Christmas ‘07

Despite being buried in the snow, we were blessed with visits from family over Christmas. Marie was up and her brother, Shawn’s Uncle Cleon, and his wife, Aunt Ellie joined us for the holiday.

Christmas Eve day began with John joining the local running group’s Jingle Bell run…

Our festivities began in earnest with Christmas Eve dinner…

Our “Feast of Seven Fishes” ended up one fish short of a school when the local market ran out of scungilli - but since we’d had tuna sandwiches for lunch, we thought it was still OK. We sipped wine and enjoyed shrimp salad, fried calamari (squid), seared scallops with leeks and asparagus, spaghetti vongale (clams), muscles fra diavolo, and baccala (salt cod) with pignolis and spinach - the one dish John remembers his mom making every Christmas.

After dinner, Ironboy and the Ironmate stopped by for some Christmas cheer. Even before the limoncello flowed, they let loose an offer that John couldn’t refuse - to officiate at their wedding in April! Despite his lack of ecclesiastical authorization, it turns out our state grants one day licenses for such events! Who knew? So, John’s in search of someone to attest to his “high standard of character” and if he can just find that, he’ll be honored to be doing the honors.

Jake spent some time wondering when and how Santa would get down the Chimney. Though it’s certain the boys still hear the bells, there are no doubt doubts in their minds. Somehow, it still seems safer at this point to hedge your bets and not let on.

Sure enough, on Christmas morning, the miracle had occurred and their were plenty of gifts under the tree. Jake enjoyed some Lego building sets, new computer games, a prized atlas, a snow globe, and, among other items, a hot new LaDainian Thomlinson jersey. Joshua scored new ski goggles, a new portable game, soccer gear, books, and plenty of stocking stuffers and such. Perhaps most thrilled, however, was Shawn…

She got a new vacuum cleaner!!  It sucks. John was very proud of this gift.

We had another Christmas dinner that couldn’t be beat (roast beast this time) and settled in for some fun times with all of our new toys.  (And yes, Shawn vacuumed!) The day after Christmas, we even got to try out our new saucers on the town common hill.

Later that day, we headed into Boston’s Quincy Market to enjoy the lights of the city and a nice dinner at Kingfish Hall to celebrate Cleon’s birthday.

We’ve still got a bit of fun planned between now and the end of the year with soccer, blood donations, maybe even some skiing to do!  But we’ve already had a great holiday and wanted to share it!  We hope yours was a very Merry Christmas!