Life of Wry

There’s an aspect to Christmas that sort of reminds me of taking finals in college. By the time the day arrives there is nothing left to prepare, you’ve done as much as you can do, it’s time to just let it roll.

Like it or not, Christmas is a major undertaking. Even if you’ve worked to simplify and get down to the essence-est of the holiday–those most basic and cherished things that inspire and feel so right–it’s still a lot of work and it takes good planning. I know I’ve gone on about this before… I’m just so gratified that I’ve found a way to enjoy Christmas again and not feel burdened by it. Let’s hear it for the uber planners! And holy mother of somebody’s god, I’m just so elated when the day arrives and the prep stuff is finally over. We get to just climb aboard and enjoy the day.

It was a great day.

Started early with warmed, crisped, homemade muffins and coffee to accompany stockings…

Happy me..

This was a Mishka’s gift card and the promise of a full Saturday (in January sometime) to spend any way and anywhere I want with Peter (and Jim).

This is a painting by Jim’s mom, Sonia, probably painted when she was a very young woman. Alan found it among some stuff in an attic a couple years ago and passed it along to us.. and I finally framed it and gave it to Jim this year… came out great!

This was goofy, but even a 16-year-old likes silly toys. Table tennis. Literally. Very fun!

For the time being, cookie sheets are providing the best suction for the net posts… but a better solution will probably be small china saucers. They didn’t stick at all to the wood.

Matty and Mike got these wool scarves in a small village in Ireland a couple months ago..as the story goes..

(We discovered instant thank you notes via texted photos… this is the picture I sent to them..)

We hung out at home for a few hours, then headed down to Piedmont to visit Aunt Annita at Piedmont Gardens. She seemed more alert than she had the previous visits though she was very difficult to understand. We’re not sure she knew who we were, but she was gracious and warm. I was so glad Peter got to see her and say a few things. He handled the situation well.

Then on to Monica and Dror’s in Albany. These were the best of a set of not-very-good shots from the evening:

Twins are opening their gifts from us: Dean’s opening a cow bell and tambourine for his new drum set, and Matthew’s about to open some Particle Fever paraphernalia… he’s also a particle physics buff like Peter.

Maita…

Uncle Dean… it must have been hard for him to be there without Annita..

Dror and Alan at dinner…

Peter and Ben at dinner…

And that was about it for pictures worth posting… sorry to John, Marie, Monica and Jim… your pictures were worse.