- Uncomfortable and kind of aimless Christmas Eve
- Lots of food and snacks just about all the time (think cheese)
- Euchre
- Conversations with family we rarely see
- Waking up earlier than I want to (7 am this year)
- Good coffee (with Bailey's Irish Cream, of course)
- crowding round the Christmas tree, the dining room table pushed to one side
- The dog trying to get everyone's attention by repeatedly dropping her slobbery ball in the middle of the pile of discarded paper
- The cats hiding under the tree, trying to steal ribbons and bows and chase balls of paper
- Strangely awkward phone calls to relatives overseas, mainly involving insults thrown back and forth concerning the relative merits and shortfalls of Edinburgh and Glasgow
- More presents than any of us could afford to give
- Still being really happy about getting those presents
- Trying to figure out where to store all the opened presents, while trying to understand how they fit there before they were opened and now wouldn't fit even if you employed a crowbar and a lubricant of some sort
- Moving all the furniture around to fit the two tables neccessary to fit us all in for Christmas eats
- Mum standing at the end of one table, one hand on hip, the other on the back of a chair, counting place settings and chairs, then repeatedly listing all of the guests out loud as though presenting an incantation to create the appropriate space
- Opening Christmas crackers and hearing really bad jokes, then trying to deteremine how best to dispose of the cruddy little useless pieces of plastic that the manufacturer considers a 'prize', and finally being forced to wear the silly paper crowns through the meal, or at the very least until mum (who by this point has had a couple of glasses of wine during dinner preparation) is distracted by one of the shiny toy prizes and looks away from the dinner table long enough for you to remove the hat and tear it into teeny tiny little pieces
- watching lots of movies
So, overall, it's really good and really pretty bad. But it's Christmas at home, and I'm glad I'm here. I can't imagine it any other way. And here's my Christmas present to anyone here today:
It's a perfect euchre hand, as dealt to my brother.
Peace on Earth and Goodwill to all!
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