Christmas morning arrived when Mackie tiptoed into the bedroom at 7:00 to inform us it was time to get up.  He and Aran had already sorted all the presents.  A flurry of opening followed.  I got a huge sushi knife and much-needed clothes and the entire family got the Simpsons version of the Scene It game.  Mwah ha ha!

I fed Aran's obsession with Monty Python by giving him a can of Spam, which he's never eaten before.  He had some with his breakfast pancakes.

Later in the afternoon we went over to my in-laws for food and more gifting.  Deliciousness all around!  Mackie got a pogo stick, something he'd been agitating for since last summer.  Aran got MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL on DVD.  He's watched it about fourteen times already.

The next day we drove up to my mother's for a celebration.  It was a crowded house, with aunts and uncles and cousins and siblings and nieces and nephews.  And food, food, food.

The gifting was fun.  I received Terry Pratchett's latest book, a whole mess of organic granola, and The Charity Donation.  Some of my family members, you see, decided to trade tailored charitable donations this year instead of buying gifts.  I drew my brother Paul.  Because Paul once packed a suitcase and started down the road to running away when he was six, I donated money in his name to Covenant House, a shelter for runaway youth.  In memory of my childhood on a farm, my sister-in-law Kristi made a donation for me to Heifer International, which gives farm animals for hungry people to raise.  Kala donated money to a pet shelter in the name of Kristi's recently-deceased dog, which made Kristi cry, so Kala won.

We also had a little celebration for Mackie and Caleb (my nephew), who have birthdays.  Mackie is now eight!

Everything ended with a snow-free drive home, so yay!

Such a busy holiday season!  Monday was Yule.  Mackie requested lasagna for supper, which Kala made.  And all day Maksim stoutly maintained that he would stay near me so I wouldn't have to disappear when Mother Berchta showed up.  After supper we welcomed the God back into the world by putting his statue back on the altar and lighting candles all around the darkened house.   When the pounding came at the door, I let Berchta in and Mackie dove under the afghan on the sofa.  Berchta grumbled and griped and distributed gifts, then stomped away.

Sometimes you have to confuse the children to keep them on their toes.

Gifts were opened and enjoyed.  The boys' favorite presents were little digital camcorders, complete with little memory chips.  (Amazing how something the size of my thumbnail holds more memory than my entire first computer.)

The days are officially getting longer!

For Sunday we'd promised Maksim that we'd get the Yule tree, and so we did.

First we had to straighten up and arrange various bits of furniture and bring the boxes up from the basement. Then we went off to get a tree. This was lots easier with a van! We found The Perfect Tree at the farmer's market we usually go to and got it set up with minimal fuss. Decorating followed.

By now the boys are old pros at it. They set up the house decorations wile Kala and I did the lights, and then it was ornaments and other stuff. It all looks luvverly!

Later that afternoon, we went to Kala's grandmother's house.  We'd brought just a couple presents.  Everyone was doing the same thing--cutting back. Partly it's economics and partly it's a "How much stuff do we really need?" thing.

And then my mother- and father-in-law showed up.  The back seat, passenger seat, and trunk of their car were =crammed= with presents!  Filled! Stuffed!  It took many, many trips to bring it all in!  We were laughing, half in shock and half in "What the heck is going on?"  Some phrases included:

"This is cutting back?"

"Trying to jumpstart the economy all by yourself, are you?"

"I definitely married into the right family!"

The presents took up most of the living room floor space, and we used up considerable time handing them all out.  There were boxes and bags and packages everywhere.  You could have built a respectable fort out of them all.

Finally, they were all handed out and we started opening.  And then we got what was going on.  Here's a partial list of the gifts we got from my in-laws this year:

--Six extra-large jars of peanut butter
--Three cases of Capri Sun drink packs
--Three cases of macaroni and cheese packages
--A case of 100 packs of cheese and cracker sandwich snacks
--1 large bag of dog food
--Three bags of pens, construction paper, colored pencils, pencils, and other school supplies
--A case of bar soap
--A case of Kleenex travel packets
--Several cans of shaving cream and packages of razors
--Two economy-size containers of shampoo and conditioner
--Two economy-size containers of hand lotion

There was more, but you get the idea.  Everything would get used or used up or eaten.  It was the practical Christmas!  What a lovely idea!

The boys also got a few other gifts.  Aran and Sasha both got teenager cologne sets.  (Eep!)  Mackie got a toy shaving set, complete with shaving cream can that dispenses real shaving cream.  He was dying to use it, and when we got home, he begged me to show him how, and the bathroom was filled with extreme cuteness.

Then it was more eating and socializing and a very easy drive home.  The hard part was figuring out where to store all the stuff!  (Such hardships we have . . . )

This morning Mackie came into our room at 7:30.  "Daddy, it's Christmas!"

I was surprised.  We'd told the boys they could get us up at 7:00.

At any rate, we dove into the presents.  Aran was most captivated by his SONIC THE HEDGEHOG video, though I'm hoping the teaching chess set I got him will interest him once I show him how it works.  Sasha devoured his World of Warcraft manga.  Mackie got Battleship, since he likes board games quite a lot.

I got the game Talisman, some much-needed pajamas, and more equipment for making sushi.  Kala got the next season of Simpsons videos, some skin care products she asked for, a Hello, Kitty! wall calendar, and a Simpsons desk calendar.

The weather was cold and crisp and clear, for a wonder!  Sam the Dog could actually go outside for more than a few seconds.

The gathering at my mother's was quite festive.  Lots of food and family, including my cousins Mark (who lives in Grand Rapids now) and Dave (who lives in San Diego).  After a great deal of eating and socializing, we opened presents.

The younger kids drew each others names for gifts, which basically meant our three boys got presents for and from their three cousins.  Sasha gave Jason a Yahtzee game, Aran gave Caleb a remote control robot, and Mackie gave Brie a dozen monster-size cookies he'd baked himself.

The adults also drew names among themselves.  In addition, we always have some sort of theme.  One year it was pictures.  Another year it was gifts from Michigan.  This year the theme was books.  (I promised not to give any of mine.)  And we had a weird convergence.

Almost every book had a religious or spiritual theme to it.  I gave my mother a book about angels, since she collects angels.  My father and= my brother gave books by Dipak Chopra, an Indian-American guru type.  My sister gave books about Mormon fundamentalism.  Kala gave LAMB by Christopher Moore.  Two of the books didn't follow this pattern--a vegan cookbook and THE GUINESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS--but enough of them did follow it to make us notice it.  It was very odd.

My mother, as ranking matriarch, regularly breaks the "no gifts besides those we draw" rule, and other presents made their appearance.  Aran got a season of NARUTO.  Mackie got a stuffed snake and a T. Rex puppet which he still refuses to be separated from.  Sasha got a furry hat that he really likes.

Somehow or other (I think by way of some cousins) my mother got hold of a DVD that had some ancient home movies put onto it.  Most of them seemed to be taken by people on my dad's side of the family back in the early and mid-sixties.  There were segments of my parents' wedding reception on it (strange seeing them younger than I am now), lots of shots of my older cousins as toddlers, and a Christmas gathering that included my grandparents (who both passed away years ago), among other things.  We had great fun figuring out who was who and where the various shots were taken.  I remembered some of the segments, though I hadn't seen them in probably thirty years or more.

Later, the family drifted toward the piano.  Aran and I played two duets we'd been rehearsing, and Aran played a few other songs as well.  Mom and I played some Christmas music, too.

And then we discovered it was snowing very, very hard.  We hustled everything and everyone into the car for the drive home.  I felt bad, because I'd been intending to stay longer to help my mother clean up, but the roads were clearly going to be awful, and I didn't want to risk staying.

The drive was indeed slow and nasty, though after about 45 minutes, it started to improve.  We passed two spin-outs, though.  Somewhere south of Flint, the snow stopped, and farther south than that, they dried up.  It took us 2 1/2 hours to get home instead of the usual 90 minutes.  But we made it safely.

On Christmas Eve we drove up to my mother's house in Saginaw.  Or tried to.

The weather was awful, what the weather people love to call a "wintry mix." The farther north we went, the worse the highway got.  I drove at half
speed, coasting through slick spots, and being generally careful.

And then we hit a slowdown.  The slowdown became an even slowerdown, and that became a total stop.  We sat there on the highway for over half an hour, not moving at all.  We did see flashing lights somewhere way up ahead of us.

At last all lanes started moving again.  We past the spot where the accident must have been, but all signs of it were gone, so we had no idea exactly what had happened, though it must have been bad.  It was exasperating, but in the end, we were only inconvenienced while someone out there had a truly dreadful Christmas.

We arrived a bit late, but fine.

I spent most of the morning in the kitchen making a double batch of piragis (Latvian ham-stuffed rolls) and fudge.  For a wonder, the fudge came out this time.  So did the piragis.  These are extremely delicious but so labor-intensive that they remain a rare treat.

Once those were done, it was time for Kala to put the turkey breast in the oven.  I went out to try for a smidgen of shopping, but the stores were horrifyingly crowded--the line at the bookstore went all the way to the back, and the line at the Asian market was equally awful--that I went back home without buying anything.

We had a wonderful Yuletide feast of turkey, fresh piragis, vegetables, and mashed potatoes.  Then it was time for Yule proper.  We welcomed the God back to the altar and lit candles all over the house.  Then Mother Berchte arrived.

Mackie spent the entire day stating very firmly that he wasn't at all scared of Mother Berchte because he knew she was just a costume.  But when Berchte stormed into the house, he squeaked and shrank away, hiding behind Mommy.  Berchte handed out presents, reminded everyone that spring =is= coming, and left.

We opened the gifts.  Mackie was delighted with his little digital camera, and he loves taking pictures with it.  Aran and Sasha got MP3 players and gift certificates to iTunes.  (Today I spent considerable time loading a variety of music onto Aran's.)  Both boys love the gift, and Aran in particular now spends most of his day plugged into his.

It was a fine evening.

Today we got the Yule Tree.

This time around, it's a white pine, the state tree of Michigan.  By now, the boys know how to decorate for Yule.  They helped bring the big boxes upstairs and set everything up.  We discovered that white pines have wimpy branches, though, which can't support heavier ornaments, so a fair number of stuff didn't end up on the tree.  We also set up the Pagan creche and various Charlie Brown decorations around the house while listening to the muppets sing.  It went fairly quickly this year.  I was surprised.
( Photos behind the cut . . .  )

My Yule shopping is finished except for one present, and I know where to get it, so it'll be easy enough.  Go me!

Saturday I started baking.  First up, a trip to the store.  Much chocolate to buy, and oh no!  Peppermint extract was one sale, but was all out.  Meant I had to make another stop on the way home.  This all took longer than I thought it would, so I didn't actually start doing anything in the kitchen until after 2:00.

First, I made up a batch of Cocoa Peppermint Thumbprint Cookies snurched from tammylc .  Every year I try to make one new recipe, and this was the one.  I could see that the recipe was for a small amount, so I doubled it.  They came out very well.

Also made some chocolate macaroons, since my sister-in-law can't eat wheat flour without getting sick.  Macaroons have none, so they're Kristi-safe.

I tried making fudge.  Aaaand, true to form, it came out as chocolate sauce instead.  Oh well.  We'll use it as dipping sauce with fruit at the New Years Party.

By then I was abruptly tired, so I stopped for the evening.

On the radio yesterday, I heard a "news" story about the impact Valentine's Day has on relationships, on the pressure it puts on men to create the perfect romantic day or date, while on the other side, it puts pressure on women because they're supposed to give the man sexual favors in return for all the romance, turning her into a prostitute.

Sheesh.

I hear stories all the time.  "My Most Romantic Valentine's Day" or similar. You know the ones I'm talking about: "He sent me a rose every hour on the hour all day, and then picked me up in a horse-drawn carriage.  Two guitar players followed in another carriage to serenade us, and two little kids sprinkled flower petals ahead of us.  At the restaurant, he massaged my feet with scented oils until the appetizers arrived, whereupon he fed them to me, one by one."  But you know what?  I've never actually =met= anyone who's done this over-the-top stuff, and every woman I've ever talked to said she would feel overwhelmed and uncomfortable if a man ever did this sort of thing for or to her.

"I'd rather have a nice meal in a quiet place or at home, if I'm not cooking it," is the invariable answer I get when I ask women what their idea of an ideal time on Valentine's Day is.

Commercials show men making impossibly romantic gestures because they're hoping you'll watch them instead of hitting the mute button or going to the bathroom.  The media (my favorite people) leap on outre, over-the-top, "romantic" weirdness because it makes for an eye-grabbing story.  But the net effect is that we get a societyful of people who begin to think there's something wrong if they aren't doing the same thing.  Good heavens--I haven't rented a fleet of HMV(tm) limosines, hosed myself with Axe(tm) body goo, bought an entire Red Lobster(tm), built a house out of Godiva(tm) chocolate, or wrapped up a chandalier made of diamonds.  I'M AN UNROMANTIC SLOB!  I'm doomed to a life of lonely jerkhood.

Sure.

Know what I did for Valentine's Day?

--I took the boys to school this morning and let Kala sleep in

--On the way home from school, I stopped at a bakery and bought two custard-filled doughnuts, which I know are her favorite type.

--I put them on a plate with a card near it and let her find them when she got up.

She liked all of it very much.

Romance is letting the person know you know what they like and that you're willing to go out of your way to give it to them.  It's not hard.  Screw the media and enjoy Valentine's Day.