Christmas

Well, I'm back.

Christmas was a lengthy affair this year. It began for us on the 20th, I guess, when A flew into Philly from Fayetteville (or wherever you can get a flight out of Arkansas). I didn't see her then, and only again for a little while on the 21st. The 22nd was a drive to New York to see relatives. A (another one) and his wife, L, had flown in from Portland to see their family. They flew to London on Christmas day, sometime in the afternoon, for vacation.

While we were there, we had good food and enjoyed company and presents:







In the first picture, E is trying to take my picture. I got him first. The second picture is when E got his calendar from R. (R&B give us calendars every year, for which we're generally thankful. E's was a Far Side one; I got one of Dilbert. Please, tell me your excellent suggestion.)

The doof got a minature of our house from P, who is generally quite good at those sort of things. J worked on it quite a bit, too; he actually called Dad to find out how many bricks were in the fireplace:


That was impressive.

Grandma was staying with them all, so we left A (who was in NY to see some friends and go to a wedding, I believe) and brought Gram back with us that night.

The next day we drove to M*ch*g*n with Gram in tow. She lives halfway between the Pit of Despair (Ann Arbor) and the Slough of Despond (Detroit). I must've been somewhere in purgatory. But nonetheless, it was very good to go back to where I have so many memories. This is the first thing I remember reading that confused me:


I was young then—maybe five or so? We drove there often from home, first in Ohio and then in Indiana. When A and L (of previous paragraphs) stopped there, A commented that her wallpaper was the same as when he lived there so many years ago. Grandma's house is kind of where time stops, though the people seem to change.

Like all good things, it grows larger as time passes. I hadn't been their since Grandpa died four years ago.

The day after—Christmas Eve—was Uncle W's 90th birthday:




The first picture is the general hubbub (there were probably 100 people in and out of the open house). The second is of Dad saying goodbye to W. W is mostly with it, though he commented that he's having trouble talking. He was difficult to hear over the noise.

He told the Doof and me when we said goodbye that when his siblings all came downstairs on Christmas, there he was, wrapped up and under the tree. I thought he was joking, but Gram told me that his parents actually did present him as a present to the rest of the family. We had a good laugh about it.

W taught me how to make a "flute" out of a straw when he came to visit us—it must've been at least twelve years ago, maybe even longer. He could still walk then. I wish I remembered him better from that time.

He lives with some relatives on Dad's side (his cousin's family). It was good to see them. They live basically in the sticks of MI:


It was scenic and actually pretty nice...but it was gray the entire time—the sun came out once, and I think it was on the way back from Frankenmuth. But I get ahead of myself. The long and short of it is that we drove about an hour and a half to get there and back. (Please no comments from the peanut gallery about how you have to drive five hours to get to civilization. Your whining will earn you no pity.)

We skipped going home and arrived late to Gram's church for a Christmas Eve service. It was Dad's childhood church, and many of the people still remember him, so we kibbutzed for some time after the service was over, despite the fact that both my stomach and the doof's were ready to leap out of our bodies by then.

The next day was Christmas. I got a 50mm prime for my D40 from the folks—it's much faster than my other lenses (f/1.8) and so I worked it as soon as I got it:




A shot of Gram and of Mom. I also got a bounce flash for it (finally!) that syncs at 1/500th, so I should be able to get some good pictures of the studio finally. I'm really pleased by this. The depth of field on the lens is insane:


In any case, I was also gifted with a copy of Step on It by A and E (see song of the week). They also gave me three books by Eliot, all of which seem to rock. In fact, it was a pretty perfect present.

After Christmas presents were over, we cleaned up some and then went to Frankenmuth for lunch. Whereas we had travelled the state west the day previous, now we went north. Frankenmuth is kind of a Christmas town—they specialize in Christmasy things all year round. It would've been nice to walk around, but most of the shops and things weren't open on the day of Christmas.

Lunch was at the Bavarian Inn:




The waiting staff all wore "traditional" German dress and were quite friendly. We had a family-style turkey and chicken dinner with mashed potatoes, soup, and other goodies. The stuffing (Gram says dressing) had raisins in it; when I saw them I picked them out, but I know a few of them got by.

This is a bit of what Frankenmuth looked like on the outside:


The next day was a day of no driving; Dad did most of the driving during the course of our time there, and I think it was a painful experience. It's a good nine hours to MI, and we did a healthy bit of driving while we were there—plus there was the time driving to New York, too.

So we relaxed for a day, which was nice. I took the time to cement some finishing touches on a testing framework I've been trying to put together at work for awhile (I installed part of it on Friday). Wednesday evening, Dad's brother and my cousin, his wife, and his son came over to visit; we had a good time chatting. I hadn't met S before, so it was nice to finally put a face to the name.

The next day we drove back, leaving about 10:30 and getting home around 8. Mom and Dad still had a present from us kids to open, since we couldn't take it with us:


This was the first time I really got to use the bounce flash, and it performed admirably. I really am quite pleased at how it all performed.

We got Mom and Dad a new set of fireplace tools, since the ones they have had for umpteen years were aging, brass, and corroding. That was the only thing Mom asked for, so we all went in on it together.


All in all, it was a good time. Busy and tiring, with lots of good memories. I managed to get a few things done while we were away, which was doubly good. I think we were all a little nervous about how the driving and things would affect us, but it was definitely worth going to see everyone. I am rich indeed.