Well, it’s over, and we had a great day.

We woke up at around 7:30, 8 oclock, and it was the first time I’ve ever opened presents in the daylight.  With our brunch, we always had to get up before dawn to get the present part done and start cooking for the guests, here with just the four of us, we were totally leisurely about the whole business.

We did stockings and drank coffee, then made breakfast and took showers.  We opened our gifts mid-morning, and just as we finished, my sister called to check in (no ring, much to my mom’s dismay, but she did get a bracelet and a car stereo — I joked that she should have taken the bracelet and said "yes, yes! Of course I will!" and hung the bracelet from her left fourth finger and continued with "but it’s a little big . . .").  We went for a walk around the neighborhood, took some naps, and I made my first ever holiday dinner of Glazed Ham, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, and salad.  Dave picked up his mother to join us, and it went well.  After dinner, while Dave was cleaning up, the disposal stopped working right, so my dad and he spent an hour tracing the problem back to a nasty drain trap, the contents of which dumped onto my dad in the process of fixing it, and basically, it was a matter of years worth of crap in the trap that caused the problem.  Dave was completely amazed that my dad was so cool about it, since it both "looked and smelled like puke."  While the menfolk were playing plumber, my mom, MIL and I were playing Yahtzee.  It’s all good now, and what’s a holiday without a little drama?  Of course, I’m playing Yahtzee and my dad proclaims that all draisn should be checked, really, and they go upstairs as I realize there’s an empty FRED box under the bathroom sink that I can do nothing about.  When I asked Dave later, he said "So WHAT if he saw? We’re MARRIED! It doesn’t mean we’re TRYING to CONCEIVE, you know."  Which, he had a point…. it could be considered "Oh, we had a scare, but it’s okay now!"  I guess an OPK box would be harder to explain away. (Although, there was something really adorable about Dave saying the phrase "Trying to Conceive." Hee.)

Dave took MIL home after everything was cleaned up, and we watched some Arrested Development with the folks, and now they’ve gone to bed and we’re double dipping on our network with the two iBooks.  Tomorow we’ll take down our tree (it stopped taking water a week ago, and it is READY to go outside) and exchange what needs to be exchanged, and then my folks will go home for two nights, and return on the 28th for a night before they drive off on their East Coast road trip — NYE with friends near Philadelphia, and then a few weeks booked for Florida to visit family and attend a photog convention.

(Dave has just told me that I need to type "Free Tommy Chong" and be done with this entry.  The stuff below/behind the cut was typed up early, so

Free Tommy Chong.

And now, for the totally materialistic recap of the S-G Household’s Agnostic Christmas ’04:

From Dave:

* Don Knotts’ Reluctant Hero collection DVD
* Margaret Cho DVD trilogy
* Epson Picturemate & supplies. (This one was particularly ‘awwww,’
because it’s partially baby related; he really wants my pictures to
come off the screen and have photo albums, and he likes that his
sisters have so many albums of their kids, and the PictureMate is great
for printing of snapshots.  it will also be great for proofing my more
artistic stuff, and I can always use Shutterfly for enlargements and
cards, after.)
* Rubik’s Cube
* "Horrific Ketchup spill" gag gift, purchased for the package design & its use of a neat font.  I’m telling you, we are two peas in a big geeky pod.
* Smelly candles from Yankee Candle, from the new ‘modernish’ line. mmmm.

From the folks:

* Clothes, which will be exchanged, as always.
* a $15 giftcard to JoAnn, which will be used for chenille for curtains in the sewing room
* Jon Stewart’s "America," from my dad, and that I gave him the new
George Carlin book says everything about my family, and my relationship
with my dad especially. Funny is Important.
* Scrapbooking supplies, which I had to say "err, I made a wedding
album, and am not into scrapbooking, so, uhh, thank you, but please
don’t consider it a hobby."  (I can use the weird scissors and such at
school or whatever, but it’s impoprtant to be upfront about what you do
or do not actually consider a hobby.)
* A shadowbox of all my old spelling bee medals and a picture from high
school.. . this i really didn’t like. Like, at all.  I mean, yeah, I
was a good speller.  And I had some pins and medals from Academic
Decathlon (which weren’t included, wonder where they are . . .)  but
high school in and of itself wasn’t that enjoyable.  I don’t even have
my year book here, you know? So it was just . . . weird.  If it had
been from childhood-childhood, like baby shoes or a lock of hair or
something, that’s different.  A tarnished spelling medal, and a banner
from doing the scorebook at the ’92 basketball tournament . . . umm,
just not something I need displayed, you know?  It really creeped me
out to have it all showcased like that, especially since it’s been
anywhere from 12-18 years that any of it happened.  Oh, and the creepy
button featuring George Mitchell’s face, because I was a page at the
state Democratic convention, a long, long, time ago? Double weird. 

From sister:
*2 settings of Fiestaware, Shamrock (which I already have) and Scarlet
Red (or is it Persimmon? Bright red, anyway, which I didn’t have.)  I
wanted one because having an odd number (7) of place settings creeped
me out for no good reason. But, I got two, so now I guess I’m shooting
for 12 place settings. Because 9 is NOT RIGHT.
* Coffee, pancake mix, and pancake rings — had the whole ‘breakfast from Colorado’ thing going on

Dave’s loot:
From me:
* ATHF Vol 3 DVD
* Arrested Development, season one DVD
* Home Movies, season one DVD
* Electronic dartboard for his fort
* Astronaut pen from the Challenger Learning Center, where I used my
clout as a science teacher to get the one admin person there yesterday
to let me in and buy the pen he had seen on a shoot a few months ago
*  New pottery mug to replace his CBS one that broke
* Yo-Yo & Jiffy Pop
From my folks:
* A battery operated Power station thingie that pumps air, charges car
batteries, has AC and cigarette lighter power,  some big geeky boy
thing that he really, really, likes
* Spiderman boxers (which I quoted from one of our favorite movies, "Oh, Ralphie, go try it on and show us!"

From my sister:
* A B&D laser level

And, for both of us from my folks, a lovely check that will be added to
the lovely checks from my grandparents, saved until spring, and used to
put in new windows.  Their only caveat with the check was to do
something with the house, and they were thinking a gas stove to replace
our woodstove that we’ve been urged not to use, or dressers for our
bedroom, but no, Dave and I are so grown up that we both looked at it
and then each other and said "WINDOWS!!"  Ours are original to the
house, double hung and counterweighted, with storm windows, but they
are a hugemongous bitch to open and close, and are draftier than we
like,  We want vinyl-clad tip-in thermopane windows, and it looks like
we’ll be able to get them in the spring after all. Yeeeeehaaww.
Totally unexpected, and totally generous of them.  We are truly very
lucky.