Anyway, remember that mini story I wrote about that old dude who is nuts? It got in yesterday's paper. He came in, all excited, and wanted some complimentary tear sheets (saved himself twenty cents). He was ever so proud, except he thought he should have been on the front page instead of B2. He was like, so that one fugitive guy gets the front page, but I'm in the B section? And I was like, well, maybe you need to get tossed into jail a couple of times and THEN you'll make the front page. Burn! Except he wears a hearing aide, and honestly, I don't think he heard me.
It's just as well.
Christmas #2: Saturday, December 24, 2011
Christmas Eve dawned bright and glorious. I think. Well, it sounds good anyway. I spent the morning making cranberry sauce, blueberry oat crisp, and smashed sweet potatoes with apples. The girls were busy watching Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix. Dude, I'm not sure how it happened, but I went from indifferent to watching that show with bated breath. What? It's a pretty clever cartoon. Plus the kid who plays Aang is Pablo from Backyardigans. That's pretty awesome.
So around noon (again, I think--it's all sort of a blur at this point), we load up the car and head on out, back to my parents' house for the Christmas Eve festivities. My Aunt Ann, Uncle John and cousin Seth came over for the day. There was football on the TV. Mom bustled around the kitchen, Johanna did somersaults, Abby was angsty but clearly having a good time, and the rest of us chatted. Oh, and ate the crab cheese ball thing Ann had brought. I'm pretty sure that's not a part of my IBS diet, but man, it was good.
Around 3 p.m., my in-laws came, and we sat down to a pre-Mass dinner: Turkey, potatoes and gravy, homemade stuffing (mmm!), sweet potatoes, salad, cranberry sauce, rolls. We all voted to wait for dessert until after Mass, just for the sake of having enough room to pack it in.
Although I did sneak one of Mom's little lemon tarts. Well, it was small.
Headed to Mass at 5 p.m. even though it didn't start until 5:30. The church tends to fill up sort of fast on these special holidays and we wanted a seat. (Been there, done THAT. Um, being late, I mean.) A friend from high school came in with her family, so we had a chat until it became obvious that I was taking up an entire pew that I had no intentions of actually sitting in, and needed to move on, just based on the looks I was getting. (Actually, I got no looks, I just felt bad, but that doesn't sound as cool.)
So the church fills up, we have Mass, and by the way, they've changed some of the language we use, so we're all messed up. Example: I cannot for the life of me remember to say "And with your spirit." I'm still stuck on "And also with you." Thirty-nine years of saying the same thing over and over every Sunday is a lot to overcome, apparently.
Well, anyway. After Mass, we all head back to my parents' house. We have dessert. And then we settle in for one of my mother's "games."
My mom is all about these games. And we complain and carry on, but I think we all secretly enjoy them very much. Mom has us all gather in a circle-ish formation in the living room and brings out a basket of five presents, each wrapped five times. So the moral of the story is we have to pass the presents around the room and when the music stops, the first one to answer a Christmas trivia question (read by Abby) gets to unwrap a layer. When all the layers are gone, you keep the present.
But I'm like, what? Five presents for 11 people? That's so not like my mother. And Abby's not playing? Huh.
So we go around and around and around. Some of the questions were easy (who has a redder nose? Santa, the pizza guy, or Rudolph?). Some required a little thought (in what song do we ask for figgy pudding?). Some were harder than heck (what were the names of the Wise Men?), and the mere fact that Johanna was the only one who knew the answer was astounding. (Answer: Casper, Balthazar and... I forget the other one. But Jo knows it. I'll ask her. Mouthcoy! Or something that sounds like that.) So we finally get through all the wrappings, and it's Seth, Ann and John, my father-in-law and me who end up with presents. We unwrap them. They are empty. Mom's laughing in the corner saying, that's not even the real game!
And then she brings out a basket of "prizes"--Applets and Cottlets, cashews, Almond Roca and the like--and says, we're going to have a roll off to see who gets what. So we go around the room, and we roll dice, and we all end up with a present. That's more my mother's speed.
The girls were in on the whole thing and were quite pleased with how it came about. They're plotting next year's game with Mom already, I'm sure.
Anyway, then it was time for presents... and more eating... and more talking... and then all of a sudden the night was over and we were headed home again.
Christmas #3: Sunday, December 25, 2011
So let's wrap this up, shall we? Especially since no one cares except me and my public (hi, Mom!). I've written about Christmas morning, so let's jump right in to Christmas Day.
We went over to Eric's brother's house for more football, food and chat. And cards. Those boys like to play a lot of cards. Eric's sister and husband came, too, from out of town. So it was Bub, Elaine and the boys, Debbie and Greg, my in-laws, and us. That's 12 people all together, just FYI.
The girls brought Just Dance 3, so we had to have a little dance party in the living room after dinner (ooooh, which was halibut AND salmon, caught on a recent trip to Alaska. I obviously had to take both so as not to be rude). Watching my nephews dance was pretty awesome, as was my brother-in-law and mother-in-law. Elaine won whenever she played. The girls danced every time and did not seemed remotely winded. I danced once, and then helped my nephew Cody write a scholarship essay (well, it was only 500-600 words. I figured we could bang that out pretty quickly. 700-and some words later, we did. Except it took longer than I expected, having bragged it was a 7 minute chore. It took closer to an hour. Oops). And then the boys went back to cards and the girls went back to dancing and I messed around on my poser iPad to see what was up in the Twitterverse. (Answer: Not much.)
The end. It was a really fun, relaxing sort of day. And we had Monday off to recoperate, thank heavens. Except. That Almond Roca and coffee diet I've been on since Christmas? SEEMS like it should be rock solid, and yet, it's beginning to grate. I guess it really is time for lettuce and a nap...
Ray Conniff, "White Christmas." We did not get a white Christmas... it was more of a sunny, cold Christmas... but still. And this officially ends our Christmas song extravaganza, by the way. I can't believe I lasted this long. Anyway, get ready for more Chevelle!
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