Christmas Bells

Merry Christmas to everyone in OD Land! A day late I know, but I was far too busy yesterday to be doing any entry writing.

On Christmas Eve, Alan and I went over to my great-aunt Kay’s house on the green here in Milford. Every year for as long as I can remember she’s had a Christmas Eve party and it’s always been a more the merrier sort of concept. So we visited with Kimmy and her boyfriend Jonathan, Grammy, Pete, Cindy, Ryan and his new wife Lauren, Aaron, Miranda, Karina, Kay, Tom, Tom’s daughter Kim and her husband Willie. I’m glad I’ve now met Lauren because I feel like I met all the other new spouses down in South Carolina. On top of which Ryan and Lauren live in Norwalk of all places. Kimmy, it transpires, is about 2 months pregnant, which is a bit of a shock. She only just turned 22 a few days ago. That means that Pete’s going to be a grandfather at 46 and his youngest daughter Karina will be an auntie at only 6 years old. I know it’s not all that unusual. I mean, people have children and all that, but I’ve sort of always thought of Peter has part of a set of cousins with my dad and Charlie. They’re about 10 years apart, but they all have kids about the same age. So it’s strange to me to think that the youngest one will be a grandpa first.

Christmas itself was quite enjoyable. Alan let me sleep in a little bit by getting up early and feeding the cats, so when I woke up the two of them were piled up between my feet and looking daggers at me for having the gall to get out of bed and disrupt their sleeping arrangements. Alan and I exchanged presents and I was pleasantly surprised that the cats had already opened theirs. I got them this funky mat that you can fill with catnip and wrapped it up hoping that the faint aroma of the ‘nip would be enough to distract them for tearing open the other presents. And it worked! They had dragged it around to the back of the tree and clawed off most of the paper. One present got caught in the crossfire, but it was an easy fix. Now they’re taking turns to curl up protectively and lick it.

So as far as presents from Alan go, he got me a new hair dryer, a yoga mat, a new lunch box, and Season 5 of House, plus a few little things. I’m very happy about all of these because they’re all things I have expressed interest in doing. I’m surprised he remembered the yoga mat because I mentioned in forever ago. And I’m quite pleased to have a new hair dryer and a new lunch box. Their older counterparts were both crumbling to pieces. I got him a new cell phone that I actually gave him a week ago, both National Treasure movies, and the book Men Who Stare at Goats.

For my contribution to the Christmas potluck, after presents and breakfast I made an apple crisp and a cherry pie, both of which I am told were excellent. I’m glad because I’d never made either of those things before, and I’m really not one to judge because A.) I don’t like baked apples and B.) I don’t eat much fruit pie to have a good basis for comparison. I only had a teeny tiny slice of pie because at that point I was pretty stuffed from dinner. Lisa made this sweet potato casserole that was so good it should’ve been dessert. We finally exchanged gifts after Zach got home from work. Rich and Kathy gave us a bottle of wine. Grandma Liz gave us the usual round of sweaters or fleeces from Old Navy. Lisa gave us another place setting of our pretty china pattern. Yay! Zach gave me "Public Enemies," which I have been wanting to see from the moment I saw the preview. Johnny Depp and Christian Bale could just stand on screen for two hours and it would be a good movie. LOL! I don’t remember off hand what else we got. Poppop Otz gave Alan the yearly Hess truck… or Hess race car, in this case. He buys a bunch of them every year and for a long time Alan was keeping them, but I think he’s given up. Last year he found a guy with a kid and gave them all to him. I may take this year’s and give it to one of the preschool rooms. I know it’s awful to say, but Alan’s grandfather is a sucker for collectibles in a way that no one else in the family is, and all his many buses and trains do is sit around collecting dust. And we don’t have the space for dust collectors.

One thing my mom got me is the Beatles version of Rock Band. Very cool. We would’ve played it last night, but we didn’t get home until late. After everyone left, Alan and I stayed for a quieter visit and watched the new Night at the Museum movie. I thought Amy Adams made a good Amelia Earhart, although she’s much prettier than the real Amelia.

All in all it was a good Christmas. I’m not looking forward to going back to work on Monday, though I do hope to find an approval for my time off request in my mailbox. I asked for three days the first week of February to go to Alan’s graduation from Basic. It’ll likely be the last time I see him until May, so whether or not they approve it, I won’t be there. As of now, I’m driving down with Lisa, Kurt, and Zach and the hotel situation will probably be two double rooms. I think it’ll be Kurt and Zach, then Lisa and me, although I wouldn’t complain about switching it up. Hehehe. Relax. I’m kidding. At any rate, with four drivers we’ll be able to drive straight through with only potty breaks.

Anyway, I hope everybody had a good Christmas and enjoyed the time with family. The only bad thing about my day was hearing one of the kids downstairs get smacked. How could I tell? I here whining and some tears, an impact, then louder crying and whining, another impact, more crying, followed by a slamming door. Tell me that’s not a kid that just got hit.

Our plans for today are very mellow. I think we’re going to go grocery shopping at some point, and we may go to see "Avatar." Alan can get tickets really cheap with his military ID (so can I) and we both really want to see it. I’d also like to see "Sherlock Holmes" before he leaves. ::sigh:: I can’t believe it’s just a week away. I feel like we’ve hardly had a chance to breathe, let alone actually see each other.  And everybody wants to visit with us before Alan leaves. It’s so silly. Everybody acts like they haven’t seen him in so long, even though they wouldn’t see him any more often if he were at home. I dunno. At least I won’t have to cook very often.

~Liz