Sunday, December 21, 2003

Gots Is What You Got

Ah, the holiday season, upon us.

Friday night at my parents with siblings and old family friends of my parent's generation and Darcie's parents down from Vermont for the afternoon: latkes and camembert, dredels and dates. My mother's friends all brought presents for Willow (a cow puppet, a soft colorful birdhouse filled with stuffed rattling birds, a bendy dreidelman figurine); the men mostly brough wine, or both. When Jesse and Jasmine finally arrived late from Brooklyn we stood around the kitchen island, about twenty of us, and lit a dozen menorahs, sang Rock Of Ages from photocopied Hannukah hymnbooks borrowed from my parent's temple.

Afterwards, the Friends gone, the Family -- two siblings and their significant others, Darcie's parents and mine, us and the happily overwhelmed baby -- sprawled around the living room and exchanged gifts:

Got: Music, of course: Hannukah stuff and the Roots sampler I wanted and no small pile of bluegrass handmedowns from Dad. Also ties, button-down sweater vests, and a welcome mat made of recycled flip flops from the always-chic Jesse and Jasmine. Darcie got a nice shirt from my parents. Willow got pretty much everything you can imagine, including wooden blocks on a wheeled tray, complete with pull-string.

Gave: soaps and painted photoholder ornaments for Jasmine and Amy; a colorful birdfeeder for Sarah; personal letters to each member of my generation praising their adulthood and friendship, a painted wooden keepsakes box for Jesse filled with half the medals and pins our grandfather accumulated in his decades as an Army electronics whiz. Toys for my parents to enjoy with Willow -- a set of Great Psychologists Finger Puppets for Mom, a tin toy Rocket Ride for Dad -- and a set of candlesticks painted to look like them. Patty and Neil gave everyone fifty year old copies of Life magazine.

Breakfast this morning at Bob and Tom's house out in Revere; Willow played in the geranium pot with the two Lhaso Apsos while mutual old roommate Bob announced his engagment to a smiling-in-the-background Tom. Then a long drive home to a clean house and our own small candlelighting ceremony. Note to self: keep July 10th open.

posted by boyhowdy | 6:31 PM |

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