On the Second Day of Christmas . . .

"One the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me,
Two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree."

Chers Amis,

Christmas is an unhurried, multi-day celebration a notre moulin, arriving with the Sunday vigil mass and lingering sweetly until Epiphany. We have never celebrated the holiday all in one day. Rather, we draw the festivities out over the 12 days of Christmastide with one gift a day until they are all gone or we hit gratitude saturation. Many a gift has been put away for a coming birthday! While a bit quirky from the outside, this has been a wonderful, stress-reducing tradition chez nous. There is no rush to the mall to buy last minute presents and when Granpa's reindeer become fatigued over St. Louis and must stop for a few days of respite, all is well. Of course we can do this because all our family is either up north or out west and it is just us non-conformist chickadees au moulin. So today still feels very Christmasy, there is just more room in the fridge :-)

We did have a lovely relaxing First day of Christmas. The girls' choir sang at the 7 pm Christmas Vigil mass on Sunday and dh took a slow, winding way home for maximum Christmas light viewing. Once jammies were donned, each of the eager faces got to open one special present - cozy full-length bathrobes. Pippin had spent much of the last week palpating a large, strangely-shaped package from his Gramma. We let him open it. Such joy. Soon, "The Force is with you," and "Your powers are weak" drowned out "The Holly and the Ivy." Note for next year - no gifts with microphones.

Surprise, all three kids slept well and we didn't traipse downstairs until 7 AM for cocoa and coffee. Stockings are a must, followed by the Chocolate Chip Scones (I wanted to change to cranberry orange but was vetoed). Note for next year - if you use powdered buttermilk, do not assume the liquid measurements will be the same. Splurge and buy buttermilk. Tummies full and excitement brimming, we took turns opening one present each with lightning and thunder crashing outside! Only one gift sounds brutal, but it's not! The kids - and parents - have time to really appreciate and play with each gift. Caddie, having handled and jiggled most of her presents, choose the loudest - a bag of assorted buttons. ($4.99 at Michaels - a 40% coupon). You would have thought it was a bag of gold coins. She asks for buttons every year and spends hours examining each one, sorting them and placing them in her button collection. Scarlett opened a gift from Gramma. A crazy mask with interchangeable eyes, antennae, noses and mouths - with a MICROPHONE. Note for next year - no gifts with microphones.
The kids took turns wearing the mask and pretending to be: undersea divers, traffic reporters, pilots, singers, radio personalities and myriad of other characters. This of course morphed into a duel between "Marsupial Man"?? and Darth Vader. Did I mention that too much auditory input drives me wacko? Add to that, I bought dh an MP3 player. HA!

I opened a gift basket of bath gel/lotion and a gift certificate to Barnes and Noble. (Is my MIL great or what!), grabbed the new potions and hid - luxuriated - in the tub while dh helped an enraptured Pippin put together his Star Wars Legos ship. The rest of the day was loud :-) but relaxed: Cheddar vegetable strata for lunch, more playing, phone calls to family, misty eyes talking to distant family, a hour figuring out the how-to of MP3 players, more playing, dinner, and an early bedtime. Today we spent most of the morning trying to clean up and finish making Pippins ship - which promptly fell apart in sections. Note to self - next year use superglue when assembling Legos. Now what did I do with those Turtle doves?

-- Marjorie

PS - As you can see I have spent some of my time playing with my colors. I still don't have it the way I want it so bear with me. Shh! I might try out Typepad for the free month to see if it is worth it.