Holiday time - Merry Christmas!

Finally, after all that busy-ness, it was time for some merry-making. Merry Christmas! Rawwwrrr! That's what Elder and Eleanor are saying to each other above.

On Christmas Eve morning, we met with my Uncle Jack, Aunt Karen and cousin Keith - my mom's brother and family, who were also in New Jersey - for brunch at a local restaurant. It was scrumptious and I was particularly pleased with my husband and my cousin, who both agreed to share with me a "dessert" order of the Poached Pear French Toast. Mmmm... so delicious!

We had a really nice time together, and it was so good to get a chance to really catch up and see each other at a happier, more relaxed occasion than the last time, which was at my Mom's memorial service.

That night, we accompanied my sister and family to a Christmas Eve service at their church, focused mostly on singing. Normally, I would have enjoyed the chance to sing favorite Christmas carols, but I had no voice! Unfortunately, for my entire Northeastern visit, I was quite sick with a bad cold, which I'd finally caught from Elder while we were down in Florida. That made my visit a bit more subdued overall, involving going to bed early, resting, and lots of coughing.

Christmas morning rolled around, and of course the first item on the agenda was stockings! But that was a bit too early for Elder and me. Those kiddos get up at a ridiculously early hour, and I needed my sleep. But they had fun, and we made our way downstairs a couple hours later, in time for Christmas breakfast. This is the nice thing for us about my sister's new house... our own room on the 3rd floor! No more sleeping on a couch and a children's mattress on the floor in the living room, then being awoken at 6am when the kiddos scamper in.

Christmas breakfast consisted of our Augusta family favorite, my Mom's tradition - Eggs Lorraine. Mmmm, so yummy! Canadian bacon, then Swiss cheese, and an egg with sour cream dabbed on top, then baked in the oven. Accompanied by coffee cake and your choice of Apple Blossoms (champagne with apple cider) or Mimosas. A delicious breakfast.

And then it was time to really sink into those presents piled up under the Christmas tree. Eleanor was more than happy to help everyone open their presents, ever the eager little Christmas elf. And guess what that little elf got for Christmas from her Grandpa? Her very first camera! A "kid tough" camera, perfect for her.

Little Silas got a nifty stacking tree from us, and a cool Storm Trooper outfit for a stuffed animal... or was that a gift for Pliny? Elder and Julie really enjoyed their stylish monster hats, or were those Eleanor & Silas's? Eleanor and I had fun with our new robot finger puppets... except those were Julie's! Oh boy, this is getting mixed up.

Okay back to gifts and their true owners. Elder got a fabulous new apron from Julie & Pliny, which contains useful cooking info printed upside down on it so that the chef himself can read it. Very cool! He loved it and proudly debuted it at our New Year's party here in León.

And now for the two gifts that Elder and I were most excited to give!

First - a present for Eleanor & Silas. This gift was a time-consuming one, but it was worth it.

Back in March, after Elder and I returned from our months of travels in Southeast Asia, I came up with a brilliant idea. How about, I proposed to Elder, we make a children's book for our nieces and nephews, chronicling our trip to Asia? We could use all the cool photos of the fun things we did, and call it Auntie Abby & Tio Elder's Big Adventure!

We both got excited about the idea, and I started writing down some ideas of what to include. But then, of course I waited until December rolled around to actually start designing it. I spent several days intensely working on it, and here was our final result:

The last line of the book asks the reader, "Would you like to go on an adventure like that one day?" Julie has reported back that Eleanor has chosen this book a couple times for her bedtime story, and that one of her first responses to that question was, "Well, yes, but I'd have to bring this book with me so that Felix will know where we're going." (Felix being her future husband, of course... little does he know!).

And for our grand finale... dah dah dah DAH! We brought out the big, heavy gift that we lugged around from airport to airport and city to city on four different flights (almost being forced to check it as luggage), one rental car, one train ride, and finally in a Budget truck before arriving to stay at its new home. But again, it was worth it. And the gift was... a hammock!

And not just any old hammock. A hand-made specialty of Nicaragua, from the market town of Masaya, this beautiful hammock is designed to be comfortable, and - best of all - family size! We especially wanted one that the whole Montclair Eremic family - including the cat! - could pile into. And we got it. And then they got it. Julie says she can't wait until the spring to be able to pick out a spot in their backyard to hang it up. Yippee! Gift-giving is such fun, especially when we can get cool things like that.

So much of Christmas day was spent getting through presents, and in the evening we had the traditional Eremic Christmas spaghetti dinner.

The fancier dinner was saved for the day after (Boxing Day), because a couple years ago, J&P discovered it was just too much to get through this long day with presents and little kids, *and* put together an elaborate meal for everyone. So this works out pretty nicely. For Boxing Day Dinner, we had a Christmas ham (or is it Boxing Day ham?), sweet potato casserole (Nana's decadent recipe), Triple Corn Spoon Bread (recipe from Amy W.) and green beans. It was delicious.

We stayed for a couple days after Christmas, and I'd love to report on all the fun, exciting things we did. But I'm afraid we didn't do any. I was too sick to do much, and then proceeded to pass it on to others. "I have a bit of a cough," Eleanor told me a few times.

But we had a lovely time and it was good for us all to be together for Christmas. This was the Eremics' first Christmas in their new house, which was exciting. But it was also our first Christmas without Mom, which made it bittersweet. I remembered talking with Julie back in early September, before we knew how little time we'd have left, about how we hoped Mom could at least still be with us for Christmas and get to see her new house. In the end, none of that was possible, but I do believe her spirit was with us during those holidays. And Julie and I channeled Mom by donning her old festive Christmas sweaters!

At one point, as I walked down the stairs and glanced into the kitchen, I saw the refrigerator door open, a dark-haired figure wearing one of Mom's Christmas sweaters crouched down to pull something out of a bottom drawer, and for just an instant, my heart skipped a beat and believed it was Mom. It was just a momentary feeling, because of course in that same instant I knew it wasn't her, that it was my sister wearing her sweater. But it gave me this sudden feeling of elation, that she was there! And then, this immediate sinking back down to reality, remembering that she is gone.

But the truth is, she is there. And she is here. She lives on, in her two daughters, in my Dad, and in many others whose lives she touched. We love you, Mom. Always.


And finally, all the photos from Christmas 2011: