Christmas Eve: Night One

And then it was Christmas and the holiday was upon us in full swing. Christmas Eve began by my whole family going to church. Bright and early, we all got up and trucked over to FCC to see what John had in store for the Christmas eve service. It felt good to be back in a church, and the coffee hour was like a bustling reunion. It being the holidays, all the people i used to see every Sunday in sunday school were home, and we were all eager to catch up with one another. I found out that Eric and Kristen Hermes (one of the sets of twins i knew growing up) are both in Chicago. It was good to see them, and fun listening to them talk as they both seem pretty happy. Then i caught up with Megan, who is teaching in Grand Blanc. Very cool! I can definitely see her as an awesome teacher. I also chatted with the Gavins and some of the older folks who have always insisted on greeting me with a hug as if i were their own grandchild. After church, the afternoon was pretty chill. My aunt flew in from Arizona, and met us at our house. We then all trucked, or vanned...i suppose, over to my Grandparent's house for the Christmas Eve festivities to commence. There were lots of baked goods, all varieties of nuts, the necessary christmas shrimp, mini-pigs in a blanket (new this year, but strangely addicting), chicken wings, and of course the Christmas pies...i think there was a main course in there somewhere, but between my gorging on appetizers and sweets, i'm not sure i ever got there.

After dinner, it was time for presents, and yours truly played santa (meaning, i got to crawl around under the tree, looking for presents for people and then handing them out).

Once the last scrap of wrapping paper had been cleared away (minus all the presents left under the tree for people who hadn't yet come into town...see Christmas Part 2 - The Christmas Tree Crawl) and with everyone nodding off due to a wonderful dinner...of Pot Roast, that's what the main course was...families started drifting out, heading home to await the arrival of the real Santa.

My Life Doesn't Feel as Boring...

...as this blog would suggest. But perhaps, the lack of posts is instead evidence of this, as opposed to evidence against. So, without further ado, my Christmas vacation was a lot of fun. I flew home on December 20th without incident, though i must admit, since the implementation of heightened security, it is anticlimactic to fly home. Unlike in the movies, there is no sense of anticipation as you leave the plane, because you know you still have at least a 5-10 minute walk before you actually see anyone. And because family and friends can no longer great you as you exit the plane, there is usually a flurry of phone calls back and forth to decide where to meet, taking away from the expectation of seeing someone for the first time in months (you just talked 30 seconds ago, so what is the big deal?). I got in to Metro on time though, so thank goodness for that.

From the moment i stepped off the plane to the food coma immediately following Christmas Day dinner, i was caught up in a flurry of events (it being in the mid 50s almost the whole time i was home, that was the only flurry i would see this Christmas). Wednesday night, since everyone was home, we went out to the Cantina in downtown Royal Oak (mighty fine Mexican if i do say so myself). We then came home and finished decorating the Christmas tree. Now, you may be thinking Dec. 20th is really late to be decorating a tree, but it is tradition that the whole family has to be home in order for decorating to commence, SO, my sister Lisa would not let the tree be decorated until Mary and I got home (which luckily ended up being on the same day). Thursday was Ann Arbor time, so after sleeping in for the first time in awhile, i got my things together and drove out to meet Cadi and Brian for dinner at Connor's (i know its Boston, but i've yet to find an Irish pub that serves Shepard's Pie as tasty as at Connors). Catching up took us late into the night, so i stayed over, and am glad i did, because the next morning, i got to experience the brillance of the workout DVD with the lady with the big eyes. Having gotten up and exercised to start the day, i felt great...and it took me back to the hill house and our morning yoga routines.

After seeing Cadi off to work, i made the trek home to Royal Oak, and walked into a beauitful brunch of pancakes and eggs (don't worry, those of you who just felt reality shift a little, i still don't like eggs), canadian bacon, homemade apple sauce and orange juice. Talk about a sight for an empty stomach! Brunch was then followed by some frantic last minute shopping, before coming home to get ready to go to the theatre!

Another of the more recent family holiday traditions is to go to whatever big play is coming through town. For many years we flip-flopped between Les Mis and Rent, but this year we wanted to branch out so we went to see Spamalot. It was absolutely amazing. The production was top notch, the jokes were right on, and there was even audience participation at the end. And it did my heart good when the main Knight who formerly said Ni, broke out into Bohemian Rhapsody--a nice touch i thought. It was a brillant night, complete with dinner before hand, which ended up being appropriate considering we were to see Monty Python later in the evening. We went to Peabodies in Birmingham, and my mom and uncle ordered the duck. They then both proceeded to hack and stab, but to no avail...the duck was so tough as to be uncuttable, and to make the scene that much funnier, it came on a nice bed of creamy rice, so it slid all over the plate as one tried to stab it. We decided the dish could only have been more perfect if it had been served over a broth of some sort, so the disastorous mess made from trying to eat it could be complete.

I'm sure Saturday involved more last minute shopping as well as perhaps a movie. But bottom line, as was the theme of my vacation, i'm sure it was full of mary, lisa and I being the kind of goofy that only we three can be.