Christmas 2019, Part IV

(written piecemeal between December 28 - January 12, all in the aftermath)

Hi all.

The past few days have been very tiring and I wanted to be able to sit down here and tell the story of Christmas once I had time to do so. Even in the downtime after the holiday, however, it's been difficult to do that since we've still been running around quite a bit. So, for the sake of brevity, I'm going to tell the story from where I left off, in as much or as little detail as I deem necessary.  So let's begin.

Daisy woke up around 7:30 on Christmas morning, and after getting a little coffee in my system, we got dressed and drove over to the parents' house, where we were informed by our oldest nephew that they'd already started opening presents. This, despite the fact that everyone was supposed to wait until we were there and all of the presents were there (we were bringing everything for the kids and the family with us, as we hadn't done that the night before).

What followed was close to two hours of present-opening. Here's what we got for the family:

• For the parents: two wood plaques I'd woodburned designs on, stained, and coated/sealed in polyurethane to protect them, nuts, candies, a display-hood-ornament looking thing for Mom, and some other odds and ends that Daisy picked up. This is the first time in years that aside from the plaques, I was not involved in what Daisy got for the parents -- she generally has much better taste than I do for them, and I know there's some stuff I'm missing here.
• For the sister and brother-in-law: a wood plaque done in much the same way as the others, but from olive wood and not burned or stained, but drawn with their family name and also coated in polyurethane, a candle, Cocomels, and some other odds and ends that Daisy found.
• For the boys: a drone (for the middle kid), close to 50 foam glider airplanes (for all of the kids), a robot hand building kit (for the oldest kid), and a toy dump truck with a little man inside (for the youngest kid that's not the infant) -- plus stocking stuffer things like bouncing putty, sticker books, crayon sets, etc etc, whatever Daisy was able to find for them that was stocking-stuffery.
• BONUS: for my brother-in-law as well as the boys, I got them a plug and play HDMI dongle Centipede game, which had 20 old Atari games already installed on it. I'd won a prize in the gift drawing at work, and I used said prize voucher to get this for them.

I was particularly proud of the wood plaques, as I'd planned to make them for several months in advance, had to get the tools and materials myself, and spent several weeks making all of them. They took time and energy to create and weren't something that was just picked off a shelf. The gifts we spend time creating are the ones we're most proud of, I think. I made one for Daisy as well, but as we had not opened our own gifts at home yet, she had this one ruined for her when I gave the same things to everyone else. This is fine, though; she had an inkling that's what I was doing anyway, as I'm sure the smell of burning wood and wood stain coming from my room about a month ago all but gave it away anyhow.

Anyway, here's what we got:

• From the parents: a brand new, very large and intricate quilt for our bed in a bee/honeycomb/flower motif -- this is the big gift that both Daisy and I knew about, and is the first quilt Mom has made for us since our wedding quilt five years ago. The sister and brother-in-law got one as well, and Mom also made me a smaller, rainbow quilt with rainbow animals on it since I'd worn out Daisy's other rainbow animal quilt since we've been together. Mom also got Daisy a new nightgown, which she loves, amongst some other little odds and ends.
• From the family: a gift box full of three different kinds of popcorn kernels, two mugs, a popcorn bowl/holder thing, and a $25 gift card to the AMC theaters (which is where we go). 
• From the grandparents in Nova Scotia: a beautiful hand-knitted/quilted holiday placemat set -- with a note apologizing that there were no wool socks ready yet (this is hilarious because, several years back, Daisy's grandmother sent us a pair of wool socks that I love and wear all the time, and she knows it). 

After all of the presents were finished and the living room was at least partially cleaned up, we had breakfast -- Daisy had made several batches of blueberry mini-muffins, which were quite good, and I ate probably ten of them, washing them down with the last of the coffee in the coffee pot. We had a video call with Daisy's other sister (who lives in Alberta, so she didn't make it to town for the holidays) and got to talk to a few of her kids as well, briefly.

The weather was, as mentioned before, gorgeous on Christmas Day -- it was over 40 when we left the house in the morning, and by the afternoon it had reached nearly 60 -- which is good, since the drone I'd gotten the kids needed to be played with outside, and we did so, two different times, for as long as the battery would last each time. I'd worn shorts and a hoodie, but was even getting too warm for comfort in the hoodie at times (plus, having the long sleeves made it hard to keep my tattoo moisturized and made it itch).

For a large chunk of the day, while the other adults took care of the older kids as well as getting dinner prepared, I spent my time on "baby duty" with my almost five-month old nephew. I held, talked to, and kept that adorable baby boy occupied for hours, and truthfully it was my favorite part of the Christmas experience. I also did what I could to help keep an eye on the other boys to keep them settled down and out of trouble as much as possible, because I could tell that their parents as well as Daisy's parents were becoming more frazzled by the hour. It was a lot for me as well; I was getting overwhelmed with all the noise and rambunctiousness of those children, and holding the baby and lavishing attention on him kept me centered. To help calm them down and keep them occupied while the food was being cooked, the boys watched the new Grinch movie on Netflix, during which I, yes, held the baby and talked to him and generally acted as a nanny, even when he farted on me twice. Hard. And loudly. 

In the late afternoon hours, we had dinner. I don't exactly remember when, but I know it was starting to get dark, so....around that time. The temperature was dropping as the sun went down almost so quickly that you could watch and gauge it in realtime. Dinner was very good, though a rather minimalist affair for a ten-person Christmas dinner -- the parents made a turkey (which obviously Daisy and I ate none of) and Daisy made corn, stuffing, green beans, her famous mashed potatoes, etc. We didn't have bread or rolls, and Mom had made pickles and cranberry sauce (not together, because that would be weird). 

I should also mention at this point that Mom had become sick between the 23rd or so and Christmas Day, and was continually getting worse. On Christmas Day she was fighting through it for the sake of all of us and the kids, and we were all trying to help her as much as possible. Sometimes, however, that is easier said than done, and when you're miserable, you're miserable. She has spent the time since Christmas more or less confined to her bed because she's felt so awful. Daisy herself has begun to get sick as well, and has been fighting it off as much as possible since Christmas night. Me? So far, I'm fine. Apparently my flu shot kicked in just in time for the kids and family to arrive in town, and I've been kept immune thus far. That doesn't mean that I won't eventually start feeling bad, but three days out I think I'm okay.

[EDIT: Daisy is not okay, and got dreadfully sick for a week and change.]

Anyway, as the night wound down and the parents retreated upstairs, we had homemade pie with the sister and brother-in-law and I tried very hard to decompress in the now mostly quiet house...when our oldest nephew tripped over the base of Mom's swing chair in the living room and nearly broke his toe. I didn't know this; I was sitting in the chair in the corner downstairs, enjoying a bit of relative (pardon the pun) silence.

"[Nephew] may have dislocated or broken his toe," Daisy texted me from upstairs. "He may need to go to the hospital and if so we will need to watch the boys."

"Okay," I texted in reply.

No arguments, I wasn't frustrated or upset, nothing like that -- family comes first. Duty in the face of exhaustion, every man stays at his post, etc. 

This is a big step for me. The old Brandon, even though he still had the family first mentality, would've been pissed off and angry at the kid after having spent twelve hours outside of the house on Christmas Day, and having not even had his own Christmas yet. The older, wiser, more mature Brandon has more patience and understanding of such things, and just wants to help out where he can. Again, as I mentioned in my previous post, Christmas is for the kids, and I am now the older generation -- while I'm not a parent myself, I am a hell of a good uncle. I also have the foresight to realize that I still had three more days off work after Christmas and therefore had far more time than usual to decompress and enjoy the holidays in my own way.

About half an hour later, the kid came downstairs, morose and in some pain, but okay. Once we were sure he was fine, Daisy and I began to pack up the stuff for the night, and then shortly thereafter left the house.

I will say that I was indeed sort of frazzled and tired, and I had a headache -- it was after 8PM and we'd spent a full twelve hours being inundated with children and Christmas. Daisy put on Christmas music in the car on the way home, on purpose, and it took all of my willpower not to punch the stereo simply out of reflex. I was Christmas'd out. 

But, we still had our own Christmas to have, since we'd rolled out of bed and practically ran out the door that morning. All of our own presents for one another were yet to be opened. So, once we'd brought everything in and I was able to feed the cats and change out of the kid-germ-covered clothing I'd been wearing all day, Daisy and I collapsed on the couch with our respective piles of presents.

Here's what I got Daisy, which is the most important list anyhow:

• A case of Cocomels
• Two water guns for the cats
• The aforementioned wood plaque
• A case of 60 white washcloths
• A giant, two-plus-pound bag of Blue Diamond almonds
• A raised cake stand (her request)
• Chelsea Clinton's She Persisted book (also her request)
• A six-pack of her favorite pine tar soap
• A 250-gram box of nag champa incense

And the kicker, the big gift...

• Two custom-made, sherpa-lined fleece blankets with two different pictures of us from our wedding printed on them.

The blankets were one of the first things I'd done for her, actually -- I knew they would take some time to process, create, and ship, so I ordered them up in early November. They arrived shortly before Thanksgiving, and I had them printed by Shutterfly -- the company who I have make our custom Christmas cards every year. Because of the size I'd ordered and the custom printing involved, they were not cheap by any means, and more than a third of my gift budget went to them.

Also of note: in the days after Christmas, Daisy would return the cake stand (she thought the one she'd put on her wish list was glass; it was not, it was plastic) and the washcloths -- which I'd specifically gotten so we could get rid of the old ratty ones we had around the house (she didn't like the new ones), so I actually spent less on Daisy this year overall than I have in most previous years. 

The blankets almost immediately went on the bed (after a wash, of course) where they currently remain, even after another wash, today. 

Here's what Daisy got for me -- trying to remember the best I can now over two weeks later:

• Two straightening/detangling hairbrushes
• Good Omens in paperback
• The latest Uncle John's Bathroom Reader
• Vegan sausage sticks
• Louisville Vegan Jerky "Buffalo Dill"
• A six-pack of my favorite thermal socks

And the big gift...

• A Nintendo Switch Lite, in turquoise, with Pokemon: Let's Go Eevee and Pokemon Sword.

I'm sure there are other small things I'm forgetting too, as it's been some time, but the Switch and those games have dominated most of my free time ever since.

"Good," I told her -- "...now I can put the silicone case for the Switch on it. The case that I ordered and that arrived last week."

So sure was I that she'd gotten me the Switch that I had already ordered the case for it. Even if she'd not actually gotten me one, I would've saved the case as I was planning on purchasing a Switch within the next several weeks/months anyhow once we got our tax refunds. I have not skipped over or "missed" a new generation of Pokemon games in almost twenty years, and I'm not about to start now. 

After we put everything away, she came upstairs to shower and I sat down in my chair (after plugging in the Switch to charge, of course). I was passed out in my chair before she even got out of the shower; I woke up five hours later to her in bed and me wide-awake -- she had to work the 26th, while I did not. 

***

In the days since, both of us have gone back to work as per the usual, as the holidays are done, and we have rejoined the cycle of the daily grind. For the New Year, I had taken New Year's Eve off in advance, but volunteered to work New Year's Day (the overnight shift as per the usual). We normally do a big New Year's Eve with the parents, but Mama was dreadfully sick and wanted to cancel, and Daisy was getting rather sick at that point as well -- she didn't really shake it until this past week -- so we stayed home, watched the ball drop at 11 (remember, we're central time) and then shortly after actual midnight went to bed.

So there you have it, that was Christmas in a nutshell (and a few posts).

Onward into 2020, helmets on.