We found Pendleton under the tree when we got up that morning. Seems he and the other bears found the stash of rum. Evidently, Pendleton couldn't handle it. The doldrums for me from the night before were fairly gone. Kip and I had stayed up later than Bill so when I woke up Bill had been up for two hours. We had our usual morning cup of coffee, then when I couldn't stand being hungry anymore I went to the kitchen to scrounge up a meal. Kip was waking up by then. I felt too tired to make the Christmas waffles so I pulled together an assortment of food already made--hard-boiled eggs, bacon, Christmas cookies, cheese ball and crackers, cottage cheese, and grape juice. Tummy filling fare it was. Not too long afterwards, the phone rang. Bill answered it. I was in the living room and saw a car pull up in front of our house. I asked Kip what the color of Lee's new car was. He saw me looking out the window, so as he was saying, "Uh, I don't remember," he looked out. Next out of his mouth was, "Hey, it's Lee!" Talk about spirits soaring! I felt so happy that my Lee had made it to our house after all. It was almost noon and I had just been thinking that he wasn't coming and he wasn't calling. Soon as he got in the door, I gave him a huge hug and he gave me one in return. Kim, his girlfriend, and Brittany, Kim's daughter, were right behind him. Their faces and mine were blazing with grins. This was the first time I had met Brittany but I stepped right up to her and gave her a big hug saying a big, hearty, "Hello, Bridgette!" She hugged me back without any hesitation but gave me a funny look before she did. I explained to her that I had forgotten her name and was calling her Bridgette the night before. I even put "Bridgette" on the tag for the package I had wrapped for her. But Kip corrected me so I really did know what her name was, I just wanted to have some fun with her. Bill came out in the living room and handed the phone off to Lee. That's when I snapped this picture. Unfortunately, the picture doesn't do him justice. Daylight was too bright in the room that morning. After a few minutes, Lee came over and handed the phone to me. I assumed it was Amy when it had first rung and I was right. She talked for a few minutes about how their Christmas had been going and then she asked me, "How full does your house feel?" "Well, it just filled up a lot more now that Lee and company arrived," I replied. "So, how would you like to have a coupla more people down there today? And also overnight?" It took one second for that to sink in and then the feeling rushed to my adrenaline glands and the next thing I knew I was choking back tears. "So, I guess that's a Yes," she stated. "Oh, yes," I struggled to say since my throat was choking up on me. It hit me that I had just gone from a low to a high. "Yeh, Todd and I had our Christmas Eve together alone and really enjoyed it. We woke up this morning and opened our presents and then I decided to call you to say Merry Christmas. As I was talking with Lee and hearing all the excitement in the background, I realized that it just wasn't like Christmas not to be there with you all." "Wah. Well, no it isn't!" I agreed wholeheartedly. "Come on, get yourselves down here." "Well, okay then," she replied. We hung up so they could get their stuff together and make the trek down. Before we hung up, I said I'd wait till they got there to open our presents but she insisted we go ahead. They had opened their gifts already so they didn't have them to bring down. So, after we hung up, I gathered everyone into the living room. Bill played Santa and distributed one gift to everyone. He paused waiting to see who was going to open their's first. I asked him why he wasn't passing out all of them. "I thought we were opening the first one first and then the next one would be passed out," he said. "Nope, we get them all," I instructed. So, he got busy and sorted out the rest of them giving them to the respective recepients. Then the shaking of the packages began. Usually I make them try to guess what's in the packages but I wasn't with it that morning being overwhelmed and all with the onslaught of so much company. The funniest moment came when Bill handed Brittany her present. I said with a florish, "And here's one for Bridgette!" They weren't sure what to make of that. Kip jumped in and told them, "I told Mom about that. That she needed to change the tag on that." I said, "Yeh, I remembered about that but thought it would be much more fun to leave it the way it is." Evidently it was. Brittany turned the tag over to see and she and her mom couldn't stop laughing about it. Look at me in the background, the stinker that I am. Okay, this saga is going on pretty long so in order for the pictures not to slow down your loading time, I'll put the rest of them and the rest of the story on Page 3.