Christmas Eve we went to my Grandma and Grandpa Chamberlain's house for dinner. Almost all my cousins were there, even the two who live in California. One of them brought a rotweiler named "Tank" who made us a bit nervous to say the least. He is a very well-trained dog. He would lay his head on the floor if my cousin snapped his fingers... but I don't care, he's still 100 pounds of potentially angry solid muscle. That breed has a reputation for a reason, I think. There were no incidents while we were there, thankfully. We tried to keep Lucy away from him, since she does not have a healthy fear of big dogs (our dog is so wimpy and tolerant)... we hate to think what TANK would be capable of. As it turns out, it clamped onto my uncle's head sometime after we left, with my mom sitting a couple feet away. No blood was drawn, but according to witnesses, it was quite a buzz-kill. That dog belongs to none other than the center for the Los Angeles Clippers, Chris Kaman... my cousins' buddy/housemate. I think my uncle wanted to kill Chris Kaman's dog. But don't worry, Tank is going home unharmed. I'm not one who would be star-struck by being a degree of separation from a professional basketball player (as far as I am concerned Chris is a good player, but just a regular guy from Grand Rapids), I just think it's such a random weird thing to say that Chris Kaman's dog was running around my grandma's house on Christmas Eve and bit my uncle's head. That type of thing doesn't happen too often.
Yesterday we got up in the morning to open gifts with Lucy, and then spent the rest of the morning preparing for Ron's family to come over (12:30)- which included baking, cleaning, and some last minute home-improvements, if you can believe it! Once that started, it was full-throttle for the next 5.5 hours or so, as we juggled all the food, kids, entertainment, and gifts. After the last person left around 6:00 (!) , we loaded Lucy in the car and headed to my grandparents' house to see my extended family on my mom's side. As we arrived, some of my cousins were heading out, but we got to see basically everyone. Lucy was in amazingly good spirits, considering the day she had which included the following:
1) perhaps 90 minutes of total naptime, at best
2) loads of interaction with pushy (but loving) older cousins
3) a face-plant on the wood floor when she tripped, resulting in a nice bump on her forhead AND
4) a trip down the basement steps.
Apparently she made it down several steps before tumbling, which I can't really believe since she has virtually no experience with navigating stairs alone. I saw she was gone, I looked at someone who I thought was watching her and the next thing I know I hear thumpthumpthumpthumpthump... [pause...] then screaming. I shoved my mother-in-law out of the way, since she was blocking me and moving slowly toward the sound of our daughter's cries (sorry, but I wanted to get there quickly and anyone would've done the same. It's not like I knocked her down), and hustled down to find her... in once piece. She got some bruises and I'm sure she was quite scared... but after I took her upstairs and we got her some milk, she calmed down and was back at her normal activities as if it never happened. Tough chick. All in all, it was a good day because everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. Lots of other little things happened but the bottom line is, it went as well as we could've hoped for, and I'm already looking forward to next year, when Lucy will be even older and able to understand what this is all about... and we won't be hosting.
2 comments:
Hey Mindy--my cousin Chris is getting married. Happy Holidays--sounds like yours were nice as well.
You were very brave to host Christmas...I'm hoping no one asks me do that for at least another ten years or so :)
Post a Comment