We were the first to arrive at Mom & Dad's, and enjoyed a lovely meal before crashing Friday night. The next morning, we mistakenly thought that the rest of the Zimmermans would be arriving at any moment, only it turned out that Dave wasn't getting in until later that night, and Steve and his crew wouldn't be there until Christmas afternoon – a fact that we collectively learned when Allen, exasperated by the Zimmerman's collective lack of communications skills, texted Olivia and got the skinny.
Fortunately, we had opted to spend most of the day with Ken, Helen, Thomas, Leanna and their families – catching up, reminiscing and making some tentative plans for John's memorial this spring at the pond while the grandchildren had a rousing game of Clue followed by a visual variation of the game Telephone where somehow a pictorial of "pain in the neck" led to an explanation of "decapitation." Awe, Christmas.
Dave finally arrived (Kara had to stay back in Colorado to cat sit) right after Mom and Dad returned from church. So we had a lovely dinner (and a lot of Christmas treats) before well all crashed again. The next morning, we mostly hung out (and had an blind eggnog tasting, which if anyone had any doubts, Anderson Erickson is by far the superior eggnog – if you like that sort of thing), before Mom, Dad and Dave headed to church again (which Dad took some issue with but invariably offered it up for those poor souls in purgatory) while we stayed home and made lasagna for dinner. Afterwards, mom and I made our to-do list for the following morning and made an extra pie, having already sampled the ones mom had made in anticipation for everyone's arrival (though we did decide, since we were lacking in filling, that the Schaumburg Zimmermans would have to make due with canned strawberry-rhubarb pie filling since they were the last to arrive).
Christmas morning, mom woke up early to prep the turkey (and declare to Dave that she is never cooking a turkey again). Noa and I made rolls while Dave set the table and then re-set it when we realized that Bernie, Pete and Jeannine would be joining us. Everyone arrived and after some socializing (and a impromptu game of "pass the chairs") we sat down to eat. Dinner was lovely and was followed by a preview of the video Steve put together for Mom's 80th birthday.
The next morning, we officially celebrated Mom's 80th (one month in advance) before Dave headed back. The Schaumburg Zimmermans and us headed to the mall where they skated (and potentially contracted COVID) while we used up some gift cards at Barnes & Noble and watched them, followed by some additional cousin bonding time. The next day, we all headed out, though first we stopped at the pond to meet up with Ken, Helen, Kent and Adam for some more discussions regarding John's memorial and succession planning (as well as to supplement our corn reserves).
It was a weird Christmas -- we forgot to take many pictures and I forgot to even ask Allen how he was handling his first holiday without his Dad until Christmas night. It was hard for Allen -- he kept thinking he should text him or would think of things he wanted to tell him and couldn't. And while it was good to have so much other family surround us, there was still a pretty big hole this holiday season.
(To see the pictures we have, please click here.)
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