Christmas has come and gone and I hope you all enjoyed how you got to spend the day.
We started with my granddaughter opening her stocking; the first package she unwrapped was a pair of toothbrushes.
Now, normally, this would not be a huge cause for celebration for an almost-four-year-old. However, these toothbrushes are made to look like dinosaurs and they have a base so they stand up on their own. Well, she had them a couple of years ago and lately had been very sad, missing them, and the fact that they stood up. So, my daughter Ally found some and put them in Lorelei’s stocking. The song and dance around the living room and the hugs for mommy and daddy over this two pack of stand up toothbrushes was truly magical; she couldn’t have been happier.
Lorelei did eventually move on to the next but she was definitely oooh-ing and aaah-ing her way through the stocking. She then was happy to play ‘Santa’ and look for presents under the tree for her mommy, daddy and Mimi as well as herself. And, of course, she immediately wanted to open everything and play with it. She did receive some gifts that required set up, such as her most-asked-for ‘Marble Run’ and she did get to play with that. Plus, she got some arts/crafts kits and spent part of her day being creative with those.
Later on, my stepson Bobby (Ally’s older brother, Lorelei’s beloved “Unca” Bobby) was able to stop by for a visit. Lorelei especially wanted to show him the Marble Run and Bobby shared with us a unique YouTube sensation. It’s called Jelle’s Marble Runs and, when I checked later, turns out there are 1.45M subscribers. We thought at first he was kidding, as he explained that there were a variety of race courses and marble teams and marbles sitting in the stands cheering on the racing teams, then the medal presentations with the marbles on the podium. It just sounded too insane. But we tuned it in and 10 minutes later, there we were; cheering on the Balls of Chaos and the Midnight Wisps and the O’Rangers, each rooting for the team we chose. I wouldn’t have thought it possible but Ally, Lorelei and I were glued to the TV; we kept saying we needed to stop watching and visit and we finally did, after getting through like six of the 16 Olympic style marble events.
My son-in-law Judd kept himself busy elsewhere while we were cheering on marbles; he probably was thinking we all had lost ours.
On Christmas Eve, we enjoyed our traditional ‘theme’ gathering at Judd’s parents and this year it was Goth so we all were dolled up in our best black attire complete with dark eye liner and lip gloss. And a couple of days later, we had the opportunity to share Christmas with the rest of the family at the Pearce home – even though we lost both Judd’s grandmother Joyce and grandfather Jon during this past year. It was always the Christmas Day gathering point and this year we met there on Saturday, Dec. 27.
It was bittersweet but football was on, food was plentiful and we kept it as lighthearted as possible. In fact, our biggest discussion and debate of the day centered around the pronunciation of the word crayon. Since ‘Crayola’ is most associated with crayons and the brand name has a long ‘A’ sound, there were several that argued ‘cray-ons’ should be two syllables and pronounced with the long A. Just as many said it’s pronounced ‘crans’ – all one syllable and a short A sound. Alicia Hawkins – Judd’s cousin-in-law – specifically agreed with me on the ‘crans’ and even asked for a ‘name drop’ in my column since we were on the same side.
Crans or cray-ons – you decide!
Marg Jackson is editor of The Oakdale Leader, The Escalon Times and The Riverbank News. She may be reached at mjackson@oakdaleleader.com or by calling 209-847-3021.
