SUNDAY CHRISTMAS....

I'm writing this on  Sunday, Christmas Day 2016.

Christmas has been on a Sunday only a half dozen times during my life.  I don't remember much about any of them except 1983.  We were sitting in the chapel on 72nd Avenue  in Arvada during a combined one hour Sacrament Meeting with the 4th Ward when I suddenly realized I hadn't put on my bra that morning when I got dressed!  I thought about that today and decided to look in my journal to see what was happening in my life that I would forget something like that. 

Oh. I was Primary president.  I coded work orders for Bill Jones.  Harold and Brice were delivering The Arvada Sentinel every week.  Ross had been in Germany for work.  The weather was frightfully cold, like as low as 22 degrees BELOW zero.  The kids were sick. And there was just the everyday stuff that went on as usual.

Here's a little snapshot of the Nichols Family for the several days preceding Sunday Christmas that year.

Monday, 12th  Left the house dirty so I could do all of the washing--left the ironing, though--and work on gifts for my sisters and finally buying one for the folks (my mother and father).  I ended up calling Glenda to see if she could give me an idea of what to buy for them. Then went shopping, to Drake to give Brice some money, to the post office to pick up work orders to code--7 more accounts, ugh!  Then went visiting teaching and to the grocery store.  Put up the Christmas tree for FHE.  After a Mexican supper and ice cream sundaes, we are FAT!

Tuesday, 13th  The newspaper printing press broke down, so no papers until tomorrow.  Since it was Lucia Day I decided to sit down and write cards to our Swedish friends.  Birgitta Brodin called while I was doing that.  I was glad to know we were thinking about each other.  Wrapped presents to my sisters and went to mail them.  More money to mail than to purchase.  Ross is in a bad mood.  Looks like Germany might be off.  Am still coding work orders.

Wednesday, 14th  Stayed up until 2 a.m. coding w/o's last night.  I just laid in bed when I heard Brice turn off the alarm at 6 a.m.  But it was no use, no one will let me rest.  Schuyler let Britty out of bed.  Dragged around until presidency meeting.  Short one--I failed to make an agenda.  Took Linda Johnson (my counselor) with me on errands.  Came home with papers so the boys could fold them.  Made carrot pudding for the Relief Society Christmas dinner.  It was okay.  I am too tired to have a good time.  Kept going to sleep.

Thursday, 15th  Gray day and snowing until we were about half finished with the papers.  Picked up more papers for an additional route tomorrow, about $7.00 extra.  Worked on balancing the checkbook.  Took until after midnight to find the dumb error.  Took Harold and Jeremy with me to go practice at the chapel.   Harold and I practiced the organ/piano duet we have to play for the Sunday Christmas program on the 18th.

Friday, 16th  Ross left for Europe on a 4 p.m. flight to Chicago.  but when he got there, his next flight had been delayed for 12 hours, so they gave him a hotel room for the night at the O'Hare Sheraton and money to eat .  Meanwhile Brittany threw up on the way home from the airport.  We still had an extra paper route to do, so she just had to go along.  Went to the ward party.  Good food.  Harold and I practiced afterward on the organ/piano duet.   Bishop Lewis brought Schuyler to me. He had thrown up in the bathroom and was trying to clean it up himself.  Brittany so ill she just sat in her stroller and didn't move.

Saturday, 17th   After being up so much in the night with vomiting kids, I just wanted to sleep in.  Didn't sleep.  Just laid in bed until 11 a.m. when I had to take Harold to the chapel for his Sunday School party.  Cathy Callahan took me to lunch for my birthday, then we shopped and came home.  The kids had kind of done the work.  Took Harold back to the chapel for practice, then he went babysitting to Del Vecchio's while I went shopping again and then to Callahan's to watch a movie on their new VCR.

Sunday, 18th  If I could have stayed home from Church, I would have.  But there is always Primary. And Harold and I were on the Christmas program. Schuyler and Brittany are just lethargic.  Britty messed her diaper so badly I had to take off all her clothes to clean her up.  Organ/piano duet went okay, but not good like we practiced.  Went to King Soopers to get money for Harold.  Accidentally pierced a can of pop and it sprayed all over me.  Ross called from France.  Britty soooo sick!

Monday, 19th  Cold out today.  Harold left at 6:30 a.m. to go skiing with the teachers quorum.  Decided to spend the day getting ready for Christmas, but only got as far as wrapping several presents.  Let the kids do as they pleased.  No one did any work.  We went to do errands and ate at McDonald's with the coupons we got as CARRIER OF THE WEEK.  The little kids are still sick with diarrhea.  I've tried everything to stop it.  Did some more work orders before bed.

Tuesday, 20th  Really cold now--about 15 degrees below zero.  Britty and Schuyler still sick.  Called the doctor again.  The nurse gave me more suggestions.  Finished the last of the seven accounts of work orders I picked up yesterday. Went to Church and sacked goodies for the Primary activity tomorrow.  Jerry and Sue Birkinshaw brought out some candy as a birthday present.  Grandpa and Grandma Huggins called.  Dad is in bad shape.  Might have to go to the hospital.  Harold came back early from skiing.  Also sick.

Wednesday, 21st  Decided this was my last chance to get cards out.  Spent almost the entire afternoon writing after we did papers.  It had been minus 22 degrees, but was only minus 16 degrees when we started the papers at 10 a.m.  Wanted to get the car washed, but even the car wash was frozen up.  Went to the chapel a 3:30 p.m. Had to run home for a tablecloth.   Finally got the Primary activity over and the tree delivered to Wilsons.  A waste as far as I was concerned  Came home, fed the kids, and put them to bed so I could code more work orders.  Did three accounts and I am so tired.  I am going to bed. Ross never called.

Thursday, 22nd  Woke up at 7:30 and pulled the work orders over to me and sat in bed coding until about 10 a.m.  Philip called and talked only about himself.  It was a laugh. Went downstairs and did the last account.  It was a big box, but the work orders were thick cardboard so I finished by noon.  Took Brice with me to take them to Bill Jones' office.  Went to the post office for more--only one skinny account this time.  Whew!  Shopped for hours.  Took Brice to eat at Arby's.  Ross called while we were gone.  Supposed to land by 11:30 p.m.

Friday, 23rd  Wished I could have left a message last night to have Ross take a taxi home from Stapleton.  The plane was delayed until 12:36 a.m., so I left at 12:10 in a snow storm.  Waited at DOOR 2 for 30 minutes before taking the chance to leave the car in the loading zone and run in and call the kids.  No sign of Ross and he hadn't called home.  Right then I saw him!  But he didn't get his luggage for another hour and a half.  The cargo door was frozen shut and they had to take a blow torch to melt the ice.  We got home at 3 am.  Phone rang at 9:50 a.m.  Rosalie with the news that Lou Sylvester had died and his funeral was at 11 that morning.  (How did I not know that before?)  We jumped out of bed, got ready and went to the funeral.  After that Ross and I went to buy a new Christmas tree, a real full-sized one after using the little one we got our first Christmas so long ago.  The kids were SO excited.  We tried to decorate it, but we were all too tired.

Saturday, 24th  Finished decorating the new tree after Schuyler and Ross got back with three more strings of lights.  Meanwhile we cleaned house and put the other decoration out.  I said "no later than midnight to bed" but it took until about 12:30 a.m. to get all the presents ready to have Christmas. 

Sunday, 25th  CHRISTMAS DAY!  Everyone is so exhausted from the cold weather and being sick and the late, late hours.  Kids didn't wake up until 7:30.  I had a hard time getting up.  Ross was worse.  It was 8:30 before we started opening presents.  Rushed and got to our combined Sacrament Meeting about 10:50 instead of 10:30.  Realized during the meeting that I hadn't put my bra on when I got dressed.  I hoped no one would notice.  Came home, ate spaghetti, and I went to bed.  Never got to rest though.  All the shouting and screaming that was going on.  Looked at 12 years of Christmas slides in the evening.  And now it is all over until next year!

And so, that is what led up to my wardrobe malfunction on Sunday Christmas 1983.  I know this was long, but I thought maybe it would be interesting to read the kinds of things that went on and compare them to what may have been parked in memories from growing up years.

I also read a little farther on in my journal.  We had a Christmas Open House on the 27th and invited 42 people from the ward and in the neighborhood.  But only EIGHT people showed up!  Yet Ross and I had gone to the Lawyers, the Schows, the Callahans, and the Birkinshaws--most of them were for refreshments and to watch movies on the new VCRs everyone was buying. (We got ours the following Christmas when we were in Berlin.) We'd spent over $80 on food and worked for two days preparing for guests that never showed up.  I wrote that I put all the stuff away and went to bed disappointed and depressed.  Isn't that a shock!