December 24, 2001
This is the very first Christmas of my entire life that I will not have spent at home in Ohio with my mom and sister and brothers. I wasn't sure how I would feel about it, back when the plans were made. (It was an easy decision; airlines don't like to see 8-months-pregnant women flying, for some reason.) I thought that maybe I would be depressed, or sad, or incredibly homesick.
Actually, I'm doing OK. I'll miss everybody back home a lot, but it feels really nice to be in my own home over the Christmas holidays. The last several years, I've spent Christmas sleeping either on a borrowed bed at Mom's house, or in a hotel room, living out of a suitcase either way. It's great to be with family, but the hassles of traveling over the holidays are a little overwhelming, sometimes. This year it's just so nice to be at home. We have a Christmas tree, all decorated with ornaments (we found Power Puff Girl ornaments!), and I'm burning a gingerbread candle, and Keith is in the kitchen working on baking fudge. It feels good.
The fudge is a story of its own. This year, I spent a lot of time dithering about what we should get Keith's brothers and sister for Christmas. Last year we totally dropped the ball and didn't get them anything for Christmas, even though they all got us gifts. Oops. So this year I really wanted to get them something, but I don't know them well enough to be able to pick out really interesting, thoughtful gifts. I was about to throw in the towel and get them all a fruit basket, when Keith suggested making candies. Candy! Everyone loves candy! (Well, this gestational diabetic is avoiding candy, this holiday season, but everyone ELSE loves candy.) So we've spent the last week or so in the kitchen, alternately studying The Joy of Cooking and the Betty Crocker Cookbook and trying to figure out what exactly "coarse thread" and "soft ball" means, in the context of candy-making.
Keith, as is his wont, has been experimenting a bit with the recipes, against my express desires, but I have to say that most of his experiments have turned out really nicely. We have now produced orange-chocolate truffles dipped in cinnamon-cocoa, mint fudge, peanut butter fudge, maple creams, and possibly hazelnut brittle. I was extremely dubious about the peanut butter fudge, because last night when we put it in the fridge to cool, it looked like a cross between somebody's 5th-grade science experiment and, well, a pile of vomit. However, overnight it transformed into something that looks not only edible, but delicious. Keith confirmed for me that they do indeed taste pretty good. I didn't have any, but I may try a bite on New Year's Eve. So anyway, apart from one disastrous episode involving fructose and bittersweet chocolates, things have gone well. We're going to have a plethora of delightful candy assortments to offer the relatives this year.
Keith and I did some negotiating about how to handle Christmas and present-opening. Our family traditions are fairly similar, so there wasn't any knock-down-drag-out fighting about it, but it IS the first Christmas we've had all to ourselves, so we had to work out some details. We decided against opening a single present on Christmas Eve, mostly because I thought it was kind of lame and anticlimactic. We are going to save a present to open for after we come home from the family Christmas party, though. I like that one, because after the family party, you're always a little bit disappointed, somewhere in the back of your mind, because even though you got a lot of great presents, there's no more presents to open. So saving one for home is great, because you'll probably have forgotten about that extra present, and it's a nice little surprise when you come home -- oops, one more to go! Yay!
Personally I am a big fan of opening presents. Over the past few years, I've realized that Christmas for me has become more about watching other people open the presents I got them, rather than opening my own presents (although God knows I love presents). I like buying (and sometimes making) gifts for people. And I know how fun it is to open presents on Christmas morning, so I tend to wrap everything separately, to make for additional presents under the tree. Three novels by the same author? Three separately wrapped gifts. In my house, there will be no wrapping five shirts in the same shirt box. It's just more fun to open everything separately.
Anyway, I'm pretty excited about Christmas this year. I love Christmas anyway, and this is the first time that Keith and I get to celebrate our own holiday with our own traditions. We've been making candy, baking chocolates, listening to Christmas carols (I especially like They Might Be Giants' Christmas album), and just in general being festive. Tonight we're going to Christmas Vigil Mass with Keith's mom, and then we're putting the presents out under the tree, and tomorrow morning we'll open (almost) everything!
So from our household to yours, I wish you all a happy holiday season, and may you all have as much fun watching your loved ones open their presents as I certainly will.