Anticipation

It's Christmas Eve!

We've had the first of our five family Christmases, with my mother and stepdad.Many gifts were exchanged, so many that squeezing all those people into their tiny living room with gifts as well meant you couldn't move without stepping on something. That's really bad at my mom's house, because she and Larry collect fine china through EBay. I got two mugs for my china, which has been discontinued these six years. My sister couldn't get over the fact that they found her salt&peper set, which hasn't been made for a lot longer than that. And Elizabeth happily careened around the room and tried to eat the styrofoam popcorn packing. She got books, clothes, and four new outfits. I'm going to have to revise that conservative estimate upwards - and add a few worn items to the giveaway bag in the hall. Even exchange, one for one.

The Christmas pudding was a big hit, the white sauce was perfect, and people who started out sharing with someone else ended up asking for their own bowl. *smug smile* Other people can do wonders with turkeys and pies, and I'll grant them their moment of glory. But I make one mean Christmas pudding. (I saved the biggest pudding for New Year's, so you'll all get to try a bit. I'm not promising the white sauce will be lump-free next time, though. That kind of miracle doesn't happen twice in one season.)

My stepbrothers reacted well to getting gifts that included the word "uncle" on the tag. They've been family for a year and a half now, so they'd better get used to it. And Elizabeth actually went to each of them, at least once, with big smiles for "unca Jos" and a tug on "unca Joe"'s beard. She even called Uncle Josh's girlfriend by name, sort of - her name is Iulia, and Elizabeth's pronunciation was "Yula! Yula!" She was thrilled. That's a good sign, because they're pretty serious.

Today: I'm going to go work off the Christmas pudding and other delicacies. Then I'm going to pick up the last few things needed. (I know I'm absolutely, certifiably nuts - but I kind of like shopping on Christmas Eve. I always hated working it, but I like being in the mall for a brief period to pick up little goodies and stocking-stuffers. I don't want to pick up anything too crucial, but for little things and the opportunity to make someone's Christmas Eve a bit more merry, I can handle the bustle.) Also, I have a very little bit of wrapping to do, a living room to clean, and a baby to play with.

And hopefully at about 7:30 this evening, summerfields will arrive at the in-laws' house where we will be waiting to welcome them. I wonder if Elizabeth will warm up to them quickly, or if it will take a few minutes of making connections? I hope she'll go right over to them saying, "Aunt Anney! Unca Keg!" But I doubt it will happen like that. I really hope it will be around 7 or 7:30 that they get home, though. If the delay in Cincinnati is bad or if Buffalo or the QEW get a lot of snow/ice/weather in general today, it could be considerably later than that. And Opa does, after all, have a very important job to do. ;)

It's Christmas Eve. It's Christmas Eve!!

I'm going downstairs to put on my Charlotte Church Christmas CD on repeat for most of the day. :)

Highway vs. Airport Angels

Apparently, Heaven is departmentalized.

That's right, folks. The trend towards bureaucracy exists even there. When I asked the highway angels to keep everyone safe while DRIVING, I neglected to specify that flights needed to be protected from weather-related incidents, too.

Now, angels are pretty smart. They figured out what I meant, and sent a memo. It is even now in transit to the airport angel headquarters, where it will be read, and some poor desk-angel will slap his forehead and say, "Well, better late than never!"

For those of you who haven't figure it out yet, summerfields, Piet's sister and her husband, are currently stuck in Seattle. They were supposed to fly to Cincinnati today, whence they were to take a connecting flight to Buffalo, at which location Opa (aka Santa) was to pick them up and bring them home by this evening. The problem is in Cincinnati: the airport is closed due to weather. No one seems to be sure when it will open again.

So Anney and Craig will be flying direct to Toronto tomorrow afternoon. Opa will still go pick them up. The drive is shorter but the pickup at Toronto is awful. Buffalo, though further, is a much nicer airport to deal with. The long and short of it is that instead of peameal bacon, eggs, croissants, and other goodies for breakfast tomorrow as is traditional in the van Hiel clan, we'll be having a nice Christmas dinner tomorrow evening, and possibly the artery-clogging breakfast on Boxing Day, because Anney really looks forward to it.

Needless to say, everyone involved is quite disappointed. Still, we will have most of the same Christmas we would have had anyway. (I say most, because there's an event which I always call "Christmas at Granma's", which actually happens now at my cousin's house in Burlington, on Christmas night with all my mother's side of the family. We'll be missing it, because immediate family takes precedence over extended family any day. I'm not too upset about it, but I kind of hope my mom picks up anything for us that's in town and gets it to us tomorrow morning.)

Merry Christmas everyone!