"Winter" (snicker!), Part I

Sorry to be so smug, but it's January and I am preparing to go to the beach, slathered up in sunscreen, so can you blame me!??! But we did visit some winter. Well, at least it sure felt like winter to us.

I should start with a brief (or not) look back at Christmas 2009 - not to torture the reader, but simply because it only supports my theory that we are the Griswold family (of "Vacation" notoriety) in real life. We took the red-eye from Maui on December 20, 2009. It was clear and beautiful....and I froze immediately. Within 48 hours, I was sick. We were going to be staying at a friend's condo in SD while they were out of the country. Let me rephrase....these lovely people OFFERED their condo to us while they were out of the country. Their place was gorgeous - 1/2 block of of Mission bay, with a bay and ocean view - but we froze even more. These good people are German, and very much minimalists. We are American, and pretty much, maximalists. So, with me sick, and Christmas being in a couple days, and my second grandchild due any minute, we headed to the local doc-in-the-box. I was delighted and relieved to see a woman doctor about my age. Didn't have to explain a thing. She popped me full of antibiotics and I was good to go. But I was still freezing. There was no heat in the place, except for a heater that didn't work very well, so we wandered the house in just about every article of clothing we had.

By Christmas Eve, I was feeling well enough to go to church at The Rock with Kyle, Kristin, Amber, & Jpsh-to-be, then to Kristin's family for a little celebrating and dinner. The plan was for us to go back to the condo for a little bit, after the dinner, so we could get some things together for a couple of days up in Temecula, and pick up Greg on the way. Everything was going smoothly, but by the time we hit the refrigerated condo again, I was feeling less than nifty. My beloved decided to make me a comforting, decongesting cup of Refresh tea. I took off for the bedroom downstairs while he worked on the tea. About ten minutes later, I hear Don making sounds of panic and horror, accompanied by banging and crashing and more unintelligible speech. Seems he had not noticed that our friends' tea kettle was of the electric variety...and had set the rubber-bottomed kettle on the range...on high, of course. I won't bore you with details, but suffice to say we spent a while trying to clear smoke and stench (which meant opening the doors and windows, making it even colder) and clean off the top layers of soot on the cabinets. And we still had to grab Greg and make the hour long journey north. I had to admit, I was kind of chuckling while Don was still horrified. Actually, I was laughing my head off. The damage wasn't that great (we did replace not only the tea kettle but the destroyed burner, and left everything clean as a whistle) and it was HILARIOUS!! Don did not agree.

We left to grab our #2 son, and after we did, we made the decision to surprise the Young Daltons with a Christmas tree (they had moved into their home only a couple of weeks earlier and had focussed on getting moved in before the baby came - a tree didn't even make the short list). We found a tree lot still opened at 9:00 on Christmas Eve!! The only problem was we had a compact car, our two small bags, Greg's duffle, and some Christmas gifts in the trunk, and Greg and his guitar in the back seat. Five minutes later, we were on I-15 north, with Greg, his guitar, and a four-foot Christmas tree in the back seat. By the time we reached Chez K Dalton, it was fairly late and Kristin had gone to bed. Kyle looked at his parents and brother like they were nuts. Well...they are. But we still had a tree to decorate!! Needless to say, the decorations were pretty sparse, but Amber, the-almost-two-year-old would not know the difference.

Christmas morning brought Uncle John to the happy home, and the day's festivizing began. Of course, Amber was delighted with the tiny, half-naked tree. Kristin was just kind of stunned. She was also quite tired of being pregnant. But that was not the only issue of the day: the Chargers were playing Tennessee, K&K didn't have NFL network and EVERYTHING was closed that normally would carry the game. Everything except Pechanga Casino. So, our traditional dinner was at the sports bar & grill inside of Pechanga. There we were, grandparents, a tot, a preggo and her husband, and the uncles. Not quite a Walton Family Christmas, but we were together, having a blast and feeling so blest.

The next few days were an eventful blur. Greg's gift to the Dalton men was...(drum roll).... TATTOOS!! Yes, indeed. No beer stein or sleeve of golf balls from this gift-giver, no sir-ee-bob. Greg had actually researched the Dalton Coat of Arms, gave a small talk about it on Christmas morning (like a true future teacher), and the guys all got their arms tagged- uh, tattooed, the day after Christmas. They wanted Dad to get one, too, but Dad being a bit more advanced in years opted out. I concurred. A couple days later, we celebrated John's birthday up in Temecula. It was a day after his actual birthday - and more importantly, the day after Kristin's due date. SInce she was wildly uncomfortable and they had a little one, we opted for the northward trek again. After returning late that night to the condo/cooler, we flopped into bed....only to be awakened by a text telling us to boogie-oogie to the hospital! Kristin was giving birth in the same hospital in SD in which she had Amber, so we were to meet them, and Grampy would do an about face in their car, taking Amber back home. A few hours later, Joshua Blake Dalton finally arrived! My bug was long gone, so I again had the indescribable blessing and joy to be there. And my precious, beautiful daughter-in-law was amazing! Don had Grampy duty, of course, but he got to hear his son tell him it was a boy, and he heard his grandson's healthy cries. I'm getting misty....

SO, baby arrived and we were still trucking back and forth - with a side trip to Disneyland, a visit with friends in Calabasas, Ca, and family in Vegas - then Don got sick. Nifty. We were still freezing, and now Don was going to sleep upstairs from me, on a very comfortable white sofa. The problem was, we needed an extra blanket. My mom had one - problem solved. Except that it was a vellux wannabe from the Nixon era. And it was red. And it fell apart. No, that's not true. It completely DISINTEGRATED!!! So, I'm downstairs the next morning, hearing my husband make more of those panicked, unintelligible sounds - this time banging madly on the white sofa which now looked like it had some kind of rash. Don did the smart thing and got out our friends' canister vac - which promptly belched out an enormous cloud of dust. A couple of hours later, having found a broom and borrowed a vacuum, the red dandruff was gone.

We had stayed on the mainland for a month and we could not wait to get back home to our Maui! We actually managed to do no more damage for the remainder of the trip, and left the condo looking as clean as when we came - with the addition of a new electric kettle, new burners and spill pans, and a new blanket. But, ummm...our friends kinda haven't spoken to us, since... Understandable