Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

On Saturday, The Gryphon and I drove to Central Pennsylvania to spend Christmas with my family. Instead of staying with Dad this time, we stayed with Mom, because my brother and his family were down from Vermont, as well as my sister and her husband. We made the decision that it would be a good idea not to have all three dogs around my nephew, since they tend to get very excitable when they're together.

It's been a long time since I spent a lot of time in Mom's house, because we've been staying with Dad for years now. Mostly, it's because he's better set up for guests, with a guest room and two bathrooms.

One thing I didn't expect was how much smaller everything would seem. Even though I spent time in Mom's house, I wasn't, for example, taking showers or looking at myself in the upstairs bathroom mirror. The shower seemed much shorter than I remembered, and I seemed both taller and thinner in Mom's upstairs mirror. Cool!

When we arrived, Mom greeted us and helped us get settled. We put our suitcases in a corner of the dining room, which is a dog and cat-free zone that she had set up for Christmas. Mom has a lot of pets, but Una gets along with all of them. In fact, she used to spend every day over there with Mom's dogs when I was living in the area. I thought it was good for her to socialize. And since they live with dogs, Mom's cats are calm around them. They've learned how to keep their distance and live together in peace.

After we unpacked the car, we put our presents in the front room in the piles Mom had already set up for people. Then we socialized for a little while before changing into the clothes we would wear for the Christmas Eve service and driving to Dad's to join everyone else for dinner.

My sister and her husband were already cooking dinner featuring a main course of turkey burgers, and everything sounded great. When I walked into the living room, my brother's wife handed me my nephew to hold. That was nice; it's always good to see him, and he was in good spirits.

Before long, we were all eating in the dining room. Since the table wasn't big enough for everyone, The Gryphon and I sat at one sideboard, while my sister and her husband ate at the other sideboard.

We hung out and chatted until time to go to church. Mom and Dad left early, since they're in the choir. Between the rest of us, we took up an entire pew.

The Christmas Eve service was more subdued than I remembered. This was my first time visiting it in years, since I'm usually working. The membership has been shrinking, and those who remain are aging. The service was mostly Christmas carols, which my nephew seemed to love. Whenever he got a little fussy, his mom would bounce him or hug him, or someone would get his attention with a cute ladybug puppet they'd brought.

He made the most noise during the sermon, but nothing particularly distracting. In fact, some of the noise was from coughing, since he caught another cold at daycare.

At the end of the service, he was fascinated by everyone singing "Silent Night" by candlelight. He gazed at the candles in silent awe.

Afterwards, I introduced The Gryphon to one of my friends from high school, who is still in the choir. I asked her where her daughter was, and she said, "She's with the dark side this year." That's when I remembered that the gentle, good-natured man I know as her father is actually my friend's second husband and that her daughter has a different a different biological father.

We stood back in the fellowship hall, talking to her and her sister, who graduated with me, until my sister came to get us. She was our ride.

Everybody but Mom returned to Dad's place to hang out. Mom wanted to get to bed early because of church service in the morning. We gathered around Dad's big screen TV while my brother flipped through the channels. He kept picking strange things, such as a National Geographic show about people eating disturbing things.

Mom called while this was on, to figure out arrangements for the evening. She agreed to get the fouton set up for us so that we could just go to bed when we got back without disturbing her.

"What are you doing right now?" she asked.

"Watching people eat live squid," I told her. "I have no idea why."

My brother took the hint. Shortly after the phone call, he flipped to Superman II. It had been a long time since I saw it, and I didn't remember it being quite so cheesy. Between the hokey special effects, the tacky supervillains and the flaws in the plot, the only good thing about it was Christopher Reeve in tights.

We didn't last all the way through. People started turning in for bed at 11, so The Gryphon and I headed back to Mom's. When we walked in, we used a technique I'd learned from the pet store owner. She said if you're calm when you return, it helps keep dogs from getting excitable. Sure enough, we greeted Una calmly, and she never jumped on us or barked.

At night, as we slept, we had a dog at the foot of the bed, a cat sleeping on a nearby chair, and two other cats in the room, either munching on food or snoring softly. It felt a little like sleeping in the manger.

More from Christmas 2005:

December 28, 2005 - The First Noel

December 29, 2005 - Home for the Holidays

Copyright 2005 by Alyce Wilson

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