Oh What A Merry Christmas Day

Christmas Day dawned chilly and clear across the Delaware Valley. I crept to the tree around 8AM to unwrap my December 25th gifts from my friend Linda Young. She gave me the Barry Manilow Great Songs of the Fifties CD (which I put into my stocking so I would have a "stocking stuffer") and two really cool-looking children's adventure books about three kids seeking a group of missing professors, The 7 Professors of the Far North, and the follow-up Flight of the Silver Turtle. I made myself a Christmas Coffee Cake from scratch with whole wheat and unbleached flour, yogurt, applesauce, and various odds and ends I had leftover from cookie baking.

I called the family in Cape May County while the coffee cake baked to wish them "Merry Christmas!" Mom said everything went fine. Skylar loved his Transformers. Keefe loved Hancock. Mom and Dad loved the cookies. The Molasses Roll-Outs were a big hit; Mom said she'd already eaten most of them.

I went over to Dad and Uncle Ken's after I had coffee cake and watched 'Twas the Night Before Christmas and part of Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas. Dad, Jodie, and Jessa were watching Mamma Mia! in their pajamas, having already opened most of their gifts to each other. Jessa gave me two WebKinz, the adorable Otter and a second Cardinal. (She'll be a Christmas decoration; the male Cardinal will stay out year-round.) Bruce gave me money. Jodie gave me bunny slippers.

I opened the gifts from the family in Cape May County while Dad and Jodie took showers and everyone got dressed and had a brunch of tea sandwiches and cookies. Mom and Dad gave me the annual calender (cute folk-art chef pictures this year), a Philadelphia Eagles football ornament, a gingerbread man ornament with long, dangly legs, a lovely "hostess" apron of red floral print fabric, a bread cookbook, and money. Anny and Mike gave me an ornament shaped like a grand piano. Keefe gave me a huge red vase and a red crystal-like paperweight. (God only knows what I'll do with either of them.) Rose and Craig gave me a "recipe box" with three actual recipes and three small lotions with scents based after baked goods.

Mark, Vanessa, and Brittany came over while Jodie was still showering and the rest of us were watching the new Get Smart movie with Steve Carrell. I gave them their cookies. They gave Uncle Ken a neon "bar" sign, Jessa T-shirts with goofy sayings on them (she loves those), Dad an electric wine bottle opener (Dad is a wine connoisseur), and me a WebKinz Lil'Kinz Googles. Jessa and I agreed to join them for dinner later in the afternoon, since Dad and Jodie were eating at Jodie's aunt's house and neither of us know her very well.

Dad, Jodie, Jess, and I (and the Google and Otter) bundled up and packed into Dad's van to visit a few relatives. We first headed up to see Uncle Ken's daughter Samantha and her family. Though her husband David and their children Faith (3), Matt (12), and Ethan (10) were up and around when we arrived, poor Samantha wasn't. David said she had woken up feeling sick and was napping. The kids were just fine; Faith was very cute in her pink and gray sweater. The boys were still playing Wii in their pajamas. David gave me a container of their home-made cookies. I really appreciated that. I'd only kept a few of my own. I gave most of my cookies away as gifts.

Uncle Ken's ex-wife (and Samantha's mother) Jane and her husband live less than five minutes from Samantha, so we made them our next stop. We were only there about a half-hour, long enough to say "hi" and catch up with Jane and Mario and let them exclaim over how different we were and chat about Jessa's senior pictures and her college choices.

After we got home, Jessa and I jumped in Dad's van again (Jodie and Dad said they'd take Jodie's truck to her aunt's house). We stopped briefly at my apartment to drop off my Christmas gifts, then headed over to Mark and Vanessa's. I played Wii Fit and Wii Music with the girls until dinner. Both are interactive games that are exactly what their names say they are. The wildly popular Wii Fit allows you to play various sport games and events and even weighs you via a pad the game comes with. Wii Music allows you to play several music-related games, play along with several songs, and create your own. (And someone at Nintendo has excellent taste in music. One of the songs you can play along with is "Daydream Believer.")

Dinner was really delicious. We had cornish hens (the first time I've had them on Christmas since I was about 12) on a bed of wild rice, home-made stuffing, roasted red potatoes, Vanessa's macaroni and cheese (with lots of burnt cheese on the sides for Mark), steamed collard greens with ham for Vanessa and me (no one else wanted to try them - chickens!), and cranberry sauce, with Chocolate Pecan and Pumpkin Pies for dessert. TBS' 24-hour A Christmas Story marathon ran in the background.

The five of us played Monopoly after dinner. Brittany, who became a die-hard Beatles fan after seeing Across the Universe last year, received a Beatles Monopoly game for Christmas. It's played like ordinary Monopoly, but the "properties" are Beatles English and American albums, "Boardwalk" and "Park Place" are the two studios were the Beatles made their albums, the "railroads" are concert dates, the "Utilities" are stadiums, the cards are "Beatlemania" and "The Fab Four," the cards mention song titles, and you pay the "Taxman" instead of Income Tax. Brittany ended up with an entire side of the board and Mark got the studios; between the two of them and Vanessa not wanting to sell or trade anything, they wiped the rest of us clean. (Especially Jessa, who must have landed in jail at least fifteen times during the course of the game.)

Jessa, Brittany, and I ended up in their upstairs game room, playing Super Smash Brothers Brawl on the Wii for about an hour or so before Jessa and I finally decided we were both tired and it was time to call it quits. We headed out just as Jodie and Bruce, on their way back from Jodie's aunt's, were heading in to say "hi."

I jumped in the shower and went online to chat with Lauren, "adopt" my new Cardinal, and get today's Christmas WebKinz gift. Oh, and meet my three new WebKinz, Holly the Cardinal, Emmett the Otter, and the Google, whom I haven't thought of a name for yet. Holly moved in the Christmas Room with Arizona. I moved Clarabelle to the Star Room, thanks to Holly being WebKinz #60 and coming with the Lunar Landing Bed (which I've wanted to complete that room for a while).

I had a really lovely, if hectic, holiday. Here's hoping all of you had a day that was just as much fun...and shared it with the people you love.