OUR FAMILY CHRISTMAS

28 December 2020

I collapsed at 9:30 on Christmas night and actually slept almost a full night, which is amazing.  It's not that I had been doing so much -- everybody else around here has -- but I have been sleeping so poorly that it just all caught up with me.  I could not sit down for 5 minutes without falling asleep.

However, heading off to sleep at 9:30 I was going with a full heart and wrapped in the love of our family and how truly wonderful our Christmas was.

It started around 4 a.m.  I had been up until midnight making Valerie Bertinelli's cinnamon roll recipe.  The instructions were to put in the fridge overnight and take out an hour before baking, to allow them to come to room temperature.  I wanted to take them out of the fridge at 6 and so afraid I would oversleep that I was wide awake at 4.  I took them out at 6 and into the oven by 7.  They were huge but delicious. Actually too big for me, but I was glad I'd taken the time to make them.

While eating cinnamon rolls, the four of us open gifts from each other.  Ned was happy with the 1000 piece Walter White (Breaking Bad) puzzle I'd found for him.

Our plan was to have dinner at 4 to be ready for our 5 p.m. Zoom with the rest of the family.  I baked a wheel of Brie with raspberry jam in a puff pastry shell which we nibbled on through the afternoon.  I took at nap and slept through the baking of the small turkey.  I woke up to baste it and it was time to take it out of the oven.  But it was delicious anyway.

At 5 we got onto our Zoom.  I was so incredibly happy to have the camera for my desktop that Olivia gave to me as my Secret Santa.  I was able to have everybody on my screen at the same time.

From top left to right, Norm and Olivia in Petaluma, CA, then me in my office and Ned in the family room.  Bottom is Tom's family in Santa Barbara, Jeri & Phil in Maine and Joe and Alice in Santa Barbara. (Walt was sitting with Ned, but had gotten up when I took this screen shot.)

The girls had arranged a program for us to follow.

They had hats for everyone.

And they kept us to the program, so there was none of the chaos that we had at our larger family Zoom at Thanksgiving.  We opened gifts, one at a time and got to appreciate what everyone gave/got and then there was the Eggnog Gala.  We got a chance to see Lacie playing the piano and Bri playing the trumpet.

Ned and Marta sang, Jeri sang a song written by Lacie accompanied by Phil on the guitar and then there was a number that Jeri did with Brianna and put together, with Jeri playing several instruments and Phil conducting.

The girls did it so beautifully it truly was like everybody was here, without having to clean up the dishes afterwards!

So Christmas is over and now it's on to the changing from the 45th to the 46th president of the US...and may that make me feel as happy as our Christmas zoom did!