A "Sweet-A**" Christmas

Christmas is never going to be the same again.

It's time for me to just understand that, and accept it. I am very glad that Shawn and Lisa and family came out to Utah and that Debbie and Steve were nice enough to invite us over to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas day, but I'm just saying - having mom and dad gone has been eye-opening.

Here's what I mean. Christmas Eve there was high drama because the boys (as usual) were downstairs playing video games. And by boys I mean Steve, Travis, and Mike (close or well in to their 30's) not Gavin and Benji (ages 4 and 1.) I went down with the "real" kids to watch How the Grinch stole Christmas before they went to bed. I thought we could all watch it together. I was wrong. We were told to go to another TV and Mike and Travis said they would just go to Mike's house and play if we kicked them off the game. Everyone got mad (shocker) and we ended up watching it with the kids while Steve and Travis went upstairs in Steve's bedroom. Steve, to his credit did eventually join us and apologized - he just doesn't like not having options. 'Tis the season I guess.

The night did end better after the kids went to bed and we decided to play a game with the adults. Travis and I bought the Atwoods a new game called, "Chicks versus the Dudes." How can you resist a name like that?? It was pretty fun, although we started off kicking the dude's butts and they were furious and saying things like, "The girl questions are super easy and ours are soo hard---every girl knows that a pitcher gets measured on ERA and what that stands for." Anyway, we ended up tying one game to one, although I have no doubt they will tell you they really won both. Why? Because in order to win you have to pass a final challenge. The options for this challenge are: 1. Name the company that makes a given product 2. Spell a given word 3. Finish a given ad slogan or movie line OR 4. THUMB WRESTLE.

It's clearly a good game when the makers bring thumb wrestling in as a deciding factor, I mean how awesome is that?? Perhaps ro-sham-bo would have been more fair though. My fellow "chick" teammates told the guys this was not fair and that none of us could beat any of the guys at thumb wrestling. (I personally disagree, as I have a high level of patience and thumb flexibility, but I gave in to the pressure.) Because we wouldn't let them pick thumb wrestling as our challenge and we won, they don't concede the victory. Basically, they still gave us a different choice and read it, so I have to believe in a court of law our victory would stand up.

So that was Christmas Eve. Christmas day was lovely and Lisa and Shawn were super thoughtful to get extra gifts for the singletons (Travis and I) who weren't getting any packages to open. It was super nice of them to include is in their day.

But nice and good is boring, so let's move on to the....unique part of my day. I had told the basketball guys who got left behind that I would make Christmas dinner for them. You know, Thanksgiving went so smoothly, and, well, that whole matching shoe thing...

Ok, so I picked the guys up (There were supposed to be 4, but 2 changed their minds and I ended up with 2. This was good because the 2 I picked up BARELY fit in my compact car. James literally had the front seat pushed as far back as it would go he still had his knees up to his chin. Lamar was stretched out in back because his legs wouldn't fit with no leg room. Imagine if the other two guys (7'1" and 6' 7") had tried to fit in as well. Anyway, I had cooked for 5 people and I thought there was no way the three of us could put a dent in it. Oh wait, let me back up to what I cooked at their request:

Ham, Macaroni and Cheese (not Kraft, Ed), cheesy potatoes, beans, rolls, and that heath bar chocolate cake.

Ok - so we all sit down at my little table together (again barely fitting) the table filled with food, but mainly with a pot of Macaroni and cheese that was the size of a pan you would use to cook a roast and potato dinner. I had tripled the recipe. I was nervous they wouldn't like my first attempt at Mac&Cheese after the failed sweet potato pie, but they both filled their plates twice. Literally filled their plates twice - high and deep with just mac&cheese and then did the other stuff. They ate half the pot or more. It was amazing. It was actually very gratifying after my Turkey Day failure and I got a compliment which I think I can say with 99% confidence that I will never, ever again get on Christmas day..."Girl..that was some SWEET-ASS macaroni and cheese!" I wish Boob would say it to Delsa after one of her fine Christmas meals, but I doubt it.

We had a good (and entertaining) conversation where I learned all about how much life sucks in Provo for a tall, black man with no car, and what their favorite food is. Care to guess? It's chicken. I said, "Fried chicken?" And James replied, "Fried, baked, rib, breast, wing or thigh. Grilled it, batter it, whatever. Chicken." Seems like a great ad for Chicken farmers.

After dinner James wanted to go home and Lamar and I topped off our Rockwell-ian Christmas with a visit to the movie, "I am Legend." As Lamar looked around all the Utahns walking around, he just shook his head and said, "This place is weird." I couldn't disagree as I thought about my day. Merry Christmas and God bless us everyone.