Once we were ready we all opened gifts. Mom really liked the bluetooth speaker Ellen, Everett, and I pitched in together for. I got a lot of bandannas and knee-high socks and I also helped Clara open her gifts, including a couple board books Mom had written inscriptions in for her. I also think it's a sweet tradition that Mom always puts some small gifts in our stockings with a bunch of candy, and she always gets everyone at least one chocolate orange (Neil usually gets more).
Not long after that Mom's family arrived, which means we got to enjoy wine and whisky sour slushes and cheesy potatoes and mini-eclairs and on and on. Clara was extremely popular, getting passed from relative to relative for pictures, and she handled it like a champ.
Eventually I took her back because she was acting sleepy, and I rocked her to sleep in my arms in the basement while chatting with Teresa about her very cool firearm-based jewelry and while watching Elf with Everett, Jack, and Uncle Mark. Before I knew it people were leaving to have Christmas celebrations with other pats of their family.
So Jack, Clara, and I went back to the Jackson's to do the same, and it was extremely pleasant. Everyone was there. We had tortellini dinner (a tradition I've come to really look forward to) and we fed Clara some ground up tortellini and French bread. She seemed to enjoy it. She made everyone (especially Don and Dave) laugh a lot with her strange machine gun laugh. Aaron said it sounds like a dolphin that is a heavy smoker, haha.
After dinner we normally do letter exchange, but this year we had a gift exchange as well. Aaron, Katie, Jack, and I had conspired to get some Santa photos with Clara and Naomi. (Merlene has long collected Santa photos of her own sons, so we're continuing the tradition). When Merlene opened the gift she was visibly touched, looked like she'd even tear up. It was really sweet. And Jack, Dave, and Aaron had gone in together to get Don and Merlene (knock off) Blues jerseys, which they also liked a great deal though Merlene kept saying the boys shouldn't have.
I think it was after gift exchange that Merlene set both girls in her lap and read them the Christmas Story. At one point she said the word "several" and she and everyone else burst out laughing because the accent with which Don and Merlene say "several" has become an ongoing joke, haha.
Then we did letter exchange, which I always enjoy. Don and Merlene also wrote letters to Clara and Naomi. I'm saving Clara's in a shoebox of mail for her (or about her, in the case of baby shower cards).
Finally, after letter exchange we all drove a mile or so away to Grace's church, down Mexico Road, to watch their light show set to music, including the Pentatonix version of Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. I'd been worried Clara would be fussy having to be in her carseat, but when we turned the seat around so she could see the lights, she sat through the whole show (15-20 minutes) without any problem.
When we got back, Neil, Ellen, and Everett joined us at the Jackson's to play Say Anything. I just watched for the first few games but ended up joining in later. We finally stopped a bit after midnight. Overall it was a wonderful day.
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