There’s a little winery in way East Texas that I discovered at a wine festival and loved. They are several hours away from my town and so small that they don’t ship. About halfway between here and there is a much larger winery that I also love. This one has a wine club, which I joined. That winery had my distribution ready to pick up.
The small winery is only open noon-7 Thurs through Sat so it’s nearly impossible for me to get to except on Saturdays. So… last Saturday, I planned a road trip. We’d drive to the small one first to get there before they close (youth basketball games prevented an early departure). We’d then pick up my distribution at the larger one on our way back.
The trip was almost cancelled when some accidental injuries and miscommunication caused a major full-family meltdown at departure time. We managed to resolve it in time and my husband and I hit the road.
At home were our three kids plus Jane’s sixteen year old boyfriend. We had several rules: eat dinner, Jane and boyfriend aren’t to be in Jane’s room at all – even with the door open, Jane’s boyfriend has to leave when the boys start getting ready for bed, stay in touch with us. That sort of thing. That was it though. No expectations.
What I came home to blew my mind.
The Christmas tree, which had still been in the attic in its box when we left the house, was fully assembled in a corner of the living room – complete with lights and ornaments. The stockings were hung on the wall. At least three manger scenes were assembled around the house. A Christmas hand towel hung on the oven door handle. Elves hung from all the bedroom doors, and some special little Christmas trees were scattered about. The boxes and tubs for it all had been tucked away in a back room.
I was in awe.
I love my kids. I’ve been so busy and so tired with no free time to prepare for Christmas. I was feeling bad about the delay yet wasn’t looking forward to the hassle of decorating. They did such a beautiful job. Now if I could just get the shopping done and the presents wrapped…
mybrightspots 
Just leave out the gifts wrap and tape and go on another outing. You never know what might happen…
Ok, that sounds like a really bad idea. I’ve already made a major goof (that I hopefully covered ok). I was bringing the kids in to my room to help wrap their presents to each other. We had already wrapped Daryl’s gift but we bought the same thing for my brother and it was sitting on the other side of the bed. Daryl saw it and went on and on about how awesome it was. *sigh*
Oh, that is kind of bad. I always think it will be a fun thing for all of us to wrap gifts together and then I remember that I really hate wrapping gifts!
Awesome parents raise awesome kids. See? You’re doing a fantastic job!