old st. knick

Saturday night Nate and I stayed at his grandparents' house and talked with them until 11 pm about knick knacks and ancestors. We helped put up their framed felt hand-made creations for the twelve days of Christmas - Max handed a picture to me, I handed it to Katie, Katie handed it to Nate, and Nate placed it on its hook. We were like a line of elves in Santa's work shop. Max's grin reminds me of an elf, and he smiles more than he talks. Katie is easily moved to tears when she remembers her past, and hanging Christmas decorations took her back. Nate put his arm around her as Max smiled and I snapped a shot.

During my layover in Nashville yesterday, announcements of "Would Ebenezer Scrooge please report to gate C3" and "Santa's helpers, Santa's helpers, please report to gate C25 for departing flight 126 to the North Pole" were heard periodically. If I were a kid, and if I ever believed in Santa (which I didn't), I would have eaten that up. I also would probably have found the see-saw like bench amusing each time the large woman sitting on the other end shifted her weight causing my end to go up or down. Wee. As I bounced, I saw a guy and girl exchange numbers. I missed Nate instantly. With our weight combined, we would have dominated that bench.
Mom was flying back from Florida and met me in Cleveland where we got a hotel for the night. We watched late night TV and ate popcorn in our beds. When you have to get up at 5:30 am, you start to question if 5 hours of sleep is much better than 4. Needless to say, I was tired on our morning flight home to Franklin. Here I am in such a zombie-like state that I didn't notice the pilot pressed against the window.

The crazy pilot flew us safely home where 'Day 1 and Only (without Nate) 'till Christmas' went just fine and is now ending with this post. Nate is packing in a room upstairs at Max and Katie's house in Vegas, and I'm blogging in my old bedroom in Franklin. We're just two fat people on opposite ends of a wobbly bench. Did that not make sense? I should probably make up that lost sleep... right... about.....