We woke up this morning to Christmas Day. I was first up, and decided just to go ahead and get a shower while I was waiting for everyone else. Unfortunately, I woke Mama up doing my neti pot. After apologizing for rousting her, I ran through the shower while she got things organized for the day, unloading the dishwasher, etc.
It turned out that Cole was going to make red velvet pancakes for Christmas breakfast, which suited me fine. I had brought my waffle iron down thinking I would make waffles like last year, but doing less work was perfectly OK with me. The problem was that he was watching some friend's dogs while they were gone for the holiday. And Cole wakes up late and slowly. We got him up around 9am, and after coffee and stockings, we opened gifts.
Mom seemed to like the butterfly charm Rhonda and I had picked out for her last weekend. It was a pretty thing. I had gotten Cole some guitar instruction DVDs, but of course his real present was the cookbook. Lisa's purple Corningware was a big hit. I was glad, because I was really not sure about it, but she really seemed to like it. She had forgotten about the grapefruit spoons I had picked up for her months ago, so that was a surprise even though I had called her about them before I bought them.
When Cole left to go look after the dogs - and we still hadn't had anything to eat but candy - I got up to make myself an omelet. I have reactive hypoglycemia. I need protein in the morning to help balance my blood sugar anyway, and I can't just not eat. I feel terrible for the rest of the day if I do. Neither Lisa or Cole are big breakfast eaters, so they don't think about it, but I really don't have the luxury. I just made myself some eggs and didn't make a big deal out of it.
Eventually Cole came back and made the pancakes, which were good. I had brought him some real maple syrup (Lisa's budget not really allowing for such luxuries) and we ate and relaxed while we were waiting for time to go get Ava.
Ava had been with her father for the ten days leading up to Christmas, according to the crazy custody agreement they came up with. Lisa had been fretting about it for days, and was upset on the way to church, and still this morning. Now I understand wanting to see your child at Christmas. That's perfectly normal, and I can understand that she missed her. But I can't understand worrying yourself to death about it. She was with her father. It wasn't as if she was in imminent danger or something. Mom says I don't get it because I'm not a mother. I guess that's it. Anyway.
The time came, and Lisa and Mother rode to get Ava. I took a few minutes to just enjoy the quiet before the tornado hit. Love that child to pieces, but when she's around it's the all Ava show, all the time. Last year she had been so wound up that it was craziness on Christmas Eve.
She came in today in pretty good shape though, especially considering it was Christmas and all. Her presents were the ones left, and we all gathered around as she opened things. She got a lot of stuff, as usual. The boots were a big hit :) Her father had gotten her some boots too, but they weren't very pretty, they didn't have heels, and the ones I got actually matched her dress better. She immediately put mine on, and there was a little petty place in me that was glad I had up-staged her dad. Of course the bigger part of me was just glad that I had been able to find something that she liked so much.
Now by this time it was 4pm. There was not a pot on the stove, and there had been nothing to eat since pancakes. Lisa had planned a big Christmas dinner, but was still playing under the tree with Ava. I understand that she wanted to spend some time with her, but you can't just not feed people. But, not wanting to be disruptive, I just decided to start the meal myself. Bad call, apparently.
The planned meal was chicken and dumplings, green beans, and Mom's sweet potato casserole. Easy enough. But for some reason, Lisa had decided to make dumplings with boneless, skinless chicken breasts. I don't know either. I asked Mom what we were cooking the chicken in, because there were these huge containers of chicken broth sitting there, but since Mom said we were cooking the chicken breasts in water, I shrugged and put them on. Well that was wrong. Lisa wanted them cooked in the broth. "No problem", says I, "just let the chicken cook, take it out, and reduce down the broth, and you can put your chicken stock in." So she wasn't best pleased, but that problem was fixed.
I put some broccoli on to cook, and started looking for the green beans, which were in the freezer. Now Lisa and Mom both have this space-age low-moisture cookware, about which I know nothing. I just use plain ole pots and pans. I had been laughed at for putting so much water in both the chicken (really? how the *&^%$! are you gonna cook dumplings without a pot of broth?) and the broccoli. So I let Lisa put the water in the beans and turned them over to her. After about ten minutes, I checked them while I was checking the broccoli. They were in a frozen clump in the pot. Because we were trying to get things ready, I turned them up, and told her I was doing so. Well long story short, they scorched (just as they did last year...). This was my fault for turning them up, despite the fact that she was standing at the stove cooking dumplings. Basically, I felt ill-used over that.
But everything else was done, and done pretty well (the 'too-much-water' broccoli was perfect, I might add). We sat down to eat. Well most of us did. Ava was squirmy and fidgety. Lisa figured (correctly) that she had to go potty. So they were gone for 10-15 minutes with that. We sat and ate without her. When they got back, they almost immediately had to go back to the bathroom. So by the time they were back at the table, we were finished eating. We sat with Lisa while she ate what she was going to, but you measure Ava's mealtimes with a calendar. She wanted dessert, so she was eating. Eventually. But after we started drifting away from the table (I had major fanny fatigue by this point), she was pretty much done. She eventually ate a few more token bites to secure dessert.
Lisa makes divine ambrosia. I don't like it enough to make it (it's a major pain in the ass to make), but I enjoy eating hers. But by that point I really didn't want any dessert. I set about getting my stuff together. I had packed up the clothes while they were gone to get Ava. I had Cole pack me some ambrosia to go (as usual) and had him cut up the chocolate pound cake for them (I explained that it would freeze, but he just cut it up in huge chunks and threw them in gallon plastic bags - it will probably mold, but it's his cake and not up to me to tell him how to eat it).
I stayed for a while after supper, but I had another long day tomorrow, and had to be up in the morning to make pickles too. I said my goodbyes and headed on out.
I drove home in and out of rainy, drizzly, yuck. Traffic was light though, and I made it home in good time. I enjoyed the visit, but was really glad to get back into my own bed tonight!
I got home in time to get the text from Lisa that Ava has come back sick from her father's yet again. She spent the evening being violently ill. Sigh. I feel so sorry for Lisa.
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