Christmas Day Is Closing In On Us . . .

Jacob and Anne will arrive tomorrow with their two children.  From there in we expect bedlam will befall us with loving (and crying children).  Maybe the weather is trying to tell us something, it started raining last night at about 4 AM with thunder and lightening.  It has finally let up at 10:30.

Local weather station says we have had over 1.25 inches of rain so far and to expect more.  Temperature holding steady at 40 degrees F.  Tomorrow to be dryer but a little cooler too.  No matter we will be nice and warm in the car going to and from the airport to collect Jake, etal. 

They will be here through Christmas and return home to Madison the day after Christmas.  The schedule is driven by the cost and availability of the airplane tickets.  Fortunately there is an American Eagle flight direct from Madison to DFW and back daily.  Used to be two flights a day but I think it is down to one flight per day now.  The alternate route is out of O'Hare to DFW, about a 100 mile trip for Jake and company, thus not desired route.  The flight in and out of Madison is well populated and that drives the dates for them to travel.

Chris will be here for Christmas as well as James, etal.  We also expect to see Katy and Cavin show up too.  James and family just got back from a trip to NYC seeing Manhattan and all the bells and whistles that go with it.  James has racked tons of frequent flyer miles and they used that for their trip.   NYC is Joan's old stomping grounds, she was raised just outside of New York City and went to school near by before she ended up in Texas.  So she was the willing and able tour leader for the trip.

We have been steadily purchasing food stuffs for the big day.  A ham here and a turkey there, crab meat for the gumbo, garlic bread, plus lots of other thises and that's.  We will have Ernestine's (she was my mothers cook for years) green beans and mashed potatoes to go with it all.

Then us fellows will sit back and watch some football -Not.  We will all be worn out by after dinner time.  Well, I'll qualify that, I and Judie will be worn out by then.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.