Lovely afternoon and evening with our East Coast family.
Fun:
Jimmy produced a "box-o-fun" which he had filled with stuff from Michaels to make tree ornaments - and we did.
Our family has been doing this - in many forms - since our kids were very young. Jimmy reminded us that he first made ornaments with Jim when he was 6 years old. Jim and I still have a few of those original paper ice cream cones that have graced many trees. We talked about other "craft event" - with high marks to the year East and West coast family was here and we gathered in the kitchen and went wild making shrinky-dink ornaments.
Later, when we gathered around the Christmas tree, Juliana brought out a box of English "poppers" a friend sent to her from London. They looked so beautiful in the box, - it seemed a shame to open them especially since the "pop" meant tearing them apart. These were the "musical" kind - inside each popper was a one-note whistle and a paper crown. Once we were all "crowned" we attempted to follow the number charts and created hilarious renditions of the old Christmas Carols. (don't worry - we will not be going public.)
Movie buffs - may remember the scene in Bridget Jones Diary where she and her father play "poppers' on a sad Christmas night or the scene in the book - not the movie - Prisoner of Askaban - where they play "poppers" at Hogwarts when Harry stays there for Christmas.
Let the games begin - there will be more FUN. Juliana and Alison gave each of us games - and invited us to a GAME NIGHT! They gave Jim and me an intriguing game - Banana gram - a sort of portable scrabble - with a bag of great letter tiles - and it has a yellow banana-shaped carrying case!
Jim and I did a bit of re-gifting this year. Special cook books, a treasure for Karen - a traditional design large wool and silk woven scarf from Provence complete with the story of finding it and a surprise personal history gift for Jimmy.
We boxed a collection of letters he and Monica wrote during their first year of marriage when they were living in Germany in his old Biology Box - which I had saved. Jimmy read bits from several letters - bringing back details of those days they had forgotten. Letters are so GREAT!
these are hand-written as well as chatty with daily tid-bits.
Oh, did I mention good food - prepared by Karen and Monica?
And - a very sweet Mass where the priest quoted Kermit the Frog , "Love is a gift."
Continuing the theme of this year - FUN:
The family surprised Jim and me with gifts that promise more fun.
Robin et al sent a year's subscription to Netflix
Karen gave us a device so we can stream the movies through the TV
and
Jimmy et al rounded out the Entertainment theme with "first dates" -
gift cards to several restaurants, an ice cream parlor and a movie theater.
Actually Jim and I had already agreed on a FUN gift for ourselves.
We are giving each other a gift of history - that we can share -
a year's subscription to Ancestry.com - to fill in some more blanks in our family history.
Fun along with Finding and Making memories - the stuff of stories.
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