Day 229
Merry Christmas!
This is the second year of having somewhat of a "different" Christmas. "Different" is on its way to "normal". A Stief family Christmas is now a pretty intimate thing with 5 people who go to church, open presents, and watch Xmas movies while stuffing their face. One person runs in and out all day going to see his girlfriend or whatever. I guess life changes and this is not necessarily bad because there were things about the chaos of lots of kids and activity that weren't always pleasant. It always felt like there was a lot of work and it was over in a second. But now sometimes I miss the chaos.
So what did we do? Cliff came in on Friday the 22nd late and we didn't see him until Saturday. Rick and I went to see "The Good Shepard" and it was so confusing and slow we both nodded off at different portions of the 3 hour movie. Still it was fun- that is the 2nd movie we have been together in the last 8 weeks and before then it was probably a year or two ago.
Saturday Cliff and I had coffee with my friends from work and then met his friends for lunch. Here is a picture of our group at coffee. Then we went shopping for mom's gift from Cliff.

Saturday night we went to church, and even though I have been doing very well without Erica here, I did become emotional after church. I think a Xmas service really snaps you out of denial that a loved one is not with you this year. But I think how lucky we are to all have our health and my child is not in Iraq or anywhere dangerous. In fact she is exploring the world and having a blast.

Sunday I was Christmas Eve and I did some major cooking. Well at least for me I did. First I had made Edna's sugar cookies and they turned out awesome. The cream and the crisco make them different from others. Then that evening I made ham and cabbage crunch (cabbage in honor of Erica I guess). Mom brought over cheesy potatoes and rolls. It was all good and we had a nice family dinner, even Kevin was there! We opened presents which were all very cool. I got tickets to the Heartland Theater from Rick along with a bottle of my favorite $22 bottle of wine! Kev was a little disappointed not to get all money but we told him we don't care if he takes it all back. (See slide show on next blog entry). What was really funny was that there were a couple of gifts mixed up- I guess I was having a glass or two of wine while wrapping so Cliff got Kevin's jeans and Rick got Cliff's Palm Pilot. No problem, luckily no one was disappointed :)

Then we all watched Christmas Vacation which is funny every time we see it! Cliff is working very hard and he seemed to especially enjoy sitting back with company and laughing at a stupid movie. Cousin Eddie does it for him every time!

Monday of course I couldn't stop myself on the cooking roll. What is wrong with me, seriously? I think I am trying to make this Xmas as special as possible. I woke up spontaneously at 7:30 to start working on the bird. I decided that I want to make a turkey that looked like a Christmas turkey and not a large boiled chicken- so I decided to try the oven instead of the Nescoe. I have pics but they aren't uploading correctly. So checkout Kodak.com. She was delicious but not quite as tasty as the past Nescoe bird. So you can't judge a bird by its cover. I took a nap immediatly after the meal, obviously exhausted from 2 days of cooking. Rick took a later nap and I snuck out to the movies with Karen to see The Holiday- loved it! Jack Black was so cute and reminded me of one of Erica's old boyfriends- she knows who I mean.

Today not much worth writing about. A lot of relaxing, solitaire, and returning Kevin's gifts. He got up at the crack of dawn to get his money. God willing he won't spend it on something I don't want him to spend it on. And you know what I mean. . . . .

Don't want to go on and on about how I missed Erica (or Edna last year). I know others have it worse, like Michelle's niece (just diagnosed with a Stage 4 rare liver cancer), Becky's family, and John Franklin. Let's just say I am glad I got through the holidays this year. The next time won't be as difficult- the first time is always the most difficult. And God willing it will be a long time before we have to do another holiday without a loved one.