We opened the presents that had been given to us by friends and sent from Matt's family. Karen sent a suncatcher based on the "angry bluebird" photo. Jeremy had given us a package with instructions on the front explaining that there were three gifts inside, and that one of them should be shared in a "mathematically appropriate" way, and that the other two were to be either joint property, or divided according to our own wishes, but that neither could be used by both of us at the same time. This made much more sense when we opened it. The gift to be shared turned out to be a small roll of bubble wrap ("Ooh! Bubble wrap!" pop!) and the other two were t-shirts - one of the User Friendly dust-puppy, and the other with the HTML tags <BODY> (on the front) and </BODY> (on the back). Matt's family sent us each a book (I think we both want to read both books), an adorable ceramic bowl with snowmen painted on the inside, a set of drinking glasses with snowmen on them, and two sets of dessert-sized plates with Christmas-themed humorours pictures. (Famous places, even - a picture of the Sphinx wearing a Santa hat which read "Sandy Claws" and another with Santa flying his sleigh smack into the Washington Monument reading "Santa Klutz" They were all like that. Very cute!) Matt's dad had sent us each a check. (Matt's putting his into savings because he's saving up for a very expensive present - a new computer - and I'm going to use mine to get a couple of things I'd asked for and didn't get. Never let it be said that I was disappointed by money or gift certificates for Christmas!) After we'd opened the presents, we showered and got dressed and headed over to my parents' house. When we got there around ten, they were getting brunch on the table - grapefruit and sausage and biscuits and bagels. Matt's family tradition is to eat cookies for breakfast, but Christmas is the only time of year with my family that we actually get "real" breakfast! Of course, with the grandparents along, breakfast took a good hour. I was helping my mom put the dishes in the dishwasher when my grandparents went upstairs to brush their teeth. I thought my mom would cry. While they were doing that, Matt and my dad started preparing the standing oven for the turkey.
We finally sat down to open presents around 11:30. My family has a tradition for opening presents, too. We go around the room, taking turns, and each person over the age of about six has to try to guess what's in the package. This leads to some creative wrapping - my mom once received a pair of earrings taped to the lid of a refrigerator box, and there are always several packages with weights and distracting noisemakers. Additionally, because it drives my mom crazy, most of us use our pocketknives to cut carefully through the tape and wrapping paper with surgical precision - as if we have to re-wrap the package when we're done. This almost always makes the present opening take two or three hours. This year, we had to stop every half hour or so while Dad went to set up and then check on the turkey, and so we didn't actually finish until almost 4:30!
I won't list everything, but some of the highlights were: Campaign Cartographer 2 (from Matt), a flag/banner pole, mount, and flags (from my grandparents), an adorable "gumdrop fairy" doll (from my parents - he looks like an old man with wings, draped with candy; all his limbs are strung with wire so you can pose him), a bunch of movies and CDs, and from my folks, a boxspring and mattress set for our guest bed! (We've been planning to take my old double bed frame from my folks' attic and put it in our guest bedroom, but we didn't have a mattress set to put on it.) The presents I'd picked out for people were well-received, too. Dad was duly impressed with his Klein bottle, and Mom was happy with her lucky bamboo. (Though the fun there was in the opening - because the bamboo was settled in water, I'd told her she couldn't tip the box at all, which made it sortof hard for her to guess and heightened the anticipation.) Matt liked all the silly presents I got for him, too.
After we'd finished opening presents, it was only a couple of hours until dinner, which was just wonderful. Turkey and stuffing and broccoli and carrots and mashed potatoes and everything a holiday dinner should have, in my opinion. I'd made a peppermint cheesecake for dessert, which was loudly applauded - I think I'll have to keep that recipe.
After dinner, Matt and I drove over to K.T.'s to exchange presents with her and Kevin. K.T. showed off her main present from Kevin - the water dragon lizard she'd had her eye on for months. A few days ago, she'd stopped in the pet store to get crickets for Kevin's lizard and it had been gone, and she'd put on this brave "maybe it's for the best" face, but you could tell she was upset. It occurred to me at the time to wonder if maybe Kevin hadn't been the one to have bought it, but I didn't want to suggest it to her - if she'd gotten that hope and then it hadn't been, she'd have been even more upset. But I'm glad it was; she's been raving about how cute this lizard is for months.
At any rate, she and Kevin seemed quite pleased with the Russian tea cups we gave them, and K.T. liked her minor side-presents (she's one of those people who's so easy to shop for that every time I left the house, practically, I kept seeing things I wanted to get her). They gave Matt a t-shirt he'd pointed out a couple of months ago that reads, "God was my co-pilot, but we crashed in the mountains and I had to eat him." I got a t-shirt with this absolutely gorgeous picture of a blue dragon on the back. K.T. was wearing a similar shirt in the same style with a green dragon on it, but between the two, I like the one she gave me better. (Which is just fine, because she likes the one she kept better!)
We sat and chatted with them for a while, and then headed home around 10 - it had been a long day for me!
Yesterday, the plan was the we'd clean up the house, and clear a space for the guest bed in the guest bedroom, and then Matt would drive down to my folks' and help load the mattresses and bed frame into Dad's truck while I stayed home and fixed dinner for the family.
But while I was at the drugstore picking up my prescription refills, Dad called and told Matt that he'd already loaded the truck. (Long-time readers will note that this is the second time he's done this - Matt was going to help him bring our washer/dryer set over to the house when we moved in, and he called first thing in the morning to tell us they were already loaded.) Mom worries that Dad's going to injure himself one of these times, so I fussed at him a little for her. "No sense him driving all the way down here when we're coming to your house for dinner anyway," he said. I think Dad just likes playing with his hand-truck. But when they arrived, at least, Dad let Matt help him unload the truck. Of course, Dad had been so busy fretting over the large and heavy pieces that he'd sortof forgotten to load the support slats... So the bed is here, but you can't sit on it yet. I'll drive over to my folks' today and pick up the slats, and stop at Target and buy some sheets, and Matt and I will finish putting the bed together this evening, and then we'll finally be able to offer overnight guests a room of their own!
I was worried for a while that I didn't have a casserole dish big enough for eight chicken breasts, but then decided to serve the rice on the side. I got to use the new serving dishes my grandparents had given me for Christmas, and at one point during the meal I realized that almost everything we were using - including the dining table and chairs - were gifts less than two years old! Anyway, I tried an experiment for dinner, but it turned out very well, and everyone said they enjoyed it immensely. And there are still two pieces of chicken left over to have for dinner tonight!
So I had a wonderful, fantastic weekend, and I hope yours was great, too!
Now I have to start preparing for the New Year's party!
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