Christmas

We had a wonderful holiday and we hope you did too. Our Christmas always starts Christmas Eve morning, when the two of us celebrate our own holiday with the presents we bought each other. Because we heard they were cancelling "Pushing Daisies" and it's one of our favorite shows, I got the first season for Nathan.

Every Christmas, Nathan feels the compunction to cover me in the bows we used on the packages. Observe. He was going for a "stegosaurus" feel this year.

Christmas Eve we always go to Mass in Pecatonica, the town my Dad grew up in and then we go to one of his brothers' houses for dinner. This year we also had a white elephant game. It got quite wild. The overall theme seemed to be alcohol and lotto tickets (our group came home with a twelve pack, a six pack, four individual-sized bottles of wine, and Irish creme liqueur.) But the best part of the evening was when my dad and his older brother Mike opened their gifts, they both ended up with harmonicas. It is much funnier when you know the two of them and know how similar they are, to the point of dressing alike without knowing it.

Christmas Day we spent the morning with my family and the afternoon with Nathan's family. We had a great Christmas Day, and yes, for those who are concerned, Santa did bring Nathan "Wall-E." We received many wonderful gifts, I got all the books I asked for and more besides and a board game from Nathan that is a great deal of fun. We got several movies other than Wall-E, I even got a John Wayne movie, which begins to restore my faith in Santa Claus because I know my mother would never buy it for me.

Christmas afternoon we spent with Nathan's family. His mother always creates a theme for her tree. This year her theme was blue and white with blue lights and this year, matched her wrapping paper to the tree more or less. It was beautiful. This year, for the third year in a row, Nathan asked his mother for shoes. But now he has new work, dress, and tennis shoes, so I hope next year Nathan gives her a new idea.

The hat Nathan is wearing is actually a Christmas present from his sister to his father. Music was all around at Nathan's parents' house with Nathan playing the piano before he his sister got there, the CD player going while we opened presents, he and his sister playing the piano after we opened presents and Pam also taking a turn at the ivories.