Eight Christmases of Peace on Earth and Good Will to Men (on Whom His Favor Rests)
Monday, December 26, 2005
(11:32am) Another Christmas had come and gone. And there had been eight celebrations. Christmas #1 – a brief opening of gifts for Collette from OLeif. Christmas #2 – a short three hours at Grandpa Snicketts’ where they all received gift cards and heard of Amanda’s latest two months of work in Vienna… (that was Saturday morning and Mom and Linnea could not attend (as they had bad colds and did not wish to expose Uncle Fred and Joe was at work).
That afternoon and evening was spent at the Combs’, Christmas #3 – the same comfortable, relaxing, and wholesome Christmas celebration. This time, there was included a session of party crackers from Grandma, each containing a whistle. Eight different pitches provided a symphony of Christmas tunes and much guffawing, directed by OLeif. Even the dads participated, laughing at one another from across the whistle choir.
Earlier, during gifts, Frances received a marshmallow blow-gun and began whizzing marshmallows around the room, with the aid of Joe and Linus.
When harassed by Uncle Mo to try and tag him with a marshmallow, Linus laughed aloud, saying, “Hey, I don’t need anybody’s guff, ok?”
“Guff?” Uncle Mo was pelted with a marshmallow on the shoulder, “Where’d you learn guff?”
“My friend, Travis,” Linus looked for more marshmallows to fire.
“Hey, Collette,” Linus and Joe beckoned to her from the other side of the Christmas tree.
“The marshmallows!” Linus whispered loudly, while Joe pointed to the bag sitting next to her.
Collette passed them to OLeif who passed them to Linus behind the Christmas tree.
“Hey! I got scalped!” Uncle Mo rubbed the bald spot on his head as the boys continued to launch sugary missiles.
Meanwhile, Uncle Mo and Lucia began a Tae Kwon Do match in the kitchen while Aunt Petunia, Grandma, and Mom set out muscacholli, vegetable pizza, and fried cheese. Downstairs, the kids played around and Frances and Linnea worked through Winnie the Pooh’s adventures on Gameboy. As Frances took his turn playing, Linnea talked to Uncle Mo while rocking herself backwards on the comfy black rocker:
“We went to a coffee shop,” she said matter-of-factly, “and I gave Frances four dollars to get me a drink and I wanted a small, but he got me a large, and spent all my money…”
She kept rocking forwards and all the way back to the floor, her new ponytail holders from Aunt Petunia swishing with her pigtails in purple ribbon on one side and green ribbon on the other.
That night, after the gathering, OLeif and Collette briefly dropped by the Pretzel’s old house, along with the rest of the Silverspoons, to enjoy some time with Mr. Pretzel and the kids, and the Humble and Ernie families – Christmas #4. Shepherd and Malaya had just returned that day from the honeymoon cruise to Cozumel, Jamaica, Costa Rica, etc. Malaya’s hair was still braided like the natives’. Mr. Pretzel was looking quite sad but he was encouraged to be around friends. Mercy was looking beautiful in an embroidered red silk spaghetti-strap top and Santa Clause hat, laughing a good deal, but bemoaning the fact that she had not been able to speak with Bob in two weeks. She drank punch with cranberries and was relating the story about how she had been sick to her stomach after drinking three 1/3-full glasses of red wine with Bob’s family earlier in the fall. It was so good to see them all again.
Christmas #5 was spent at the house with everyone opening gifts around the Christmas tree. Dad received an iPod from Ligonier and Spongebob slippers from Carrie. Mom – a basket of comfort foods (including a late-mixer and biscotti), a fuzzy rose robe (like Collette’s), candles, “Sense and Sensibility,” etc. from Carrie. OLeif received a television remote-control watch from Carrie-Bri and Frances practically screamed over his rapid fire nerf gun from Mom and Dad. Carrie received the sheet music for “Les Miserables” and “Man of La Mancha” from OLeif and Collette, Linnea – Belgian chocolate seashells, a miniature Felicity doll and book from Collette and OLeif, a one thousand-piece army Lego set from Carrie, and a bag of magnetic black rocks from Rose, and Frances almost died and went to heaven when he opened Carrie-Bri’s gift:
“My very own cell-a-phone!” He exclaimed.
It was the latest Fire-fly, an emergency phone, from Miss Safety herself. Rose received a bunny-tail scarf from Carrie, and Linnea passed out her own gifts of sweets and a gold-sequined box for Carrie. Joe opened a black-edition “Need for Speed” computer game from Carrie, and there was a special 3-ingredient cook book from Mom and Dad to Collette and OLeif. Joe had purchased a surround-sound system for the entire family. And Rose had two soaps (roses and lemon verbena) and a bead catalog from OLeif and Collette. There were so many presents passed around, that by the time they sat down for Canadian bacon and scrambled eggs before Christmas #6 at church, Collette had rather forgotten what everyone had received.
Christmas #7 was with the Silverspoons over shrimp in ice, fried shrimp, chicken and buttered rice, good white rolls, and Asian cabbage salad.
“We must eat strange holidays foods for you, Collette,” Denae thought aloud, looking at the spread.
There was also a set of salt and pepper shakers from the boys, which they were most excited to give, and OLeif in particular was most excited to receive. And the gift of the new washer and dryer was given to them from Theodore and Denae. Meanwhile, the new hard-drive for the boys (including all of OLeif’s music) was installed on the computer downstairs, while the boys worked on Izzy’s latest electronic Lego set.
“It looks like you’re doing open-heart surgery,” Curly was saying, as Izzy worked on a piece with wires and such protruding throughout.
“What? You’re being silly, Curly.”
“No, really, it looks like a heart,” Curly insisted, lying on the ground in his good church clothes.
“Go away, Curly. You know, Collette may write about this in her book.”
“You never know,” Collette responded “mysteriously” from the big chair by the fire, which Theodore had positioned for her – (it was a cold day).
Meanwhile, at lunch, OLeif and Curly discussed Linnea’s presents from Mom and Dad.
“It was like Polly Pocket world,” OLeif was saying. “Everything Polly Pocket.”
To Collette’s surprise, both boys new what Polly Pockets were, without her explanation.
“More like Polly Pocket universe,” Curly laughed, after OLeif had described the number of Polly Pocket packages which Linnea had received.
And they managed to finish the meal without Curly suffocating from the shrimp – he had an allergic reaction. At one moment, he felt his throat begin to swell (as opposed to his lips which were thus adversely affected several years prior). But a cold drink remedied the predicament, and the matter was forgotten.
Christmas #8 was the last Christmas of that year, spent at the Blacks’ in New Town – a lovely house with warm country yellow walls and a Christmas tree laced in cranberries. Bristol was missing (as he was working at Lambert, fueling the planes), Carrie was at home with paper deadlines (the first Christmas she had ever missed in her entire life), Uncle Balthasar and Aunt Tulli had spent several days in London while Uncle Balthasar traveled for the FOX, and they all joked around and talked about the happenings of the year over dinner and dessert (including tiramisu) while Uncle Balthasar caused general mischief as usual. Meanwhile, OLeif, Collette, Samwise, Rose, and Linnea played cards (“President”) sometimes with Brit helping Linnea. And Judah was there with a bush of Australian blond hair – he was heading back down under for another year after the holidays. And Collette and Carrie-Bri officially gave up on “Waltzing Matilda.” Then a peppermint pig was passed around in a bag with a silver hammer to break it apart and everyone took a piece and had some good laughs (a Victorian tradition) over the situation. It was a mostly satisfying evening, but yet another Christmas that Collette regretted not having taken greater efforts when she was younger to spend more time with her extended family. They were all wonderful people.