12/26/06

Too much Christmas

This year I had the opportunity to attend a total of 5 Christmas celebrations. The first was with Alise's family celebration on the 23rd. Unlike Bernadotte, the Sauk Centre area was able to have a White Christmas because of a couple inches on Thursday night. I arrived on the Friday the 22nd for my 2nd Johnny Holm's band experience in Sauk Centre. It ended up being a late night with a stop at the Truck Stop at 3:00 am after hitting up the town of West Union once Johnny Holm's band was done playing.

Saturday was jam-packed with activity. I woke up to the smell of dinner cooking in the oven. Then we opened presents, which looked like it was going to take forever. But we keeping chipping away at the heap until there was nothing left. I spent all afternoon trying to win games of pool or Foosball. I found out early in this relationship that this was no easy task with her family, but I think I ended up with enough wins to count on one hand. We were then treated to an excellent steak and crab dinner, which was probably the highlight of my weekend. After supper I racked up W's in both Disney Trivia (with Jerry's help) and Trivial Pursuit (the unstoppable Brian, Tammy and Lucas). We then winded down with the traditional viewing of the movie Jackass, which left us all feeling a little uncomfortable.

Sunday started out with my 3rd ever Catholic church service. I only saw a few broad differences beside the "genuflecting" and kneeling rituals. The lack of coat racks drove me nuts. I had never seen so many jackets worn in one church. I would totally understand if you had nothing to wear and threw a nice leather jacket over something less dressy. But the people who had their coats on were the same people wearing nice shirts or sweaters. One thing I never realized I cherished about Lutheran churches is my time at the coat rack. I can easily spend 10-15 minutes putting away my coat, grabbing a hanger for someone behind me, meeting someone new, or just talking to a "neighbor" I have not seen in a while. On the way out, it can take much longer as everyone is there at the same time. But this past Sunday I was in and out faster than you can say confessional. The only other big difference was the time we spent just watching the priest pray. I noticed at my Christmas service that only once does the pastor pray without the congregation. At the Catholic service I felt like half the time we were waiting in silence staring at the man on the throne. I do admit Lutherans have excessive preludes and postludes to their songs, but I think this is a fair trade.

We spent Sunday afternoon in Sauk Centre for Alise's grandparents' Christmas. The family of 12 siblings is much bigger than my mom's and dad's of 5 and 4 respectively, and the house is filled much faster. We ate, played the gift exchange game and were off to my house for our traditional Christmas Eve supper with my Grandparents and 1 set of aunt, uncle and cousins. There was no Santa in the flesh, but I had a good time playing Foosball against my much younger cousin, eating Ostkaka (my favorite dish of all time) and opening presents.

Christmas Day stayed as traditional as always. We started with church, headed to Grandma and Grandpa's down the road, and ate brunch. Then we opened presents and poked fun at each other until it was time to go to Christmas at the Rathmann's. Here we played cards, ate and opened our [surprise] $50 check from Grandma, which comes in handy this time of the year.

On Boxing Day (the 26th) I had a dentist checkup (no cavities) and am currently up in the cities, wasting my time away until Thursday, when I start work at Williams Arena. I will either try to keep myself busy with odds and ends I need to finish before Washington, D.C. (like packing and buying airline tickets), or enjoy America's past-time of sitting on the Internet doing nothing.