Midwest Merriment

Finally!

I have now officially used the gift cards I received for Christmas.
I have now officially deposited any money I may have received. (I'm kinda boring that way, and as it turns out, a good thing I did...)
I have now officially taken everything I carted up from St Louis to Columbia out of bags and begun to find places for things.
I will be taking down the decorations today. I will, I swear....

Therefore, due to these things, I feel I can officially write the second and final part of my Holiday Musings.

So, where was I...Ah yes, God is in the messy.

Much to the chagrin of Grandma Bertram, I opened my presents as messily as possible. One of her fun quirks is that she likes to be very careful when opening a present. I'm talking full body retentive here. There is no 'ripping'. She finds where it is taped, undoes the tape and proceeds to unfold the paper without tearing it once. When one of us harass/comment on her opening process we are most often met with an 'Ah phooey!' or a raspberry.* We harass/comment frequently. Sometimes twice on one present. One year I solidly taped every edge so she couldn't not tear the tape. She threatened not to open it. Next year, when I can't think of a present for her, I'll just do that again and wrap an empty box!

Anyhow, we began Round 1 of the present opening Xmas night. This may sound like we just get an absolute shit-ton of presents. We don't, we just know how to savor the experience.

Round 1 - Crowe Family Xmas Eve Night, before mass. Godparents-godchildren and little kids.
Round 2 - 'Santa' Presents
Round 3 - Stocking Opening
Round 4 - Sis & I to parents & Grandma
Round 5 - Bertram Family little ones
Round 6 - Aunts & Uncles to each other
Round 7 - Aunts & Uncles to us and us to them.
Round 8 - Grandma to everyone.
Round 9 - Mike & Tracy to everyone, and vicey versey.
Round 10 - Siblings to each other.
Round 11 - Crowe cousins secret santa. Day after xmas
Round 12 - Shopping day after xmas with xmas money and giftcards.

See, that's how it should be. Spread things out, make it last a long time. It ends up almost being like a reward system. Ok, I drove to StL, Round 1. I went to mass, Round 2. I went to sleep, Round 3. I helped tidy the house for company, Round 4. Etc, Etc.... Some of the rounds, I didn't receive or give a present, but watching everyone else open is fun, too. My Aunt Diane would call that blasphemy. Of course, we had to give her a little present when she first walked in the door just to tide her over. Wouldn't want to ruin her appetite now, would we?

This way of doing things is relatively new. As my sister jokingly said last Christmas, 'Tracy stole Christmas!' Well truth be told, things were due for a change. The three of us were all pretty much out of the house and in our twenties (Tina on the brink of both). We still did Christmas the exact same way every year. We tried to change some things up two years ago, but Mike and Tina both balked at any changes to tradition. I was ready to start a new one. The 'Mike & Tracy' occurrence stimulated a major change of traditions due to the influx of another person's traditions. Thank god, I was getting sick of waking up at 5 am on Xmas morning...
There are traditions that matter, and some that are just superstition or a desire for things to always stay the same, a desire to be in control. It is hard to differentiate between them, but it should at least be attempted. I'm treading dangerously close to my thoughts on religion here again, so on to the day after Xmas.

The Fab Four (Tina, myself, Mike & Tracy) went to Danielle (cousin) & Dave's house for bagels and secret santa. Apparently prior to this time, some family had complained about how the only milk they had at their house was soy milk. Chocolate soy milk. I quite enjoyed Dave egging on some of them by getting a gigantic glass of it and being extremely vocal about how much he enjoyed it. My present to Shannon (my favorite little cousin) was by far the best if I do say so myself....

Afterwards the four of us went shopping. Lots of shopping. Famous Barr, Game Crazy, Best Buy, Kohl's, Borders, Barnes & Noble..I think that's it. We also had lunch with 'The Pregnant Ones'. That would be our cousins and sisters to each other, Danielle & Bridget. I learned more about pregnancy than I was planning that day, but I guess that happens when dining with a pair of pregnant people. Especially with one who is an ob/gyn.

That night Mike & I hit the grocery store to buy some supplies for the evening. Tracy and Tina wanted to make some recipes from a cookbook Tracy got for xmas. Good stuff. Really good. Even had to write down a couple of the recipes. Wait a second.....me? Get into the culinary arts? Well, I grant you I wouldn't call it 'art', but yes I am beginning to like cooking. YES, and eating the food I cook. Have a couple of dishes on the menu coming up soon that look quite intriguing. I may even take a stab at a similar coriander ahi tuna steak I had at the Royale. Yes, I fully expect all the jokes about how I would only eat grilled cheese and hot dogs growing up. How I wouldn't eat any food at thanksgiving when i was really little until they piled everything in a bowl with a little gravy and make me think it was soup. Then I ate it all right up. I'm weird. If you haven't known this before, where have you been?

We also played some board games that night. Sudoku, Blokus, and Apples to Apples. All Mensa approved games, at least the first two, pretty sure about the third. Oh yes, I'm not only weird, I'm a huge nerd as well. HUGE. Ask me sometime about the chaos theory book I borrowed from a girl I was interested in dating. I maintain to this day that was her way of screening potential dates. So being a nerd actually paid off. Fell in love with a beautiful intelligent woman who was six feet tall! I need my nerdom to pay off like that more often.....

Anyhow, I finally made it back to Columbia to work a lot. Had to make up for being off on the holiday. Oh wait, we were closed Xmas and I DID work Xmas eve.

New Year's Eve was rapidly approaching...and I vowed to get messily drunk....

Ok, so I lied, it's more than a two parter...

* - Side note- When I mention one of my life's little pleasures, I will be inserting an asterisk and possibly commenting further on it at the end of the blog. For example, an elderly woman giving you the raspberries. I mean c'mon, it warms me inside just thinking about it.