Contrary popular belief, most of my posting dearth has NOT been a result of any gifts I may or may not have been allegedly given… and played… excessively.
Let’s take a look at what HAS been going on.
Thursday: My folks and my sister and her family are due to arrive, so I take the day off and we work around the house on various projects. The only real screwup at this stage is in the work I did on the railing for the stairs — it’s stupid to explain, but I basically put the railing (which has been removed since we moved in) on the wrong side of the stairs — no big deal except that, when I switch it, there will be holes in wall that will need painting and patching. Irritating.
Everyone shows up around four in the afternoon, which is quite a feat when you realize that it’s a nine- to ten-hour drive and they lose an hour in the trip. One bazillion gifts and suitcases are unloaded, and we are thankful our front room has no furniture to clutter things up.
Jackie prepares a pork roast two pork roasts for supper, so that it will be ready whenever anyone shows up, which is to say she Margie’d the meal and we have a whole roast left.
Everyone sits down and watches Pirates of the Carribean downstairs, which my folks have never seen. It’s still a really good movie.
Air mattresses are deployed — the one Jackie got for the kids to use is approximately three feet high when inflated. Yowsers.
I sleep about 1.5 hours that night, because the dogs bark whenever anyone stumbles around the house for a glass of water or whatever and sounds like burglars, and I’m afraid there’s going to be an incident. There is no incident, but there is no sleep either. The dogs are, otherwise, absolutely great the entire weekend. We decide to keep them in the bedroom with us the other nights.
Friday: Waffles. Sausage. A couple hours at the gym with family — this is how every weekend should start.
Last-minute shopping at Colorado Mills that turns into last-seven-hours-shopping. Ugh. Jackie and I pick up stocking stuffers for each other, since we’d forgotten such things. My niece is unspeakably cute.
We get home and make three different soups for supper: I make White Chili, mom does some wild rice thing which is received very well, and Jackie tries out a new clam chowder recipe. Everyone is so stuffed they can’t move. We wash approximately three thousand dishes. Jackie bakes stuff for the next day. We spend about seven hours in the kitchen over the course of the whole day, and the rest of the time shopping. This is vacation?
I have no idea what we do that night, but I’m fairly certain that the kids play the Batman PS2 game until the characters have the logos worn off their costumes.
I sleep like a rock.
Saturday: Pretty sure everyone’s up by about seven-thirty. We torture the kids by making them wait for breakfast. What was breakfast? I can’t even remember. Jackie would know.
Gifts. Simply put, I score. I think everyone scores, actually, but I TOTALLY score, about five times. It is a very good Christmas for Doyce. Oh yes. Jackie and I set a limit on gifts, and we both kind of ignore it. Nice.
For the record, I did get City of Heroes from Jackie, because she is a foolish, foolish, FOOLISH woman, but I DO NOT PLAY IT. Seriously. I don’t. Reggie got a copy of Tiger Woods 2004 and the menfolk sit around all day playing that instead. I need a copy of that as well, because one cannot have too much crack, and it’s a great game. Customizing your golfer is worth two hours of time by itself.
I don’t know, specifically, if Jackie liked her gifts, but whenever I see her, she staring fixedly at this or one of these, so I’ll say yes.
What do we do the rest of the day? Reggie and Justin and Paige go see Fat Albert, which by all accounts they enjoyed a lot. Mom and I go see Lemony Snicket, and we like it okay. Like Cleolinda, I think it’s a movie I’ll like better the second time I see it — they had to change a lot of stuff to make it all… work. I dunno. Go and see it for yourself — it’s quite fun. I don’t know if I love it, but it’s a lot of fun. Still wish I’d gotten a chance to take my folks to see The Incredibles.
Mom comments, while talking about something else on the way to the theatre, that Jackie and I have such a great group of friends here in Denver. She is not at all wrong.
Christmas dinner is magically prepared while everyone is out of the house (seriously!), and all I have to do when I get home is carve the turkey and ham. Dinner is fantastic. Everything is delicious. Several of us are competing for “jolliest fat man” or “fattest jolly man”, apparently.
Note: everyone in my family likes Jackie’s wine — finds mine to be ‘swallowable’ — note for future gatherings.
Everyone but me, Dad, and Reggie go to the Zoo Lights. The guys stay home, but make up for that by doing all the dishes. Yes, we rock. When everyone gets home, we have dessert.
Sometime that evening, I think I install City of Heroes. I don’t know when I go to bed.
Sunday: The day of leftovers (except for the fresh cinnamon rolls). Guys play Tiger Woods, kids play playstation until Jackie kicks them off for some me-time. Lots of people play dominoes, which is a flash to my childhood in a big way… the folks brought some ‘family gifts’ this year, like the new dominoes (I have the older set) and Sorry — they both get used several times.
Basically everyone plays games all day and/or watches I, Robot — there are worse ways to spend a Sunday.
Evening, everyone but Jackie and Jayden go to the Pepsi Center watch the Nuggets play the Mavericks. We have seats that are at once (a) very high and (b) great. We buy lots of souvenirs. We have a great time.
City of Heroes again. I have already created, played, and deleted about a half-dozen guys by this point, but (tellingly) the first one I make is still there. One specific guy has gone through no less than five incarnations already as I try to figure out what I want.
Monday: Family is off to South Dakota, and so far they haven’t seemed to have left anything behind (though they accidentally packed Jackie’s phone charger).
For the record, I go to work, do the job, get a headlight for Jackie’s car, go home, AND install it before I go anywhere near my computer, just to prove I can.
I can quite anytime I like, I swear. Well… except that paid for a bunch of months in advance.
But other than that, I’m fiiiine.
I just need a nap.
