rebecca_in_blue | And so this is Christmas, and what have you done?

Even when I was a kid, Christmas Day always felt kinda like a let-down. (When I was really young, it was the one day a year that Mom dragged us kids to church, before she gave up on trying to make Catholics out of us and just let us be heathens.) I always preferred Christmas Eve, where the focus going to Grandma's house and seeing all the relatives, not getting presents. This year was no exception.

On Christmas Eve, I spent the afternoon and evening first at Grandma's house, then with JC & Co. There were the usual Christmas Eve dishes: gumbo with hard-boiled eggs and potato salad, and pizza for ~~Rebecca~~ folks who don't like gumbo. (I know, I know, I'm a bad Cajun!) I did give and get a few small gifts to/from the extended family. I gave Athena one of my cute little dreidels -- because she's one of my few relatives who shows any interest in Jew stuff -- and ended up teaching her whole family how to play it! I had to explain to Athena which Hebrew letters meant almost every time we spun the dreidel! Christmas Eve doesn't get better than playing dreidel with Mormons.

Their family opened their presents while I was there, and Eva is still young enough that Christmas presents are a huge deal for her. Her whole face LIT UP when she unwrapped her swanky new electric keyboard, and she immediately played "Don't Stop Believin'" for all of us. She is really an awesome piano player. I got her a pack of glittery ink pens that she also seemed excited about.

I broke my three-year tradition of attending Midnight Mass at the Catholic cathedral, but I was so tired from the long day that I completely forgot and went to bed early. Around 11:30, I sat up in bed and thought, "Hey, I could still make the Midnight Mass," but I was already in bed, and the whether outside was very cold, wet, and windy! Besides, is there really a comfortable place for a now-officially Jewish girl at a Midnight Mass?

Today, Sara and I slept in and slept in and slept in. We have really hardly seen each other all week because our work and sleep schedules were so crazy. I got a few random presents that I don't know why my family thought I wanted -- am I really that hard to buy for? -- and some I really liked. Sara got me Flight of the Reindeer, a children's book I'd wanted about how reindeer really fly (by contrast, I got her Stephen King's The Stand: Complete and Uncut); a nice new Torah with commentary; and...