Christmas 2013

Firstly, I would like to wish you all a joyous and merry Christmas. This holiday celebrates the birth of Christ some 2,000 years ago, and is thus rightly the most important holiday in our culture. My family's Christmas celebration this year truly took place over a period of three days; Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and the day after Christmas.

On Christmas Eve, we had brunch with our friends the Meads, the Richardsons, and the Beels at the Beels's house. We dined on waffles, fruit, egg casserole, and two varieties of sausage (skinny and thick). There was much conversation, and my good friends, Nate (the one who thinks that Superman is the greatest superhero film ever made), Nolan, and Caleb (not Caleb the GM) were there. We had a gift exchange consisting strictly of books, and I wound up with a book on superstition. The book that I brought (wrapped in newspaper, as all gifts that I give are) was from the Christian Heroes, Then and Now series. Specifically, it was the book on Eric Liddell, a personal hero of mine. Its full title is Eric Liddell: Something Greater than Gold. Later that day, we had dinner at our house with our friends the Rajaos. We had ham, roast beef, turkey, mashed potatoes, some kind of foreign dish made out of rice and beans and stuff (the Rajaos brought that one), and a gluten free angel food cake. We then opened some presents that we had gotten for each other. I received some clothes, a Barnes & Noble gift card, and a box of Cheeze-Its, among other things.

On Christmas Day, we did relatively little in comparison to the other two days. We got up in the morning, opened our presents, and then had family over for dinner in the afternoon and evening. We opened more presents with the family then. I received many gifts, including a mug with the bat-symbol on it, some clothes, a couple of iTunes gift cards, and some new shoes, among other things. Later on, our cousins on my mom's side, that is, the Cannons and the Shaws, not to mention my Uncle Steve and Grandma Lou, came over. Cousins Blake and Ryan and Aunt Juli were unable to attend for various reasons (Blake was celebrating Christmas Day with his wife and her family, Ryan had to sleep because of his work schedule, and Aunt Juli had work at the hospital where she is employed). We dined mostly on left overs from yesterday, which was a sizable amount of food, and we sat down and opened some more presents that our relatives had brought. I received a Batman t-shirt and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Chess, Third Edition. I have no doubt that it will be an enjoyable read.

Finally, on Thursday, the day after Christmas, we sat around the house all morning until we went to the Cannons' house in the early afternoon (Dad and Uncle Steve didn't come due to work). We gave Grandma Lou a ride. When we got there, we chatted until dinner time (Blake, Ryan, and Aunt Juli were all there), at about 3:00. We ate a lot of food, including ham, our own mashed potatoes topped with melted cheese, rolls with butter, and Aunt Juli's world famous sweet potatoes. She makes these sweet potatoes with brown sugar and other stuff, and it is a super good dessert. We then opened some presents later on that Aunt Juli had received but had been unable to open. It was a truly happy occasion. We then went home.

Now, I would like to close this Christmas post with a quote concerning Christmas, selected from the quote book Quotable Quotations, compiled by Lloyd Cory. Art Fettig said concerning Christmas, "Some businessmen are saying that this could be the greatest Christmas ever. I always thought that the first one was." I couldn't agree more. A blessed, very merry Christmas to you all, and a happy new year.

Image courtesy of hdwallpaperscool.com