Around Our House This Christmas

A week ago, our middle son, his wife, his five children (aged 8 down to 9 months), and his mother-in-law moved in with us.  His mother-in-law has since moved out of the basement guest room, to make room for our youngest son's wife.  This daughter-in-law drove from Nashville and arrived on Saturday, and she'll be joined by her hubby tomorrow night.  He will be flying into DC after finishing up a work project.

Oh yes, I almost forgot to add that on Saturday, our youngest son's two cats also moved into the basement with their mama.  Aside from a giant playroom and a storage area down there, there's a full bath and a cozy guest bedroom.   The cats are living large.

Our middle son and his tribe are not having nearly as comfortable an experience as the kitties, however, as the seven of them are sharing two bedrooms upstairs.  My boy and his wife are sleeping in twin beds, like Rob and Laura Petrie. (Does that reference to The Dick Van Dyke Show expose just how old I am?)  The 3-year-old, who slept in a crib at home, is using our decades-old port-a-crib in the room with her parents.  The baby is still co-sleeping with his mom, so that works out okay.  The oldest child, a boy, is on an air mattress on the floor in the other bedroom, where two of his younger sisters are sharing a full-sized bed.  It's what you would call a full house.

The reason this little family is here is that they are having a house built, and in a perfect world it should have been done by now.  But with all the supply chain issues, weather issues (and to be honest, problems with their contractor), there have been numerous delays.  They are very close to getting a certificate of occupancy, and all of their household goods had to be moved over to the new house a week ago so that they could vacate the house they were living in, because they had renters (who'd had a house fire and lost everything) who needed to move in there ASAP.

Does this sound complicated?  It is.

So our boy's family will be living with us, about 45 minutes from my son's place of employment and about an hour from the three big kids' Catholic school, for an indefinite amount of time; but luckily, Friday was the kids' last day of school until after the New Year.  So at least having to get them fed, dressed, and out of the house by 6:30-6:45 every morning to get them there on time is no longer part of their daily routine.  Their parents are pretty relieved about that.

Needless to say, even if the house gets miraculously finished in the coming days, they will not be settled enough to have things up and running (would they even be able to find their tree?!), so they will be spending Christmas here with us.

I'm thinking this will be my last post until after the holidays, but I thought I'd leave you with a few images of life around our house this Christmas.  It's pretty loud, and it's pretty crazy.  But it's also very sweet.

That last picture is of grandchild #19, our youngest, getting to know his auntie, son #5's wife.  (And she is currently expecting grandchild #20!)

This will probably be a slightly more excitement-filled Christmas morning than we've had in a while.  It should be fun.

Here's wishing you and yours the very merriest of Christmases and the happiest of New Years!  May the peace of Christ be with you during this holiday season and always!  God bless you!