the holidays 2010

What I take away from these holidays most is seeing the boys play on Christmas day. Their wish lists were not very long. Mostly they wanted more Beyblades, the spinning, fighting tops that have been a recent favorite, and some Legos building sets. Jackson wanted a robotic camera. There was much talk about Santa's naughty and nice lists before the night. The week before there were favorite Christmas movies to watch, and the night before we listened to Papa and Nana read "Twas the Night Before Christmas", a gift from them the year before.

We saved most of the toys for Santa and Christmas morning. Jack helped prepare for Santa's visit, putting out the cookies and milk. The boys dressed in their new pajamas. There were a few small toys for the stockings. A new Wii game for both and a Wii control for Rylee. A laser tag set to share between them. All day Christmas they played together. We went to mass midmorning, the boys wearing new clothes they got for presents. It was not crowded. In Belen, Jackson and Brendan ran around all day outside playing with the laser tag toy. Ry and Lauren ran around outside, too, playing with the neighbor's dog, Rico. For days, the boys continued playing with their new toys and eager to spend all their Christmas cash for more Beyblades and Legos.

It had gotten cold, with two small blasts of snow, mixed with rain, just before the holidays. On the new year weekend temperatures dropped below freezing, dipping to single digits at night. This morning, the furnace never shut off, and more cold weather is forecasted.

Ariel was visiting Chris's parents in Washington. She and Chris went up to Whistler to ski, and I'd expect she visited her friend, Emily, in Seattle before arriving back to NYC to find Chris's car buried in a snow bank.

Cyndi visited her parents a few times the week before to prepare for the holiday, setting up the tree and the luminarias. Cyndi and I prepared much of the meals for Christmas Eve and Christmas day: a ham on the night before to go with Grandma's posole and the tamales. There were lots of desserts and cookies, including those Cyndi had made the week before. On Christmas day, a brisket and half the remaining ham was polished off so that there was no thought of leftovers. All the family was there, Papa and Grandma, Janey and her girls and Garrick, Ron, too, Lola, Michael, Marti and Jeff and Christina, all the ABQ families, and a few extra visitors. Somehow feelings were stirred the night before, as they sometimes are, and the strange nuance of it all was that Cyndi was chastised for doing too much. But that turned out to be a blessing, maybe, because the next day there was a noticeable spirit of help to put on the Christmas feast.

On Christmas Eve, we went to Old Town to see the luminarias. I had not been there for many years. The plaza at 10 in the evening was crowded. The church grounds were packed. The shops still open. We sang some carols in the gazebo and looked for the live manger, but there was little there at the time except for a donkey tied up next to it and a few chickens and a baby goat. We walked to the country club area to avoid the traffic, but it was not as festive as I remember it once after a snowfall years ago. The luminarias glowed all around us.

I talked with my parents. Beth and Lisa and their families would be there on Christmas day. David and Sandra were visiting Jenni & Jacques in Valdez. Terra & Karl were with Roscoe. Beth had just told us of a scary health issue and there was a surgery just before the New Year. It went as well as it could, so there is much hope.

Cyndi had another flash mob performance just before Christmas and there was one day when we braved the cold so Ry could skateboard while Cyndi and Jack rollerbladed around the perimeter of the skate park. Cyndi and I went out on our anniversary, surprised somehow by celebrating 10 years.

The boys will return to school tomorrow. They will need the change. It is wonderful to see them play together, but there are times when the play escalates and turns vicious. It is strange to see that when usually they are so loving. Jackson is normally very protective, especially of his mother and his brother. He bought Cyndi a small golden crucifix for a present and Rylee a Lego set, and spent a lot of time building Ry's Christmas Legos. Jackson's slowly becoming more mature. It's a difficult time because you can see how he must come to terms with taking on more responsibility and yet will have times when he dissolves into childish tantrums. Ry has many tantrums these days over the smallest of slights. Ry is always busy explaining his internet research on Legos and Beyblades. He's up early in the morning and stays up late at night until he often curls on my lap and falls asleep. They both seem to love to draw and color. They both seem to love numbers and to try out new words. In church, all of a sudden they have become angels.

Cyndi got a Kindle e-book reader and seems very pleased with it. She got a small village piece again this year, adding another piece to the Christmas village that has grown each year since we've been married. This weekend the tree came down. It had become very brittle. But before it came down, we had one last meal for the year for family in ABQ: a seafood and pasta theme, with cake and champagne and noisemakers and poppers with strings of confetti to celebrate the new year holiday. Cyndi took out the Christmas china, and Jackson helped set the table and put out name cards at all the places.

I have promised pictures and videos, and they should be coming soon. Perhaps they will remind me of other things.