Volpone Christmas 2009
Trying to post in this Livejournal regularly! Not necessarily every day but I've got a lot to say about Christmas so I MUST CONTINUE. Expect maybe one more post after this.
Every year, my extended family on my dad's side gets together to celebrate. It's not really so "extended", I guess--just aunts and uncles and cousins, no second-cousins or cousins-thrice-removed or whatever--but my dad had six siblings so it's a pretty big family now.
This was the second year that my paternal grandmother wasn't with us, but unlike last year we didn't really let that bother us. Last year we had plenty of sad moments, but this year we just cherished the fact that we were all together and enjoyed ourselves, just like she would've wanted.
People started arriving around 3-4, and during that time I was sitting on the laptop, trying to get a webcam working so that my Aunt Ree, who lives on Montana, could "join" us for the party. It was giving us a lot of trouble, and eventually I passed the job to my brother, who got it working. When everyone came to the party, we all spent a lot of time switching up and taking turns talking to her, which was a lot of fun. Good to have her along, even electronically.
My grandfather has serious memory problems now (he didn't have a stroke, but what he did have did mess him up and give him some of those symptoms) so he seemed sort of confused by what was going on there. Like we were trying to pull a trick on him, with this talking computer that looked like his daughter. But he's actually doing fairly well now so he did get it, and yes.
Lots of good food, although really I mostly just ate the meatballs my mom made. The ham was pretty delicious also.
And then the baby came. Eli's about a year and a half old, and he's starting to walk and talk, just little words, mostly. But when he sees pictures he'll point to somebody and go "who da?" and expect us to identify them; it's really cute, especially when he asks about the same person over and over and over and over and over and over and over. He's my cousins baby, and they all stayed until about 11PM, so I got lots of time to play with Eli.
Also, my dad and him developed a game called "Big belly", where my dad would poke Eli's round baby stomach and go "Eli's big belly!" and then Eli would reach to pull up my dad's shirt a little and go "Big belly!" It was...weird but cute. Funny. I have noooo idea how it developed.
And then the PUPPIES CAME. Two of my cousins just got sibling boxers, and they're about eight weeks old, so cute. So energetic until they crash and then they're out like a light. I've spent a lot of time playing with them in the past few weeks, and it was great to have them at the party.
The party actually had to be rescheduled--originally it was going to be the Saturday before Christmas, but then we had that huge snowstorm and had to push it back a week. Kind of a shame, but really there was no way people could've gotten here during that snowstorm so it's good that we postponed it, even if it was really rainy on the day that we did have the party. Everyone made it though :) Wait, no...one of my cousins has been really sick and couldn't make it, and two others had to work. Those things weren't related to the snow though.
The Chinese Auction is always a lot of fun. Everybody puts in a present anonymously, takes a number, and then opens the presents by number. The trick is, you can steal somebody else's present instead, which is where the fun comes in. And then the person who had number 1 can steal someone's present at the very end. We always fight over that rule but it always sticks around, fortunately. My aunt Ree even participated, too--I bought a webcam for her to put in, and then she played along using the webcam. We all loved that. I wound up with a small crockpot, but I traded it with my aunt afterwards for an Auntie Anne's pretzel kit. That'll be yummy.
People started to leave awhile after that, I think, but the party lasted until around 11PM. My dog kept coming up to me, she needs to get away from huge crowds after awhile and it was bedtime and she wanted me to go up with her (she sleeps in my bed during the winter), but I wasn't ready so I had to bring her up and then leave her there, it was really cute.
All in all, a great party. Looking forward to the next one. This family doesn't get together nearly enough.
Every year, my extended family on my dad's side gets together to celebrate. It's not really so "extended", I guess--just aunts and uncles and cousins, no second-cousins or cousins-thrice-removed or whatever--but my dad had six siblings so it's a pretty big family now.
This was the second year that my paternal grandmother wasn't with us, but unlike last year we didn't really let that bother us. Last year we had plenty of sad moments, but this year we just cherished the fact that we were all together and enjoyed ourselves, just like she would've wanted.
People started arriving around 3-4, and during that time I was sitting on the laptop, trying to get a webcam working so that my Aunt Ree, who lives on Montana, could "join" us for the party. It was giving us a lot of trouble, and eventually I passed the job to my brother, who got it working. When everyone came to the party, we all spent a lot of time switching up and taking turns talking to her, which was a lot of fun. Good to have her along, even electronically.
My grandfather has serious memory problems now (he didn't have a stroke, but what he did have did mess him up and give him some of those symptoms) so he seemed sort of confused by what was going on there. Like we were trying to pull a trick on him, with this talking computer that looked like his daughter. But he's actually doing fairly well now so he did get it, and yes.
Lots of good food, although really I mostly just ate the meatballs my mom made. The ham was pretty delicious also.
And then the baby came. Eli's about a year and a half old, and he's starting to walk and talk, just little words, mostly. But when he sees pictures he'll point to somebody and go "who da?" and expect us to identify them; it's really cute, especially when he asks about the same person over and over and over and over and over and over and over. He's my cousins baby, and they all stayed until about 11PM, so I got lots of time to play with Eli.
Also, my dad and him developed a game called "Big belly", where my dad would poke Eli's round baby stomach and go "Eli's big belly!" and then Eli would reach to pull up my dad's shirt a little and go "Big belly!" It was...weird but cute. Funny. I have noooo idea how it developed.
And then the PUPPIES CAME. Two of my cousins just got sibling boxers, and they're about eight weeks old, so cute. So energetic until they crash and then they're out like a light. I've spent a lot of time playing with them in the past few weeks, and it was great to have them at the party.
The party actually had to be rescheduled--originally it was going to be the Saturday before Christmas, but then we had that huge snowstorm and had to push it back a week. Kind of a shame, but really there was no way people could've gotten here during that snowstorm so it's good that we postponed it, even if it was really rainy on the day that we did have the party. Everyone made it though :) Wait, no...one of my cousins has been really sick and couldn't make it, and two others had to work. Those things weren't related to the snow though.
The Chinese Auction is always a lot of fun. Everybody puts in a present anonymously, takes a number, and then opens the presents by number. The trick is, you can steal somebody else's present instead, which is where the fun comes in. And then the person who had number 1 can steal someone's present at the very end. We always fight over that rule but it always sticks around, fortunately. My aunt Ree even participated, too--I bought a webcam for her to put in, and then she played along using the webcam. We all loved that. I wound up with a small crockpot, but I traded it with my aunt afterwards for an Auntie Anne's pretzel kit. That'll be yummy.
People started to leave awhile after that, I think, but the party lasted until around 11PM. My dog kept coming up to me, she needs to get away from huge crowds after awhile and it was bedtime and she wanted me to go up with her (she sleeps in my bed during the winter), but I wasn't ready so I had to bring her up and then leave her there, it was really cute.
All in all, a great party. Looking forward to the next one. This family doesn't get together nearly enough.