abka | Entries tagged with christmas

I have some time to myself this Christmas Eve. Thinking of things happy and sad.

Things I'm grateful for:
-my family, their love and support
-the chance to see my parents, sister, and nephew tomorrow, to be together on Christmas
-B.'s family, how they've accepted me and made me part the family
-wonderful friends near and far
-being able to see some of them next week at New Year's!

Things I'm sad about:
-my grandmother whose has advanced Alzheimer's and is in a nursing home. We got an update today, she has been working with a therapist and her walking is better. The Alzheimer's is advanced enough that she is no longer my grandmother; she hasn't recognized anyone for years. So we are content that she is getting good care. If she is walking more steadily there is less risk of her falling and hurting herself. We're trying to make her life as pleasant as possible, even though some times it's hard to know how to do that (other than no pain, obviously). I miss her.

-we're not doing extended-family Christmas on my mom's side this year (the side with the grandmother mentioned above). Schedules just got too crazy. My parents will do a little thing next weekend, but I'll be at New Year's. I see my aunts and uncle regularly now, so that's better, but I will still miss that tradition this year. My one aunt just had her plans canceled (by a man she was interested in and kind of dating, stupid boys) so she will be alone on Christmas. :(

-I'm missing D. pretty badly tonight. Christmas always meant more to me than to him since he didn't grow up with the tradition. It's a time to share with people you love and even though we're not together I still love him and care for him. And I have years of good Christmas memories with him. I'm happy to be with B. and I'm happy to be included in new traditions--his family's--and to share my family's rituals with him. But I am still feeling the loss of my marriage, and with the holiday that loss is more acute.

It's been a time of transitions for me and the holidays are all about tradition. They bump up against each other some times. I'm sure tomorrow will be wonderful and celebratory and loving. Tonight's just a little sad.

Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate and love to all of you.

eta: I'll end on something happy. ( me and the Christmas tree! )

It's the same one as behind the cut, but here's a link to less annoyingly large Christmas tree pic!

Current Mood: melancholy

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The family portion of the holiday was reasonably low key this year (at least for us). My parents arrived around 3pm on the 25th with the u-haul trailer.

( bed drama )

So Friday involved a lot of disassembling/reassembling/assembling of furniture as well as unpacking and moving. There are probably some families who can do this without any yelling or snapping. That is not us, but it all worked out.

I blanked on the idea of Christmas dinner so I hadn't planned. Based on what we had in the house we had homemade bean soup and a spinach salad with bacon vinagrette. It was just the four of us and I used a nice embroidered tablecloth from my MIL and our wedding china so at least it looked festive. Afterwards mom, dad, and I went to DC to my uncle's to visit with some extended family while D. stayed home to do the dishes.

Saturday we drove down to my sister's. Baby Jacob is tons of fun. ( baby details )

( presents, including ones with family memories )

( who our furniture is from )

Sunday I baked biscotti (a Christmas gift for my uncle, my parents are spending the week in VA, then driving to the Upper Valley to have Christmas there), while D. hung out on the couch and watched SGA eps on hulu. D. and I got home Sunday night. A nice, short visit with plenty, but not too much, family time.

This week

bayleaf and I are heading to tribecon and then on our New England roadtrip. :)

Current Mood: loved

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I received several nice things this year, but the best (other than the opportunity to spend time with family and friends which was deeply, deeply wonderful--I'm still on a little bit of a New Year's high if you can't tell) was a project put together by my aunt with help from my other aunt and mother.

It's a Family Recipe Collection Book, one of those commercially available fill it in yourself ones, and myself, my sister, and our two cousins each received one.

What makes it wonderful is it isn't just recipes from my mother and my aunts. They went back into my grandmother's and great-grandmother's boxes and including originals and photocopies of recipes in their own handwriting. And they wrote stories about the different recipes, and included whose handwriting it is in and who submitted it (eg this was from your grandmother's recipe box so probably in her handwriting although it says it was her mother's recipe (her mother was Mural M), it was submitted by your Aunt Beth). And it's not just food, there's the instructions for the play dough that my grandmother made for my youngest aunt to play with that my mom and older aunt remember, etc.

And then the best part:

They collected recipes from all corners of our family. Not just my mother's side, but my father's too, so I have that grandmother's and aunt's recipes, and from my cousins in-laws, and my uncle's side of the family. There are even a couple things from my new brother-in-law's mother and sister! She attached pictures and descriptions of who everyone was too. So I don't think I've met Hazel Gammon, but according to the book she's Alton's mother, and Lee's grandmother (Lee is my cousin Heather's husband so not related by blood). And I have a picture of Hazel so a recipe that Lee grew up eating and has memories of. The originals are divided up by family so I have photocopies of Hazel's recipe (presumably Lee and Heather have the original in their book) and I have the originals from some of my aunts on my dad's side for example. It's really neat to see the geographic diversity (New England, v. midwest, v. Croatia, and now we have some southern things too thanks to the new BIL). There's an entire sub-section on jello-based salads. :)

So amazingly cool!!!!

Now D. and I just have to translate my mother-in-law's recipes for everyone. They're included, but in her handwriting in Croatian. They included stamped and addressed envelopes so we can send them so everyone has a complete record. There are also a few pictures missing that we are told will arrive so we have images of everyone.

My family aren't big cooks but this is just so special, something we will treasure and add to and hopefully pass along. (I don't know how much sauerkraut pie I'll be making though) If you're looking for a really special family gift I would highly recommend it (especially with everyone's handwriting, different recipe cards, and pictures of them).

Current Mood: loved

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What I'm doing on my Christmas Vacation by Amelia

Christmas Day I spent 12 uneventful hours in the car with my parents driving to Maine. Traffic and weather were fine. Music choice less so (Joan Baez, fine, Joan Baez for 8 hours, um okay, other options I nixed were Kris Kristofferson and Michael Bolton. We finally settled on Eric Clapton and the Mama Mia soundtrack. (Yes, my mother is a middle-aged white woman.)

Friday I snuggled with my kitty (the one the ex-boyfriend gave me in highschool, the only remaining childhood pet as the dog and two other cats have died). My dad and I went cross country skiing. We skied a lot when I was in elementary school, but by high school I had switched to downhill. I'm not sure when the last time I went cross country was. Junior High? Maybe? It took more concentration than I remembered, and I fell down once. Conditions weren't great (hard snow since it had rained and frozen a couple days before, also narrow, uneven trail). I didn't get to enjoy too much of the woods since I kept looking at my feet, but eventually I got the hang of it. It was nice to hang out with my dad.

That night I went to A.'s house to hang out with three friends from high school! It was so good to see everyone. A. and E. live in Waterville, and L. is an art historian like me (except she's already employed in a tenture track job) and lives in Mobile.

Saturday my dad left for a church trip to Honduras. I got up and went to see E.'s house and meet her babies. The last time I saw her she was pregnant with baby #1 and now #2 is 2ish. The kids are soooo cute and I got parenting tips to pass on to pregnant sister.

Saturday night pregnant sister arrived after driving 15 hours with BIL and the two dogs. About 30 minutes after they arrived I went out for drinks with E., L., and L.'s sister-in-law. We went to You Know Whose, it was fine. There were some other random people from high school we waved at. I was supposed to see J., but the roads were icy so we rescheduled.

Sunday I was supposed to help my mom usher at church, but since it was the only time I could see J. I bowed out. He picked me up and we went out for coffee. I hadn't seen him since he moved to the West Coast, but it is particularly nice to catch up with him since he is a friend from both highschool and college (in highschool we "dated" briefly, after college he was the best man in our wedding).

That afternoon mom and I hacked at and shoveled away all the ice coating the driveway. Fun, fun, fun! I also finally finished my grading and submitted grades. Now I just have two recommendations to write and syllabus prep for next semester.

Monday I slept in since I had horrid insomnia and I was up until 3am. I futzed around the house with the kitty and the dogs (my sister and BIL had driven to the coast, mom had to work). Tonight we're having lobster from the farmer's market (where it's the same price as chicken at home). Tomorrow it's off to meet up with Denis in the Upper Valley and then Christmas #2! Then New Year's!

Current Mood: cheerful

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Back from Christmas v. 1.0 spent in Virginia with my immediate family at my sister's house. Sister is officially very pregnant and looks and feels great. Everyone is well except me who came down with a nasty headcold Thursday evening.

Felt horrible Friday, and only slightly less horrible Saturday, but we drove down anyway. Better enough today to go to the gym after we got back home. We stopped in Alexandria at that Bosnian/Croatian restaurant on the way home. So yummy.

Christmas 1.0 was lovely. I got to see all the baby stuff (my parents handmade a lovely wooden changing table for them, the crib is beautiful, my sister's MIL bought $500(!) worth of adorable baby clothes, etc.). Mom really liked the earrings I got for her. Dave liked the work shirts (I was nervous, hard to buy for the BIL). Denis bought me an absolutely gorgeous leather briefcase (it's like I'm an adult, professional, something) and a spa gift certificate. I got him a scarf, bag, and two tickets for West Side Story on Monday. I hope it's good. Denis was in West Side Story in highschool (he may have told you this story, we have the VHS tape if you're interested, yes, I've seen it).

I was originally going to stay at my sister's for a couple days, but the sickness put me behind on grading so I'm home until my parents drive up to DC on Wednesday. Then Christmas Day I'm driving with them to Maine because my father is leaving for a church trip to Honduras the next day. I have a day or two in Maine to see highschool friends (yay!). Then next weekend(?) my sister and BIL are driving to Maine (with the two dogs), then the four of us are driving to the Upper Valley. Denis is flying into Manchester and renting a car. Then we will have Christmas v. 2.0 at the relative's (we're not sure when, there's one evening and one morning when almost everyone will be there). Denis can only stay for 24 hours before we are driving down to MA for New Year's. Then a couple days after that we're flying back to DC and I have 2 days to edit my syllabus before classes start again. Got all that? :)

In short: Christmas was awesome, behind on grading, looking forward to more Christmas.

Current Mood: Merry

Tags:

christmas,
family

Happy New Year! Here are some of our holiday pics. There are a couple from DC, then we move to extended-family Christmas in New Hampshire, then back to the DC area for a murder-mystery New Year's party. The holidays were tons of fun It was great to see everyone. For everyone I didn't see I hope your holidays were lovely as well.

Below are three pics, you can see the rest here.

( pics here )

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: Fly Away, Joe Firstman

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Yay! It is Christmas morning in my house today. My family has Christmas whenever people can get together. This year Christmas with my immediate family is today at my house (whenever Denis gets out of the shower, my sister and boyfriend get back from Starbucks, and my parents trek over from my uncle's.) We're also have Christmas with my extended family next Saturday in New Hampshire.

Jury duty is intellectually interesting and emotionally difficult. The other jurors continue to be lovely, interesting, and for-the-most-part rational people so I think it's as good as it could be. I mean if bad things didn't happen to people we wouldn't have to be there.

Friday my parents flew in and we had dinner with them and my uncle at his house. Then six of us (my uncle's friend came too) went to see the Nutcracker at the Kennedy Center. It was really lovely. I hadn't seen the Nutcracker since I was a little girl so it was really fun to see it again. The production was neat and the dancing great. My uncle knows the head of the costume section so afterwards we went backstage. It was fun to see all the sets and props and to stand on the stage.

Yesterday we hung out with my parents at our place until my sister and her boyfriend arrived. We had dinner at my uncle's with two of my cousins who are in town and a bunch of my uncle's friends. There were probably about 15 people and it was a really nice mix of family and people I hadn't met. Tonight we're going out to Notti Bianche.

Merry Christmas!

ETA: My parents and I just got back from Benjamin Britten's Ceremony of Carols at the National Cathedral. Written in 1942 it was performed by the choirs of girls and men with a harpist. The text is in Middle English. It was lovely and haunting, and an interesting change of pace from our family's traditional carols and lights service.

Current Mood: cheerful

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I just an OMG Christmas is in 2 weeks and I haven't bought any presents! moment. Thank goodness for the internet.

If you're stumped on what to give I'd like to give a shoutout to the National Zoo's Adopt a Species program. We got my dad a buffalo last year and he really liked it. All of the gifts come with a picture and a subscription to the zoo's newsletter, and some of them come with a stuffed toy of the animal you're adopting.

I think it's a neat thing. Where else can you buy someone a naked mole-rat or a gollath bird-eating tarantula (or you know a zebra, panda, or lion)?

Current Mood: busy

Tags:

christmas,
gifts

Amelia

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