CHRISTMAS EVE
Drove to my parents' house. During the drive, I received a phone call from Amy. It was actually amusing to hear her mortification through her larangitis. (Background: her dad owns a car dealership and periodically drives cars from the dealership home, kind of using them to advertise to the neighborhood. This particular day, he had a big blue 2003 F-150 in his driveway.) Needless to say, Amy backed into this hard-to-miss-blue-mountain of a vehicle. She ended up putting two small dents in the truck but she did further damage the back end of her PT cruiser (she was rear-ended six months ago and never had the damage fixed). Her dad wasn't mad at her though, apparently her mom has done the same thing several times.
There is something amazing about the living room in my parents' house, you sit down and within fifteen minutes you are napping. I'm sure its an amusing sight to see us all napping in the living room. Six adults stretched out on the sofa, recliners, and floor. Its just one more small thing that I miss about home: the feeling of overwhelming comfort.
Holiday dinners are always amazing at my mom's dinner table. This one was exceptionally good though. Christmas Eve dinner on a Hanukah table cloth with the menorah lit and traditional Jewish food.
After dinner, my married, twenty-five year old brother decided that we should all open up one present in honor of Hanukah even though none of us had planned for this and didn't have anything prepared. He begged long enough to convince my mom that one present from under the Christmas tree would satisfy us. So we got to open our big presents from Grandma DeeDot. Dave and Beth, and Melanie got waffle makers and I got a DVD player. I can finally enjoy the advances made in movie-viewing technology.
Sleeping arrangements were interesting since we've all moved out and mom has remodeled all of our bedrooms. My room got turned into mom's craft 'crap' and storage room. Melanie's room was turned into the guest room and that is where David and Beth sleep with they visit. David's room was turned into Dad's Man-Room, and that is where I sleep when I visit. Since all of us were staying, someone was going to have to sleep on a mattress in the living room. In my mind, that person should be Melanie because she's the youngest. However, she didn't see things this way. She laid claim on the Man-Room by putting her bad in there and talking on the phone in there for an hour before we all headed down the hall to bed. So I walk down the hall when I'm ready to collapse from exhaustion to find her camped out where I want to sleep, talking on the phone with her pseudo-boyfriend (the marine from the internet). I ask her politely to move. She snidely remarks that she was there first and her bag was already in there. So like the mature 22 year old that I am, I picked up her bag and threw it down the call, got my stuff and put it in the room and asked her to leave again. She yelled that I'm a bitch to mom and stomped down the hall. Thankfully, all was forgotten after some good sleep...
CHRISTMAS DAY
For the first time in the twenty-two years of my life, we were allowed to open our Christmas presents in our pajamas (at the request of my sister-in-law). For those of my readers who might view this as strange, let me elaborate a little. Every Christmas, for as long as I can remember, no matter how early we woke up, we had to get dressed and eat breakfast and wait for grandparents to come over before opening presents. And when we did finally get to open presents, every year a different Santa was chosen to hand out the presents from under the tree and one present was opened at a time so we could all admire what was given to each person. This year, we each took turns handing out, in rounds, the bundles we had put together for each person. The first round, Grandma handed out her presents, the next round Melanie handed out hers, then me, and so on. Although we have a tradition of organization for a holiday that is known for its gift chaos, the patterns and traditions of our family are a great comfort and an immense source of happiness.
I love holidays at my mom's house. The food especially. If only I could learn the recipes for my favorite comfort foods.
Drove to my parents' house. During the drive, I received a phone call from Amy. It was actually amusing to hear her mortification through her larangitis. (Background: her dad owns a car dealership and periodically drives cars from the dealership home, kind of using them to advertise to the neighborhood. This particular day, he had a big blue 2003 F-150 in his driveway.) Needless to say, Amy backed into this hard-to-miss-blue-mountain of a vehicle. She ended up putting two small dents in the truck but she did further damage the back end of her PT cruiser (she was rear-ended six months ago and never had the damage fixed). Her dad wasn't mad at her though, apparently her mom has done the same thing several times.
There is something amazing about the living room in my parents' house, you sit down and within fifteen minutes you are napping. I'm sure its an amusing sight to see us all napping in the living room. Six adults stretched out on the sofa, recliners, and floor. Its just one more small thing that I miss about home: the feeling of overwhelming comfort.
Holiday dinners are always amazing at my mom's dinner table. This one was exceptionally good though. Christmas Eve dinner on a Hanukah table cloth with the menorah lit and traditional Jewish food.
After dinner, my married, twenty-five year old brother decided that we should all open up one present in honor of Hanukah even though none of us had planned for this and didn't have anything prepared. He begged long enough to convince my mom that one present from under the Christmas tree would satisfy us. So we got to open our big presents from Grandma DeeDot. Dave and Beth, and Melanie got waffle makers and I got a DVD player. I can finally enjoy the advances made in movie-viewing technology.
Sleeping arrangements were interesting since we've all moved out and mom has remodeled all of our bedrooms. My room got turned into mom's craft 'crap' and storage room. Melanie's room was turned into the guest room and that is where David and Beth sleep with they visit. David's room was turned into Dad's Man-Room, and that is where I sleep when I visit. Since all of us were staying, someone was going to have to sleep on a mattress in the living room. In my mind, that person should be Melanie because she's the youngest. However, she didn't see things this way. She laid claim on the Man-Room by putting her bad in there and talking on the phone in there for an hour before we all headed down the hall to bed. So I walk down the hall when I'm ready to collapse from exhaustion to find her camped out where I want to sleep, talking on the phone with her pseudo-boyfriend (the marine from the internet). I ask her politely to move. She snidely remarks that she was there first and her bag was already in there. So like the mature 22 year old that I am, I picked up her bag and threw it down the call, got my stuff and put it in the room and asked her to leave again. She yelled that I'm a bitch to mom and stomped down the hall. Thankfully, all was forgotten after some good sleep...
CHRISTMAS DAY
For the first time in the twenty-two years of my life, we were allowed to open our Christmas presents in our pajamas (at the request of my sister-in-law). For those of my readers who might view this as strange, let me elaborate a little. Every Christmas, for as long as I can remember, no matter how early we woke up, we had to get dressed and eat breakfast and wait for grandparents to come over before opening presents. And when we did finally get to open presents, every year a different Santa was chosen to hand out the presents from under the tree and one present was opened at a time so we could all admire what was given to each person. This year, we each took turns handing out, in rounds, the bundles we had put together for each person. The first round, Grandma handed out her presents, the next round Melanie handed out hers, then me, and so on. Although we have a tradition of organization for a holiday that is known for its gift chaos, the patterns and traditions of our family are a great comfort and an immense source of happiness.
I love holidays at my mom's house. The food especially. If only I could learn the recipes for my favorite comfort foods.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home