The whirlwind activity of the last couple days isn’t grinding to a halt, but at least it’s slowing down some. I don’t think I’ll be fully recovered until well into next year. Xmas Eve was spent at my Dad’s in the ‘burbs, carrying on our family tradition of watching the Pee Wee’s Playhouse Christmas Special, this time in DVD format with the commentary on. The below photo, of the teevee framed by the candy cane, captures a scene with Pee Wee in his giant green snowsuit.
Xmas Day we started out bright and early. Beginning with the little man tearing into presents from his momma, naturally. Afterwards we headed over to my in-laws for brunch. There the little man received the best present ever. My mother-in-law is one of the craftiest women I know (also on that list, Zophia’s awesome mom). She knit the lad the most gorgeous sweater, with matching hat (but in the blurry photo below the husband’s wraithlike hand is visible coming into the frame from the left, which is weird). From his folks the husband received a Lego helicopter set, for himself, but this has been one of the most hotly contested gifts our household has ever known. Despite the dozens of gifts the little man has gotten this holiday season, he has repeatedly tried to claim this one as his own, even going so far as attempting to banish the husband to his room so that the lad could have it all to himself.
Mid-day we moved on to another suburb to see the little man’s bio-dad’s family, with bonus surprise visit from the bio-dad himself. There the lad’s paternal grandmother made vegan xmas cookies, and set it up so he could frost them himself. He was concentrating so intently he didn’t even complain about me whipping out my camera.
We had a brief break back at the homestead, maybe an hour or so, then it was back out, this time to the airport. A grateful Dave and Huey-Ling squeezed into our car and treated the lot of us to a late night dinner at Evergreen, while regaling us with tales of all the vegan-friendly restaurants they visited while on the East Coast. Exhausted, we finally returned home just before 11pm. The little man had stayed up about 2.5 hours later than his usual bedtime, and this morning slept in about two hours past his usual start time. It’s going to be tricky to get him back into the routine when school resumes next week. On a more serious note, one of my sisters-in-law is currently in Sri Lanka with her husband, visiting his family for the holidays. We received word this morning that they are okay, thankfully. But thousands of poor souls are not.