put together sentences that sound like they could have risque meanings. It's probably all in the delivery!

Dylan also asked a co-worker to create a handmade gift for Jacob, using her incredible creative skills. The co-worker, Tina, also used to work with Jacob years ago, so she was happy to help, and produced a great picture of a wolf and dream catcher. Mark gave him a box of candies and a gift card, as well as some storage containers. I gave him a wolf family sculpture; a wolf print tee-shirt; a pair of wolf socks (turned out he already had some exactly like them, a gift from his friend Cody last year); a laundry basket; and a coffee maker.

Mark opens his gift from Jacob: a mug shaped like a fishing bobber!

Mark and I were finally able to open our presents from Jacob, as well. Knowing that his dad loves fishing and his morning cup of coffee, Jacob bought him a mug that's shaped like a fishing bobber. For me, Jacob found a Funko POP! figure of my favorite Elf, Legolas (from The Lord of the Rings). I love it! The little guy even has Legolas's braids.

Mark's new mug and my POP! Legolas figure, gifts from our son.

Our stay was short, less than twenty-four hours, but we had a great visit. After we unloaded the car and opened our Christmas presents, we went to dinner at Boston Market. Then we went back to the house to watch a movie together on the big-screen TV Jacob won for his sales skills last year, when he worked for Progrexion. It was after 11:00 when we called it a night.

Boston Market: We all ordered the garlic rotisserie half-chicken:

mine with creamed spinach and green beans, Jacob with creamed spinach 

and loaded potato wedges, and Mark with potato wedges and mac-and-cheese.

I was so stuffed, I ended up taking the chicken breast home with me.

The next morning, Jacob made us a breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, and sausage, which the guys used to make breakfast burritos. I ate mine "straight," since I restarted a strict low carb/ketogenic diet on December 27. Having survived the holidays, I decided it was finally time to get serious about my blood glucose levels (still pre-diabetic, but inching closer to the real thing), my blood pressure (already improving with the change in diet), and my weight (down 6 lbs in the first sixteen days...slow but steady).

Jacob and Mark load a new bathroom vanity into the back of my car.

After breakfast, we dropped Jacob's roommate Antonio off at work, then drove on to Home Depot. Just when I think the worst of the nightmare home repairs is over...it's not. When Jacob fist moved into the house, there was a terrible leak in the wall between the two bathrooms. We thought we'd taken care of it when Jacob installed a new toilet in the master bathroom, where the leak had appeared to originate.

Fast forward six months. After mold started seeping through the walls in his bathroom, Jacob called a plumber out a few weeks ago. Turns out there was a leak in the hot water line to the shower on the other side of the wall, in the front bathroom. It's been there a very long time. The plumber said the water mark inside the wall between the two bathrooms, which he had to break through to find the leak, was about eighteen inches high. 

Because of the difficulty in getting to the leak to repair it, the plumber alone cost me $781.65. On top of that, much of the lower part of two walls will have to be cut out and re-drywalled to get rid of the mold, and the back and bottom of the vanity are saturated and rotten. So we spent some time at Home Depot selecting a new vanity with a new basin (the old one was too nasty to get clean) and a new faucet . That, along with some additional hardware, cost me $364.57. Poof! Just like that, almost $1,150 gone! And we have no idea how to install a bathroom vanity, so it's anybody's guess what that may lead to.

Jacob's delicious buffalo-ranch wings and garlic-butter wings with

my homemade coleslaw was our late lunch before heading home.

Our next stop was Walmart, where we bought the necessary ingredients for Jacob to make his wonderful flavored wings. To be honest, I'm not a big fan of hot wings. Often, they're too hot to enjoy, and there really isn't enough meat on those tiny little bones to make it worth the effort. Nonetheless, I'm a big fan of Jacob's wings. I can't explain why they're so much tastier, but they are. In fact, a few days before we left, I called to tell him I was craving his wings and asked him to make them for us while we were there. He has four really good recipes, but I requested my two favorites: buffalo ranch and garlic butter.

We enjoyed a late lunch together around 2:30, and then Mark and I were on our way back up the mountain before 5:00. It was just after 7:00 when we reached the little mountain burg of Heber-Overgaard. I was ready for dinner by then, so we stopped at a well-known, locally-owned restaurant called the Red Onion. I'd eaten there once or twice before, so I knew I could get a good burger without the bun, to stay low-carb. 

Their daily special was Mark's total favorite meal: chicken-fried steak with mashed potatoes and gravy. No question what he was having! I had Al's monster burger: two beef patties with two slices of cheese, topped with strips of green chile and bacon piled high on top. And lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickle on the side. I brought home about a third of my bun-less burger and had it for lunch the next day.

January 12, 2019: Diego takes up his post to guard the remnants of ham.

It was about 8:45 when we got home on Thursday night, and everyone was busy as usual on Friday. It was Saturday evening when we were all able to get together for a family dinner and another gift- opening.

He can't resist a peek at the ham, with a small bark to remind us he's watching.

And available to help clean up the leftovers, if we'd like. Please.

We gathered to enjoy ham, corn, and garden salad around 7:00, after everyone was off work for the day. While we ate and chatted, we got a kick out of our family dog's antics. It's hard to believe Diego will be twelve years old in May, but he's still got a puppy's spirit! (Diego lives with Sarah and Chris, but he started out as mine and we all claim him as part of our family. I sent him to live with Sarah when she got married seven years ago, after he was abused by my second husband.) 

At both Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, Diego took it upon himself to guard the turkey carcasses. He stayed steadfastly positioned nearby, hardly taking his eyes off them. Hoping they'd jump off the counter and into his mouth, I suppose. Apparently he likes ham even more than he likes turkey, because his devotion to guarding the ham bone was even more devout, to the point that we could barely tear him away, even when it was time to go home!

After dinner, it was time to see what Jacob had sent for Sarah and Chris and Dylan and Jake. Sarah and Chris received a fun set of pillowcases, three of them, labeled "His," "Hers," and "the Cat." They said it was a perfect choice, since their new kitten Rosie actually does sleep between them every night. Now she has her own pillow!

Dylan and Jake display their new 3-D Star Wars lamp.

Dylan and Jake got a Star Wars lamp with changing colors and three choices of subject: the Death Star, R2-D2, and BB-8. It's very cool, and I placed photos of all three options below.

While my first choice would have been to enjoy Christmas with all three of my children together, this isn't a bad second choice. It simply stretched out our holiday giving for an extra few weeks. It's definitely preferable to sharing Christmas through mailed packages and a short visit via FaceTime, as we've had to do for the past three Christmases, when Jacob was living in Utah.

We ended the evening by calling Jacob and putting him on speaker so we could all thank him for our gifts and talk for a while, which inevitably led to the usual sibling silliness. What a blessing to have a family who enjoy each other, support each other, forgive each other, and love each other throughout the year. That makes life a little bit like Christmas every day!