Back to the Future

Well, we're back!

As usual, it was a very eventful Christmas break with the Meppens. It all started on Saturday morning after finals, at five am to be precise. I woke up scratching both of my elbows. My arms were crossed, and I was scratching both elbows in my sleep. They really itched for some reason. Since I was awake, I got up and went to the bathroom, and while I was washing my hands, I noticed in the mirror that both elbows were swollen and blotchy. I figured they were just dry, and I'd scratched them until they were puffy, and I put lotion on them and went to bed again. Then when we woke up three hours later, I had hives all over my torso and thighs, and I was itching like crazy. The last time I had a reaction like that it was because I'd eaten only oranges for a week, and I'd eaten them pretty much non-stop. But not this time. We didn't have time to figure out what I was reacting to, though, because we had to pack and get to the airport so we could fly home to my family for Christmas! So I choked down some Benedryl and got to work. By the time we got to Charles' mom's house, though, the hives had spread to my face and arms, and my hands and feet were swelling. So I took some more Benedryl, took a quick nap, and told Charles we were still going.

We made sure we had plenty of drugs for the plane, and as luck would have it there was an open seat between Charles and me on the plane, so I crashed the whole way to VA. Benedryl's good stuff for flying, turns out. By the time we landed, though, I could hardly walk on my swollen feet, and it was all I could do to keep Charles from requesting a stinking wheelchair. I gnawed off my wedding ring and put some clogs on and hobbled to the baggage claim. Doodie walked me to the car and talked my ear off while I rested and let the rest of the family claim our baggage. By the time we got home and got me into bed, this is what I looked like:

Pretty fancy, huh? No ankles, wrists, knees or knuckles. We had some fun taking pictures of my disfigured body. I couldn't fit my feet into church shoes the next day, so I got to go home after sacrament and skip relief society and sunday school, much to Maggie's dismay. Finally we decided that Benedryl wasn't doing the trick, so I went to the doctor (it was inevitable that we'd have an emergency room experience this break, since the whole family was getting together, and my dad joked that he was glad to be getting it out of the way before Christmas Eve) and got some serious antihistimines and some strong steroids. About twelve hours after I started the steroids, I could walk again, and by the day we left, I was wearing my wedding ring again. We still don't know what caused the reaction, because I didn't even eat anything weird, and I definitely did not partake of any of my mom's (numerous) seafood dishes while I was home. But I'm all healthy again, so I guess it just makes for a weird story.

Speaking of my mom's dishes, she went all out and made everyone's favorite meals for their homecoming. Em got manicotti, Charles got Thai food, Grandpa got oyster stew, and I got tomato soup (homemade, bisque style. To die for. I had some at every meal while I was home!). We played Settlers at least once everyday, until we got too competitive and we all started to crack. Settlers pressure, plus the pressure of the upcoming Annual Meppen Gingerbread House Making Contest, plus the craziness of the whole family being together again was a little much. and it was so stinking fun! I'm sure you've all been dying to hear what Charles and I had in store for the contest, so I'll let you in on our award-winning ideas. Charles constructed the Taj Mahal, complete with peppermint stick minnerettes topped with giant jawbreakers for the domes. I went with the Washington DC temple, with a tiny golden fondant Moroni and stained-glass windows peiced together from multi-colored fruit roll-ups. I took first place in the religious category, and Charles took first for sheer audacity. Funny, whenever grandparents judge our contests, everyone seems to end up with first place in their own category. It was still a really intense contest, though. It lasted about four and a half hours. Here are some pictures of the final masterpeices.

Pretty talented family, eh? That's what I thought you'd say. Dad used wheat linguini as a roof on his log pretzel cabin, Doodie used candy legos for the load-bearing structures of his house, Maggie employed ice-cream cones very artfully as a steeple on her church, Emile made some cool trees out of chocolate candy corn, Daniel tiled his roof with giant smarties, and Anna added a rustic touch to her cabin by creating a haystack out of shredded wheat. I personally thought Lizzy's nativity and "Happy Birthday Jesus" sign in front of her baptist church were very nice touches.

Christmas Eve was a crazy night! Mom made prime rib, Yorkshire pudding, roasted garlic smashed potatoes, and creamed onions, and cheesecake for dessert. Mom recited The Night Before Christmas, with some help from Lizzy, and Dad read the Christmas story from Luke. Then we played grab bag, where Lizzy, Charles and I pulled off the Great Meppen-Campbell Heist, and made off with all the good stuff, including the cherry cordials, the portable Trivial Pursuit, and the etch-a-sketch pen. Then we checked http://www.noradsanta.org/en/home.htm to see where Santa was, and found out by Satelite feed that he had already started on North America, but had found too many children awake, and had been forced to go to South America before finishing North America! So everyone grabbed their pillows and blankets and ran to Lizzy's room to stake out their sleeping spots, and to get to sleep before Santa came back. That was when the chaos began, as it does every year. I had made Maggie into a burrito the night before, MollieCarterHunt-style, and now everyone wanted one for Christmas Eve. So I made everyone a burrito bed, and gave them three toppings of their choosing. Charles got four, though, because I love him like a spouse. Then the lights went out, and everyone caught the giggles. Doodie decided it would be a good idea to scare Lizzy, so he crawled under the bed from his side to Lizzy's spot on the floor, so quietly that Charles and I had no idea he was right underneath us. Then he stuck his face in Lizzy's and snorted really loudly, scaring not only Lizzy, but also the rest of us! I looked over my side of the bed, and all I could see in the dark was Doodie's disembodied head bobbing as he laughed and made a face at me, and I screamed. Then Charles thought it would be fun to start flickering the lamp on his side of the bed like a strobe light, and all the kids got up and started dancing around. I seriously thought I'd found the place where they keep the wild things. They roared their terrible roars and showed their terrible claws and tickled me to death. I really died of tickles. Then Dad opened the door a crack to remind us that Santa Claus knows when you're awake, and Doodie yelled out, "Dad! We're trying to sleep in here! Stop letting the light in!" Which set off another round of the giggles and rowdiness. This is why I love my family. But then out of nowhere we heard a faint jingling, and we realized we were really cutting it close! There were bells right outside our window! We heard Santa glide down our street and start working on the end of culdesac, and suddenly Maggie was all business. "Everybody, shut up! Doodie, I'm gonna give you such a whoopin'! Molly, you're next!" She finally got us all settled down, and Lizzy set the alarm for crackofdawno'clock, and we fell asleep. And let me tell you, everyone in that room was snoring except me. I may snore normally, but I couldn't sleep that night because everyone else was!

Finally, it was time to wake up, and we sent Maggie in to wake up our parents. She ran into their room and jumped on their bed and sang "Rise and Shout, the Meppens are out!" at the top of her lungs. She's got quite a set of lungs, apparently. So they lined us up on the stairs and took a picture of us on the way down, as usual. Charles got to go first this year, since he's the oldest. It's a very coveted position in our family, and it was hard for me to give it up, except that every year I'm the one with the worst double chin in the picture, becuase everyone can hide behind me, and I'm out in the open. It's not a very good angle for taking a picture, but it's tradition. Anyway, this year you can't even see my chin! Huzzah for marriage! Also, Charles and I got a special early delivery from Santa on Christmas Eve: new pj's! That was so we could wear them to bed that night. Mine are pink cotton with white polka dots, and a gray shirt with lace trim. Charles got comfy sweatpants and the softest blue long sleeve shirt you've ever seen. It's so cuddly! and yes, I've probably worn his new pj's about as much as I've worn mine. They're really comfy! Santa has good taste!

On the 28th, Daniel proposed to Emile, on accident. Ok, not on accident, but he wasn't planning on it. But they were both happy with the results. Since he didn't have a ring just then, he moved her CTR ring to the other hand for the night, and then they went ring shopping first thing in the morning. She wasn't supposed to tell us before then, but when she came home from dropping him off at the hotel (he's deathly allergic to our cats. He's the only one who slept peacefully the whole week, though!) she pranced around with her left hand out until someone asked her why her CTR ring was in such a dumb place. "What if Daniel proposes?" I asked. "You'll have to move it." and then she just smiled and went all googley-eyed, so I gasped and Anna paused Gilmore Girls and Charles put down his book (which he was pretending to read near me so that he could actually watch Gilmore Girls with me instead) and Emile told us that she was engaaaaaaaaaaaaaged! That was about the point that my parents shuffled down the stairs in their pj's to make some sandwiches, because they couldn't sleep. They pulled out the Martinelli's and the the prime rib leftovers, and opened the fancy cheese that they'd forgotten to give Grandpa for Christmas. They looked very tired, because Emile had already spilled the beans to them. We all stayed up late with sandwiches and creme brulee ice cream and told stories and laughed. It was a really good night. The next morning, when she came home from ring shopping at the crack of dawn, I woke up to her yelling up the stairs, "I'm stinking engaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaged!" It's a really pretty ring. It has a pearl in the center, with I think three stones on either side of the pearl. It's not her wedding ring, though. It's her engagement ring, and the wedding ring will be the one they picked out here in Utah. So she'll have two rings like me, instead of a ring and band. Anyway, their wedding date is April 26th, and their colors are black, white, and the color of the polka dots in a star-gazer lily. Which is fuschia, but she won't call it that. and I'm going to wear fuschia shoes!

We're back in Provo, now. And I'm going to work, but most we're just relaxing while we can. I'll be posting the rest of the break later, but I thought I'd at least fill you in on our Christmas. Maggie's supposed to be mailing me her essay that she wrote about ants, while we were driving to the airport to fly home to Utah, and I'll probably post it here because it's cute. So that's what you have to look forward to! Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!