The day started at three o'clock in the morning. Gabe actually woke up around twelve thirty, but we managed to hold him off for another two and a half hours. The morning proceeded for about a half hour for Donna and Gabe to see what Santa brought them (and for Mom and Dad, too). We then convinced them to take some of their stuff upstairs to their room to play with while we tried to get just a tad bit more sleep. We then got up at seven for Megi to see what she got and for the immediate family to open presents from each other (and from family that would not be in attendance later today). She handled it much better than I expected. I expected her to be so overwhelmed that she'd shut down, but instead, she, though overwhelmed, took it mostly in stride and really got into the unwrapping part. She was not at all pleased with the "quality" job that toy manufacturers do at securing the toys in the packaging. Neither am I.
Then mom made French toast for everyone for breakfast, which was quite good. We finished watching A Christmas Carol that we tried to watch last night (until dinnertime interrupted the movie temporarily and then Grandma commandeered the television to watch ID). Then the kids played for a while as Candice and I cleaned and made preparations for the meal later today when the extended family arrives. And now Grandma is making more finger foods and nick-knack foods that no one wants just because.
Candice was totally in the Christmas mood this year (for the first time in a while) right up until Grandma started adding to the menu last minute and taking over the space in the kitchen we needed to prep for the meal (along with monopolizing her time that we needed, too, because her "it won't interfere" line was total crap. It turned into "do all this for me.") Now Candice is completely out of the mood and dreading the rest of the day. Grandma is completely oblivious to this fact. And now, instead of having too many leftovers for the fridge, we're almost certainly going to have too many leftovers for the fridge, plus a bunch of other stuff that no one wants to eat, and it'll sit around until we throw it away in a week and a half.
I was dumb yesterday. I wrote over a thousand words towards my story Darkness, and then forgot to email a copy home. It was mostly just rewriting myself back to the point where I was a few months ago, though it feels much better to me now. There are two less characters and I have a better feel for how the story will progress. The first death in the second party has occurred and they're trying to figure out the best approach for the immediate future. Logically, they should turn back and take the body to town, but they're farther away from the town than they are to their destination, and with an unknown predator that they can't be sure where it is, they are essentially stuck until they can decide. They find that the backpack with the satellite phone is also missing, so calling for help is out of the question. They're going to decide that there is probably another satellite phone at the campsite they're heading towards, which will push them forward and into the climax of the story.
In a few minutes, I'm going to put the sweet potatoes in the oven, since we're planning on having everyone eat dinner around three in the afternoon. After that, I guess we need to start boiling the mashed potatoes (I've already peeled and diced them) and make the stuffing. Then it's get dressed for the big event and enjoy the afternoon.
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