Weather or not, we're having a party
My cousin Kevin's son turned 3 last week, so time for a party! The good news is that this year, we didn't have to trek to Kankakee; Aunt D would be hosting. The bad news: The weather was going to be iffy in some fashion. How iffy, we wouldn't know until the day of. So now it wasn't a matter of us necessarily being able to make it; would the guest of honor be able to make it? We were blessed the past couple years to have clear weather, even if it was 15F for his first birthday (and a miraculous 50F last year), but yesterday's predicted weather of rain, sleet, ice, and snow is pretty much what we've been dreading all this time. One initial weather model said there might be a foot of snow. Others said we'd get ice accumulation. Still others, I think just rain, at least until after the party. Rain in January isn't really a comfort. On Friday, I was texting my parents to say, hey, anyone heard from Leah about the party? Still on? Bueller? My parents...were not concerned. Okay, fine, whatever, but I-57 is notoriously terrible in winter; what would be the harm in checking in?
I mean, here's how bad it *could* have been: The Weather Channel had one of their people on the Main Street bridge in St. Charles. No joke. Like, I saw at least one live report (dad saw more) of the dude next to the Baker Hotel, stepping out past the building to get a view of the river. (You can tell it's not festival season because there were no Jehovah's Witnesses at the little gazebos on the bridge.) You knew it couldn't be *too* bad here because they sent Jim Cantore up to Milwaukee, but again--this is just miles from my house. I've been on that bridge a number of times. They even interviewed the mayor at one point, dad said. When it came time to leave, we ended up going through downtown St. Charles juuust in case the guy was out there, but no; no sign of anything. Even the car the guy was touching to show the freezing accumulation of precipitation was gone. Rats. Oh well.
This was just our side, plus Leah's parents; my cousin C3 was coming with her mom and three of the girls (T is in Arizona, though she came up for Christmas). Kevin's cousin from his mom's side of the family was invited, but bailed; they live far north, in an unincorporated area, and their weather was worse than what we had, which was rain and maybe sleet and the start of snow. It was kind of nice to have it mostly be just us, you know? The only other guest was my aunt's neighbor, Peggy.
I spent much of the time in the kitchen. That's where a lot of food was, plus at first the little guy was hiding in there. Aunt D's eating area overlooks her family room--it's a split-level, so it's down a half-flight of stairs and there's a railing separating the two, not a full-on wall. The little guy was sitting on the floor by the railing between some of the rolling kitchen chairs and sometimes trying to talk to me, though I didn't get a lot of what he said. He's also potty training, particularly number 2, so there were a couple instances of COMING THROUGH! that happened. Aunt D has two bathrooms, at least, and the special potty seat was in the upstairs bathroom. At one point Leah was downstairs and called up, saying, have my mom get off the stairs! (She was sitting on the set heading up to the bedrooms.) I don't think she'd gotten up yet but here came Leah and the little guy, already in flagrante, and she got out of the way pretty quickly.
Once C3 and the girls came, I spent much of the rest of the time talking with SJ. She's a senior now, looking to study meteorology in college, and she'll likely start off at COD, her community college. This does not surprise me at all--she's got her mother's love for weather. She has a job, too, at Michaels...ooh, you could be my bead dealer...and her mom works at Menards. I haven't talked to C3 in ages and had no idea what was up with her; turns out she'd been very sick during the fall but she's better now. My goddaughter had gotten a second tattoo in honor of her mom, a gardenia, I think, down by her ankle. I asked CC how she was liking high school and her lack of an answer pretty much told me everything. She'd been a big fish at a small pond at her grade school, and now she's going to a decent-sized high school; not gonna lie, I think getting knocked down a few pegs is probably good for her. Also, according to SJ, they both have some sort of circadian rhythm disorder where they have trouble getting up on time and CC is always late. Like, she doesn't even start school until third period. SJ manages to get up and out of the house to be at school for a 7 AM class, so at least she's learned to deal with it. She's got her job in order to help pay for some of the trappings of senior year, including a choir trip to L.A. that's coming up. Cool! Hope it's awesome.
Aunt D fed us well. There were all sorts of appetizers, like fruit, veggies, cheese, pretzels, cheese balls. She had this cream cheese dip that was addicting on Granny Smith apple slices. For the main course, she made her sloppy joes, plus stuffed shells (those must have been vegetarian, as C3 was eating them) and garlic bread. From where I was sitting, I could see that the oven was on, but I never saw her go in there. However, there was this strong garlic smell, and she pulled out several large loaves. Wow, lots of food. Granted, there should have been four more people there, but still. Dessert was cupcakes.
We were told that the little guy likes trucks and cars and construction stuff. There was caution tape all over the place, and Kevin, Leah, and Aunt D all had "Construction Crew" t-shirts on. The birthday candle he blew out was shaped like a construction cone. Oh, and when he was put into his high chair, they'd taken his shirt off; I went, please tell me the rest of us don't have to take our shirts off, too! Heh. Turns out he's had a week of birthday celebrations, as the Kankakee party was last Saturday. It was kind of nice not having to sit through a pile of stuff from like 50 people, that's for sure. He got a number of toy cars and trucks from C3's girls, and I think a large Lego truck from Peggy, and this soft fuzzy coat from Aunt T, maybe? I got him a couple books with truck and construction themes. But hands down the favorite toy was this tool set C3 got from Menards, including this drill, and he opened that about halfway through. He kept grabbing for it while Leah was going, okay, we have more gifts to open! It was pretty awesome. For the rest of the party, you kept hearing that drill sound.
The non-party highlight was the calendar. Aunt D has it on the side of her fridge, and I'd seen someone looking at it; that's how I knew it was homemade and had different little guy/family pictures on it. Leah and her mom were explaining that she's done them every year, through Shutterfly, and Leah makes four of them: Her parents, Aunt D, Double D (Aunt D's sister in Florida), and Kevin's other cousin, the one that didn't come (Double D's son). She's able to personalize dates on there, so for Kevin's side of the family, she'll put birthdays on there for Double D's family, and for her parents, she'll put her brother's family's info, including his in-laws. She said it takes her two months to do it all but they're pretty cool. She does a lot of business through Shutterfly that she's been able to, say, get her Christmas cards for free (ironically, she did them via Walgreens this year). She'd also made Aunt D a large photo blanket as well. My mom hadn't ever really seen anything like that and seemed really impressed. Leah's pretty close to her brother and his family, and I thinks she made her mom a similar blanket featuring her brother's three kids.
It was really nice to be able to see everyone, though I barely talked to C3 and I don't think I talked to Aunt T at all except to say hello and goodbye. My goddaughter and CC were the first to leave--my goddaughter had driven herself, but had to go back to her mom's house because she'd left something there, plus she needed to do something for her dad and CC decided to go with. That's pretty amazing to me in some respects because when they lived together, they were at each other's throats; it's amazing what a few years of separation will do. Plus hopefully CC is maturing. C3 was in the bathroom when we left so we didn't get to say goodbye to her, oh well, but it was about 5:30 when we got out the door; before leaving our house, mom had said, maybe we should leave at 4. (The party started at 2. She was hoping to get on the road while it was still light outside.) It had started snowing by that time, but we made it home just fine. This was when I realized the only drawback to going to Aunt D's house: She smokes. I am rarely around smokers any longer, which is fine by me; I don't miss how the smell permeates my clothes and my hair. I had to change immediately and put my hair back to help get the smell away from my face. I also found out that my goddaughter vapes. She'd gone outside to smoke ("Vape," SJ kept correcting), and Aunt D was saying, you can smoke in the house! It's okay! But my goddaughter had wanted to call her dad about whatever, so she was out there for a bit. All I kept thinking was, great, is she going to be one of those people with that horrible lung disease? Goody.
I mean, here's how bad it *could* have been: The Weather Channel had one of their people on the Main Street bridge in St. Charles. No joke. Like, I saw at least one live report (dad saw more) of the dude next to the Baker Hotel, stepping out past the building to get a view of the river. (You can tell it's not festival season because there were no Jehovah's Witnesses at the little gazebos on the bridge.) You knew it couldn't be *too* bad here because they sent Jim Cantore up to Milwaukee, but again--this is just miles from my house. I've been on that bridge a number of times. They even interviewed the mayor at one point, dad said. When it came time to leave, we ended up going through downtown St. Charles juuust in case the guy was out there, but no; no sign of anything. Even the car the guy was touching to show the freezing accumulation of precipitation was gone. Rats. Oh well.
This was just our side, plus Leah's parents; my cousin C3 was coming with her mom and three of the girls (T is in Arizona, though she came up for Christmas). Kevin's cousin from his mom's side of the family was invited, but bailed; they live far north, in an unincorporated area, and their weather was worse than what we had, which was rain and maybe sleet and the start of snow. It was kind of nice to have it mostly be just us, you know? The only other guest was my aunt's neighbor, Peggy.
I spent much of the time in the kitchen. That's where a lot of food was, plus at first the little guy was hiding in there. Aunt D's eating area overlooks her family room--it's a split-level, so it's down a half-flight of stairs and there's a railing separating the two, not a full-on wall. The little guy was sitting on the floor by the railing between some of the rolling kitchen chairs and sometimes trying to talk to me, though I didn't get a lot of what he said. He's also potty training, particularly number 2, so there were a couple instances of COMING THROUGH! that happened. Aunt D has two bathrooms, at least, and the special potty seat was in the upstairs bathroom. At one point Leah was downstairs and called up, saying, have my mom get off the stairs! (She was sitting on the set heading up to the bedrooms.) I don't think she'd gotten up yet but here came Leah and the little guy, already in flagrante, and she got out of the way pretty quickly.
Once C3 and the girls came, I spent much of the rest of the time talking with SJ. She's a senior now, looking to study meteorology in college, and she'll likely start off at COD, her community college. This does not surprise me at all--she's got her mother's love for weather. She has a job, too, at Michaels...ooh, you could be my bead dealer...and her mom works at Menards. I haven't talked to C3 in ages and had no idea what was up with her; turns out she'd been very sick during the fall but she's better now. My goddaughter had gotten a second tattoo in honor of her mom, a gardenia, I think, down by her ankle. I asked CC how she was liking high school and her lack of an answer pretty much told me everything. She'd been a big fish at a small pond at her grade school, and now she's going to a decent-sized high school; not gonna lie, I think getting knocked down a few pegs is probably good for her. Also, according to SJ, they both have some sort of circadian rhythm disorder where they have trouble getting up on time and CC is always late. Like, she doesn't even start school until third period. SJ manages to get up and out of the house to be at school for a 7 AM class, so at least she's learned to deal with it. She's got her job in order to help pay for some of the trappings of senior year, including a choir trip to L.A. that's coming up. Cool! Hope it's awesome.
Aunt D fed us well. There were all sorts of appetizers, like fruit, veggies, cheese, pretzels, cheese balls. She had this cream cheese dip that was addicting on Granny Smith apple slices. For the main course, she made her sloppy joes, plus stuffed shells (those must have been vegetarian, as C3 was eating them) and garlic bread. From where I was sitting, I could see that the oven was on, but I never saw her go in there. However, there was this strong garlic smell, and she pulled out several large loaves. Wow, lots of food. Granted, there should have been four more people there, but still. Dessert was cupcakes.
We were told that the little guy likes trucks and cars and construction stuff. There was caution tape all over the place, and Kevin, Leah, and Aunt D all had "Construction Crew" t-shirts on. The birthday candle he blew out was shaped like a construction cone. Oh, and when he was put into his high chair, they'd taken his shirt off; I went, please tell me the rest of us don't have to take our shirts off, too! Heh. Turns out he's had a week of birthday celebrations, as the Kankakee party was last Saturday. It was kind of nice not having to sit through a pile of stuff from like 50 people, that's for sure. He got a number of toy cars and trucks from C3's girls, and I think a large Lego truck from Peggy, and this soft fuzzy coat from Aunt T, maybe? I got him a couple books with truck and construction themes. But hands down the favorite toy was this tool set C3 got from Menards, including this drill, and he opened that about halfway through. He kept grabbing for it while Leah was going, okay, we have more gifts to open! It was pretty awesome. For the rest of the party, you kept hearing that drill sound.
The non-party highlight was the calendar. Aunt D has it on the side of her fridge, and I'd seen someone looking at it; that's how I knew it was homemade and had different little guy/family pictures on it. Leah and her mom were explaining that she's done them every year, through Shutterfly, and Leah makes four of them: Her parents, Aunt D, Double D (Aunt D's sister in Florida), and Kevin's other cousin, the one that didn't come (Double D's son). She's able to personalize dates on there, so for Kevin's side of the family, she'll put birthdays on there for Double D's family, and for her parents, she'll put her brother's family's info, including his in-laws. She said it takes her two months to do it all but they're pretty cool. She does a lot of business through Shutterfly that she's been able to, say, get her Christmas cards for free (ironically, she did them via Walgreens this year). She'd also made Aunt D a large photo blanket as well. My mom hadn't ever really seen anything like that and seemed really impressed. Leah's pretty close to her brother and his family, and I thinks she made her mom a similar blanket featuring her brother's three kids.
It was really nice to be able to see everyone, though I barely talked to C3 and I don't think I talked to Aunt T at all except to say hello and goodbye. My goddaughter and CC were the first to leave--my goddaughter had driven herself, but had to go back to her mom's house because she'd left something there, plus she needed to do something for her dad and CC decided to go with. That's pretty amazing to me in some respects because when they lived together, they were at each other's throats; it's amazing what a few years of separation will do. Plus hopefully CC is maturing. C3 was in the bathroom when we left so we didn't get to say goodbye to her, oh well, but it was about 5:30 when we got out the door; before leaving our house, mom had said, maybe we should leave at 4. (The party started at 2. She was hoping to get on the road while it was still light outside.) It had started snowing by that time, but we made it home just fine. This was when I realized the only drawback to going to Aunt D's house: She smokes. I am rarely around smokers any longer, which is fine by me; I don't miss how the smell permeates my clothes and my hair. I had to change immediately and put my hair back to help get the smell away from my face. I also found out that my goddaughter vapes. She'd gone outside to smoke ("Vape," SJ kept correcting), and Aunt D was saying, you can smoke in the house! It's okay! But my goddaughter had wanted to call her dad about whatever, so she was out there for a bit. All I kept thinking was, great, is she going to be one of those people with that horrible lung disease? Goody.