Christmas and so on

Posted by E-George on December 31, 2009

Christmas was delightfully low key this year. Matthew’s brother and family were moving in a new house so we put off our Minnesota Christmas for another year and all of my family scattered off to do their own respective things which left us to fend for ourselves. For the first year in the whopping three that we’ve been married we weren’t frenetically scuttling about the kitchen prepping a giant family Christmas dinner and secretly dreading the skyscrapers of dishes to follow.

Christmas Eve was a matter of some debate: Which church service to go to? 5pm? 7pm? 9pm? 11pm? HA! In someone’s fevered dreams would I ever consent to leaving my home after 10pm, least of all leaving my home after 10pm and descend into the frigid depths of winter’s armpit. That makes me a mediocre Lutheran at best, I realize, but I’m hoping it won’t force Martin Luther to actively lobby for my damnation during his downtime in the hereafter.

We agreed that for one night Evelyn could withstand a little disruption of her self-imposed schedule and compromised that the 9pm service would be just fine. Had I not been pretending to be illiterate the previous Sunday, I would have seen posted in the bulletin that child care would only be provided at the 5pm and 7pm services. And, had I internalized that wee detail we would have modified our church plans accordingly. But I didn’t so we blundered forward and the night went only as one could expect it to go. Matthew and Berta got to enjoy the full beauty of the service, including lighting the tiny candles and singing the sweet Christmas hymns while I chased a 15-month-old around the church foyer and fellowship hall and other various lit locations.

Excessive fatigue has an odd way of adding more powerful juice to a child’s will than may otherwise be exercised, as was evident in her persistent urge to go up and down any stairs she could find, molest any Christmas tree within arms reach, brutally back-hand the 24″ felt-and-styrofoam hand-crafted snow man, chatter the ears off other babies, chase down older kids and make them fear for their candy, and generally refuse to be still in any way. By the time we got home she practically crawled into her crib on her own and I wanted some Tension Tamer tea (now with B vitamins!) to bring my brains back to some sort of center. Matthew wanted to open his stocking presents and since he is currently the only one with a Christmas stocking anyway Berta and I acquiesced.

In his stocking were tasteless humor gifts from me and thoughtful usable gifts from Berta. Meaning, I gave Matthew a can of bacon-flavored SPAM, a can of vienna sausages and an ash scraper for his grill so he would please stop using my good kitchen utensils for that chore. Berta gave him several other grill-related gifts so he would please stop taking our good oven mitts and using them as grill scrubbers and also gave him some meat flavorings.

In exchange, Matthew gave me a decaffeinated green holiday tea called Candy Cane Lane, as well as the commemorative matching mug and we gave Berta a gift card to go buy some new clothes

Christmas day dawned and despite having been to bed at the shockingly late hour of 10:30pm, Evelyn was still up and ready to get moving by 7:30am. Bleary eyed and admittedly a little cranky, I shuffled into the kitchen where I used my new tray (with the brightly painted word, “Cookie” on it) to present Matthew a Christmas breakfast feast of various meats. I fried up his bacon spam, browned the vienna sausages, cooked some bacon, and cooked some canadian bacon. A little scrambled eggs for decoration and a little hot sauce to completely alter the taste of whatever it’s dribbled on and breakfast was eagerly and quickly consumed by those who are open to such dietary proclivities.

Presents was laid back and fun and I was relieved that Matthew was relaxed about giving Evelyn time to look at and play with each present she opened. Truthfully, she didn’t care about opening any presents, she just wanted what was inside the stupid package. Once the item was unpackaged she was in little baby nirvana.

Despite a back-to-back series of foibles, a missed nap, a broken Christmas decoration, and giant piles of frustrations throughout the day, Christmas day ended on a high note with Matthew having diligently and thoughtfully smoked ribs for a large portion of the day. To that we added a Christmas treat of macaroni and cheese (with whole wheat pasta), garden salad, and a desert of sweetened ricotta cheese with fresh berries and a drizzle of dark chocolate ganache sauce and topped with rum-tainted freshly whipped cream.

The important thing was that the day ended. And, that everyone received gifts that far and away exceeded expectations or desires. And, that we don’t have to do this again until next year.

Filed Under: Evelyn, Family Adventure, Thank you, and GOOD NIGHT! - Comments: Be the First to Comment



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