Christmas 2012

It was in many ways a typical Christmas. There was a rush to get cards out (somewhat botched by the printer), buy gifts (most of Santa's were ordered online), put up lights, and decorate the tree. Each year something is added to Cyndi's Christmas Village; this year the boys set it up and on occasion you'd find pieces they moved, a sign that it comes alive for them. Cyndi coordinated the family meals once again, cleaned her parents' home and set up their Christmas decorations, and took care of them. (Her mother broke her wrist in a fall, and Cyndi helped her mother through that, which continues, while her dad had a scary visit to the doctor's during the week before.) We made the posole, the ham, and the brisket ahead of time. The boys kept asking to unwrap early presents. There were presents from aunts and uncles arriving by mail, toys from Ariel and Chris, and even an advent calendar of chocolates from Chris' folks. On the weekend before Christmas, the cousins got together in their PJs to open their presents and drink hot chocolate.

Christmas Eve was with family in Belen: posole, tamales, red chile, breads and ham, with several sweet desserts. Rylee played on his scooter once, and he and Lauren went round the luminarias outside, secretly snuffing a few of them out just as they were lit at an early dusk around 5. It threatened to snow, and for a couple of hours the winds blew and knocked down the luminarias. We returned to Albuquerque and strolled around Old Town to see the luminarias there, hear the carolers, and join the crowds. We sat in the church there, and visited the creche. Santa was rather exhausted by that time (we could track him on a radar app) and did not get his cookies this year. It was not an overwhelming cornucopia of gifts, but the boys were happy and so was Cyndi. They each got a really good backpack and water bottle. That was Santa's idea. Jackson must have taken to heart the discussions from his birthday when he got so many things and so he asked for very little this Christmas. An online "sandbox" game called Minecraft was all he really asked for, and he found it in his stocking. He got the professional microphone he wanted with his camera at his birthday. Rylee didn't ask for much: an electronic tablet had long been his expectation. He has always used the hand-me-downs and now he had his own (Google's Nexus 7.) He also wanted anything Hobbit or Lego, as well as a leather jacket, but that appeared late on his list. He did get some blue skinny jeans he's wanted for months, a skateboard shirt, and a cool hat from his cousin Nicholas. Of the stocking stuffers, the harmonicas seemed to be a short-lived hit that may come around again.

The boys dressed up for Christmas and looked so sharp and handsome. We made it to the mass in Belen to join the family. It was a tedious mass, lead by a young priest who methodically included every ceremonial gesture and must have gone through a complete list of saints three times. Ry kept asking me what time it was, and Jack wanted to leave right after communion. Where were the great Christmas hymns? And why does so much of the church music sound like a funeral dirge? I suspect most parishioners went to the midnight mass or the children's Christmas Eve mass, which had to be more alive. There was plenty to eat and drink for the great Christmas dinner. There was only one incident of an adult nephew getting, as I'll describe it, bent out of shape. We picked up Lola, and she joined the women in the living room, while the men huddled outside on the porch. The kids played mostly on their computers. One of the nieces played the piano, and neighbors and other family came around to say hello. A visitor from Spain remarked as she looked at all the Christmas cards how different their celebration was, with gifts exchanged on January 6, the traditional day the Magi arrive and epiphany, El Día de los Reyes.

I last heard from Ariel when she and Chris were changing planes in Miami on their way to Buenos Aires. They will be camping, hiking and climbing somewhere in Patagonia for about 20 days. Yesterday we got a beautiful calendar from them, filled with pictures from their wedding. Cyndi said she read on her social networking site that Jenni and Jacques were in Germany, while we got a phone picture of Beth, Gary, Emily and Eric in front of the Louvre on Christmas Day. Mom, Dad, Beth and Sarah were together in Monterey, David was set to come down from Juneau on the 27th, and Sandra had just returned from Massachusetts to visit the new baby girl, Gwen, who joined Terra, Karl and Roscoe just before Christmas. We may go to Ruidoso just after the 1st for some skiing and snowboarding.

A few days before Christmas, our internet finally just went out. We had suspected a bad connection. I called the Comcast techs and decided after about 24 hours without internet to get a new combination modem/router from Radio Shack. Those 24 hours were remarkable. It was, as Jackson said to Cyndi, as if the power to our house was shut down. We were off the grid. No computer. Games came out of the closet, and Jackson and Rylee spent more time playing together and roughhousing. I wished this could last longer, but I knew the boys would be disappointed come Christmas if they could not play with their new electronics and games. So we went out on Christmas Eve and activated a new modem and router. It really was a huge improvement, which thrilled Jackson, and I told him Merry Christmas.

I saw Ry in the gym just before the holiday playing basketball. He was playing with some older boys, taking turns at the basket, returning their errant shots off the rim as court etiquette dictates. He sunk most of his shots, several from the corners and the free throw line. He had a nice dribble and a good layup. He played the rebounds. When I joined him on the court, he loved to pass and take passes into the goal. He also started to read the Hobbit on Cyndi's Kindle (it's now on his tablet) and he read A Christmas Carol to the end, even reading some of his favorite passages two or three times. We must have watched three different movie versions of the book after that, and he loved talking about the story, the characters, and repeating Tiny Tim's line, "God bless us...everyone."