I'm the only one that's here for the full night, though. My in-laws had my children for a lot of the day with my mother-in-law kicking off the morning by coordinating a full-on cookie making extravaganza. She prepared the dough last night, and this morning when I woke up, my daughter was already cutting out the final round of sugar cookies for the oven. All the decorations were ready to be put on and my mother-in-law was prepping to make the icing.
This was for the cookie swap and luminary pickup party my best friend and my family were having at the clubhouse for the neighborhood. After getting up, I packed my week of clothing and took a good bit of the children's clothing and things in my car and headed over to our house, now with mostly dried hardwood floors, to start the unpacking and replacing of things at home.
Everything had been removed from the walls, countertops, and shelves. The furniture had been moved to the garage or other floors. It was going to take time to get everything back in place. I had about an hour of work in when I had to head over to the clubhouse to get ready with the rest of our two families.
My in-laws and children arrived at the beginning of the event, and we had several busy yet fun hours of neighbors dropping in, food being eaten, luminaries being sold, and subsequent cleaning up at the end. We had asked my in-laws if they could keep the children for one more night while we got the furniture in the bedroom and some other things moved back in before tomorrow. They were, as always, glad to help.
It was most-way through the event when I found out something. These days most things are on our calendars, so remembering someone's birthday isn't what it used to be because we have our devices reminding us. But this item for some reason I'd missed. It was my in-laws anniversary. They have been married for forty-six years today. And I'd forgotten. We'd had them tasked with taking care of our children all day, coming to our event, and then taking them home for the night while we started to move back in.
I felt terrible. My in-laws are like my husband and me, as well as my parents, in that we're not overly sentimental about something being celebrated in a certain way. They didn't seem upset at all, and yet I was. They had remembered our anniversary earlier in the week and had had special taco night for us, replete with special margaritas. They had given us a gift card for a restaurant we like, saying dinner was on them one night when we wanted to go out. What had we done for them? We had asked them if they would take care of our children all day long and then could they also watch them for one more night after hosting us at their house for an entire week.
I have wonderful in-laws. I truly do. I joke all the time when talking to people that we, "worked on them for several years to convince them to move closer." And while I make light of it, it's true, we wanted them to move closer because we enjoy spending time with them. So here's wishing them a happy anniversary today and a thank you as well for all they do for our family.
My husband and I did get the bedroom back in order this evening before going back to spend the night again at his parents to help in the morning get the children off to school. My husband has the latest iPhone with a panoramic lens. This is our bedroom after we got the bed put together, only it's not as big as it looks. That lens can make any space look twice as large. The hardwood floors look lovely. My husband says it looks like they've always been here. I agree with him, they do.
What My Son Did Last Night: My son came into our room last night around three a.m. with stabbing intestinal cramps. He's had them before but this was the worst yet. He and I tried multiple things for about an hour and couldn't get it to abate. He wanted to be right with me, which is atypical for him. Eventually, I got him to go back to his bet but he wanted me there with him. I fell asleep in the twin bed with him, something I haven't ever done before. He was very sweet, wanting me to stay with him even when it got better because he was scared it would come back. He thought it was his appendix at one point. I told him he was okay, that the pain was on the wrong side.
How My Daughter Helped Today: My daughter wants very badly to be helpful and to do so in a way that doesn't point out her vision impairment. At the party today she stayed at the front door and handed out luminary candles to every family that came to the event. She did her job very well and never once complained about wanting to take a break. I brought her food and drink part-way through. My best friend's children also helped and worked hard, but I was most proud of my daughter, who didn't take a single break, even to go to the bathroom. I wasn't at the table much, but I heard her confidently talking to people, explaining things and counting out candles in sets of ten for people. I am sure some realized she couldn't see, but I would bet a large portion of them never even realized it.
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