Christmas Change-Up

I celebrated Christmas a little differently from in the past few years.  Jean is now in the state of Washington, and Grandma's in a nursing home.  I pretty much have the house to myself.

On December 8, I went to a Christmas party hosted by Calvary Chapel Bozeman.  Hosted at Pastor Ted's house, we had a good time.  There was a white elephant gift exchange and lots of good snacks.

It was a particularly slippery night on the roads between Gardiner and Bozeman.  There was ice everywhere, and since church services were the next morning, I decided that it was best to stay in Bozeman overnight because I didn't want to drive over all that ice two extra times more than necessary.  Since then, I've decided that this winter when I got to Bozeman or Livingston to always have an overnight bag with me just in case the weather turns sour.

I took care of Greg's and Sabina's cat Tigger this month for a couple weeks.  They went on vacation to Mexico, to where the Mayan ruins are, in time for the "world's end."  Tigger stayed at my house in his own room.  Although he was pretty upset over the change in venue, he accepted me as the giver of food and near the end of his visit would allow me to pet and scratch him for a short time.

I went to Livingston Christmas Day where I picked up Dad, Bonnie, and a lady I hadn't met before named Lori (I'm not sure how to spell her name, so if she reads this and it's spelled wrong, my apologies).  We drove up Wineglass Mountain to Bonnie's half-sister's house.  There, Bonnie's half-sister Mary Lee and her husband Paul made a wonderful Christmas spread.  Their house was filled with their relatives and was quite cozy.  I enjoyed the afternoon there, and liked the wonderful view they had of Livingston from their house.

We did have a minor disaster while we were there.  One of Paul's and Mary Lee's grandchildren fell out of his small plastic chair backwards and hit the back of his head on the step behind him.  The little toddler boy cried for a couple minutes.  At first his mom thought that there was cranberry sauce on the floor until she realized that his meal was still on his plate.  The little guy had this huge gash on the back of his head.  He might have needed stitches, but it wasn't an emergency.  His dad took care of the wound there at the house, at least for the moment.  I was surprised that for such a bad wound, that little guy hardly cried.

Lori didn't like the mountain road that was drifted with snow.  I had four-wheel drive and felt pretty confident on the road, but because of all the slipping and sliding everywhere, Lori was a bit uncomfortable.

This past Friday the 28th, Greg and Sabina had me and the lady who house sat while they were out of the country over for dinner to thank us for taking care of Tigger and their house.  Sabina cooked a great meal—rosemary chicken with garlic, potatoes with rosemary and onions, and a couple salads.  While we were there, Greg and Sabina showed us their photos from their vacation.  If I ever get the opportunity, I'd love to be able to see the Mayan ruins too.  It looked like they had a wonderful time there.