Christmas Vacation

Advent is such a long season, and then Christmas seems so short.  But I am lucky that I have spent 35 Christmas holidays with my family in Portland.  I come from a family of many traditions....many!  And while I miss a lot, it is still fun to spend my Christmas vacations in Portland and enjoy a few.  A newer one (relative to 35 Christmas Eves) is watching Christmas Vacation - one we didn't skip this year.  The newest tradition, though, is the exchange of absurd e-mails among the Vigils.  They are generally hilarious, though not posted frequently enough.  This year's theme centered around getting vehicles stuck in the snow - not something that happened for the Tennessee or Oregon contingencies.  Tom also observed that it would be a good to continue going to Ya Hala for lunch on Christmas Eve - second annual was just as delicious as the first and, Thomas noted, likely more authentic to the first Christmas than ham or prime rib.

On our Christmas vacation, we watched some movies, played some games, drank and ate - though not to excess, went to mass, opened presents, and laughed and visited with family and friends.  Rather than anyone entertaining the post-Christmas Dorsey-Ford gathering, we met up at the Kennedy School for a too short visit accompanied by pints and pub snacks.  It was really fantastic and fantastically short.  But we sure did fill in every minute with something!

Christmas morning we were up and helpful before anyone arrived, thus we got to have the first photo in front of a mound of generosity!

Our first little elf tired after he unwrapped a toy truck with trailer and atv, but he did do a good job passing packages out to everyone.  I don't think he can read, but he did catch on pretty quickly to which ones had his name on them!

If Marty's funny face caught your eye first, look again at my little godson in his GG's lap.  Is that a Christmas smile or what?

Last year Thomas and I made a COLE puzzle for Christmas - he had just turned one.  Since Ollie's birthday is summertime, we decided not to wait until next Christmas.  It was a lot of fun to see his mom's reaction, but really it was fun to see Cole recognize it.  Three of his letters do appear in Oliver's name, and he was quick to pull out the O and E and L.  Really cool!  Oliver also found the colors eye-catching and the pieces to be just the right size for gripping.

Ollie and his godparents/woodcrafters...

Me and my goddaughter Maddie!  We had a fun visit at her house on Friday and got to play some more on Christmas evening.  Thomas was quite occupied all evening with a certain little Monica who thinks he makes a great jungle gym.  I think she has the hots for him, but who am I to blame her?

Oh what a glorious trip!  And despite the hours on the road and the whole year of work on it before hand, I didn't manage to finish a silly blanket for Oliver until Monday night before we left Tuesday morning.  Gratefully, Miki stopped by on her way to work, and I could give it to her myself.  I didn't follow a pattern and thus managed to make the most ridiculously puckered, long and skinny, knitted blanket with a "G" in the middle for Greenlee.  It really is a one of a kind piece - the middle panel, visible below, is flanked on either side by two more panels with a brown stripe in between.  The kindest thing that can be said for it is that the colors are great.  The best use for it...well, I am not sure it really is useful for much.