A Few Holiday Highlights

I know it’s super-late for this, but too bad.  It’s my blog and I didn’t get time in December… and technically, the twelve days of Christmas don’t end until January 6th.  Here we go.

I love the Christmas season.

When I was little, I of course got deliriously excited about Santa Claus and presents.  And I loved carolling and doing the Christmas pageant at Meeting.  And my advent calendar of tiny pictures of the Elves’ village.

Nowadays, it’s different.  Don’t get me wrong, I still like getting presents, but that’s not what excites me about Christmas.  The things that make me happiest now are: Family/Friends, Food, and Festive Music.

This year was special for two reasons: my brother and his family came from New Brunswick to spend Christmas in Ontario, which hasn’t happened in many years; and it was E’s first Christmas.  My first as a mother, Sean’s first as a father, my parents’ first as grandparents… you get the idea.

I’m not going to try to catalogue all the cool moments, because I know there are too many, but here are some highlights:

• Seeing my brother and his baby nephew enjoy each other – smiles that melt your heart
• Sampling amazing food, including, but not limited to, spiced nuts (from With the Grain, Guelph), black bean dip, lentil cheese pie, egg nog cheesecake, green bean casserole, a once-in-a-lifetime variation of zabaglione, and simply the best bread pudding ever ever made.  (I don’t even like bread pudding most of the time.)
• Sixteen lovely people at my parents’ house for Christmas Eve
• Hearing news that my sister-in-law is engaged
• Big, fragrant fireplace fires (many constructed by my nephew)
• Seven people packed into the van on the way to the movies – and singing en route
• Playing Dance Dance Revolution for the first time with my niece
• Witnessing the growing obsession with Bucky Balls (you try playing with 216 tiny spherical rare earth magnets for half an hour and see if you feel like letting the next person try them)
• Weird and wonderful tasks (especially “senso-sketch”) in games of Cranium WOW
• Apples to Apples with nine people aged 15 to 66
• My son, charming the socks off absolutely everyone in three clans
• My families, playing with E and entertaining him and teaching him things and cuddling him – especially his great-grandmas (he spent time with two of them this Christmas)
• Being told by a family friend, while breastfeeding E in a quiet spot at a Christmas day shindig, “You two are my most beautiful Christmas vision.”