So this is Christmas

So we have survived today's big family to-do. The mood was upbeat, almost uniformly so. T made the roast, a task that had been long associated with his dad, but he put his own spin on it, which I think helps. T's family is big and noisy and friendly, much like my own, so I always feel at home with them, especially now that I've known them all for ten years. This time we ended up playing games, mostly a Scrabble-like word game called Bananagrams, which I enjoyed so much that I've already downloaded the iPhone app. Now I am tired from prep and the food coma, so we're kicking back in the guest room with our respective phones, resting up for a drive to LA tomorrow where we're going to meet an aunt and some cousins for a day at the racetrack, something I've never done before. Even though one year my summer job was selling tickets for the grandstand at the Sonoma County Fair. So that should be interesting.

Yesterday, Christmas Day itself, was much more low key. T's sister and her boyfriend got in on Christmas Eve night, and we spent the day tidying the house, putting out decorations -- the lack of advance decoration by T's mom was the only obvious outward sign that anything has changed since last year -- doing cooking prep, and interestingly, also playing games: a couple rounds of Scrabble and a game of Hearts. Games are common fare at the large family get-together, because T's cousins all have kids (age 7 to 19 or so), and keeping them occupied is always high priority, especially at my in-laws house since it's not super kid-friendly. But it's been rare for our small group to do games, and I wonder if my SiL was looking for a distraction. If so, it worked, because the day was good, if quiet. Also I was pleased to learn that the month or so I spent obessesed with Scrabulous paid off in terms on improving my Scrabble game, so much that I might even consider playing one-on-one with T again...

Overall, a succesful holiday visit so far. I hope you all had or are having a great holiday if you celebrate, and/or a lovely weeked!

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