Christmas Day

Christmas Day was spent with my side of the family, and it was grand. I was blessed to be with my parents, one set of grandparents, my wife, and my sister's family (including her lively little bunch of kiddos). Ages ranged from not quite 2, to the mid-80's. Chaos reigned. It was grand.

My littlest nephew is almost 2. He didn't *quite* understand the presents... somehow he got the idea that every present he picked up was for his Great Pa-Pa. Before long, my grandfather had a pile of presents next to him stacked up at least a couple of feet high. Nobody above the age of 7 could do anything but laugh.

During Christmas Dinner, I told my grandparents the story about how I confused a waitress. Scruffy had asked for water with lemon, and my wife wanted water without lemon. I told the waitress I didn't care if I had lemon or not, and it badly confused her (almost to the point of tears!).

Later, my Grandmother was asked if she wanted pumpkin pie or pecan pie. "Whichever one you're cutting is fine," she said. I gave her an amused look. "You're just trying to cause trouble, aren't you?" "Yep!", she happily replied, with a twinkle in her eye.

Finally, the story of the Potato Heads. I actually asked for Opti-mash Prime because he amused me so much. My sister went out and got him for me (along with Spidey-Spud). While looking at the presents that day, my mom said to her, "Oh, your kids are going to love those!" There was a brief pause before my sister said, "Er... those are for Jeff."

My mom knows me well. She didn't question for a second why a 33-year old was being given plastic potatoes for Christmas. Instead, she simply asked, "Shouldn't you get one for your kids, too?"

As it turns out, my 'sis did go back and get one for her kids. It's a good thing she did. My oldest nephew (7) was eyein' my 'taters suspiciously until he opened his own. :)