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Yuletide
Marley was dead to begin with.
-- Charles Dickens
Thursday, December 25, 1997
Christmas Eve was actually an official holiday at work, which I hadn't quite realized. I think that two bay-mates and I were the only people in on our half of the first floor. So things were very quiet for the half-day that I was there, but I did manage to get some work done. Jon Singer dropped by so I could take an updated picture of him for his web page, with my new camera.
After a quick stop at home to wrap the gifts, I went over to my sister's house. My younger nephew B---- had signed on to be a shepherd in the Nativity play, held during the family mass that's the first Christmas mass on Christmas eve. But when it came time to get ready to go, he said "I don't need to do that; I was in the play last week!" [He meant the rehearsal.] My older nephew J--- had been in the play in previous years, but he didn't want to do it this year unless he could be a narrator, and those parts are reserved for older children, in the seventh or eighth grade. So B----- stayed home with his father, and J---, my sister M----, and I walked the few blocks to church. This was the first time I had been there since they finished a remodeling project. The balcony where we usually sit used to be at the back of the church. They have changed to a central altar, so most of the congregation is now sitting and staring right up at us. I'm sure this is visually distracting for them.
Back home, M---- made the traditional oyster stew, which has lost the reason for the tradition. Christmas eve used to be a fast day, no meat allowed, thus the oyster stew. But now fasting rules have mostly gone by the wayside, and the holy day starts with the vigil mass, which can be early in the evening.
The boys opened my presents. I was amazed to see that B---- was thrilled with the ribbon-on-a-stick! He immediately started whirling it around. "This will be good when I'm in the Fremont Parade!" he said. I thought he would like it (and J--- liked it, too) but I didn't know it would be such a big hit.
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I woke up Christmas morning and listened to a radio play, "Marley's Christmas Carol" on our local NPR station. It was great! A beautiful production and quite a novelty, the story from Marley's ghost's point of view. I relaxed during the day, then walked to the store and bought the ingredients for a curry shrimp dip (with chutney) that used to be made by my high-school boyfriend's family. This was to be my contribution for a potluck open house given by W--- and J---. W--- is a boyhood friend of my brother-in-law, and plays in an irish band with him.
I still have quite a few recipies from my high-school boyfriend's family. They were very kind to me, and included me in their doings for the several years we were together. I still make spaghetti sauce the way they did.
The party was great fun, and I took some pictures to hand over to W--- and J----. We always have music, everyone singing along with the band. My nephew J--- played the spoons, doing a very creditable job!
I hope everyone had a good holiday! Oh, and this is just the first day of christmas. That's why I don't like putting up decorations or trees the day after Thanksgiving. Christmas lasts till January 6th! But if you start too early, no wonder people are sick of it by the time it gets here.
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