December 24:

Church was wonderful. Wreaths on every column and poinsettias leading up the stairs towards the altar, which was also covered in candles and flowers. Fr. C wore bright red vestments and gave a homily on the importance of Jesus’ humanity. The church was packed and after giving gifts to my godmother and to Fr. C and his family, I scooted out.

The weather certainly didn’t feel like late December, blue skies and barely chilly enough to wear a coat. I was tired from working third shift, and Hannah and I spent most of the afternoon sleeping on the couch, while Mom wrapped presents and the boys worked secretively in the shop on Mom’s gift.

We had been planning on attending Midnight Mass at the Anglican parish where my family attends, but it would have been too much after such a long day so we decided against it. We ate dinner together and then proceeded to that most cherished Christmas Eve tradition: opening our stockings. I got lots of cute little gifts, including a bag of dark chocolate covered coffee beans and a deer tird bracelet. You read that correctly…deer tird. That little item was from Hannah, of course. Love her sense of humor. Mom and Dad got a kick out of opening the gifts we bought at the Dollar Tree and figuring out who they were from.

We had moved on to the second part of our Christmas Eve tradition, watching It’s a Wonderful Life, when Hannah had an emotional crisis. Mom and I spent the next half hour trying to console a 12 year old girl upset about the changes this year has brought. She feels things intensely, this girl does, and those raging pre-teen hormones certainly don’t help. We managed to wrap it up with snuggling, so I guess it all worked out. We never did finish the movie…

December 25:

I spent the night with Hannah in her bed. We woke up around eight and had to wait around while mom and dad finished setting the presents under the tree. In no particular order I received…

- new L.L. Bean jodphurs

- a new watch and The Return of the Bunny Suicides, from Stephen

- socks to make sock monkeys, from Hannah

- a beautiful Willowtree plaque

- a knitted tam

- a handcarved cutting board from Dad, along with a butcher’s knife and mallet (for preparing the cats’ chicken)

- a pillow, sewn by Mom

and some money from Mom and Dad for their starving lil’ college student

Hannah’s meltdown from the night before was pretty much forgotten, and Papa was instead the one out of sorts. He got agitated opening his gifts, and ended up leaving once we were done. Things have been so constant these past few months I think we’ve forgotten that Alzheimer’s progresses, sometimes rapidly. He’s getting more and more confused, which only makes his moments of lucidity all the more difficult.

We had a nice lunch, and spent the afternoon playing board games and watching movies. Then we had dinner and watched more movies. It was out of the ordinary for us, which is why it was so much fun. I went to bed happy and slept in until past nine the next morning…

December 26:

At which point I got a phone call asking why I wasn’t at work. I had completely forgotten. Crap. I quickly got dressed while Dad and Stephen made my coffee and breakfast to go. I would have kissed their feet if I wasn’t running so late. I worked a completely inconsequential shift and headed back home.

Wrote some e-mails regarding the up-and-coming New Year’s Eve party (woot! woot!) and talked with mom about the trip to Canada Stephen and I will hopefully be taking in just a couple weeks. Cooked tacos for dinner. Watched yet another movie. And being hopped up on Mountain Dew, stayed up past midnight, took a shower, and crawled into Hannah’s bed again. She used to be a horrible snuggler, but ironically, as she’s gotten bigger she’s become a lot easier to share a sleeping space with.

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All in all, I think the holiday went well. We fell a little short of our ideals, but even with those bumps in the road we had a wonderful day and a wonderful opportunity to express our love for our family. They’re pretty cool, after all. I think I’ll stick with ‘em ;-)