Christmas Morning
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Puck’s first Christmas. He was already enjoying the new holiday. When unwrapping his toy at the Combs’ the night before, he promptly pulled the bow off the package and stuck it straight into his mouth.
Christmas morning found them at the house around a table of scrambled eggs with bacon and cheese, fried apples, and mini donuts. But there was a problem.
“My ham! What happened to my ham?” Mom asked, as she rummaged through the refrigerator.
They soon came to the conclusion that it had, like several of the other dishes on Sunday, been set in the garage to be chilled. And, when the garage door had been left open, some wild animal must have torn off with it.
“Well, it will be the animals’ Christmas gift from us,” said Dad.
“Yeah, Dad, you spent more on them than me,” Carrie teased. “Let’s go open presents.”
The next half-hour was spent around the living room. By the time the opening had concluded, the room was piled high in wrappings and bows. And Linnea had been presented with no less than seven Webkinz. Not much later, it was time to wrap everyone into the car for a saunter over to Grandpa’s where they were, as usual, cordially greeted by Grandpa, Martha, and Amanda. There was an addition – Eriic Merry – Amanda’s fiance. The next two hours were spent listening to the latest from Amanda – the wedding plans, life in D.C., looking for a house, honeymoon preparations…
“Eriic is in charge of all the honeymoon plans,” said Amanda.
“I don’t know why she put me in charge,” said Eriic, “but she did.”
“No, no. He’s doing a great job. Right now it’s between Greece, Italy, and Croatia.”
Eriic, Collette concluded, reminded her vaguely of Bing English. He seemed like a great guy.
The topic of world travels was addressed. Mom had brought the big wall map (which Carrie had mounted on foam board) which had already been passed around at the Snicketts/Black Christmas gathering. Everyone who had been abroad placed a sticker on the location they had visited and signed their names under the corresponding continent in a separate book.
“Now we know, Amanda, that you can’t list every place you’ve been,” Mom laughed.
Amanda had several top secret travels which she could not share. Aside from knowing Russian and German fluently, she had been assigned a third language. No one, not even her parents, knew what it was.
“Well, no,” she said, “I can’t list them all.”
Grandpa was the first of any of the family to have visited Japan. He had been there twelve months during the war.
“Now, Dad, you went past Alaska on your way to Japan, right?” Dad asked Grandpa.
“Well, I did.”
“But you never got seasick, right?”
“No, I never did. Some of the boys were sick. But I never missed a meal at the mess hall.”
After watching “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” (one of Collette’s gifts) back at the house, Collette and Carrie-Bri had Rose try on all her new clothes. Soon, a terrible stink filled the house.
“Trooper!”
By the time the horrific smell had permeated every room, it was assumed that Trooper had been the culprit who found the ham. He was promptly quarantined in the laundry room. An hour later he was released, but the stink continued. Linnea ran around with a can of Lysol deodorizer. Windows were open. Gas masks would have been provided if available.
Then OLeif, Collette, and Puck headed over to the Silverspoon’s for Christmas #5 1/2- 6 1/2 of the year.