My youngest Sister arrived last Saturday night from Charlotte, North Carolina in “The Blue Goose”. It is a fifteen seat passenger van. The group she works for has several of these vans and allowed her to bring one home so she could move the rest of her stuff back down to Charlotte. On one hand it is great, on the other it is sad to realize that she is moving down there and chances of her moving back home here are slim, very slim. All the vans have been given names and this one is The Blue Goose, there is also the Ox and the Feather, I think. Younger Sister’s dream was to pile all us girls and the kids and Mom into the Goose for a trip to the Market on Friday morning. Not only did all the kids and their car seats fit (you can’t see two of the kids hiding and the two front seats in the photo) but all us girls fit too. If the back row had been in we could have included all the boys too, but that would have been just a little too crazy and we would not have had room for all the strollers. We set off for a morning on the market, but we didn’t realize that it was going to be cold. The wind chill was crazy, at least crazy considering how warm it was the day before. So we walked around for two minutes then headed into a restaurant for lunch. 
The poor waitress at “Zak’s” did not know what hit her. There was eleven of us in total and we took up two rather large booths. For us it worked out perfectly as Youngest and childless sister sat with all the kids and let us grown up Sister’s sit with Mom and eat our food. It was great.
After lunch we went for a quick tour of the Rideau Center and I would like to appologize to Tania Albert (in case you google yourself). I know we haven’t seen each other since probobly high school, but I was racing through the crowds to rejoin the other nine people waiting for me to direct them back to the van with as little difficulty as possible. I hope my sincere “Merry Christmas” and huge smile was enough to let you know I was thrilled to see you. But, to weave through the hundreds of people to get to you while the rest of the family was waiting for me and wondering why I wasn’t on the elevator (I took the stroller on the escalator!) was going to be very difficult. I hope that the next time we run into each other I have time to stop and chat properly.
The rest of the day had us navigating the Blue Goose through the downtown, now busy streets to get us home. As much as my Mom gave my sister a hard time, she did a great job getting us around in the Goose and it will be a tale we will tell for years to come. And now our Blue van has been rechristened the Blue Pigeon (as it is much smaller than the Goose).
Saturday saw us hit a few stores, very early in order to avoid the rush. We also remembered that the Pigeon, which my father has been driving needed to be E-tested and licenced as it was Hubby’s birthday. So off we went to the garage with the Pigeon (which did not pass by the way and I have said that it wouldn’t since September, but alas, I may be driving Dad to work next week). 
Then we had a small party for Hubby who is now 39. 39 you say, WOW! Yes, wow indeed, even better that he thought he was turning 40 this year, so he gained back a year of his life, whoot whooot!! It was just family, minus one Brother-in-Law who wasn’t feeling well, but it was lots of fun. Us adults even got to sit in the ‘good’ living room while the kids played in the family room. Finally after two years we had a gathering where people migrated to the other living room, it was all worth it.
Then we had a small party for Hubby who is now 39. 39 you say, WOW! Yes, wow indeed, even better that he thought he was turning 40 this year, so he gained back a year of his life, whoot whooot!! It was just family, minus one Brother-in-Law who wasn’t feeling well, but it was lots of fun. Us adults even got to sit in the ‘good’ living room while the kids played in the family room. Finally after two years we had a gathering where people migrated to the other living room, it was all worth it.And now here we are on Christmas Eve. Hubby is driving A to his other Grandparents, we had Christmas this morning with J & A and will have Christmas with my family tomorrow at my Mom’s. I feel blessed as I received a video camera, after all my tears last week, Hubby knew just what I needed to keep the memories alive. He also threw in a few other treats to help my writing career two books on writing, that I know will be put to great use after Christmas. J loved that Santa came early so A could be part of the fun. Tomorrow will be the big day with all his cousins. I look forward to it.
Then, the Blue Goose will be taking flight early Boxing Day morning, so I will have to say good-bye to youngest Sister and enjoy the rest of the week with Oldest Sister. Us two middle Sister’s are trying to soak in as much of them as we can. Many a photo has been taken, and now to add video to the mix will just make me cry all the time.
To all my bloggy friends and visitors, may you all have a wonderful Christmas, may you relish in the time with your family and may all your wishes come true. Ours certainly have here.
Merry Christmas.
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Merry Christmas, BeachMama!!
Merry Christmas right back at ya! I’m gald you got a Video camera I love mine although I never seem to ahve enough tapes. Have to download more often. 😉
Hugs