This was the third Christmas that Jen and I have spent together as a married couple. I must admit that Jenny does most of the heavy lifting during the holidays. For the past three years, I have had law school exams to deal with during the month of December, and am not a lot of help when it comes to planning, scheduling, cooking, decorating, cleaning . . . you get the point. Jenny is amazing.
Jenny and I exchanged gifts on Monday night, December 22. And we tend to have themes for each other each year. Since we spent our summer in Chicago, many of Jen's gifts for me had a Chicago theme. For example, I received The Dark Knight, which was filmed in Chicago, on DVD and also received a Chicago photo collage. But the big ticket item I received was Lola . . . . No, it's not what you're thinking. Lola is what I named the GPS
navigation system that Jenny bought me ( I stole the name from the movie RV with Robin Williams). I've been very pleased with Lola so far.
Last year, my theme for Jenny was electronics; so this year I had to change things up and decided to go with things that she could wear (I know, I'll have to start becoming more creative with my themes). For example, Jenny received things like black leather boots and a "British red" wool coat. But the big ticket item that Jenny received was a new softball glove. The last time that Jenny received a new softball glove was about ten years while she was in high school. Her old glove had gotten so much use that it had all but disintegrated. And with the help from moisture in the trunk of our car, it was completely destroyed. Jenny loves her new glove. I did good.
Our gift exchange was just the start of things. On Tuesday, December 23, we picked up Jenny's brother, Jeremy, and his new wife, Stephanie, from Detroit Metro Airport before heading to west to Otsego, Michigan. With good road conditions, the trip from Detroit Metro to Otsego is about 2.5 hours. But because of ice and snow covered roads, it took us 3.5 hours to travel that stretch. Most importantly, however, we made it safely. When we finally arrived in Otsego, we were kindly welcomed with a snow assault from Jenny's youngest brother, Sam.
On Christmas Eve, we celebrated with Jenny's mom's (that is, Sue's) side of the family. Sue hosted this year and experimented with something new - a progressive style meal within the house. We ate salad in one location, our main dish in another location, and dessert in yet another location. It was a nice way to get everyone to interact. I would welcome this style of meal in future years, but to make it more interesting we could incorporate musical chairs where every table would have one less chair than is needed for everyone to sit down. Of course, this could lead to violence. Maybe this wouldn't be a good idea. But it would surely be interesting.
Too many gifts were exchanged during the Christmas Eve get together for me to recall or list all of them, but among the most noteworthy included "custom made" t-shirts for Jen's uncles, Don and Dave, compliments of Jenny's dad, Jim. Sue received a giant Christmas ornament. And Jim was so fortunate as to receive Hillary Clinton's autobiography, Living History. He can't wait to read it.
On Christmas Day, we exchanged gifts with Jenny's family. But before the gift exchange that morning, we were blessed with pigs in a blanket - glorious pigs in a blanket - compliments of Jenny's Mom, Sue. Again, I won't recap all of the gifts, but a couple gifts are certainly worthy of mention. First, Jenny decided that it'd be a good idea to give her parents, Jim and Sue, a newly painted dining room for Christmas this year. So we (i.e., Jenny, Courtney, Jeremy, Sam, Stephanie, Jim, and I) spent a significant amount of time sanding and painting in the dining room. Jeremy, having much more expertise than the rest of us, was our leader and carried most of the burden. Having so many hands around helped, but we didn't finish all of the painting before we had to leave. So for Christmas this year, Jim has been given the gift of repainting his dining room. It's the thought that counts, right?
The gift of personal Christmas letters that we received from Jenny's sister, Courtney, were also "noteworthy." Courtney provided each family member with a letter expressing her appreciation and love. I thought it was a nice touch. And since I know that I can never get Courtney to admit to the kind things written about me in the letter, I'm keeping mine in a safe place.
On Christmas afternoon, Jenny's brother, Sam, started up his quad; strapped a sled to the back of it; and pulled us around for some fun in the snow. Stephanie, being from Texas, had not experienced anything quite like this, but was ready and willing to try something different. She, along with the rest of us, had a great time, but our back sides are a bit sore from being pulled over the slushy-turned-icy driveway. Sam won the award for the most painful sledding experience that day. As Sam was being pulled by Jeremy on the quad, he was taken over a snow ramp that launched him a few feet in the air and then straight down onto the hard and unforgiving driveway. He took it like a champ. And no broken bones, so he's fine.
On the day after Christmas we celebrated with Jenny's dad's (that is, Jim's) side of the family at Schoolcraft high school. We played a lot of fun games, including Goldschmeding family trivia. Although I may have been the least knowledgeable with respect to such trivia, it was nice to learn so many different things that I had not known. For instance, I learned that every summer the Goldschmedings would go to Sandy Shores campground, which is located near Silver Lake State Park, in Mears, MI. I had never even heard of Sandy Shores campground before learning this.
Later that evening we headed to the high school gym. There, Sam demonstrated his throwing accuracy in two ways. First, he made multiple full court basketball shots with a leather football. Second, he drilled Stephanie in the back side with a snow ball. To be fair, Sam was not necessarily aiming at Stephanie, but generally at the group of women he loves so much - his mom and sisters.
On Saturday, December 27, Jen and I celebrated Christmas with my mom, Chiquita, and brother, Zelig. My mom got me the perfect gift this year, a maize and blue Michigan jacket. I know it's perfect because it just about made Zelig, a die-hard Michigan State fan, puke. But Zelig was well taken care of since Jen and I got him a Michigan State long sleeve. Who said there was joy in giving? Later that evening, we all played Apples to Apples. Normally, I am not so good, but having Zelig around (capitalizing on the brother connection) made me a much better player.
And that's all for now. Thanks to all of you that helped to make this Christmas special!
