Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

Christmas morning we didn't get up terribly early, but once everybody was up and ready, we took all our gifts and made our way over to my mom's house, where we would do the traditionally Christmas gift openings.

The Gryphon had volunteered to help with brunch, and he made a light version of German apple pancakes, which he'd tested earlier this week. Everybody liked them.

In addition, we had some food Mom had prepared, including miniature fajitas, a fruit salad and some home baked tortilla chips.

Altogether, it was a tasty, light brunch.

This year for Christmas, a lot of us were doing creative gifts. My sister and her fiancé had done artwork for everybody, which involved elements of both collage and painting.

They did a wonderful collage for me called "Strength, Beauty, Creativity, Independence."

And they did this painting for Dad, which I titled "Disco Planet."

And this one, for The Gryphon, is titled "Personal Space."

My mom gave me a portrait of my dog, Una.

She also gave me two pastels from pictures I'd taken of the old-fashioned rose bush in front of my house, before my landlord attacked it and hacked it to the ground this summer.

My sister especially loved the portraits she received of her pets. My photo of her with the portrait of her cat, Ludo, didn't turn out, but here are the portraits of her cat Beaner and her dog, Emma.

My creative contribution was giving people T-shirts I'd designed. Primarily, I was giving out Wild Violet T-shirts except to my sister's fiancé, whom I gave a "My Dog is Walking Me" T-shirt. He seemed a little disappointed, so I promised to give him a Wild Violet T-shirt for his birthday, coming up in March. It's just that when I was ordering the T-shirts, I kept thinking that he'd really appreciate the silly one.

I really enjoyed all the gifts I received. Among them, The Gryphon gave me a DVD of David Bowie's most recent concert tour, Reality. This was really just to give me something to open, since he'd already bought me a new computer this fall! I've told him he's covered for Christmas, Valentine's Day and my birthday next year.

I also got a Living Color DVD from my brother and his wife, which was a great gift. I'd had it on my Amazon.com gift list.

He seemed to appreciate the indoor grill I got him, along with the book he'd requested, The Book of Regrettable Food by James Lilek and a couple button down shirts to wear to work.

My dad surprised me with a Canon photo printer, which I'll have to hook up later this week. I'm sure I'll get a lot of use out of it.

Before we knew it, we were done and it was time to collect our gifts and return to Dad's. We were going to meet up there for dinner later. The Gryphon was cooking the main course, which was chicken in a lemon sage marinade.

While we waited for things to cook, people took turns playing with The Gryphon's new video game, Katamari Damacy. I went through submissions for Wild Violet, which has become a Christmas tradition for me. It's simply a good time to do it, since our new issue comes out in late January/early February.

"Merry Christmas," I said, each time I signed another rejection slip.

We called my brother to talk to him and his wife about how Christmas had gone. They were pleased with all the baby presents and updated us on the nursery, which is almost finished. I sent my brother on a fruitless search to find the "Reindog" ornament I'd sent them in addition to baby related gifts. He couldn't find it anywhere, so I told him that if he can't find it in a week, I'll send him another one.

Then I read a book I'm reviewing for Wild Violet until dinner, when Mom joined us. Dinner was delicious: the lemon sage chicken, with a couscous dish and cranberry sauce made by Mom and a salad made by my sister. For dessert, there were two different types of low fat desserts: a chocolate cake and an apple pie.

After dinner, my sister and I went downstairs and played on the computer a little, looking up silly things on the Internet. Then we all gathered upstairs and watched some episodes from The Simpsons second season DVD that my sister and her fiancé had. I fell asleep partway through.

The Gryphon stayed up, playing his video game and then watching some of the anime series, Read or Die. But I was simply down for the count.

It had been a calm, peaceful and merry Christmas.

More from Christmas 2004:

December 27, 2004 - Working Christmas Eve

December 29, 2004 - Helper Elves

December 31, 2004 - More Christmas Pics

Copyright 2004 by Alyce Wilson

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