God Bless us, One and all

Last night ought to have been dinner out with my in-law's in-laws. I was going to tried grilled macaroni. (That's what they serve at Macaroni Grill, right? Right?) Turns out, when you dream of a white Christmas, you don't get to leave the house on Christmas eve, especially when you live in the foothills. As we, and the pizza man, were all snowed in, we dug around in the refrigerator and Mama fixed up a fantabulous Chinese feast. There was rice, of course, and scrambled eggs with garlic and hot dogs, chinese vegetables, hairy melon with pork, and tofu and pickled vegetables. Ok, yeah, it doesn't sound good in English. Maybe you had to be there. It was pretty tasty!

 

We got 4 inches of fresh snow last night, and a terribly happy BBJ this morning. She woke up an hour earlier than normal - do you think she knew it was time to open presents! We were cruel, though, and made her wait until all the adults could take their showers. (We're so vain in our old age - we have to look good for the camera!) I called my parents. It was 7:45 their time. Seeing as both brothers are at home this year for Christmas, I assumed they would have been hauled out of bed by then. WRONG. Turns out, I've been missing out all these years - waking my parents up on Christmas morning is really fun! Since they love me, and I direct half of their grandchildren, they forgave me and wished me a Merry Christmas. We had a nice chat.

 

Finally, we were ready to open our presents. My husband, the honorary "elf" doled out all of the presents and we went around the circle, youngest to oldest. BBJ was very, very good at opening her presents - she even waited her turn! When she opened something nice, she exclaimed, "ooh!" and gave her little Chinese sign for Thank you. (Ching-ching: hands clasped in front of you, and shaken up and down twice.) Very impressive! She loved her litle Magnadoodle, and a wooden pull-along toy from Louh Gung's cousins.

 

The day passed quietly. BBJ was uncharacteristically good, and we all had a fabulous Christmas. How was yours?

 

I want to close this post with a short letter to a new friend:

 

Dear Bath Duck -

You are yellow. You are fuzzy. You go "quack quack quack" when we squeeze your fat little stomach. You can swim in the tub with BBJ. BBJ loves you.  

 

I met one of your cousins this past summer, at Cousin E's house. He must have been your evil twin. He looked a lot like you, but came second-hand from a garage sale. I think he must have had one too many knocks to the head. He was posessed with a quacking spirit and would start singing in the middle of the night, when no one (mortal) was around to give him hugs. What I'm trying to say is that I have met the Black Sheep in your family, and I do not hold it against you. Here's to many happy baths!

 

Sincerely,

Mommy

 

PS - If you start quacking in the middle of the night, you get to join your cousin in my sister's bathroom drawer. I'm sure it will not come to that. Please tell your cousin, if he will stop singing arias at two in the morning, he may join us for a swim.

 

PPS - Thanks, Sophie - BBJ loves her new toy!!!!! He took his inaugural swim tonight and was a hit!

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