Winter 2010

As we've done each year, we went to Molbaks to take our Christmas photo. Sofia and I posed for photos in front of several different backgrounds. Mom complained that I wasn't "smiling with my eyes," but, hey, Sofia can be rather annoying!  Nevertheless, one of those shots turned out well enough to become the picture for the family Christmas card. 

Sinterklaas, December

December 5th was on a Saturday this year, which means that Sinterklaas occupied a whole week for Sofia.

All week long she left our wooden klompjes on the floor in front of our family room fireplace, and each morning she raced downstairs to find candies and toys in them that the Zwarte had left. I wasn't there every morning because I was at Dad's, but she was good about leaving mine alone and excited to drag me to find them as soon as I walked through the door.

We had our Sinterklaas dinner on Sunday night so Emily and I could be there, too.  We ate our traditional waffles with fruit and whipped cream. Then when we were done eating, there was mysterious, coincidentally timed knock at the door. Sofia jumped up to open it and found that Sinterklaas had left a large burlap bag on the doorstep. I helped her drag it into the family room, at which point she climbed inside it as far as she could and pulled all the goodies out. There were candy, poems, and wrapped gifts. We opened our gifts (I received a Chris Botte CD/DVD), read our poems (some in Dutch, some in English), and ate some candy. Even though I'm not Dutch, it was a fun evening.

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Grandma visited us at Thanksgiving. She'd been staying at a convalescent center for physical therapy, and we thought she was recovering. But soon after Thanksgiving she got worse and had to return to the hospital. Then she got so sick that she agreed to enter Evergreen Hospice. For a week Mom sat with her every day, all day and evening long. I visited her a few times; early on I talked to her, but later she was no longer able to talk to me. She died on December 15th. 

It was really difficult, especially right before Christmas. Grandma always loved celebrating and presents and always spent a lot of effort to pick out special things. (This is us in May at her birthday celebration at Madison House [left].)  Holidays won't be the same without her. And although sometimes she seemed to get pretty worked up with worry about me, I know she was always proud of me and loved me no matter what.

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Baking, December

Despite the difficulty of losing Grandma, Mom worked hard to make Christmas a happy time for us. And we've always decorated cookies, so she found a way to continue that tradition. 

First came the gingerbread house. I didn't help much except that Mom miscalculated in making the sugar "glue," and it turned out that I was the only one in the house strong enough to stir it on the stove. Then it took two of us, Jan and I, to stick the dang pieces together. Mom promised that next year she'd just use frosting.  Fortunately, Sofia had a blast decorating the house. 

Christmas Eve was different for me this year because I had to work at Target until 7:30. Talk about insanity!  Who are these people who leave their Christmas shopping until literally the last hour?! (I have a partial answer to that question: men.) I tease Mom about buying Christmas gifts in October, but now that I've experienced reality, that seems a lot smarter than doing it on December 24th. Even I don't do that! 

I didn't get to Grandpa's house until a little before 8:00. Mom had a dinner plate waiting for me, so I ate roast beef and trimmings while the cousins performed their annual songs/skits. Everyone was there except Lyndsay and Kyle, even those from France and Chicago. Sofia put on a reindeer nose and danced around like Rudolph while they sang. 

Christmas Day, December

Before we all headed downstairs, Mom went down first and lit a candle for Grandma near the Christmas tree and her picture, which sat beside the clock Bonnie gave us in Grandma's memory; it chimes Christmas music every hour. 

Then we began our morning [right]. Santa brought Sofia a couple fun and exciting gifts. My Santa gift was a shaver; I guess he knows I've grown up. Mom and Jan also gave me, among other things, the Xbox game Assassin’s Creed, four movie ticket vouchers, a AAA first aid kit, two-year subscription to Road & Track magazine, and a T-shirt that says, “Will talk cars with anyone.” Definitely a theme there. It was also fun to see Mom open her Burt's Bees gift box, and Sofia loved her Play-Doh spaghetti factory. 

To finish the morning, we had a simple lunch. Usually Grandma would come over and we would all eat a big, special Christmas meal, but because she couldn't be there, Mom wanted to do things differently. I know Mom missed her; we all did.