Merry Christmas From the Riverside!

It was sunny, cold, and clear when I awoke this morning. I wrote in my journal and read Christmas After All before I finally got up, got dressed, and opened my remaining presents from Linda and James Young. They gave me Clara's Kitchen, a collection of Depression-era recipes written by a woman who lived through the era, and a folksy snowman pin. (The latter was placed in my stocking so I'd have a "stocking stuffer.")

I ran A Christmas Story as I took my annual holiday portraits of my American Girl dolls (adding the Animator's Collection Toddlers into the mix this year). There are few people out there who can't relate to the story of one boy's holiday quest to get what he sees as the ultimate gift - a BB gun. His mom (Melinda Dillon) repeatedly says that's a bad idea. His dad (Darren McGavin) doesn't seem to notice much besides their smoking furnace and his "major award." Not to mention, Ralphie (Peter Billingsley) may not survive childhood pitfalls like bullies, commercials disguised as kids' shows, and blurting out blue language in front of parents long enough to make it to Christmas Day!

This is must-see Christmas viewing. While I believe this is set around 1939 or 1940 (from the references to The Wizard of Oz and the Little Orphan Annie radio show), the story is timeless.

(Oh, and here's the AG and DAC portraits: Christmas at the Riverside Rest 2012)

Switched to the first half of A Disney Channel Christmas while having a quick breakfast of an apple and two slices of bread with strawberry fruit spread. Mom called briefly to say "Merry Christmas!" and "We missed you last night!" She, Dad, Keefe, and Vicki were going to open their remaining presents, then have Dad's famous breakfast.

I opened the door to the apartment to see how cold it was...and found a surprise hanging on the door with my wreath. My neighbor Richard and his family had left me a bag of goodies sometime between last night and this morning. (They may have done it last night, and it was too dark - and I was too tired - to notice it.) The bag contained two smaller plastic bags of cookies and of chocolate bark - one with sprinkles, one with almonds, and one with dried fruit and nuts. I sampled some as the phone rang. Jessa was on her way to pick me up and take us to Rose's apartment.

Jessa and I did a lot of traveling today. We first headed to Rose's big Christmas Day brunch. She not only invited Dad, Jodie, and the two of us, but Craig's parents, his brother and his brother's girlfriend, their beautiful old golden retriever Grace, and Jodie's sons TJ and Jesse and Jesse's girlfriend Dana as well. Rose and Craig's apartment in Audubon isn't large, but there was just enough room to move around. The three dogs (Rose's miniature pincher Kelsey and Craig's sweet mutt Toby, along with Grace) kept trying to beg food from everyone...and who could blame them, given the spread Rose put out? There was a vegetable tray, a fruit tray, two different vegetable dips, a sweet Cool Whip dip, Jodie's heavenly French toast casserole, a chocolate chip Bundt cake, seafood salad, and hot pork with cheese on fresh rolls.

My Secret Santa was Craig. He gave me some new workout clothes. My old workout and yoga gear was getting worn. I received a beautiful new L.L Bean coat from Mom...but it was too small. I'm between sizes now. I'll have to send it back to L.L Bean later this week.

(Oh, and Rose said she got Keefe for her Secret Santa. She gave him some nice ties. Apparently, he wanted some for his dress uniform.)

Khai was so cute in his Christmas-themed footie pajamas. I gave him three books for his mommy to read to him - the original Berenstain Bears story The Bike Lesson, the classic Sesame Street Golden Book The Monster at the End of This Book, and a large book with several stories about Mickey and Minnie Mouse. One set of grandparents gave him a remote control car. He got a remote-control Thomas the Tank Engine from the other set. (Not a "green choo choo," but close enough.) He played with his new toys while the rest of us watched the Disney's Theme Parks Christmas Parade and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? on ABC.

Jessa and I finally moved on around 1:30. There was no traffic whatsoever as we headed down the Black Horse Pike to Chews Landing, home of our cousin Samantha and her family. Samantha was laying back with a headache, but everyone else was playing with toys in the living room. Faith just got her first American Girl doll (a modern, as far as I could tell) for her birthday. I thought it was the perfect time to give her the historical books. My best friend Lauren sent me a pile of AG historical books last week, but I already had most of them. Samantha was delighted - they're something she and Faith can read together. The boys liked their chess set, too. I spent the next hour listening to Faith rattle off the name of every My Little Pony she owned (she adores horses in general and the new Pony show in particular - her new zebra character glows in the dark). Jessa watched Matt and Ethan play a WWE game on the Wii.

We arrived at Mark and Vanessa's house in Westmont around quarter of 4. Vanessa was working on dinner; Mark was doing something on his computer. We chatted with Vanessa's daughter and Jessa's long-time best friend Brittany and played with her cat, Finn. Finn was a sleek, pretty black-and-white cat who seemed to enjoy the attention. The three of us eventually joined Mark downstairs and ended up watching shows on Nickelodeon - iCarly (a Wonderful Life variant - Carly wishes her brother was more normal, then very much regrets it), Victorious (Tori agonizes over what to get her best friend for a Secret Santa gift), and a slew of Spongebob Squarepants episodes.

This included Spongebob's holiday episode. Spongebob wants to bring a bit of Christmas cheer to Bikini Bottom after his squirrel friend Sandy describes the holidays. His deadpan neighbor Squidward thinks it's a load of hogwash...until he sees how upset Spongebob is when Santa doesn't come and learns a lesson in the Christmas spirit.

Vanessa's dinner included grilled asparagus, a succulent rib roast, home-made macaroni and cheese, corn, and mashed potatoes. I was still fairly full from Rose's spread and settled on the first three. I'm not a big fan of mashed white potatoes anyway. Everything was delicious, especially the rib roast.

Jessa drove me home shortly after dinner ended. When I got in, I couldn't help feeling a bit...empty. Oh, I had fun today. I'm glad I got to spend time with my family and received some lovely gifts, some of which I didn't expect. I just feel left out sometimes. I'm the only 30-something in the family who isn't married, in a relationship, and/or has kids. Everyone is either younger than me, older than me, or they have a family. Big holidays are hard when you're a family of one.

At any rate, I hope you and your family and friends had a wonderful Christmas Day!