After Christmas Work Party

Well, we did it. We took my 3 year old niece Jayleigh and my 4 year old son Eli to a after Christmas work party. The evening is nasty, it has rained here every day for over a month. My friend Christy lives in a 3 level beautiful home that she spends weeks decorating for Christmas with little breakable Santa Claus's. Mind you, her children are her 3 dogs and one cat. Any way we took Eli last year without any catastrophe. I wanted to take Jayleigh because Eli didn't have kids to play with last year and she had went shopping with "miss Christy", me and her mom a few weeks ago and Christy invited her. Jayleigh loves to get dolled up into a party dress anyway.

We show up early, knowing we won't be staying long. We let the kids loose and the fun begins. Like I said, her home is gorgeous, she has about 5 Christmas trees covered with ornaments and tons of candles lit through out, one is a large 3 wick candle on a floor standing right at Eli's height. Every time he runs past it, his Christmas sweater comes within about a fraction of an inch from the flame. Past the floor candle is the table with all the food, including the cookies we made earlier in the day. The table also has her Christmas china on it and one of those trees in the corner with all the ornaments on it. So every time the kids want a cookie, I feel inside like they are in a mine, maneuvering past the floor candle around the corner passing the tree with glass ornaments and reaching onto the table beyond the china plates and to the cookies.

The kids had a great time chasing the dogs and cat, feeding the dog and Jayleigh even succeeded in picking up the feisty little chihuahua. They spent time running up and down 2 sets of stairs and finding a "treasure chest" upstairs with gold in it. Christy has a chest upstairs in her bedroom that she keeps her purses in. Eli has quite an imagination, so they went on a treasure hunt. Well, the kids are upstairs away from the "mine" so Trevor and I go to the kitchen to socialize a little. And, my butt no longer touches the chair and I hear what sound like an Elephant coming down the stairs, I get up. Then I hear the cry, that all parents know. The cry that you know there is an injury involved. When I get to the bottom of the stairs, much to my surprise it is not my child. There is Jayleigh in Christy's arms at the bottom of the stairs, crying, her long locks of hair all in her face, one shoe missing and her dress practically over her head. I scoop her up and take her down stairs to see if she is O.K. She had tumbled down the entire set of stairs.
Once she and I and Christy get her in a room alone, we see she is fine. She is mostly worried about her shoe that fell off. I ask her if she is hurt or scared. She says she hurt her head. Christy and I look at it and don't even see a red spot. Christy is a nurse practitioner. A few moment later all is well again and we go back up stairs. This is nothing that a glass of water and a cookie in her Uncle T's lap won't cure. She even gets down and plays a bit more before we decide to go home. She is pretty tough.

Well the evening ends with Jayleigh performing her "first position" from dance class and her "bowing" for someones camera. Then off to load in the car and there was only one ornament broke all evening. I take Jayleigh to one side, and Trevor gets Eli in on the other. As Eli is getting in the car he knocks his shoulder on the door of the car and lets out a tired scream. He then tells his dad " I think it's a sprain." We both laugh out loud. Eli then screams "Stop laughing at me!" We ask Eli where he heard that. He replies " that is what Chili says." Now I remember and episode of Horseland (one of is favorite cartoons) where Chili (one of the horses)sprains his ankle after trying a difficult jump.
What an evening! Let's head for home. They both tell me on the way home that they had fun at Miss Christy's house and want to go back tomorrow. I think not.