Christmas eve- After a mellow morning we decided to run into Lexington for a visit to the family`s favorite Jewish shoe store, Michaelsons. What a fantastic experience! The store was a completely family-run business and everyone fussed around us, taking on and off the girls shoes and shaking their hands when they found out that they were Jewish Eskimos. With a happy-to-home feeling we headed back to Becky`s for a wonderful, but far-too-short, visit with Grandmas Doris.
With reluctance we left the house after lunch and started our three hour drive to West Granby, Connecticut for our next stop on our Christmas Extravaganza. We arrived just before dark to be greeted by Nanny and her sister-in-law Polly. The rest of the family was out for a walk so we headed out into the woods (blanketed with a thick layer of yellowed leaves) to catch them. We eventually found them- Putter (Sven`s surrogate dad from grad school), and his daughters Alison (and husband Brad with little boys Tucker and Silas) and Nanny jr (with husband Billy and teenage kids Elias, Rawson and Eva). Also there was
family friend Diane. We decorated the Christmas tree in the barn and spent the evening meeting all the new wonderful kids, most of which we’d not seen in 6 years (or ever).… We had a wild night with all 17 of us- playing and laughing as well as wrapping and finding presents, not always efficiently or
successfully. Our bag situation was a mess and everything just a little smooshed.
Eilidh writing her letter to Santa
Christmas Day- We were woken by excited teenaged kids to Christmas morning and rushed up ourselves to discover the kids` Santa stockings. We had a leisurely breakfast, lots of coffee, and dealt with anxious kids ready to open presents. After lunch we headed over to the barn to open presents. 17 people in a barn opening presents should have been massively chaotic, but because of the wonderful mixture of people and the positive attitudes it was actually quite restful.
After a fair amount of playing, we headed out for a walk before the darkness crept in while Polly prepared dinner. Putter and Nanny’s house is located in an absolutely wonderful spot is rural Connecticut, right on the edge of a nature preserve with some fabulous trails (which I didn’t even notice- I just followed our hosts through a maze of trees). We walked through the park, ending up at an educational animal park where we admired the sheep, goats, ducks and chickens.
We walked home to an amazing meal prepared by Putter’s sister Polly, consisting of beautifully cooked roast, Portobello mushroom lasagna and peppermint icecream with warm chocolate sauce. Bliss! An extra helping of bliss came at bedtime when we were able to soak in the hot tub under the stars before going to sleep.
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