Dan and Shelley

Since Shelley ended up writing most of the last post (despite the appearance) I thought that I would do this one.  As usually I headed out Friday from work and drove as fast as I could to get there.  I did, however, leave work a few minutes late and after a quick stop for beer and some flowers, I arrived a bit before 9.  The kids were staying with their grandmother for the night so when I got there it was just Shelley and I.  We had pizza and a couple of beers then snuggled on the couch for a while.  We ended up going to bed pretty late but slept in a bit in the morning.

After we got up Saturday, showered, and had a little something for breakfast, Shelley went to get the children.  We had a very nice rest of the morning and afternoon.  We ended up taking the children to the mall so they could play in the little play area there.  We walked around for just a little bit as there really is not much to do in the mall after Nicky decided to try and escape twice.  He can be sneaky like that.  We had some hot wings for dinner and played games till it was time for the children to go to bed.  Nicky fought it a little, but that’s to be expected.  I had a bit of fun that night trying to see if I could get around the block on Shannon’s laptop that her cyber school put on there and after a while decided that there was some competent people  still left in the world when I couldn’t.  During that time we had the other beers and wound up snuggling on the couch, of course, before bed.

Sunday was just a nice relaxing day truthfully.  Nicky was up with the sun and  Shannon and I slept in for just a little bit longer.  Shannon did her lesson so that after lunch we could all go outside and play in the snow.  We made a six foot pirate snowman, threw a few snowballs, and even tackled each other into the snow.  We had to change clothes when we decided to come back in.  After a nice afternoon together and spending more time inseperable we knew it was time for us to part.  Personally I was hoping that Henry wouldn’t be able to make it out to the main roads for all the snow, but of course he could.  Not to mention as much as I wanted just one more day together, I knew he had to go to work the next day and I will always want one more day with him.  I love you and I cannot wait for the day when we never have to part.

So it wasn’t exactly on New Years but it was fairly close.   Funny thing is we decided on Tuesday evening for me to come out…I left Friday after work and drove straight to Shelley.  After a stop for gas, and taking a route around traffic that I thought would be faster, I arrived there a bit later than normal.  Either way though, I was so very happy to be there that time didn’t even matter.

I arrived to find just Shelley, anxiously waiting for me, the children were staying with their grandmother for the night.  We ate a light dinner of shrimp Alfredo then snuggled up on the couch for a while.  We went to bed rather late but since the children weren’t there, we slept in on Saturday morning.

Saturday we slept in for a while, got up and showered then played some games.  Originally we were supposed to have the children back by that afternoon, but Michele asked if they could stay another night.  Shelley and I agreed thinking how nice it was just to be able to spend this time with each other.  We decided to go ahead and go see a movie, Valkyrie. It was excellent by the way.  The only problem was that we left early to go see it, expecting traffic and there was none.  We wound up walking around Best Buy and PetsMart until it was time to go see it.  Oh, we took Henry over there and back as it had been a while since Shelley had been in him.  We actually went to bed early that night as we were both a bit tired.

Sunday Shelley picked up the children early and the four of us just had a really nice day together.  She made chicken and dumplings that turned out pretty decent.  Truthfully it was just a nice day at home with the family.  I had to leave, of course for work, but none of us wanted to part.  We put it off for quite a bit truthfully.  When I got home I called her as we always do and it honestly didn’t feel like I had left that long before the called.  We stayed on the phone for about an hour and a half just talking and that seemed to help the fact that we were not together, but not really.

So I know it wasn’t technically Christmas Day, but to me it was.  Dan drove in to see the children and me on Friday after he got off of work, which was an hour earlier because he had had an early day that day.  Shannon had went down to Michele’s for the evening and I had Nicky in bed well before Dan arrived.  I had a frozen pizza that I tossed into the oven when Dan called me and told me that he was getting close.  Unknown to me he had stopped on the way to pick up some Guinness to go with the pizza… it was a lovely dinner to me.  Dan even showed me a nice party trick to open up a beer.  We then exchanged gifts primarily because I couldn’t wait.  Which, by the way Dan, I truly do love mine.  We were inseparable the rest of the night, even getting in a little bit of slow dancing.

Saturday after we were up with the rooster thanks to Nicky, we really just relaxed.  I took Nicky down so that the children could go to a Christmas party with Michele so that was the perfect time for us to have a bit of free time with each other.  We wrapped presents, well I wrapped and Dan wrote out the tags and of course we were inseparable.  After I picked the children back up I made a type of Haluski for Dan to try.  It’s also one of the children and my favorite dishes.  After Dan helped me wash up the dishes I drove us all out to Overly’s .  I have to say it’s a bust.  The lights are not all that impressive and the two hour wait to get into the place most likely didn’t help matters at all.  I’m writing this so I won’t forget:  Do Not go to Overly’s or any other light display the weekend before Christmas… just don’t.  It’s going to sound like a good idea, but it’s not.  We got the children into bed right after we got home and put out the presents from Santa.  We finished the two beers left over from the night before and then Dan told me he had some more up in Henry so we drank those as well.  I do believe I was just a touch tipsy after that.

When the children woke up in the morning they were surprised to see Santa had come early.  They opened their presents and Dan even took pictures of them.  When all was opened they started to play with the tissue paper!  Oh well… I made chili for dinner but I started it right after lunch to give it a while to simmer.   Dan played board games with the children all day essentially and it was wonderful to watch them.  After the chili was simmering I joined Shanon and Dan in a couple rounds of Uno.  Literally one round we had to shuffle the deck five times.  It was an absolutly wonderful day and a wonderful weekend.  None of us wanted it to end, but it did unfortunatly and now I anxiously await for when we can be together again.