Christmas? Check.

So we did Christmas today. From 10:30 until 10:30. Maybe I got a two hour nap in between events, but really, it was quite a day. We arrived at my Grandparents house this morning to a house smelling slow cooked turkey, dressing, potatoes, salad, the list goes on.... And immediately were greeted with hugs and the unavoidable presence of, well, ....presents. Lots of them.

My family on my Dad's side likes to do Christmas in a "go big or go home" type style. Inevitably, every year there will be an exorbitant amount of neatly wrapped packages with Sharpie pen scrawled across the top indicating the recipient. Many of the presence are shaped surprisingly similar, and slowly one (who may perhaps be new to this phenomenon) realizes that these similarly shaped gifts, are indeed the exact same thing for as many as four different people, seperated only by gender. We often see an influx of "As Seen On TV" labels across the top of the boxes, and sometimes are struck in awe by the fact that our particular gift is even produced, manufactured, sold, and finally, was bought, by someone with whom we share blood.

There are some constants that we can count on to receive every year: a journal of some sort, a weekly/monthly planner, and the LifeSaver book. Last year was the first year that the LifeSaver book was not around, and I was shocked that I was actually dissapointed when I packed up my loot and it was not there. The manufacturers had stopped making it, and my grandmother had not been prepared to supplement it with another, less worthy gift. This year she jumped back into the tradition and we left happily with LifeSaver Gummies, which are new, and who knows what experience they will bring. But atleast some consistency was back in the flow of things.

Its amazing to me that after years of attempting to scale down the sheer volume of gifts, how attached I have actually grown to the opening, the handing out of the gifts, and the final "Big Reveal", usually involving cards with $$ inside. It seems as though with the growing of our family, my father and I have both grown more accepting of the scale to which the Grandparents express their enjoyment of this Christmas gift exchange, and have found ourselves participating equally in the massive production.

Of course, even with the quantity being a force in itself to be wreckoned with, its never about the gifts. Its about the time, the shopping, the wrapping, the unwrapping, the looks, the final packing up, and the food. After trying for years to scale the gifts down to a couple a piece, we finally realized that, while none of it is necessary, nor of particularly elaborate quality most of the time, it is more about the time put in to make a production of opening, exchanging, oohing and aaahing, and that it is ultimately something that makes all of us, in an odd way, happy through the consistency of the tradition.

We ended up walking out the door with a number of wonderful things this year, some cash, some gift certificates, some material and sewing notions for me, and some sports paraphenalia for Dan. We also lucked out on some of our choices for the parents and grandparents, and felt quite proud of ourselves by the time it was all over.

We headed also over to my Mom's house where a much more low-key Christmas occurs, this involved a badly needed glass of wine, a mere handful of thoughtful-and-much-needed gifts, some food and lots of hugs. From there we headed to Dan's work party.

Dan's work's Holiday parties are always fun. The owner of the company and his wife always go out of there way to provide enough food and beverages for everyone, as well as think up several ways to keep the party flowing with games and prizes which everyone is eligible to win. Everyone starts by bringing a gift ( $10 limit, though of course if you're cool you go over a wee bit) which is neatly wrapped and unlabeled. From the moment you enter the door you are given a little pin with a Christmas light on it that signifies you have not yet been caught saying the "forbidden word." If you say the word and someone hears you they can take all of the pins you may have accumulated up to that point. In the end the person with the most pins wins a prize. This game goes on all night.

Once everyone had a arrived and poured a beverage or loaded up on snacks, we began the white elephant exchange. In this game, everyone draws a number, and then chooses a gift to open or chooses a gift someone before them has opened which they would like to have. A present can be exchanged a maximum of 3 times including the initial selection. From then on it cannot be stolen again and is considered "dead." Dan and I drew high numbers and were lucky to have our pick of either a surprise gift, or one we wanted to steal. We played seperately, and he chose a gift that had been stolen once before and was dead once it got to him. I opened a new one revealing a great frame. Here's a picture for your enjoyment, of the very manly present my man stole from a woman who had stolen from a man: