Christmas Day

………(posting before work Wednesday, December 30)

We (David, Teresa, Joseph, Benjamin and I) had a fairly leisurely Christmas morning opening the gifts under the tree. Some of us ate Shredded Wheat cereal because the shredded wheat looks a little like a bale of hay - hay > manger > you get it. The guys were thrilled with the ties and us gals with the glittery scarves (Teresa’s gold - Cal Poly, mine white - I plan to keep the gold one I had previously bought to use at the up coming Graduation Celebration) we found in their stockings (which I have on good authority elves found at the 99cent store - I am beginning to really like that place). I accidently gave Joseph the same book twice, having bought one for him and one for David, but forgetting which one I had wrapped the first one for when I wrapped the second. We got that straightened out. What book? The Mormon Way of Doing Business: How Eight Western Boys Reached the Top of Corporate America by Jeff Benedict . I read a little bit before wrapping and look forward to borrowing the book from one of them.
Anna got a new rope tug toy. Within minutes she chewed off the comfy rubber handle. She loves it, frequently bringing it to us to play with and even taking it to bed with her sometimes.
Around 11 we went to Ruth’s where everyone was gathering for more gift opening, especially the highly anticipated gift exchanges between the siblings, most especially the homemade gift exchange which also includes Acadia, the oldest grandchild. Wow. She drew Benjamin and made him a beautiful wood pen (with the help of a nice woodcrafting neighbor) She also included a DVD of her making the pen. Awesome. Joseph was sent on a treasure hunt all through the house to eventually find the cat tree that Ryan made him. Benjamin made Miriam A Cookie of the Month calendar with pictures and recipes of the cookies he will make her each month for a year. Joseph gave Teresa charming pictures of a little frog and a shore bird which he shot, printed and framed. This is embarrassing. I do not remember all the home made gifts right now, but I do remember that each one was greeted with cries of delight and admiration.
   We opened gifts for an hour or so, then Andrew called with his contact information. I called him back and we took a gift opening break while we passed the phone around for just short of two hours. http://madman7o8.blogspot.com/2009/12/christmas-2009.html People snacked, enjoyed their already opened gifts, and visited. After the call, we went back to opening gifts. Which helped me not get the after phone call let down I sometimes feel. It is not that we get so many gifts, but there are a lot of us and we open each gift one at a time with everyone looking on. After the recipient has a moment or two to look at his/her gift, (s)he gets up and chooses the next gift to hand out. Most of us enjoy this relishing of the gift opening. Someone whose name starts with T gets a little tired of it. He kept saying, “It’s going to be dark soon.” I was wondering if, for some reason we could not open gifts after dark. We did, however, finish opening before darkness fell.
Then we made pizza. Ruth didn’t have any tomato sauce, so we made white sauce pizzas which were quite good. I think the favorite, certainly mine, was ground beef, spinach, and olives. OK, I confess, I didn’t even try the pepperoni or the ground beef with pineapple because I already knew which one I would like the best.

I don’t even remember how we spent the evening, except again, Joseph and I went home at a semi-decent time to see to the pets and get some rest while the others stayed up late.

Christmas is not all about presents, but presents are fun and I got some great gifts! Acadia gave me some nice rubber stamps. Sariah (et al) gave me a great knife set with block. Sharp knives and lots of them! And a nice photo wheel loaded with pictures of their family. David and Teresa are trying to fix my TV reception. (weather permitting) Miriam gave everyone a mug with homemade candy. She also gave me a lovely Nativity. Debi, who recently took up jewelry making, made me a pretty ornament. Joseph and Benjamin gave me the bicycle which simply amazes me. The planning, time and expense! So sweet! I may be forgetting some things.

Even more.
Joseph had been checking on-line and making phone calls, and we had been going to Office Depot in pursuit of some elusive thing. The day after Christmas we tried the Office Depot out by Costco where I bought pork roast for Sunday, but forgot to get gas. Then he confirmed and got reserved his quarry in Folsom. Out we drove. In he went. When he came back, successful, he told me it was for me. He bought me a Nextstar GPS to replace the Magellan that was stolen when my car was broken into. So cool. He started looking at it as we headed for home. Soon he said that he was starting to want one. Well, it was the last day they were on sale and it had been hard to find, so we turned around and went back just before the store closed. It is supposed to be good for car, bike and pedestrians (although it shows a shorter, but not really bike friendly route to my office.) You can choose from 4 voices. Right now, it’s Amy.

oops!  Work Time!