Events of Friday, December 24, 2010

            Everyone is excited about Christmas, but none, I think, are more excited than I. When I am happy, which is usual with me, I smile, but when I am really, really excited, like at Christmas time, I feel like I am going to burst with joy. To get this joy out and share it with the entire world, I smile even bigger and laugh and jump up and down, squeal, and the like. My family thinks I’m really weird, but I love to smile! My face is made to smile, just like everybody else’s face, but I use my smile muscles more often. Last night, I had a really hard time going to sleep, because I was so excited. One of the things that I love about houses is that if you jump up and down in them, the entire house doesn’t shake, like the RV does. It’s amazing! Here, in our rented Christmas home, if I’m excited, I simply go into the bathroom, jump up and down a few times and come out, and, surprisingly, the whole household isn’t shaken or angry that I caused, say, the salad to jump off the table!

            When I finally fell asleep last night, I was anxiously anticipating the next morning, thus I didn’t sleep much. But that was okay, because when I awoke, it was Christmas Eve! I came downstairs and, lo and behold, Grandma was there. She and Grandpa had arrived at our house in Williamsburg at two o’clock in the morning. And now she was up at 7:30 our time; 4:30 in the morning California time! Nonetheless, I hugged her and then went to shower while the rest of the house woke up. While we sat down to breakfast, Grandma went out to get Grandpa some orange juice and came back just as we finished. When Grandpa got up, I gave him a big hug as well and then we left them to unpack all their suitcases.  We were headed for the Jamestown Settlement museum, which we hadn’t quite finished a couple of days ago.

            We walked through the museum at our own pace and met up at the end. The most interesting fact I learned was all about the first Africans coming to America. I had never learned the history of this, but it turned out the Portuguese colonized an African country called Angola. The Portuguese started to convert the Africans to Christianity, and ordered all Africans to have a Christian name and be baptized. Slavery already existed in Angola as it was common practice to enslave the people of a conquered tribe. The Portuguese started participating in this practice as well and sold conquered Ndongo Africans into slavery. In 1619, the English intercepted a Portuguese ship carrying these slaves and took the slaves to Jamestown. Up the African coast was another country. Queen Nzinga, the queen of this country, was converted to Christianity and baptized. She led her country bravely against the Portuguese, and eventually signed a treaty stating that the Portuguese would leave her people alone. Through this treaty, she saved thousands of her people from slavery.

            Finished with the museum, we went back to the house to have lunch. We found that our grandparents had gone to pick up our Aunt Jennifer, who was also coming to Williamsburg for Christmas, so we ate lunch by ourselves. After lunch, I moved in some more while others prepared to make one of my favorite Christmas cookies that our family has nicknamed “reindeer droppings”. This recipe is made up of butterscotch and chocolate chips melted together with hard chowmein noodles, spooned into “droppings”, and cooled until hardened. The other type of cookie we made was called Puffed Wheat Balls. About a month ago, Daddy found this cereal called puffed wheat, which is one of the most disgusting cereals in the entire universe. Even Daddy doesn’t like it. It was really cheap, but the whole box weighed 6 ounces! He searched online for a recipe to use up this disgusting cereal and found one for puffed wheat balls. To make it better, we added holiday M&M’s. We gathered in the kitchen and, while Mom worked on the reindeer droppings, we mixed up the bubbling sauce, which looked really yummy, and poured it on top of the puffed wheat. Then we began the grueling task of mixing all of the puffed wheat without spilling it all over, and, after greasing our hands, forming sticky balls with rather hot stuff. We ended up with inseparable fingers and many trays of brown cookies, most of them falling apart.

            The kids hiked upstairs and started cleaning our hands, when we heard the door open and a “Hello!” ring out. We rushed downstairs to greet Aunt Jennifer. We hugged each other and showed her around the house. The way this house is set up is rather strange. The entry hall has a curve ahead and a doorway on the right. To the right is a living room with a couch and a fireplace – perfect for hanging stockings. Off the living room are a dining room and a huge kitchen. Branching off from the kitchen is a sun/mud room with laundry machines and a door that leads to outside. Down the hall from the foyer are a bathroom and three bedrooms, each with a TV and a king or queen size bed. A steep staircase leads to a big upstairs room, complete with four beds, a bathroom, and a sloping wall that has grown very friendly with our heads. After the tour, we showed Aunt Jennifer her room and allowed her to unpack and take a much needed nap as she had been up all night traveling.

            Grandma, Dad and I then hopped in their rental car and drove to Costco. After shopping for food for Christmas and the week following, we went back home and found dinner ready to be made. We helped with this process and ended up with a delicious dinner of spaghetti, bread, salad, and freshly made Christmas cookies. I have to admit that the puffed wheat treats weren’t amazing, or even very good for that matter, but the others of my family seemed to think differently.

            Next we explained to Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Jennifer about our Christmas plans. We had gotten a gift for each person that fit the person and fit within our budget. We put everyone’s names in a bowl and everyone drew somebody’s name. You would be responsible for hiding that person’s gift and providing them with clues for the treasure hunt to find their gift. Then each person got a different color of post-it notes and pen. Next, they wrote four clues for the person they had drawn. The first clue is placed in their sock hanging on the fireplace, and the last clue led to where the gift is hidden. It was so exciting to prepare clues and hide them for the person with no one noticing, but our fun ended soon, because we had to get ready for church.

            Once we were dressed in our fancy dresses and slacks, we drove to Colonial Williamsburg in the RV and walked to the Bruton Parish Church. When we arrived there, we found that we were not able to enter because we did not have the “red ticket” that was distributed to the members of the church. So we took our place in a line facing the line of members with tickets. That member line seemed endless; it went along the length of the church and around the corner. However, after all the members got in, we were led into a side balcony, where we separated into different rows. I ended up in the front row between Mommy and Daddy and I had a perfect view of the organist. The church was beautifully decorated with greenery, wreaths and poinsettias. It even had a candle-ier, a chandelier with real candles that set a warm glow over the narthex. After singing several Christmas hymns and hearing the Christmas story read from the New Testament, it was time for the Christmas message. The bishop began with a modernized version of “Twas the Night before Christmas” inserting all the modern devices of our day. I enjoyed the part when the reindeers’ names called, “On Facebook, On Twitter, On Ebay, on YouTube….Tweet away, Tweet away, Tweet away All”. Then he spoke of the two gifts he had received this Christmas season. First was the Gift of Silence as he dropped his blackberry in his cat’s water dish. The other was the Gift of Peace as he had the opportunity to hold a sleeping newborn for an hour. Then while we sang more Christmas hymns, we took communion. This was an amazing logistical feat to have the congregation go forward, since three different balconies had to be emptied, followed by people sitting in the narthex, in the wings, and along the main aisle of the church. It was amazing to realize that we were worshipping where Jefferson, Washington, Patrick Henry had come for the Day of Fasting and Prayer declared by the Virginia House of Burgess in 1776 in support of the Bostonians when the British blockaded Boston as punishment for the Boston Tea Party. At about ten o’clock we made our way home.

            As we got ready for bed and finished our clues, we eagerly anticipated the next day of snow and Christmas. It was really hard to go to sleep, but we ended up sleeping deeply, on the night before Christmas, when all through the house….

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care

In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there…

… He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD-NIGHT!