There was snow. Lots of snow. There was Gumbo. Lots of gumbo. There were ribs. Lots and lots of ribs. Finally, there were Pivecs. And where there are Pivecs, there's noise, fun, recrimination, tears and laughter. Lots and lots and lots of laughter. I got an email from my sister in law, Kelly, today saying her sides still ache. This was an unusual year because there wasn't any singing and dancing. That's a first.
The Christmas eve party was here, so we spent a good part of last Monday cleaning and cooking. Folks started showing up around five. The first to arrive was Tom, with two crave cases in tow. He didn't stay, he only wanted the sliders put somewhere to keep warm, then he dashed back to church to join his family. Jenna and Sophia arrived a half hour later, having ducked out of church when Sofia (Fifi) had had enough. What the two year old wants, the two year old usually gets. Shortly after Jenna, the folks who were going to midnight mass began arriving. This included contingents from Minnetonka, Edina, Lyndale avenue, way out west Lake Francis and Pete, home for the holidays from Iraq. Everyone brought food and presents. Finally, the folks who had hung on until the end of the children's mass at St. Thomas showed up. That service lasted almost two hours. What kind of "children's mass" is that? The party was in high gear by then and we didn't have any kind of formal dinner. I seem to remember us all saying grace together, but at least a third of the partiers were on seconds by then. Later, when everyone was stuffed to the gills, we jammed into the living room for the present exchange.
Our motto is "It ain't Christmas til someone's crying" and Pam got the ball rolling right away just thinking about how happy we all were to have Peter here. The present exchange has entered a new phase. Everyone wanted to bring the present that caused fights and this year there was a lot of great stuff to choose from. Among the gifts were a package of tenderloin, a Black and Decker kitchen grill, an enormous set of wrenches, Phannie's famous sangria mix, and a special addition bottle of wine, engraved with the Twins Logo, commemorating the ground breaking for the new stadium. Some of the youngsters complained that there were too many bottles of wine, which they couldn't have. Well, they should pick out some presents they want, then. Katie wound up with a pineapple. Who can't use a pineapple?
The party broke up earlier than last year. A cut throat game of 31 had Jenna stomping out yelling "This is
bleep!" and when the midnight mass crowd took off, it was pretty much over. It was close to 11, after all, and Santa had work to do. Josie actually went to bed, exhausted, before the last reveler left, so when they were gone, Zack, Katie and I watched "It's a Wonderful Life". Some time before Clarence the Angel jumped in the river, I excused myself to get presents under the tree and shortly after Nick threw Clarence and George out of the bar, Zack went to bed. Kate and I stayed up to the end, bursting into tears when Harry toasts his "Big brother George, the richest man in town!" and then we went to bed.
In the morning, we spent many hours opening presents, then we went to church and came back here for a huge brunch. We watched one of our (many, many) new movies; Transformers, then went to my folks for Christmas dinner. There were even more people there than there had been at my house the night before and two thrids of them were little kids, so it was very, very noisy. Fortunately, my folks house is the perfect design for this sort of party; a great room upstairs for the grownups and a big den downstairs for the little kids and a sound proof door in between! We ate till we were just shy of sick, then opened more presents. Our wonderful Aunt Helen, who lives on the east coast, always sends the high light of the season; each family gets a christmas ornament from the White House collection. These are the most spectacular, beautiful peices you've ever seen. They're so gorgeous that most of us don't even hang them on our tree, where they might get lost; we hang them on our mantles where they are the center of attention. Aunt Helen also sends each of the kids a card and a gift, which is remarkable as there are now 22 of them, most of whom she hasn't even met. What a woman!
When we finally rolled on home, Zack and Josie watched Will Farrel in "Elf", Katie took the third season of Lost and went home, Ty and a friend watched Pirates of the Caribbean III and I went to bed.
It was a great Christmas.
