Boxing day post:
I am sitting here in nice comfy robe that my little sister gave me for Christmas, and just wanted to point out to you all that I have added a new link on the side to Anthony's spankin'-new London blog, which I expect he will update regularly as soon as he is actually IN london with tales of the big city.

one amusing holiday anecdote:

I picked a certain sister, 'D', for KKs this year. (In my family, for the unfamiliar, since there are so many siblings we all just pick a name out of a hat at Thanksgiving to buy a present for instead of scrambling to get something for everyone. Apparently my second brother-in-law has been added this year, although my first one still has not been. Hmm.) ANYway, I was racking my brain for what to get her and I couldn't think of what would be a great gift. I wanted to give her a good one because she is always really good at getting people just what they want, even if they didn't know they wanted it. If that makes sense.
So, I finally decided that I was going to make her one of the cool scarves that I have seen other people wearing, which apparently I can't describe well because no one knows what I am talking about so I won't even attempt...but there was no way I had a chance to get out to the yarn shop and get it done by Christmas, so I decided it would be easier to get her a 'temporary' gift instead (paul told me this was totally lame, and unfortunately he was right...). I remembered how when we were growing up, every year she got a box of chocolate-covered cherries in her stocking because she loved them so much. So, I went to Target and got her a nice box of them (actually spent quite a while with James picking out just which kind to get her), and wrapped them up. (Didn't put her name on the box though, which also caused quite a bit of frustration when I then tried to locate it under the tree Christmas morning.)
Come Christmas brunch, she and Peter and her boyfriend and I were sitting at the table reminiscing, as Johanna had just brought D her stocking. Deirdre says, "Remember how Mom used to always put chocolate-covered cherries in my stocking when we were younger? God, I HATED those!"
Uhhh...
So, when I presented her with her gift, of course it was taken very well. And it was awkward.



Oh, also, I spent christmas eve night at my parents, with Johanna (we got to sleep in the same teeny five-year-old-sized bed). I went to Narnia with Peter and Paul and his sisters, and when we came back around one in the morning she was still up and going. Very sugared up, she told me (she said she had eaten a plateful of cookies and was SOOO EXCITED!!! SANTA IS COMING!!! (better than the day before, when Deirdre told her that she heard santa had died...) Anyway, so she was bouncing off the walls, but we had to contain it in her bedroom...so until after 2:30 in the morning we were bouncing on the beds and jumping and yelling about how it was CHRISTMAS!! AND SANTA WAS COMING!!! and playing frisbee and finding waldo and drawing pictures and reading books and bouncing around some more (see, her logic was that since we were in the room with the door closed no one would know we were up...). We also watched the streets until no more cars came, because of course santa wouldn't come if there were cars out...
So, after we remembered to put some cookies and milk out (of COURSE!! THAT'S why Santa hadn't come yet!!), I FINALLY convinced her to climb into bed and "pretend we were asleep". After 6 more games, of course. So we got in bed and i began telling her this old bedtime story about the three goats named Andrew, Billy, and Birthday Guy, but I was falling asleep, so I announced that we were playing the "lie-still-for-five-minutes-in-the-dark-with-our-eyes-closed game," which, amazingly, she agreed to play. I think she was still talking to me half an hour later, though, when i was sound asleep, because others could hear her.

The next morning at 10 am I awoke to a five-year-old jumping on my chest and pounding me saying "Wake up!! Wake up!! It's CHRISTMAS!!!!" So I got out of bed and jumped up and down and yelled too, and she looked at me disapprovingly and said, "Mary. Don't get TOO excited! We don't want to wake EVERYONE up." Haha. (She, in addition, had me for a KK even though she is a little liar and told me it was Sheila and told me all about how she helped pick it out and wrap it up, quite an elaborate tale for a five-year-old. But Deirdre said that when she picked my name, Johanna informed Deirdre that she didn't want me because "she always gets WAY too excited about EVERYTHING." Thanks Johanna.

Taking my leave to enjoy my robe and get working on this christmas gift.