My rather-less-cranky holiday post
Dec. 26th, 2006 10:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunrabWe drove up to my sister's place - just north of Philadelphia - yesterday and stayed over night. When we got there early afternoon, they were still cleaning house after the morning explosion of present-opening. She has 5 kids; there were a LOT of new toys all over the place! So we just sat around for a while. Finally, everyone was ready to take a breather - and open the presents we got them! We had told them in advance NOT to get us anything, and they actually listened. We got them mostly books: the Freddy the Golden Hamster series, which I have mentioned in the past; a local author's book called Santa Claws, about a Chesapeake Bay crab who saves Christmas. And a set of dog dominoes, and then ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
squirrel_magnet taught them to play dominoes. (It's sorta obligatory for good ol' Texas boys to play dominoes, especially the older generations, and he grew up watching his grandfathers and his dad playing dominoes.) And I had made some ornaments for their tree. And for the two littlest kids, who are too young to understand for-the-whole-family presents, individual small presents - a bathtub book for the 3-year old; one of my famous knitted stuffed toy fish for the 1-year-old. Then we all relaxed for a bit. I always bring something to do with me, and I was tired of knitting and crocheting so much before the holidays, so I brought along a piece of needlepoint I've been working on. Well, first Julie (6 years old) insisted I show her what I was doing, and then asked to try a few stitches - which she managed with only a little help - and then she proposed that she could work on one part of it while I did another. I turned down that proposal - can't be done - but we alternated a few stitches each back and forth.
Then, supper. I brought roasted small potatoes with rosemary, and cranberry-orange relish, and gingerbread and apple-cranberry bread pudding for dessert, and a couple of bottles of non-alcoholic sparkling cider. The cider was guzzled down almost instantly - very popular! The entree was steak, and there were green beans and all the usual trimmings. Now, kids are picky eaters. And one of the things Julie is picky about is potatoes. So picky, in fact, that her mother had made her a small dish of spaghetti to be her starch, since my sister was sure Julie wouldn't be eating potatoes. Well, Julie saw everyone else eating the potatoes, and asked for a single bite of someone else's, and then proceeded to ask for another whole potato, 4 times. This is apparently more potato in one meal than she has willingly eaten in the past 5 years. I'm flattered.
Okay, after supper - I go back to working on the needlepoint, and now Ian wants to see how, too. He picks it up instantly, and does a whole piece of yarn for me. Then Julie has to try some more. The upshot of all this, with both of them insisting on helping, is that this morning, as soon as we woke up, I headed over to a crafts store and bought them each a beginner's needlepoint kit - Julie's a kids kit, Ian's a regular grown-up kit. Julie had finished three whole rows of hers before we left this afternoon, and was practically dragging my pants to keep me there so that she could complete more rows under my supervision, and Ian had finished all the stitches of one of his colors, and started in on the next color with no help at all. He plans on giving the completed piece as a gift to his mom. And Julie had specifically requested something with a horse in it, so she could give it to her oldest sister who is horse-crazy, when it's finished.
In between needlepoint, one of Ian's presents from someone else had been a paint-by-numbers kit of a race car. He did that kit entirely in a couple hours, and presented it tosquirrel_magnet as a present. These is good kids, ya know?
My dad and stepmother showed up right after lunch today (Tuesday, incidentally), and they had presents for people and we had presents for them. So after some crackers and cheese, and my dad eating more of the leftover gingerbread than he should have, since he's not supposed to eat sugar, we got around to those presents. They conveyed to me a gift from my sister-in-law E in Omaha, more yarn from that wonderful LYS in Omaha that I had so enjoyed when S and I visited them there.
I gave my dad a magazine subscription (Natural History, which he had let his lapse but he loves that mag as much as I do), and some oolong tea. And I gave my stepmother a lighted crochet hook. Which she loved. I believe this is the very first present I have ever given her in all these years that she was totally, uncritically, pleased with. She really, really likes it! (And my BIL J's mom had also dropped by, and she loved it too, and so now they know what they can get her for the next gift-giving occasion!) And there were more homemade ornaments exchanged in all directions - my whole family is rather big on arts and crafts, actually; it's not just me. One of the nicest presents: my niece H - the oldest one - had made a pencil drawing of my dad, taken from his *bar-mitzvah photograph* which seems to be residing at their house - and framed the drawing , and gave that to him. Priceless, truly.
Let's see: my friend C sent us the latest Austin Lounge Lizards CD, and one of those new-fangled silicone oven mitts (it's great!) and some stocking stuffers. I gave squirrel-magnet flannel-lined jeans, which he might be able to use if it ever gets cold this winter (it was 55°F on xmas day, about 12°C), and some fancy soap, which is a long-standing tradition that would require too much explanation for here; he gave me the neato messenger bag I've been lusting after, which I will use as my new handbag - it's a kids' messenger bag, so smaller than you're imagining, though one could fit a small laptop into it, and in fact it has padding should one wish to do so. But it has all the separate pockets I need for cell phone, sunglasses, etc. And, here's the neatest part: it lights up. So that when one is riding on one's motorcycle, one's purse serves as an additional safety device! It is a "cool blue" with a little rechargeable battery that fits in its own little pocket, and a little switch to turn it to blinking mode, or steady, or off. He says "this is the first time I've ever seen a PURSE that comes with a RECHARGER." Also, out of the blue, his dad sent us a check to substantially help with the basement water-abatement fix that we are having done in a couple of weeks!
Now we are going to sit around and read and let the cats punish us for having abandoned them overnight.
squirrel_magnet taught them to play dominoes. (It's sorta obligatory for good ol' Texas boys to play dominoes, especially the older generations, and he grew up watching his grandfathers and his dad playing dominoes.) And I had made some ornaments for their tree. And for the two littlest kids, who are too young to understand for-the-whole-family presents, individual small presents - a bathtub book for the 3-year old; one of my famous knitted stuffed toy fish for the 1-year-old. Then we all relaxed for a bit. I always bring something to do with me, and I was tired of knitting and crocheting so much before the holidays, so I brought along a piece of needlepoint I've been working on. Well, first Julie (6 years old) insisted I show her what I was doing, and then asked to try a few stitches - which she managed with only a little help - and then she proposed that she could work on one part of it while I did another. I turned down that proposal - can't be done - but we alternated a few stitches each back and forth. Then, supper. I brought roasted small potatoes with rosemary, and cranberry-orange relish, and gingerbread and apple-cranberry bread pudding for dessert, and a couple of bottles of non-alcoholic sparkling cider. The cider was guzzled down almost instantly - very popular! The entree was steak, and there were green beans and all the usual trimmings. Now, kids are picky eaters. And one of the things Julie is picky about is potatoes. So picky, in fact, that her mother had made her a small dish of spaghetti to be her starch, since my sister was sure Julie wouldn't be eating potatoes. Well, Julie saw everyone else eating the potatoes, and asked for a single bite of someone else's, and then proceeded to ask for another whole potato, 4 times. This is apparently more potato in one meal than she has willingly eaten in the past 5 years. I'm flattered.
Okay, after supper - I go back to working on the needlepoint, and now Ian wants to see how, too. He picks it up instantly, and does a whole piece of yarn for me. Then Julie has to try some more. The upshot of all this, with both of them insisting on helping, is that this morning, as soon as we woke up, I headed over to a crafts store and bought them each a beginner's needlepoint kit - Julie's a kids kit, Ian's a regular grown-up kit. Julie had finished three whole rows of hers before we left this afternoon, and was practically dragging my pants to keep me there so that she could complete more rows under my supervision, and Ian had finished all the stitches of one of his colors, and started in on the next color with no help at all. He plans on giving the completed piece as a gift to his mom. And Julie had specifically requested something with a horse in it, so she could give it to her oldest sister who is horse-crazy, when it's finished.
In between needlepoint, one of Ian's presents from someone else had been a paint-by-numbers kit of a race car. He did that kit entirely in a couple hours, and presented it to
squirrel_magnet as a present. These is good kids, ya know?My dad and stepmother showed up right after lunch today (Tuesday, incidentally), and they had presents for people and we had presents for them. So after some crackers and cheese, and my dad eating more of the leftover gingerbread than he should have, since he's not supposed to eat sugar, we got around to those presents. They conveyed to me a gift from my sister-in-law E in Omaha, more yarn from that wonderful LYS in Omaha that I had so enjoyed when S and I visited them there.
I gave my dad a magazine subscription (Natural History, which he had let his lapse but he loves that mag as much as I do), and some oolong tea. And I gave my stepmother a lighted crochet hook. Which she loved. I believe this is the very first present I have ever given her in all these years that she was totally, uncritically, pleased with. She really, really likes it! (And my BIL J's mom had also dropped by, and she loved it too, and so now they know what they can get her for the next gift-giving occasion!) And there were more homemade ornaments exchanged in all directions - my whole family is rather big on arts and crafts, actually; it's not just me. One of the nicest presents: my niece H - the oldest one - had made a pencil drawing of my dad, taken from his *bar-mitzvah photograph* which seems to be residing at their house - and framed the drawing , and gave that to him. Priceless, truly.
Let's see: my friend C sent us the latest Austin Lounge Lizards CD, and one of those new-fangled silicone oven mitts (it's great!) and some stocking stuffers. I gave squirrel-magnet flannel-lined jeans, which he might be able to use if it ever gets cold this winter (it was 55°F on xmas day, about 12°C), and some fancy soap, which is a long-standing tradition that would require too much explanation for here; he gave me the neato messenger bag I've been lusting after, which I will use as my new handbag - it's a kids' messenger bag, so smaller than you're imagining, though one could fit a small laptop into it, and in fact it has padding should one wish to do so. But it has all the separate pockets I need for cell phone, sunglasses, etc. And, here's the neatest part: it lights up. So that when one is riding on one's motorcycle, one's purse serves as an additional safety device! It is a "cool blue" with a little rechargeable battery that fits in its own little pocket, and a little switch to turn it to blinking mode, or steady, or off. He says "this is the first time I've ever seen a PURSE that comes with a RECHARGER." Also, out of the blue, his dad sent us a check to substantially help with the basement water-abatement fix that we are having done in a couple of weeks!
Now we are going to sit around and read and let the cats punish us for having abandoned them overnight.
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Date: 2006-12-27 04:51 am (UTC)no subject
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