December 27-January 3

This was a busy week.  You may remember that last Saturday we returned home from Sidney in time to meet Justine and her boys as they came from Michigan.  Since Josef, Jacob, Jacque, and Zach were with us, our house was rather full that night.  Sunday was the day that the Bishop visited St. Stephen's, so we had a longer-than-usual service followed by a potluck meal.  Tom and Donna met us at church after the service to pick up some things of Zach's (but not Zach himself) and to say goodbye to Jacque before she went to Michigan for a wedding.  She took our van because her car was misbehaving, so Jacob ferried everyone home in his Civic.  Several trips later, we were all back at our house, and Tom and Donna stayed to visit for a bit before heading on their merry way.

Bryan went back to work on Monday, but everyone else was free to sleep in (or not, in the case of the children) and hang out during the day.  Jacque returned from Michigan, bringing Joseph along with her (he'd stayed for an extra day, knowing that she was making the trip).  Josef, Jacob, and Zach stayed until mid-afternoon and Keshia and Tyler (Bryan's sister and her husband) came to visit about the same time.  After dinner and games, Keshia and Tyler returned to Sidney and Sarah and Luther (Joseph's sister and her husband) showed up on our doorstep.  :)

Tuesday was the day that Jacque took her car to get fixed.  Justine and I started feta cheese and resurrected my sourdough starter.  That evening, I ran to the store and then picked Jacque up from the car place in time for dinner.  I couldn't take her back to get her newly healed car, though, because I had orchestra rehearsal.  When I got home from rehearsal, everyone had been taught the game Dominion and they were all happily playing using the two new expansions that Bryan got for Christmas.  We also got a call from Ricky and Nathan (Fenton side cousins) asking if they could sleep at our house on their way from California to Times Square.  Two more air mattress beds were constructed and I cleaned the kitchen while waiting for them to arrive.  Of course, their car overheated eight miles from our house, so they didn't arrive until just after two...

Wednesday morning I stumbled out of bed at 6:15 to fish the feta cheese out of its brine.  Note to all cheese makers: 10 hours in the brine is better than 12.  It was much less salty this time.  Second note: Hang the feta to drain for 4 hours (rather than letting it sit in a colander like the directions say); it gets much drier this way.  Having returned to bed, I got another hour of sleep before Gretchen woke me up and the day got started.  Bryan did NOT make it out of bed, having lost too much sleep up to this point.  Justine made sourdough pretzels, using my starter up completely since I decided that I just don't care enough to keep up with it.  She also made muddy buddies, because why not?  Danielle and Wilson (my college roommate and her husband) arrived in time for dinner and we all played teledraw after the kids went to bed.

Sarah, Luther, Danielle, and Wilson stayed until just before lunch on Thursday and then took off to continue their Christmas visiting elsewhere.  Joseph drove back to Michigan to ring in the New Year with some friends from college.  That afternoon I had an orchestra rehearsal, followed by dinner at home and then the concert.  After the concert I stopped at Wal-Mart hoping to find A Cinderella Story and apple cider for a throwback New Year's Eve party with Justine and Jacque.  Fail on both counts.  We made our wassail with apple juice and debated watching The Prince and Me on Netflix before deciding to watch Parks and Recreation and play Dominion with Bryan instead.  The new year came in an understated, unheralded way: we only noticed because I checked my phone before going to bed at 12:04.  That's about how our parties always went growing up, too.  :)

By Friday morning the house felt empty and was only getting emptier.  The Bossard crew waited until Joseph came back with the van and then packed up to head back to Massachusetts.  Jacque hung around until after dinner before taking off for Dayton.  Bryan and I played a couple more games of Dominion and then crashed.

Saturday my batteries died.  The morning went pretty well, but I fell asleep reading my book around 2:30.  I woke up to go to Mass with Bryan and the kids at 4, but during the car ride felt quite unwell and ended up staying in the van.  As soon as we got home, I went to bed for the night.  Happily, I felt quite recovered by the next morning.

Pictures:
Josef took pictures with Kaitlyn and Gretchen:

Justine and I tried to get pictures of the cousins:

Kaitlyn examines Walter while Uncle (Daddy) Joseph supervises:

New dresses from Grandma!

Someone is standing up in bed: