HEADING FOR WINTER... December (Part 77e)

After Jo had closed the door to the bathroom I headed down the hall. I found Elle at her closet holding one of those blouse hangers that holds four or five at a time. I asked what she was doing as school was close for the holiday. She said she was getting a blouse for Jo. Then she headed for her panty drawer. Oh my heart! I didn’t dare say anything but the thought of Jo wearing a pair of Elle’s panties had me started on a mild bulge. I knew everything about that drawer so I watched carefully which area she was working from. I hoped that she would pick out a pair of her fancy panties for two reasons. The first was that they had very little staining as Elle seldom wore them for fear of “ruining” them. The second was that the picture of Jo that I had showed her wearing a pair with an applique on them and I wanted to be able to visualize her wearing the same kind.

I couldn’t be sure from where I was standing but I thought that was what she’d chosen. She walked past me and took them into the bathroom. As she walked back towards the front of the trailer I heard her talking with Jean, the older of our two kids. She wanted to know if “Zia Jo” was still there. Jo had taught us all that Zia was Italian for Aunt and I was proud that Jean had remembered. When Jo walked down the hall Jean “attacked” her. If it hadn’t been obvious the night before that Jo was popular it was certainly there that morning. Jean cried when we left for work.

It appeared that over a foot of snow had fallen. We were at work by 8:30am and Jo’s car was like an island of snow in the parking lot. The lot had been plowed but there were very few cars there. I’d anticipated that Jo’s car would need to be shoveled out so sent her on up to the office while I cleared the snow from around her car. When I walked into the office Jo told me that neither Lucy or Linda would be in. It was almost 9:30am before Jay arrived and we still hadn’t heard from Andre. Jay was finishing up the tracking program for the Purchasing Department but needed Rena and it appeared that she was not in either. Without having to share the computer with Jay I was able to get everything done that was needed for payroll. I was way ahead of schedule. Having Jo working with me on Sunday had made a BIG difference.

Andre finally showed up around lunch time. It was definitely not the happy go lucky guy we’d become familiar with. As I’ve mentioned a time or two, I’m not the type to ask personal questions so didn’t. All in all it was a very quiet day. It suited me as I still had a lot of things to do to get ready for Christmas. We called it a day around 3pm.

I’d predicted that the snow would make a mess and it sure did. A lot melted and made slush. As the sun went down it started to freeze. We’d planned on going to church on Christmas eve but under those circumstances decided against it. We’d invited Lance and Judy to come for dinner, sort of reprising their first Christmas together. It had been just a year since I’d picked her up at the airport, a scared young, pregnant girl, away from home for the very first time. I have to admit there was also an ulterior motive in that they were going to baby sit our kids while we were at church. My family had a Christmas tradition for when my brother and I were young in that Santa Clause not only brought presents but also the tree and decorated it as well. Elle and I bought into the decorating part of it but we would pick out the tree (real) and then set it up inside for Santa to decorate. On that night both Lance and Judy ended up being surrogate Santas and helped us get everything ready for Christmas morning. It was the most time I’d spent with Judy in that whole year. It was interesting to see just how much she’d matured. She always was cute but with a modern hair style and current clothes she was really attractive. I have to admit that I was hoping for a DP especially when we were putting the presents under the tree and got a mini “present” when I saw a wisp of white across her back.

Our "want/need" list had been compromised in that we found we needed to heat the new patio room. My father had an industrial sized, oil filled, baseboard heater that we’d hoped would be sufficient. It wasn’t. We ended up buying two cheap heaters which further depleted Elle’s teacher earnings that we'd set aside for Christmas presents. We’d decided to skip exchanging gifts with each other so the kids would have enough toys with the one big present being a swing set. I’d had a silly notion that I’d be able to put it together on Christmas eve but the amount of snow we had killed that idea. It was lying in it’s cardboard box along side the trailer covered in snow. We wanted the kids to know about it but didn’t exactly know how to explain why Santa couldn’t put it up.

Like the previous year, Christmas was pure chaos. We started with Santa’s presents for the kids at our place and then went to my grandfather’s house to meet up with my parents and brother for the traditional Christmas dinner. My mother, knowing that Elle and I weren’t exchanging gifts, gave us an envelope and told us not to open it until we got back home later that night. From my grandfather’s house it was on to Elle’s parents for more presents and another meal. By the time we left there we could hardly move we were so full. The kids fell asleep even before we headed for home.

Elle and I were operating on maybe four hours sleep and actually forgot about my mother’s envelope before “crashing“. It was somewhat funny but when the alarm went off to wake Elle for a bathroom visit she remembered. I was barely conscious of the fact that she’d gotten up but when she turned on the lights I was wide awake. She had the envelope and was opening it as I opened my eyes.

To be continued...