Wrapping it up: Favorite Christmas Moments 2010
// December 28th, 2010 // 9 Comments » // Faith, Family, Functional Foodie, My Fabulous Life
‘Twas a wonderful Christmas, all through the house. In the spirit of giving, I want to share my favorite memories. Each was perfect at the time, and I wouldn’t trade one for any of the other.
RB and I went with Mom to her church, along with Eldest, DIL, Youngest, and the Baby of Steele. It was a beautiful traditional Christmas Eve service. RB was overcome with such emotion being in the church where we were married, our kids were baptized, and Eldest was married, he felt it was necessary to tweet during the candlelight moment.
Journalism, meet Jesus.
Jesus, we repent.
After that service, we went to our regular more contemporary church with all of the above except for Mom, who was too tired. Also? She doesn’t like “head-banging” music. DD and her boyfriend joined us after they blew in from Des Moines in the midst of one of Iowa’s storms. The moving service had me in tears, as always. Once again, RB tweeted our whereabouts. Why nobody came and robbed us of the gifts, I’ll never know. Abby would have been devastated at the loss of her melon baller (“I can make watermelon now!”) and Luke would have put up a fight for his double-pack of contact solution. The Leg Lamp is only one of our many surveillance devices that have protected us over the years.
We have a new tradition at the House of Steele. Though it would have looked like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre if you were peeking in our windows, my boys, along with DD’s boyfriend (hope we didn’t scare him away) managed to get my turkey spatchcocked. Normally this is done with a pair of kitchen sheers, but this was a very large bird. With big bones. We had some snide comments from the peanut gallery, so it’s a good thing RB is a master video editor. The cutting room floor was a hoot.
It’s a toss up what was better: the ritual that took a good half hour with a reciprocating saw and four grown men vs a 20 lb turkey, or the actual eating of the perfectly brined and spatchcocked bird with herbed butter and all the trimmings.
(Pats self on back).
It was a very good day. Even though we would have been laughed off the set of Top Chef.
My mom even taught my daughter how to knit. I tried 20 years ago, but her lack of concentration was an issue. Watching this, I saw a little pig-tailed girl again, clumsily attempting to cast on, knit, purl, cuss, drop stitches… It was truly a moment of nostalgia.
Moms, hug your daughters.
I did some supervision, you know, in case Mom wasn’t teaching her right. Actually, my job was to pick up the dropped stitches, of which there were many.
We gifted my brother and sister-in-law with a special copy of Snow Day. If anyone deserves a personally signed copy of Billy Coffey‘s debut novel, it’s them. They. Are. Awesome. This is a special week for them as they celebrate their wedding anniversary and special personal achievements that have blessed our entire family. This guy even showed up in their honor and hung around the kitchen door, adding to the beauty of our own personal Snow Day.
Our yard was once again aglow with gaudy yard art. RB likes gaudy. I like simple, elegant, regal. Hence, no photo of our yard. My favorite decoration of all was the stately “Oh Deer” we placed on Sara’s patio. It was the most fun – watching Ricochet Riley bounce around while RB and I were out trying to figure out how electricity really works and whether or not we’re going to short out Sara’s air conditioner for the sake of a few sparkles. And Sara, trying to snap a photo while painfully laughing at us. I think it took her a few days to recover.
Another tradition is watching The Christmas Story marathon, remarking frequently about the similarities between Ralphie and our Baby. I seriously can’t believe this kid hasn’t (yet) shot his eye out.
Instead, he hopped a plane for London and was swiftly out of sight by Sunday morning.
Here’s hoping you all have created some memories of a special Christmas now in the past. Hard to believe that through the beautiful snow and fog crystals, beyond the prairie grasses, we were happily putting the “fun” in dysfunctional, as the saw buzzed in the background and someone would spontaneously yell “You’ll shoot your eye out, kid.”
