It was a good Christmas.
This was the first year that Elizabeth was in the Christmas mode that I remember so well from my childhood: super excited and present-crazed. She emptied her stocking before I even knew it and had very difficult time waiting until after breakfast to start shredding the wrapping paper.
Grandma came over, of course, and knocked it out of the park with her presents: Pillow Pets for the girls (cat and unicorn); extremely luxurious Mason Pearson hairbrush for Barb; an under-the-helmet beanie for me, to keep my ears and noggin warm on cold winter bike commutes. The Pillow Pets thing was weird because none of us adults had ever heard of Pillow Pets -- Grandma just thought the girls would appreciate stuffed animals big enough to be used as pillows -- and yet they're an actual thing that exists and that kids really like. The Swan boys next door, for instance, have two apiece, and brag about it. So the kids were clutching their Pillow Pets all day long, and Elizabeth requested a comb to groom "Uni," as she christened her pet. Barb brushed the girls's hair with the Mason Pearson and, no hype, their hair looked better than ever. (I guess sometimes expensive things are expensive for a reason.)
We gave Grandma a framed picture of the family that we took at Bette's Place last summer -- only Travis wasn't in it. It was beautiful (and gratifying) to see Mom burst into tears when she unwrapped it. "All my favorite people!" she cried. Well done, Barb.
The plan was to go to Jen and Elwood's for dinner, but there was so much snow on the mountain where they live that they warned us off. Everyone was disappointed and for a while Barb and I were despairing of surviving the day without playmates for the girls. However, Uncle Mark and Aunt Mary's gift of a bug-catching kit saved the day. We used it to get the girls out into the cold and rain, and the fresh air did everyone a world of good. We collected various worms and a snail and a spider and some flying insect -- not bad for December in Oregon! Of course, a couple of the creepy crawlies escaped after being brought inside, but that was sort of inevitable. And well worth it: Barb and I were both fearful we'd go mad until we spent some time out of doors. The cold air and the rain were like a tonic, and we came back into the house feeling that it was warm and cozy rather than stuffy and claustrophobic.
Suzanne got a balance bike from Grandpa -- a very cool wooden model. She loved it but needs to grow an inch or two before it'll be useful. Elizabeth could use it, but so far whenever Elizabeth so much as looks at it Suzanne bares her teeth and emits a growl like a threatened lynx .
Santa got Elizabeth a little shelf and a lamp. She actually asked Santa for these things (well, a bedside table and a lamp, but it'd have to be kind of a tall table as she now sleeps in a top bunk). The shelf is one of those little corner jobbies. The packaging promised a "15 minute installation," something I found bitterly amusing after spending well over an hour fixing it to the wall. But it's great and she loves it. Hopefully, the lamp over which she has control won't be too big a problem with bedtime. We'll see. What Santa giveth, parents can taketh away.
We spoke briefly with Uncles Mark and Scott, and Grandpa. That was the one part of the day I could have used more of, but a little is better than none.
This year more than any other I felt stressed by the calculus of Christmas: do we have enough presents for each girl; do the presents balance out; does Santa have to give Elizabeth what she asked for?; etc. etc. Barb tried to get me to relax about it, but I didn't, or couldn't. Now having been through it, I'm prepared to try to be more hands-off next year. Kids are just so mercurial I'm not sure my efforts matter. At one point today, after Suzanne had done something Elizabeth didn't like (e.g., destroy her newly built Lego structure for the tenth time), Elizabeth pouted and said, "This wasn't a very merry Christmas at all!" Ten minutes later she's singing about how she can't believe what a great Christmas it was and she wished tomorrow was Christmas, too. I definitely detected some jealousy on Elizabeth's part (Suzanne got a really big present -- the bike -- and she didn't), but on the other hand Elizabeth loves all the presents she got, and she got a lot.
It's now almost ten p.m. and the girls are finally asleep -- I think Barb may have fallen asleep too, in her struggle to pacify Suzanne -- and I am at peace and feeling perfectly contented with the day that we all looked so forward too, and which is now past.
Well, almost perfectly contented: a white Christmas sure would have been nice!
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| The tree in its pristine glory. |
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| Grandma getting verklempt as she sees the family picture. |
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| The girls in their new PJs. Thanks Aunt Lucy and Uncle Carl! |
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| Elizabeth in her element. |
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| Unwrapping the life-saving bugcatching kit. |
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| Suzanne brushing Grandma's hair with the Mason Pearson. Even though Elizabeth and Grandma are so much alike, I think Suzanne and Grandma may have a closer bond. They're crazy about each other. |
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| Towards the end of the evening: Suzanne is wearing her bug holder and her new underpants; inside the underpants (if you can see that bulge in the front) is the other, smaller, bug-sample bottle that has actual bugs and worms in it. In her panties! It reminds me of a story I read about Darwin. As a boy he loved to capture bugs and study them. One day, he had a bug in each hand when he saw another that he wanted. So he popped one of the bugs from his hands into his mouth and kept it there (alive!) while he chased and caught the third bug. Now that's dedication to science, and so is putting a bug jar full of worms down your panties. |
