A Very-Merry Christmas

For the first time in several years, I'm thinking 4 or 5, we had a nice, casual, at-home Christmas with my family. After my head injury there were several holiday seasons with me not present, several with my sister and/or mother gone mad, and a couple with Gram sobbing on the balcony in St. Thomas. Mike usually flies to Houston just before Christmas to intercept his sister's visit with their parents- she lives in Tokyo and this is her long vacation to fly to America- and my family often goes to St. Thomas to celebrate with my mother's family.

This year, I asked Mike to stay for my birthday (Christmas Eve) and leave Christmas evening, so he could have the full holiday experience with my side. I asked my family to spend Christmas Eve helping me at the horse rescue as a birthday gift, and for a Christmas morning kringle and bacon feast like we had when we were kids.

I may have missed all the 'big' birthdays- 18, 21- thanks to PTSD etc, but 23 made up for it! We woke up and Mike brought in the gift from his family- a really, really nice orange Le Cruset (sp?) dutch oven that I've been drooling over for years! The moment we walk into my parents' house, they made Mike 'bacon master' based on their ironic sense of Jewish eating. I'd ordered a couple kringles since I knew I wouldn't have time to make them this year, so we ended up having bacon and kringle two mornings in a row. I think I gained 10 lbs! My mom and Katy made a cake and Gram and Alyssa came over to help us eat everything and play some charades.

At 3, we drove up to the rescue and I introduced the horses. Mike's horribley allergic, but he couldn't resist petting Princess, the obese mini, before heading home with Katy to play video games. My dad fell for Winston, who I want to adopt but think he'll find a better placement in the spring. He's just so friggin' cute, and has such a personality! My mom mixed grains (and accidentially gave everyone their morning suppliments, I knew I shouldn't leave her alone...) while my dad helped me throw hay. It was a balmy 25 degrees and my parents had dressed appropriately, but they still whined mildly about the cold. Seriously- it's been in the teens and snowing the past couple of weeks! But they don't usually spend a couple hours hauling feed through the snow... so the mud seemed awful.

Dinner at "George W Bush's favorite Chinese restaurant!" where you have to ask for chopsticks and they look at you funny when you do, but the food's pretty good and pretty cheap. All in all, a wonderful day with the people I love!

Christmas morning Mike and I drove back to Boulder for more kringle and bacon. Mike was shocked at all the gifts under the tree, and even more shocked that a good fraction were to him! With a big family, the numbers add up quickly, and I think he finally understands the massive shopping list each winter! Great t-shirts from the St. Thomas diving club (Kiersten), bizzare hats (Cindy and Pete), and picnic/car blankets from my parents were group highlights. Katy got a microphone for school and money for a keyboard when she gets back (no point in buying one here!) and I got coveralls and a possium wool sweater from Tasmania that's fatally soft! We got mom some bath stuff that she adored, and dad a tie and polo shirt with kangaroo logos that he can wear to AWWA 'casual' events or whatever. My mom 'casually' mentioned to Mike several times that if he decides to really become a part of the family he'll get in on even more gifts. No pressure, of course, but wouldn't he like to officially be my family...

I took Mike to the airport before dinner at Laurie and Alden's. They sold their farm and bought another, and are extremely excited about everything! Alden's sick of growing hay, so their new property will be pastures only, once they re-do the barn. The new owners of their farm are boarding their horses for as long as it takes to get everything done and keeping the boarders that are already there in return for Alden and Miguel, the barn hand, helping them figure out the details of the operation and what hay farming actually involves. Anyhow, it was a nice Christmas dinner after a glorious day.

Today, a long hike to begin re-shedding these pesky holiday pounds!