And So It Is...

I've had a busy few days. Megan decided on Thursday that she, her boyfriend, and the children would come here for their last visit before she moves. I grocery shopped and planned meals that day and cleaned on Friday. By the time everyone got here in the evening, I was plenty pooped. With them all here, however, I could pretend that the heartbreak of the last three months hadn't happened. (I'm good at denial!)

The children were obviously delighted to see their mother and Denis, and also happy to see presents for them under the tree. Although we had decided that Saturday morning would be "Christmas," Ryan wanted to open his presents on Friday night. He finally acquiesced to wait until morning, but he spent quite a bit of time rattling packages trying to figure out what was in them. (Shades of his mother!) We ate a late dinner (corned beef and cabbage--Robin's favorite), watched some Christmas things on TV, and went to bed somewhat late.

I was the first one up on Saturday...or thought I was. I was a little surprised to see Ryan resting on the couch. "What are you doing out here?" "I wanted to be up to open presents extra early." Of course, Robin was up only shortly after that. They patiently waited until almost 8:00 to get Megan and Denis up. Both Robin and Ryan got Nintendo DSs from their mother--expensive video game toys--and two games each to play on them. Megan gave me a webcam for my computer in order to stay in touch with everyone. I gave her/them a GPS for Meg's vehicle. (It amazes me that they had the silly thing on the vehicle and could operate it almost instantly. Thus it is with people raised in the Computer Age! They named the GPS "Linda". Hmmm...) One of Ryan's presents was a children's Bible--really just a book of Bible stories. He crawled up on Megan's lap and promptly started reading it to her! He's only in Kindergarten. We had no idea he could read so well!

During the rest of the day, we made cookies and painted crafty things. The children played with their neighbor friends for a couple of hours (which actually pre-empted the haircut that Ryan was going to get). We adjusted meals around the condition of the kitchen table at any given moment, with paints and cookies in various stages of production. The children played with their DSs, discovering how to play "chat room" with them. (The silly things can communicate with each other, somehow.) Denis helped Ryan figure out how to play one of the games that he got. And so it went.

Sunday, we had a big breakfast, did some more craft painting, and considered a movie (but rejected that because the day was fleeting). The original plan was for Meg to drop the children off with Nathan after the Colts game, but he called in the morning requesting an earlier time. Meg was in tears about that. They came up with a compromise--4:00 PM. We had a big dinner, then it was time to start rounding things up to send the children home.

The "rounding up" process is something that I have typically started fairly early in the day because things get spread out. It always takes longer than one would think! I gathered the children's presents and washed the clothes they came down in so they could go back with them. (I don't have many clothes for them here so am a bit reticent to send them to Muncie in their "Plainfield" clothes. It will all even out, in time.) I noticed that Ryan had arrived in a pair of red underwear on Friday, but I never found them in the wash. Same thing with socks. Hmmmm... I suspected that he was still wearing them on Sunday. Sure enough! He spent the whole weekend in the same pair of underwear and the same pair of socks, even overnight! Guess that's better than no underwear at all...but still! Is that a guy thing??? Megan had a little talk with him about changing his underclothes every day. That's what we get for letting him dress himself, I guess!

After Megan and Denis met Nathan in Castleton for the kid trade, they returned here to gather up their own things before leaving for Terre Haute. Meg installed the webcam on my computer and reprogrammed my TV remote which had stopped working last week. (I'm grateful for that!) We said our good-bye's...and that was it. It ended well...or as well as could be expected for me. I cried the rest of the evening, but that has become the norm these last three months.

I don't know what the future will bring or what the children are thinking, but I am happy that they seemed to have such a good time. They will be here next weekend for a few days before Christmas. By then, Megan will be heading for California with Denis. I guess I will go to my sister's for Christmas Day and thereafter. We'll see how things unfold.