Christmas Day

Jana went to bed early last night, and so we were all up and ready for opening gifts before 9 a.m.
The most interesting (odd, unusual, unexpected) gift was a mannequin for Dick from all of the kids. This mannequin is taller than I am. It's soft and bendable, so it can sit. We bent it into a sitting position, dressed it in the clothes provided, put a hat on it, sat it in the recliner, gave it a book to hold, and named it Basswood Bessie. Last summer, Dick had casually mentioned that he thought it would be fun to put a mannequin on the swing at the riverside deck to startle passing canoers and kayakers. Be careful what you wish for! Now I'm startled everytime I go into the living room!

His other best gift was a new computer - a Dell with a flat screen monitor. After the holidays we're going to have a nice person come here and hook us all up so our two computers are still networked.

We got so many wonderful gifts that it's hard to pick just a few to mention. I especially loved the Gillespie family pictures in the beautiful case. I got a new digital camera and a printer dock that works! I feel like I'm back in business at last. It's a great feeling. Tom gave me a nano iPod - now I've entered the 21st century for sure - it is a marvel. Jana gave me stacks of great books, and there were so many other terrific things - warm socks, hand warmers and gloves from Dick - he knows how cold I get! It was a memorable Christmas.

In another non-traditional (for us) move, we had ham for dinner. It was an easy prep and an easy clean-up.

We talked to Florida - Dylan got a marvelous keyboard that makes hundreds of different noises besides being a piano. He's really been enjoying it. He also seems to like the nerf ball shooter game really well.

We all went to Mother's for a Christmas Day visit. She enjoyed hearing about the mannequin and our other gifts. She's still glowing from the shrimp and the champagne on Christmas Eve.

Jana and I went to see the Chronicles of Narnia. We enjoyed it so much. As always, my favorite is Lucy. I liked Mr. Tumnus too, but the Snow Queen was not a favorite of mine - until the battle scene - then she seemed to come alive and be a little more effective. Edmond was well cast - he could assume both the dark side and the good side easily - nice job. It's a beautiful movie, and it brought back such good memories of reading those books.

Merry Christmas