December 25, 2013: White Christmas in Frankfort

Liesl was the first of us to wake up this morning. She had snuggled with me all night in the one bed. Luciana slept at our feet in the little kid bed and Dominica had the other twin bed across the room. Dominica’s back hurts too much if she sleeps in the one that Liesl and I used so I am always in the bed on the north wall and she is always on the south wall. Once we heard the Grice children in the hallway we turned Liesl loose and she was out the door in a shot to go downstairs and see what Santa had brought for her. Luciana was asleep for a little while longer but with all of the commotion was up pretty soon.

During the night it had snowed, turning the warm weather into a truly white Christmas! Perfect for the Grice family who just drove up from Texas and did not think that they were going to get to see snow this year (at least not in New York.)

The adults had breakfast and coffee and we all migrated to the living room and set to opening gifts at about a quarter after nine. It was a slow start to present opening but sped up as the day progressed. Liesl had tons and tons of presents to open because she not only had Christmas stuff but her birthday stuff from the Grices too.

The girls, understandably, got just tons and tons of stuff. I am horrible at remembering Christmas stuff the next day in general and when there is so much and so many kids it is that much harder. I know that Liesl got a lot of really cool Playmobil stuff and lots of video games for her Nintendo 2DS. This was a video game Christmas for all of the little kids. Garrett and Clara both got Nintendo 3DS systems of their own and Mario Kart so that they can race against Liesl online. Garrett also got several PS3 games. They have hit that age.

Dominica’s big gift was a real popcorn machine. Not a huge one (thank goodness, we don’t have much room!) but a cool counter top unit. We are thinking about installing it in the basement so that we can make popcorn right where we watch the movies. We are kicking around the idea of trying to install a small powder room in the basement too, having something on every floor is really nice and we already have the plumbing there, we think. It would probably be pretty minor although it is hard to tell if it would really fit or not, I am horrible with determining space like that.

For Christmas I got Dominica Vera Bradley slippers. That is what shipped to the house yesterday that I had to go pick up for her.

We did gifts until around four. Then dinner and I showered to get ready for going to see the rest of the family and Dominica’s grandfather later in the evening.

We went to Uncle Joe and Aunt Barb’s for the late Christmas evening family get together. We were there probably only two hours as Luciana was tired and not being very cooperative. Liesl was being very good. So we could not stay for fear of a meltdown.

I got back and pretty much immediately got onto the road to return to Peekskill. I had thought about staying tonight but it is too risky as snow is expected tonight and if Luciana doesn’t let me get right to sleep I may have to drive all night in snow after getting little to no sleep. Instead if I left right away I’d only miss half an hour or so with the girls but get home safely and know that getting to work in the morning would not be a huge issue.

Dominica helped me to load up the Spark with whatever we could fit out of the Acadia so that she would have more space to fit Christmas presents into the Acadia for when she comes down next week. Then I was off leaving Frankfort before nine.

The drive back down to Peekskill went fine. No issues at all. Did not see any snow and almost no traffic. The roads were really clear. Probably the emptiest that I have ever seen the New York State Thruway when there was not a blizzard.

On the drive back down I finished reading “A Wrinkle in Time” which I had started yesterday. The book was not as good as I remembered it from my childhood. The characters are flatter and more annoying that I remembered. The Audible edition that I have is the recording recorded by the author which, I think, was a poor choice. Madeleine L’Engle is not a master narrator and I feel that her reading of the story actually detracted from it. Although it is always neat having the author do the reading. The book is written for a younger audience than me, that surely plays into it.

I got home just before one. It took me a little while to relax so that I could fall asleep.

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