A very NASCAR Christmas

As Ria could tell you, not very many of the Christmas presents in our family are a surprise.  Part of it is a byproduct of year-round Christmas shopping, and part of it because we spend a lot of time together (or did before I moved to Philadelphia - but the rest of them do).  So when we're together and someone says "Oooh, I like that!" someone else will say, "Want me to get it for you for Christmas?" and we will, but then we'll take it home, wrap it up, and the other person will have to wait until Christmas day to open it.

When we were in Charlotte for Race Week, we bought each other a LOT of stuff for Christmas.  I got Mom a Joey Logano stuffed teddy bear.  She got me Kyle Busch pajama pants and a Carl Edwards coat, and her husband bought me a Kyle Busch hat.  "Joey bear" as he was dubbed came home to Philly with me (because I didn't trust Mom not to leave him alone until December), but the rest of the haul went to Missouri to be wrapped up.

In October, when I met Jack Roush in the pits at Kansas Speedway (which I WILL get around to blogging about someday), I got a really good picture of him.  I decided to get this picture printed and framed for Mom's husband because he hates Roush with a passion.  So I thought it would be a fun gag gift:

Upon opening it, he said, "A picture of the ugliest man in the world!"

Anyway.  First, I opened the Kyle Busch hat.  So I put it on:

 

 

Then, after awhile, I got warm, so I took it off.  And after awhile, I opened the Carl coat.  And I had to try it on:

Then, I thought it would be funny to have both a Kyle hat and a Carl jacket on.  So I put the hat back on.  Then some point later, I opened the Kyle pajama pants.  So I promptly put them on, too.  For some reason, I doubt I'll be starting any fashion fads:

This prompted my mother to tell a story about when I was a kid.  ALLEGEDLY, I was given some underwear, and I was very excited about this.  So I put them on over my pants and wore them for the rest of the day.  I asked Grandma if this was true, and she said it was.  I said, "Grandma!  You were supposed to bail me out!"  She said, "Oh, I was?"  Duh.

Christmas Day

Because of the blizzard, Christmas Day was put off until the day after Christmas. My grandma was not impressed with this ("in 88 years, I've never had to put off Christmas," to which my mom replied something like "well, then, you're getting a new experience this year, aren't you?"). But my mom and I vetoed grandma, explaining that an 88-year-old woman had no business being out in unsalted, mostly unplowed streets, in single-digit weather. The food we'd prepped the day before would keep one more day.

On actual Christmas Day, Mom and I shovelled the drive anyway, figuring we'd save us some work the next day when Grandma and her partner John actually came over (Mom always moves her car out of the driveway so Grandma and John can park in the drive). Then on Saturday, we had to shovel again (although not nearly as much, which was the point), but since they'd plowed we also decided to shovel part of the street so Grandma and John would be able to turn the corner and zip right into our drive (we're full-service shovellers!).

Once inside, this is what the living room was like. The Christmas tree was decorated, despite Mom's threat to leave it in the attic this year. I think she believed me when I told her "no tree, no presents." One of the dog's, Sasha, made herself at home on one of Dale's (Mom's husband) presents.



















I got a lot of NASCAR haul: a Robby Gordon shirt that I had picked out at Kansas Speedway, Grandma made me a set of Kyle Busch pillowcases (they say Kyle's name and have "18"s dancing across the end in various sizes and M&M's colours), Mom made me a pair or sweatpants with Scott Speed's, Kyle Busch's, and Carl Edward's names embroidered on them, and I got a few Kyle Busch t-shirts Mom picked up (two at Cargo Largo and one at M&M World in Las Vegas).

And, of course, I got a lot of Michael Jackson haul, too. Grandma had saved pretty much every KC Star (the local newspaper) that had MJ on the front page. I got the soundtrack to "This Is It," the 12-month wall calendar, the 25th anniversary "Thriller" CD, and the DVD to HIStory, Part I (I have it on VHS, but not DVD, which Mom noticed when she was here earlier this month).

And I was really happy with what I was able to give, too. The big knitted gifts I gave this year were to the women of the family: Mom got the Shalom cardigan I blogged about earlier, my grandma got a ruffled scarf, my sister Laura got a beaded hat, and my niece got a bag that I did as a test knit (I will be blogging about each of those projects later). But trust me, the men did pretty well, too. I hadn't really planned on knitting for only the women, it just kind of shook out that way!

There were many other gifts (both given and received), but the best of all was the good ol' fashioned sitting around gabbing, both as we opened gifts and while we stuffed our faces. Sharing stories as we caught up on family gossip throughout the year (wait - Harold got married again? when did he get divorced???). The funniest part was when Grandma found out that Mom hadn't told me about Karen.

Mom: She has no idea who Karen is.
Me: I do, too!
Mom: You do not.
John: Do you know where she lives?
Me: Illinois.
John: Does she have any kids?
Me: Yes. Three.
Grandma: See? She knows more than you think she does.
John: And where does she work?
Me: Um... uh....
Mom: SEE? She DOESN'T know who she is!
Laura: Well, I don't know where Min works, but I know who she is!

Welcome to my family, folks.