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Monday, December 28th, 2009
goldfishhead
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5:54p
Ho Ho Ho!!
Yes, that’s right, an actual post not under a privacy block!
This was the most hectic Christmas I can ever remember having, and I don't think that that’s just because of my memory problems. For my rare, not-in-MN freindslist buddy, I should mention that for the several days around Christmas, including Christmas itself, we were having what some termed Snowmagedon. I think it only turned out to be between 12-15 inches, but with everyone trying to travel at once, and sleet occasionally adding nasty, nasty ice it WAS bad enough that we did more than a couple spins on the road that weekend.
We started off running late trying to find someplace to leave my bug that it wouldn’t get towed, and drove out to Bloomington Olive Garden with Laurie, tom, dad, mom, john, cori and andy, with only a few complete 360 skids on the way. After food, lisa, myself, and dad went to join Laurie and tom at lauries house. We went out to drive around and look at lights. I think the images that will most stick with me from this holiday are an inflatable snowman sagging and buried in the snow in juuuust such a way as to make it look like it was drowning in the snow, and several nativities in which the baby jesus was completely buried under the snow, leaving Mary, Joseph and the attending animals and wisemen looking at bit like they were looking around trying to find their misplaced savior. I'm sure they'll find him around Easter. Then came some caroling with Laurie, lisa me, and sometimes my dad singing, and tom playing piano. It’s kinda sad my family never did caroling, I do like it, and dad played piano the whole time I was growing up, but I don’t think it would hold coris attention, and it would take some kind of global threat to get my mom to sing, especially in front of people. Eventually dad went home, and we went to bed at lauries house.
We woke up at 8 the next morning to go back to my moms house, after tom took a snowblower to the driveway so we could get out. We started with johns presents, because he had to leave to go to his grandkids Christmas. I think. Might have been his sisters. Then came stockings, and presents for everyone else. I got everything asked for and then some ☺ Oh, except the vodka. Guess I'm on my own for that.
Then we just hung out for several hours while mom made dinner. She doesn’t really let anyone help her with this. At 26, I'm still not allowed anything more advanced than "peel the potatoes" and Cori is only allowed to set the table and pour the salad dressing. As is typical of my family, this family bonding time was accompanied by making fun of wedding shows on TV. Also, I got to see Cori dance. I don’t think anyone who reads this other than my dad has ever seen my sisters way of dancing at family gatherings. I…wish I could describe it. It's repetitive, but not without variation, generally involves spinning, keeping your arms totally straight while swinging them around, and a kind of…skipping motion. It looks how I imagine two year olds are trying to look. Kinda. I try to mimic it (it's better in conga-line format) but I tend to break down laughing after a few seconds. She'll do this dance, moving from room to room in the house in a rambling circular pattern. Especially when she's impatient for the food.
Then we ate. And ate. And I felt like I was going to die. There's just no food like mom-made food you grew up with. My family has had the exact same turkey dinner for every thanksgiving and Christmas since my sister was on solid foods. That kind of consistency leads to a serious comfort-food status.
Pretty shortly after dinner we broke up to go separate ways- mom to johns, dad to jans, cori to andys, and lisa and I to lauries. Again, driving very, very slowly so as to avoid spinning. We got there, and I think I fell asleep in front of the fireplace for a little bit, until Lisas brothers fiancés family arrived. A mom, a dad, and two sisters, including mikes fiancé.. I know I've said it before but I just can't get used to these big family events. Growing up, my family events were considered HUGE if my grandma and aunt Joyce were there. Which I don’t think ever happened for Christmas. Now its multiple families and piles of couples. I should mention that I do quite like Emily's family, their very nice and their fun, it's just a bit jarring for me. We had a cocktail hour of sorts, then another dinner (I was struggling to remain conscious at this point) then caroling and taking bets on when Toms girlfriend was going to arrive from winona. Emily's mom won. Like $7! Mike, tom, Emily, and emilies sister, whos name I'm embarrassed to say I don’t remember, didn't carol. They stayed gathered around toms "birthday cake" in the kitchen. The Gilberts have a tradition of making Tom a birthday cake, then decorating it with so much junk its nearly inedible. When there were young cousins around, this then led to daring people to eat it, but this year it was just nibbled around the non-decorated edges. Eventually, Tess arrived, and Emilies family left, and we exchanged gifts some more. PS3. Woo! And eventually, lisa and I went home, because she has work early the next morning.
And that was Christmas, 2009 :D More posts coming soon as a try to wrap up this year in my head.
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